Ima Robot: The Japan Times; Listening Post
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LISTENING POST
JTIM000020031005dza50000c
004
572 Words
05 October 2003
The Japan Times
English
© Copyright 2003 The Japan Times. All rights reserved.
Ima Robot Ima Robot (Virgin/Toshiba EMI) The British music press claim this new L.A. band revives the smart dance-rock of early Talking Heads, but Ima
Robot's art pop goes straight from the disco sophistication of Roxy Music to the enervated electronica of Devo without giving the Heads as much
as a new wave. Lead singer Alex Ebert is a skinny guy with a software-designed mullet who spazzes out and bleats lyrics that are mostly about getting
dumped, which is understandable: a babe magnet he ain't. Backed by four studio stalwarts, two of whom are on Beck's payroll, Ebert is able
to show off his considerable pop smarts and even, on occasion, his roots as an MC. In ``Black Jettas,'' the band's most famous song
(included here as a ``secret track''), Ebert raps about being stalked by not one, but two ex-girlfriends driving identical Volkswagens.
Bryan Ferry may not be impressed, but you can bet Bret Easton Ellis is.
(Philip Brasor) Erykah Badu ``Worldwide Underground'' (Motown) Erykah Badu's acrobatic voice can scat or belt you to attention. But
it's the hip-hop soul heroine's intimate breathy purr that draws listeners into her third album, a streetwise, baroque celebration of the
different kinds of music that move her. At times sprawling and eccentric enough to have her schooling a fictional audience on the flute-accented
``Woo,'' this melding of old-school funk, jazzy instrumentation and dancey bleeps nevertheless flows well. Dance-music rhythms and synth
give a sexy sheen to the percussive nostalgia trip ``Back in the Day'' and ``Bump It (pt. 1&2),'' a languid siren song with
jazzy vocals and an insistent bass line. Yet Badu also continues her storytelling and social commentary with ``Danger,'' depicting a woman
waiting for her man to come home from prison. Using precisely placed sound snippets, the song communicates the cost of ill-gotten gains, from
conscience pangs to bullet wounds. Badu manages the highs and lows with casual aplomb, and although she may try the patience of some with the
11-minute opus ``I Want You,'' the ace musicianship and her own sense of when to shift the mood more than get her by. (Natalie Nichols, Los
Angeles Times) U.N.K.L.E. ``Never Never Land'' (Universal/Mo' Wax) Beatheads will pout when they hear Josh Davis (aka DJ Shadow)
doesn't contribute to ``Never Never Land,'' the second release from rock/trip-hop all-star project, U.N.K.L.E. But James Lavelle,
U.N.K.L.E.'s cocreator and founder of England's Mo' Wax label, proves he's just as capable of creating the dark thump and
wax-driven dramatics as Sir Shadow. Lavelle is also better connected. The 1998 debut, ``Psyence Fiction,'' featured Richard Ashcroft, Thom
Yorke and Mike D, and for ``Never Never Land,'' he enlists Brian Eno, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, and Primal Scream's Manni and former
Stone Roses' frontman Ian Brown, among others. Eschewing raps and punchy beats for strings, ominous keyboards and Gothic imagery, Lavelle and
company plumb the depths of melancholic electro-pop, making Massive Attack sound like a barbershop quartet. It's a murky, cathartic ride through
the smoky psyche of one of the U.K.'s biggest record junkies. And catharsis is good for you _ especially when you can dance to it. (Jason
Jenkins) |
[Edited on 5-10-2003 by Phobiac]
[Edited on 5-10-2003 by Phobiac]
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