Steinski's lessons, Jay Haze's ego, Girl Talk's challenge

A couple new things out there by me:

First up is a new review of the compilation collecting all of Steinski's work, including his now seminal Nothing to Fear disc. All out on Illegal Art.

Illegal Art is also home to Girl Talk who just released their new album Feed The Animals in Radiohead's set-your-price fashion. I have a brief blog piece over at PopMatters on the implications of releasing illicit art on a pay-what-you-will scale. If you're a fan, I'd suggest maybe donating a few bucks to the cause, rather than downloading the album for free because you can. It's important to support these prototypes as an alternative to the back-breaking music industry model. It might set the path for a more autonomous, less corporate-fueled music. Discuss.

Lastly, I have another review up at pm on the dissapointing new Jay Haze triple album. I was hoping it would be some kind of new hybrid of Super_Collider and Roger, but unfortunately it's infinitely obtuse and not in a good way.

I think a few recent artists have proven that R&B and Soul music are finally ready to enter the digital age, but I've yet to find an example of technology being fully integrated into an updated rendition of psychedelic soul, an experimentalism not muddled in overambition nor sacrificing its voice and accessibility. I guess maybe it's a lot to ask to have somebody come along and ask somebody to invent a genre for me. And i guess it's hard to explain. Here's a few things I'm thinking of particularly:

1. Junior Boys/ Herbert- "Around The House"- This music is light, airy and pitch perfect for the specific goals of each work. Why has nobody brought the use of digital reverb and icy synths towards a Curtis Mayfield-style slow groove funk, though? Or made at least some strides to sound more organic. The juxtaposition of the sweet voice and the slickly textured electronic sounds works astutely for both Junior Boys and Herbert, but why not any music incorporating the same premature aging effects Bibio adds to folk, Boards of Canada to ambient, and Ariel Pink to classic rock to electro-psych-soul music. And why not add, as Brian Eno once famously insisted, more Africa in those machines.

2. Freestyle artists/ Grandmaster Flash's "Scorpio"/ Zapp and Roger- There seemed to be a distinct split between the early hip-hop that yearned to be robotic, innovative and new and that which burned to carry the torch of funk further. I don't see why there wasn't ever a combination of both, perhaps even one you could sing pop songs over.

3. Aphex Twin- "Windowlicker"/ Jamie Lidell- "The City": Likewise as the machines should grow more human in works like Jay Haze's, the voice needs to undergo some 21st century reconstructive surgery. Part of reason Lidell's Multiply sounded so enervated and gooey-nostalgic was due to the singer's grandiose production of his voice. Clearly, Lidell was trying to get audiences to respect him as a true blue neo-soul artist, not just another weird Warp act dipping their gadgetry into the blue-eyed pond to tamper with the temperature. Yet, to these ears, his voice, though a fine one, seemed noticably unfucked-with. Compare this to the processed vocals of "Windowlicker", perhaps Richard James's most soulful track. I once heard a rumor (unsubstantiated and more than likely false) that the vocals on the track were neither sung nor sampled but completely emulated. Either way, the unreality of the processed vocs makes for one fine, if slightly daft, foray into the margins of pop (yes, it's a pop song!).