[ Music Index | San Francisco | MetroActive Central | Archives ]

Music Picks Music Picks by Sullivan Bianco (SB) and Andrew Shriver (AS) The Funky Precedent 'No Mayo' Loosegroove Sure, an album with a cause is as common as a hazy day in L.A. But an album for a cause makes the haze a bit more tolerable. The Funky Precedent has the cause covered, coming together to offer emergency aid to music departments at Fremont High and Manchester Elementary in L.A. and Mission High in San Francisco. The Funky Precedent brings the cream of the crop from the L.A. underground hip-hop scene together for a 16-track compilation chock-full of the sickest ass-shakin' beats you've never heard including previously unreleased tracks and new edits of songs by the likes of Dilated Peoples and Jurassic 5, to name but a few. And if the roster isn't enough to get your booty to the record shop, then do it for the cause. (AS) The Folk Implosion 'One Part Lullaby' Interscope One Part Lullaby conjures up everything warm and fuzzy. But who the folk are The Folk Implosion? Best known for "Natural One," the lo-fi hit contributed to 1995's Kids soundtrack, The Folk Implosion is on its way to shelving the one-hit-wonder moniker. From the get-go, the new album grabs the listener, setting a mood of tranquillity and bliss. "My Ritual" opens with the elements that make TFI so damn likable; groove-tinged drum and bass interplay, a flavoring of acoustic and electric guitars, a melody line a mile long, and Lou Barrow's wonderfully mellow vocal style. Who would have guessed a drum machine and a gaggle of instruments could sound so inviting, so calm, so ... human? One Part Lullaby showcases the secret ingredient in The Folk Implosion: that the song has and always will be the star. (AS) Beth Custer 'In the Broken Fields Where I Lie' BC 2 Dexterous multi-instrumentalist Custer--of Eighty Mile Beach and Club Foot Orchestra notoriety--issues this second CD of her compiled collaborative work, and it is nothing less than a deft sonic glossary. The title track on this one is played twice. The first version (track 5) finds Custer's piano and voice slogging amid falling percussion, bumping into a trumpet that--like a stoned companion--doubles, mocks, then abandons her. The second take (track 32) is Custer solo and is no less expressionist. Fields is an often dizzying sampling of textures; her tune for the Camera Obscura film Virtue is what gospel would probably sound like from a UFO. Impossible to classify, equally expansive, this is a tremendously liberating album. (SB) [ San Francisco | MetroActive Central | Archives ]