Album Reviews: Public Enemy, Kendra Morris, Beetnix, Arrested Development

Public Enemy- Most Of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear On No Stamp (Enemy Reords/Spit Digital 2012)

Public Enemy.  Musical innovators, political provocateurs, Hip-Hop icons.  This is the first of two new albums they have slated for release before the year is out, and it’s a dynamic, focused and forceful statement.  The cover art and lyrics make reference to past P.E. classics, but this is not a band trying to relive past glories; they’re acknowledging their legacy so they can build upon it.

On the lead single, I Shall Not Be Moved (which I’ve already reviewed in depth), Chuck D kicks knowledge over a sampled lick of funk guitar and an earth-shattering rhythm section while resident madman Flavor Flav shouts catch phrases and adds encouragement.  In other words, it’s your typical brilliant Public Enemy single – and it’s not even the best thing on this album.

There’s eleven songs here, most of which stand proudly beside the group’s very finest, a handful of which would be ready for automatic Hip-Hop Hall-Of-Fame enshrinement if they weren’t so busy being pertinent to the here and now.  “Run ‘Til It’s Dark” showcases Chuck in his best rapid-fire lyrical form, “Get It In” (a collaboration with Freddie Foxxx) is a full frontal assault of minimal percussion and dynamic rhyming, “Rltk” mixes topical lyrics with classic drum machine textures and features a stellar guest vocal from the legendary DMC, and album closer “WTF” rides strong vocal turns from Flav and Chuck and an insidious downtempo groove straight into the annals of all-time great P.E. tracks.

A quarter-century and thirteen albums on, Public Enemy’s passion is undiminished, and their sound is as vital as ever.  They’re still in their prime, still saying what needs to be said; their message imbued with the wisdom of experience, the confidence of knowing a better path, and the righteous anger of seeing that path left untraveled.

Most Of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear On No Stamp is now available for download on iTunes.  CD and vinyl editions are scheduled for release this fall.

Kendra Morris- Banshee (Wax Poetics Records, 2012)

Banshee, Kendra Morris’ debut release on Wax Poetics Records, is a wondrous and funky album with a somewhat misleading title.  The word “banshee” evokes images of terror and mayhem, and while there’s plenty of darkness and aggression here, it’s lurking beneath the surface.  This isn’t a violent hurricane, it’s a midsummer thundershower: waves of soul raining down, washing through the speakers, lulling you into complacency while floodwaters rise all around.

The first song kicks off with a swell of drums and a steady-climbing bass guitar, twenty seconds of lead-in to the album, bouncing and strutting and catching our ears.  By the time the vocals enter, it’s already too late to resist.  A little cooing, a little cajoling, a little brush-off, a little leap to the upper register, a chorus and a breakdown and rippling backing voices.  It’s dripping with tension, assertive, dismissive, shot through with echoes of forgotten lovers and obscure desires.

The rest follows in kind, tunes of lament and relief and determination, deep soul delivered with no little skill and absolute conviction.  The sound is spacious, the atmosphere thick with heat, the performances seductive and confident.  Morris’ voice is mysterious and versatile, teasing, giggling, and then letting loose in displays of power and unchecked sensation.  She winds herself around lyrics and dives inside each moment of a song, whether it’s a hard-luck ballad or hard-driving showstopper.  And her band absolutely nails the vibe, Jeremy Page’s southern soul guitar licks sketching the outlines, Jeremy Siegel’s bass holding down the middle, keys and drums (courtesy of Tyler Cash and Sam Merrick) stabbing through the darkness and keeping things in constant forward motion.

It’s an immediate classic, a passionate reinvention of familiar elements, an entrancing set of soul shakedowns, torch songs, and revenge fantasies.  Sit back, listen, and let it carry you away.

Banshee is released August 28th on CD, LP, and as a digital download.

 Beetnix- Pyramid (self-released, 2012)

Beetnix are one of those groups that you could very easily never hear about.  Releasing their music online, rarely playing gigs outside of their native Virginia, sampling unorthodox voices and rapping complex thoughts over them, recording and performing politically savvy, socially conscious hip-hop.  Their distinctly independent attitude and content stamps them as industry outsiders, they lack a PR campaign and a record label budget, and they make music anyway.  Not for glory, not for fame, but because it’s what they do.

It would be easy to just throw them in with the hundreds of other bands that never break through, never gain attention outside a small circle of friends.  But talent and passion deserve attention and passionate responses.  And if there’s qualities that Pyramid, the new Beetnix album has in spades, it’s talent and passion.  Each of the nine songs has a distinct identity and unique sound, from the rocking guitar-line driven “Citizen Kane” to the beamed-in-from-space soundscape of “Hush”.  “Nautilus” takes the Bob James classic and rearranges it to serve as the basis for a rapid-fire discourse on societal inertia; “Rebel Music” is a hard-hitting back-and-forth call to action.  The balance of live instrumentation, programming, and samples in the backing tracks is constantly shifting, and the group varies the flow and style of their words accordingly – even when they’re flipping a beat that we’ve heard a million times before, they put their own unique stamp on it.

The sounds are catchy, the beats funky, the words constructed to engage and arouse.  Beetnix use their music to make a statement, and in the process, reclaim the ideal of hip-hop as an agent of change.

The Pyramid Effect is available for free download from Beetnix’s Bandcamp page.

Arrested Development- Standing At The Crossroads (self-released, 2012)

Yes, it’s the same band that you remember.  If you haven’t been paying attention, you may not know that Arrested Development are still a going concern. But after a couple years away in the late 90s, they’ve been consistently active; touring regularly and releasing a half-dozen records since the turn of the millennium.  And while they’ve never again hit the world-scaling commercial heights of their debut 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of… (and the corresponding singles “Mr. Wendal” and “Tennessee”), they’re still doing top-quality work.

In fact, in describing this, their newest record, “top-quality work” sounds far too clinical and cold.  These 13 songs are full of life and energy, a spirited collection of headnodding backbeats, irresistible hooks, and free-flowing raps.  It’s positive politicizing, swinging reflections on an ever-shifting world, full-on funky goodtime music.

“20” kicks off the album in style, an infectious tune that mixes singing and rapping without batting an eyelash, and gets stuck in your head instantly.  All the themes of the album are established right here: reminiscing and looking ahead, unorthodox combinations of words and sounds, affirmation and positivity in the face of adversity.

The rest of the record follows in much the same spirit: upbeat, lively, bluesy, a mix of voices that creates a giant tapestry of good vibrations.  Reggae, gospel, bhangra, afro-beat, boom-bap – it’s all here, textures jumbled up and reassembled into a giant multicultural party.  Every track is solid, but I’ll single out “Nobody Can Replace Your Love”, “Living”, “Raga In Coolangatta”, and “I’ma Fight Back Right Now” for particular attention; each one is distinctive, catchy, and would receive nonstop airplay in a parallel world where commercial radio doesn’t simply reinforce the ignorance of its audience.

Standing At The Crossroads is a record full of spit and sweat and spirit, a welcome return from old friends that’ve been here all along.  It’s a great summertime hip-hop-soul album, perfect for playing while sitting on stoops, swinging in hammocks, and running through the spray of fire hydrants.

Standing At The Crossroads is available for free download from Arrested Development’s online store.