House Reviews
by Brent Crampton
photo by Tony Bonacci

Various - Rewind! 5 – Ubiquity
The more I dive into this musical history thing, the more I realize – no one’s original. In a sense, the booty-shaking numbers of today are tributes/regurgitations of moments experienced and sounds heard in the past. Ubiquity is perhaps the label that actualizes this sentiment more than any other (right next to Soul Jazz Records). And rather than just sample another retro-dinaire track, they’ve plotted together a host of contemporary under-the-radar musical stars to throw away the samples, re-edits and remixes to reconstruct classics from the ground up. Think of them as covers, think of them as renditions, think of them as genius. Think of NuSpirit Helsinki on Led Zepplin’s “No Quarter,” think of Osunlade on Prince’s “Crazy You,” think of Owusu and Hannibal on The Beach Boy’s “Caroline, No.” Think hot! Think old made new. Highlights are the funk-de-suave sounds of The Rebirth remake of The Sylvers’s “Handle It,” and Daz-I-Kue with bossa-flavored Bembe Segue and Colonel Red’s rendition of Ben E. King’s “Spoiled.” And I’m sure Osunlade’s version of “Crazy You” will remain a favorite with the KCRW and Gilles Peterson-ites.

LC – unreleased boots
I received a whole Payless box full of unreleased boots by the Midwest brotha’ in house – LC out of Springfield, Mo. First he sent me a remix of Hall & Oates’ “I can’t go for that” which was a better rendition than the Kaskade remix that came out a few years ago. Where Kaskade’s version drowns out the sample to the background, LC puts it right in the forefront with a strong kick. The next track samples Eminem & Nate Dogg’s “Shake That” acapella with a tracky San Fran feel. Cool jazz key, rumbling base line with the proper house-music-from-stoner-perspective make this a party rocker. And if this track’s a party rocker, his booty of De La Soul’s “Me Myself and I” will jump start any lagging dance floor engine. He keeps it simple with a four-to-the-floor beat and a sick break-beatish breakdown.

Matthew Bandy – Man of Soul – Blue Iguana
Finally there are some more white labels floating around of this hot jazzy number. Throw down the $8 to pick up this number – it’s deep, it’s hot and there’s a Jay-J remix.

Lawnchair Generals – Lost and Found – LCG Music
We all know the LCG – they put out dope tracks. And it’s stuff that has longevity, too. So when a whole album came out – I jumped on it. When I actually took the time to listen to it, I was surprised. It wasn’t jumping. Instead, I was flipping through the tracks, trying to find that one stand-out number. There’s some good parts, but overall, I’ve seen better from LCG.

Trademarq – Neighborhood Hero - .dotbleep
BOOMPTY! It’s got a pinch of swing, quirk, jackin’ jazz and a Chi-town mustard-rimmed hot dog. But it’s put out by a live house band, so where boompty lacks, these guys make up in musicality. Plus, this four-tracker’s got serious dancefloor-rockability.

Vibe Travelers – Wash Away / Dirty Beats – Dufflebag
This cut is all about Dirty Beats. This track is phenomenally original. Thumping base line, deep tracky sounds with a sexy female spoken word making sexual connotations via the verbage of music and dictionary definitions. It’s real catchy. Wash Away is all dubby, DJ Garth-y.

Kenton Slash Demon – Big Mammas Runaway – Aroma
I’m feelin’ some of these tracks, but then again – I’m not too sure. Sometimes these quirky, boompty, sampled based tracks are a bit over done. It’s almost as if this producer sat down, compiled a few dozen samples they liked and threw them together like a jigsaw puzzle. No hook or composition. Just a lot of cool sounding blurbs and bleeps.

Nino Moschella – The Fix – Ubiquity
Soul, rock, funk, jazz fusion with a slight indie feel, Moschella is camped out with the Ubiquity sound. Overall, this is genre-binding, car driving music apart from the dancefloor.