Don Was - Groove In The Face Of Adversity - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Jimmy Edgar's latest for Innovative Leisure, LIQUIDS HEAVEN, is a psychedelic canvas of future R&B, euphoric bass, mutant tear-the-club-up rap, foundation-splintering noise, and gossamer soul. On a surface level, it is a starburst of avant-garde fusion, collecting a diverse cast of eccentric geniuses and re-configured into an anthology of nü-musique concrete. As with all of his work, there is a deeper and subversive intent. Do not mistakenly believe that LIQUIDS HEAVEN is merely a technicolor dream of ethereal abstractions. It bangs as hard as anything to ever bump from a subwoofer. Over a polychromatic blast of crunk, 10KCaash and Zelooperz bounce on InchEverybodyInch like a rap rave inside a 31st century space station. InchBite That 2Inch finds Trinidad James spitting flames over booty-shaking, wall-crumbling bass. On InchYa,Inch 645AR chirps over a metallic chassis of booming industrial funk. For all the high energy propulsion, there is a counter-balance of melancholic beauty. The albums opener, InchEuphoriaInch features a Liz Y2K vocal that levitates with plaintive longing. The Milk-aided InchDreams 1000000Inch sounds like the chimerical soundtrack to a manga utopia that needs to be imagined. Milk also appears on the finale, InchNever Leave,Inch which captures a bittersweet sadness, the wistful emotion of the tide slipping away. Jimmys career has been a series of fascinating left-turns. Signed to Warp Records as a teenage electronic music prodigy, his work needs a scholarly bibliography to properly assess. He's recorded for the worlds most respected imprints (Warp, K7, Hotflush, Innovative Leisure and his own New Reality Now). Raised in Detroit, there have been stints soaking up inspiration in Berlin, Atlanta, LA, and New York. His list of close collaborators includes the most innovative musicians of the millennium, including Hudson Mohawke, Danny Brown, SOPHIE,

The third full-length from L.A. band Bad Suns, Mystic Truth gets it's title from a piece of art that vocalist Christo Bowman stumbled upon while visiting London's Tate Modern on tour. Created by Bruce Nauman in 1967, the neon-and-glass piece spells out a possibly paradoxical statement in blue spiraled cursive InchThe True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths.Inch Right from opener InchAway We Go,Inch Bad Suns reveal the timeless sensibilities at the heart of Mystic Truth. With it's soaring vocals, majestic piano melodies, and fiery guitar tones, the song unfolds as a brightly anthemic battle cry. Inch'Away We Go' was mostly inspired by us growing up and really being adults for the first time, and trying to make sense of all that,Inch says Bowman, who co-founded Bad Suns at age 17. InchIt's about learning how to make decisions for yourself, and sometimes just going for something and blindly trusting that it's going to work out.Inch

The young, virtuoso A Cappella ensemble VOCES8 presents a sumptuous collection of early works by Henry Purcell one of Englands greatest composers. Joined by the specialist early-music ensemble Les Inventions, the group explores Purcell's astoundingly diverse output anthems, odes, funeral music, semi-operas, masques, sonatas, consort-music, songs and catches populate his extraordinarily multifaceted oeuvre.