This month, we review CDs from Joshua Ryan, Blue Man Group, DJ Dara, William Hut, DJ Icey, and Stereolab.
Artist: Joshua Ryan
Title: By Design
Label: System Recordings
Rating: 3 1/2
Oh, Joshua, Joshua. The pulsating rhythms of your songs lull me into hypnotic ecstasy. I feel an overwhelming urge to move, to bob my head up and down to the music. Oh, Joshua, bear my childr -- Wha? I'm talking to myself? Oh! Oops. My bad. Ahem. Pardon me. What I was going to say is trance producer Joshua Ryan's sophomore effort, By Design, is fantastic, moving, even stellar. Really. Ryan proves he's no one-hit-wonder, mixing excellent drum work with intricate, technical music and smooth melodies. Need proof? Check out "Pistolwhip" and "Buildings Inbetween." Mellow but not too mellow, upbeat but not too upbeat, By Design makes for great after-party relaxing, chilling-with-your-friends ear candy. Yummy. --Ella Ngo
Artist: Blue Man Group
Title: The Complex
Label: Blue Man Group/Lava Records
Rating: 4
There's no other performance ensemble quite like the Blue Man Group. Three men with their heads and hands painted blue mutely convey a fascination for, alienation from, and appreciation for the absurdity of our modern culture, all the while banging on a variety of homemade instruments. It's rhythmic, challenging, and unique. The Blue Man Group's latest album, The Complex, is much more rock oriented than their first, Audio, probably due to their participation in Moby's Area: Two concerts last year. The funky instruments are still there but they're punctuated with more traditional fare like guitars and guest vocalists (among them Dave Matthews). The fusion works well, with the Group rocking out like never before. The cover of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" is especially successful, with syncopated plastic pipes blipping along like the synthesizers in the original disco classic. At once experimental and sublimely listenable, The Complex adds up to much more than just music. --Douglas Adams
Artist: DJ Dara
Title: Breakbeat Science: Exercise.01
Label: Breakbeat Science
Rating: 4
Label-specific DJ mix albums can be spotty at best -- unless that label happens to be Breakbeat Science, New York's long-running drum and bass pioneer. Breakbeat Science: Exercise.01, mixed by label co-founder DJ Dara, is bang-on from beginning to end. The tracks are slick and quick, spinning along more like a Bullet Train than the roller coaster style practiced by artists like Aphrodite, and run the gamut from hardcore to almost trance-like vocal workouts. The quality is off the charts, with both previously released cuts and exclusives. This is the cream of the crop of drum and bass -- not just from Breakbeat Science, but the world in general. Buy now. --Douglas Adams
Artist: William Hut
Title: Road Star Doolittle
Label: Five One, Inc.
Rating: 4 1/2
Sometimes you hear a music that you never knew you needed, but after hearing it you know you won't be able to live without it. Road Star Doolittle, the debut solo album by William Hut, better known as the singer for Norwegian darlings Poor Rich Ones, has that kind of music. Melancholy, lush, and just poppy enough to remind you of The Beatles, Doolittle is the album you'll put on when it's raining; when you've just broken up with your girlfriend; when you're too hungover to get off the couch until four in the afternoon. Hut has the voice of an angel (think Paul Simon but Scandinavian -- and taller) and it lends itself perfectly to this kind of goose bump-inducing weep pop. Your soul will thank you for it. --Douglas Adams
Artist: DJ Icey
Title: Different Day
Label: System Recordings/Zone Records
Rating: 3
DJ Icey is widely known as the King of Breaks. In his decade-long career, this tireless DJ has produced more than 200 tracks and played more gigs than an AC/DC cover band. You'd think after all that time that Icey would tire of the slick funk he helped define, but nope; Different Day is 12 slices of bumping breaks with hardly any variation in tempo, style, or feel. Electro (the music of choice for breakdancers) married to James Brown-type beats form the rhythmic blueprint on tracks like "The Future" and "Freaks In the House," while "Searching" and the title track opt for the vocal option. Elastic bass gymnastics on "Dim the Sky" and "Slake" may reveal the influence of British import nuskool breaks, but for the most part, Icey is sticking stubbornly to his tried (and occasionally tired) and true blueprint. --Douglas Adams
Artist: Stereolab
Title: ABC Music
Label: Strange Fruit
Rating: 4 1/2
For a band that is often accused of making the same song over and over, Stereolab has remarkable staying power. Going on 12 years, the band's sound, which combines a sort of French pop with avant-garde tendencies (leftfield jazz, krautrock, Velvet Underground-like drones), may seem static but when taken over time, it's remarkably varied. ABC Music, a double CD collection of recordings made for the British BBC Radio throughout the band's career, proves this undeniably. The songs were all recorded live, many of them veering away from the studio versions in interesting and surprising ways. The material from the band's largely computer-recorded later material is especially refreshing, with new life being injected into songs. Songwriting was always Stereolab's strongest point and that's especially apparent on this album. --Douglas Adams