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Saturday, February 4, 2006 |
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Saturday, February 4, 2006 |
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MUSIC ZONE Best track: Mantra of Blessing
After his 1994 debut album Peep This, Jamie Foxx is back with his long-awaited album Unpredictable. Between 1994 and 2006, Foxx not only built up his acting career by winning an Oscar for his performance in the movie Ray, he also recognised his music credibility on Slow Jamz in 2003 and appeared on Kanye West’s 2005 hit single, Gold Digger. Hip-hop collaborations fill the album and the tracks swing you back to the 1990s’ slow jams. The vigorous beats are designed to get you rolling straight to the dance floor. Best track: Love Changes Worst track: DJ Play A Love Song Rating: *** Korn—See You On The Other Side (Virgin) Best track: Hypocrites Worst track: Tear Jerker Rating: ****
Normally classified as a pub band, The 101ers covered 1950s’ rock classics and added their aesthetically similar originals. Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited collects nearly every track the band recorded in their short existence from 1975 to 1976. What was once collected on a few rare singles and an LP is now put together with a bunch of unreleased tracks. The highlights include Letsagetabitarockin, Silent Telephone, Sweety of the St. Moritz, Keys to Your Heart, Steamgauge 99 and Out of Time. Best track: Keys to Your Heart Worst track: Surf City Rating: ** |
Tibetan Master Chants features the chanting of one of the World’s foremost Tibetan Chant Masters, Lama Tashi. He has been the principle Chant Master of the Dalai Lama’s Drepung Loseling Monastery of India. This powerful album has already earned Tashi a nomination for the Best Traditional World Music album in the 48th Annual Grammy awards. Here he takes listeners on a virtual trip to Tibet with this abstract album of Tibetan chants. The atmosphere is a whirl of cascading overtone chants, ambient washes and reverberated vocals. The album commences with Vajrapani which incorporates deep chanting accompanied with chimes. The album’s high points are Heart Sutra and Buddha Amitayus, which feature a panorama of ancient and futuristic sensibilities that uplift and are soothing. Tashi’s voice is amazingly powerful and deeply resonant. At times, his voice is multi-tracked and the recording sounds like a monastery full of chant masters. The album comprises live connotations and harmonious multi-phonic chanting. The mantras performed are Tibetan Buddhist blessings intended to heal, purify, protect, and liberate, and also include prayers for peace with heartfelt vocal expressions.
Jamie Foxx—Unpredictable (J Records) 
In 2005, Korn lost guitarist and co-founder Brian “Head” Welch to Christianity, signed a new record deal with Virgin and set about re-defining their sound as a four piece. Often dubbed the godfathers of nu-metal, Korn have returned with their seventh album. Opening with lead single Twisted Transistor, this album is unmistakably Korn from the very beginning. All the elements of Korn are present: edgy rhythms, angst guitar riffing and the slick vocals of Jonathan Davis in all forms. The band is at its deftest in Getting Off, Politics and Hypocrites, which highlight the industrial bend. In an attempt to recapture the audience, Korn have worked with The Matrix, the writing team behind the hits of Avril Lavigne and Hillary Duff. In addition to the aforementioned tracks, the stadium rock dynamics of Coming Undone, stuttering guitars on Getting Off and Liar; and the funky, heavy For No One, all create an arena feel right in your own living room. With such daring new songs as Lair, For No One and Love Song among others, it’s clear that band - Jonathan Davis, James “Munky” Shaffer, Fieldy and David Silveria - have opened the doors to even more creativity and disarray.
The 101ers—Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited (Astralwerks)
