A Canine July

July is near its close, and that means it's time for new content on CanineMind. In the future, I'll be posting content in "clusters" near the end of each month.

Up this month are a few more items from my okayplayer backlog, as well as a review of Keziah Jones' perplexing "Black Orpheus" -- which can only be found here.

Along the sidebar to your right, you'll notice a few new additions to the "Affiliates, Links, and Otherwise Co-Signable Pages." First up is "Sweetmother of Blog," brought to you by Dave Weinfeld, a Harvard classmate of mine and fellow member of the Society of Abstruse Theorists -- those of you familiar with his editorials in The Harvard Crimson will know that Dave never bites his tongue, and among his latest targets include my wish list for the Harvard undergraduate curriculum. A response is on the horizon.

Next is "Breaking Kayfabe," the dyslexic ramblings of Cambridge's favorite self-described dyslexic, Tom Neumark. Who knew all of this was going on while we were sitting in class, being yelled at for not knowing what a "louvre" was? Excellent. Exactly. Oh, quite right.

Finally is "The Radical Formalist," by Harvard's own Eric Bennett. Perhaps best known as the floor tutor for Comstock 2, Eric should be known sooner rather than later for his fictions and drawings. I say this despite the fact that his blog actually seems to mock my project at its every step. Enjoy.

Soundtrack Review: "Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift"

Reviewed for okayplayer.com
Expatriate Americans… street racing… in Tokyo… against the Yakuza… with a soundtrack combining hip-hop, dancehall, metal, and reggaeton in English, Spanish, and Japanese. Oh, the Globalism! Cosmopolitanism! Hybridity! Liminality! Syncretism! Intertextuality! (and an extra French !) Rejoice, people of Japan! After years of being Othered, the soundtrack to The Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift has demonstrated that you are now One with Us, free to mingle, consume, and photogenically rebel under the Pacific-rimming schlock- carnival otherwise known as the American action-film-and- spin-off-soundtrack industry. (More...)

Hip-Hop Review: Aceyalone and RJD2, "Magnificent City"

Reviewed for okayplayer.com
“Hey! What’s up, world? This is Aceyalone, and this is dedicated to you, you worthless piece of shit.” To say Aceyalone has a complicated relationship with the world would be a massive understatement. Can’t accept his eclectic, eccentric worldview? Get over it. You’re in his conflicted, hectic, Magnificent City. (More...)

Soul/Rock Review: Keziah Jones, "Black Orpheus"

A CanineMind Exclusive (for all intents and purposes)

How to say it? Keziah Jones’ Black Orpheus is [ ], [ ], and [ ]. Maybe hyphens would help: [ ]-[ ], [ ]-[ ]. It’s like… Well, I mean, listening to it is like [ ], [ ]-[ ]. “Kpafuca”?

Having no clue what’s going on is one of the joys of life. Embrace it.

Still wandering around in an “On the Jungle Floor”-induced haze, I was slipped Black Orpheus, a two-disc fourth-effort from the Anglo-Nigerian, Franco-Germanic sensation, African-world-funk-R&B- soul-rock guitarist-singer Keziah Jones. Normally, bizarre hybrid efforts are said to "hit you from left field." But, in true diasporic fashion, this album seems to come pouring in from all sides, leaving me, well, kpafucated. That’s both a good and a bad thing.

Black Orpheus was initially released in 2003 as a single disc, but seems to have received little if any attention from American listeners. French imprint Delabel has now re-released it in double-disc form, tacking on a half-hour of acoustic remixes, covers (Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower” and Bob Marley’s “So Much Trouble in the World” stand out), and a few new studio tracks, only further kpafucizing the kpafucation from the initial release.

Each of Black Orpheus's tracks fully and simultaneously display Jones' maddening idiosyncrasies and intriguing skills. For those wondering why Jones never crossed-over to American audiences: his unconventional singing style has a STEEP learning curve. At times, he fills his vocals with decorative curlicues and odd inflections that undercut the emotional content of his lyrics. Is this a language-barrier or a style-barrier? (my bets are on the second) KPAFUCA!

Beyond these perplexing vocals, however, lay lush genre-hopping soundscapes. Beef with Jones’ weird inverted cadences and rough accents, but not with the arrangements on such songs as “Kpafuca,” “Wet Questions,” “Neptune,” and “Guitar in the River.” Jones weaves together a deep, deep blend of soul horns, gospel organs, Fela Kuti-esque rhythms, and, most distinctively, bluesy acoustic tones. Without a doubt, the quality of Jones’ stripped down acoustic supplements varies from the strong (“Beautiful Emilie”) to the underwhelming (“When Somebody Loves You”). Regardless of quality, Jones’ arrangements suggest new musical textures for American musicians, kpafucizing genre-distinctions in ways only sketched by Lauryn Hill’s acoustic forays.

In the middle ground between his vocals and his instrumentation is his songwriting. While not always the strongest (the quasi-paradoxical “Sadness Is…”), Jones’ lyrics are filled with a playful disrespect for standard language, mixing English and French with pidgin… like his favorite turn of phrase, kpafcua, “a state of falling-apart or confusion.”

So, the final verdict? Kpafuca.

Hip-Hop Review: Bang 'Em & Domination, God Giveth, God Taketh Away

Reviewed for okayplayer.com
Bang 'Em and Domination have beef with 50 Cent. BEEF? BEEF. FIFTY? FIFTY.BEEF BEEF BEEF FIFTY FIFTY FIFTY BEEF FIFTY FIFTY BEEF. (And they have a new album, called God Giveth, God Taketh Away.) FIFTY! BEEF! (More...)