Clamor magazine reviews

Clamor reviews

Various Artists, Run the Road, Vice Records 2004, http://www.vice-recordings.com: The most innovative new hip hop is coming from grim council houses of London. Personified by wunderkind and Mercury Prize winner Dizzee Rascal, “grime” has become the hottest new sound. Vice Records, best known as an arm of the ultra-hip and borderline offensive magazine, has released a compilation of the some of the foremost grime artists around. The influences on this record are diverse; artists like Public Enemy figure as prominently as dancehall reggae and drum and bass. Well-known artists like the Streets and the aforementioned Dizzee share space with relative unknowns like Shystie and Lady Sovereign.

Sovereign’s track is probably one of the best on the album. Repeatedly bragging about her petite 5’1” frame, the Lady has managed to pack quite a bit of sass and cheekiness into her tiny body. She could easily rap circles around Lil’ Kim and Eve, and deserves to be more famous then both. Durty Goodz provides the album’s most political track, the blistering “Gimmie Dat.” He has been described as “bashy,” but the fact is, he’s just angry. Shystie’s “One Wish” (remixed by Terror Danjah) is another high point; it’s smart, feisty, and danceable.

Grime has a number of female MCs, and the men in the scene seem to treat them respectfully, as peers. The genre is blessedly free of the bling worship and posturing that has turned American hip-hip into an over commercialized joke. While many of the MCs are involved in “wars of the words,” they rarely lead to violent confrontations. Several of the MCs got their start on pirate radio stations, and none of the tracks on the record are what one would call “polished.” In an era where punk is played in car ads, grime may be the new DIY genre.

-Cortney Harding

Various Artists, IPRC Audiozine Volume One, Independent Publishing Resource Center, http://www.iprc.org: This is like listening a very smart, very hip, very honest version of “This American Life.” The second track has Ariel Gore admitting that she thinks her daughter is a “shithead” and joking she should change the name of her zine from “Hip Mama” to “Loser Mom.” It’s like nothing you’d ever read in Parents, and it’s also truer then anything you’d ever read in a mainstream publication.

But then, what function do zines perform, other then to speak truth to power, to the mainstream media? The album kicks off with Steve Gevurtz’s paean to scenester burnout; the weariness one feels when they just can’t drag themselves to yet another punk show, yet another party. Dave Roche shares a piece about teaching art to homeless youth at an elementary school; he deals with a suicidal eight year old who brings knives to school. Nicole Georges has one of the standout pieces on a record full of standout pieces; a diary-like reading about a week in her life in May. It’s a testament to Georges’ talent that she makes the mundane so interesting and absorbing. Her track is split with her usual collaborator Clutch McBastard, and his dry wit is the perfect complement to fresh perspective. Shoshanna Cohen hurries through her track, “Spring,” an ode to riding a bike on a spring day in Portland. Her frenetic pace personifies her sweet, day-in-the-life writing. Really, there isn’t a weak track on this album; it’s full of smart, fresh voices.

-Cortney Harding