Bongos and Bleeps

One of the the things I do to keep my music collection fresh is review cds for Canadian Independent Music magazine Exclaim. Recently through this avenue a CD came my way that had the percussive sizzle a reviewer can wait years for. Bongos, Bleeps and Bassliness is a sub humming fusion of sweaty house and chunky hip hop mixed with hip-twitching latin and breaks-backed nu-jazz. All of it rides on gritty woofer blowing basslines. The whole album’s enthusiastically, sometimes frantically, alive, and the ending three are amongst the best, perfectly encapsulating the tidal wave of ZERO DB’s global rhythm and sound. The punch and drone of Te Queiro escalates into the hard jazz and frantic tempos of “On the 1 & 3″ and then everythng languidly exists on the banjo plucks and shuffling country lounge of “Sunshine Lazy.”

Another CD that’s got my attention is TROST‘s Trust Me. Formerly of the sampler driven electro punk duo Cobra Killer, Annika Line Trost brings her electro pop vocals and punchy but light-footed rhythms to her second solo album. Lynchesque in its twisted quirk and lyrical manic despair, tracks unfold like a late night neo-punk torch song session. Taking a cue from Tom Waits and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in – from the neo-cabaret number “The Scale and The Score,” to the disjointed nonchalant tirade of “I Was Wrong” and the admirably sparse ballad “Black,”- TROST’s simplistic words etch snapshot stories. Just as scene setting instrumentally, Trust Me is enriched by a bevy of musical guests from guitarist Tom Carlyon to vibraphone playing Thomas Wydler and trombone touting co-producer Adam-Eve. Trust Me’s real strength, though lies in Trost’s nonchalant vocals and sure-footed drums, the latter provided by both Wydler and Trost herself.

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