Staff Reports
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 19, 1998

Music Meltdown

Above The Law

Legends

(Tommy Boy)

Maybe there is some hope for the West Coast. For a while, it looked like its whole hip-hop scene was dead, with artist after artist giving us the same old rhymes and the same old things. However, with Above The Law's latest production, Legends, the future looks a little better for the Los Angeles area.

Above The Law's members show that they have grown a little older and wiser with this 16-track follow-up to Time Will Reveal. The beats are steady, the lyrics show an introspective side to the trio and the album combines a nice mix of fast and slow tracks. Plus, the group has shown that a quality album can be put on the market without a ton of cameos and hijacked beats.

Legends starts with the one of the better tracks, "X.O. Wit Me," which provides a head-bobbin' beat and a smooth verse from Jayo Felony. ATL shows a more lyrical side in "Sumner Days" and "Promise Me," but maintains a rugged edge with "Be About Yo Bizniz" and "The Streets."

In what could be a first for a rap group, Legends finishes strong, with the last four tracks being the tightest. Included is the group's new outlook on life in "Karma," and the laid-back jam "Adventures Of..." The album is completed by the guaranteed-soon-to-be-underground hit "In God We Trust."

Credit ATL for dumping "gangsta rap" (which was dead long before Dr.Dre said so) and embracing "ghetto flow," which allows the world to know that the West Coast hip-hop scene is still breathing and has something new to give us.

-Joel Flom

Pearl Jam

Yield (Epic)

When Pearl Jam erupted into the modern music wasteland, it was like an adrenaline rush, kinetic and powerful. Pearl Jam was pure energy.

Ten, Vs, Vitalogy, No Code - unfortunately, each subsequent album gradually scored lower on the energy scale. After 1996's No Code, Pearl Jam could no longer be characterized by legions of screaming 13- and 14-year-old fans in band T-shirts. Some say they lost the energy.

But as the law of conservation of energy says, energy is never completely lost - it just gets converted into different forms.

Yield is the product of a Pearl Jam energy transfer. It has aspects of the early albums that once induced kids to hang from roof beams, and it has tinges of the newer - yet older - more seasoned and mature Pearl Jam. It's about the music again.

The band, striving to make its fans focus on the music, became almost purely political awhile back, fighting for all the other bands in the name of integrity, and the music became wallpaper.

With Yield, however, Pearl Jam has re-channeled all its power into the songs again; "I'll stop trying to make a difference," Eddie Vedder cries resignedly on "No Way." Yield he did; rumors are abound that Pearl Jam, yes, Pearl Jam, may even do another music video.

From the clean guitars on "Low Light" and "Wishlist" to the raw distortion riffs in "MFC" and "Do the Evolution," Yield has every symptom of a classic rock record. In 20 or 30 years it will no doubt be spinning still.

-Annie Holub

King Britt Presents Sylk 130

When the Funk Hits The Fan: the Emotion Picture Soundtrack

(Ovum/Ruffhouse/Columbia)

Every once in awhile, a record comes along that is so creative in its content, its organization and its presentation that it demands respect from listeners, even if they don't like its particular music style.

Basically, When the Funk Hits the Fan: The Emotion Picture Soundtrack is all that and a bag of chips. It is a soundtrack without a movie, interweaving bits of dialogue between the funky, hip-hop sounds of the Philly-based group of musicians and poets known collectively as Sylk 130. The album is produced by King Britt, a world renowned DJ/producer, who is most famous for his 2 1/2 year stint as DJ for Digable Planets.

When the Funk Hits the Fan "takes place" in 1977, a year when funk and soul were burning up the charts, disco was all the rage and a then-little-known thing called "hip-hop" was in its infancy. It follows the rise of hip-hop to its present-day popularity.

The imagery conjured by the album sometimes evokes the old radio shows of the 1940s, when nobody had ever heard of television and people were forced to rely on imagination to visualize what was happening.

What makes the whole thing so captivating is Britt's ability to mix uptempo jazz tunes like "Gettin Into It" and "The Reason" with a piercing spoken-word piece like "E.R.A." Toss in the straight-out rap of "Taggin' & Braggin'" and wrap it all up with a cover of In Deep's club classic, "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life," and poof - you're instantly in hip-hop heaven.

-Eric Anderson

Reservoir

Pink Machine

(Zero Hour)

Jud Ehrbar of Space Needle fame is back with a solo album under the guise of Reservoir. Recorded on a four-track in his living room, Pink Machine sounds remarkably professional compared to older material.

The first track, "Go Back," opens with a monotonous drone that lasts for a whopping two minutes. This eerie strain is then shattered when Ehrbar comes in with a melodic accompaniment.

The music could best be described as minimalist, with no real force behind it. Ehrbar's voice is the main instrument and provides the lead for all the songs. "Taking My Shapes Away" is the best track on the album - restrained trip-hop beats and glam-synth sounds make this a melodic and easy listen with little harshness to it.

The main problem with the album is the tendency of the music to get a little too '80s at times. Synth and moog noises plague some of the tracks and give a campish drama-queen sound to the songs. A few of the tracks last a little too long, as well, forcing the listener to click on to the next track.

Pink Machines is a decent release, though, and in all honesty sounds a lot like Beck. If you're a fan of slower loungish music you might even be really into this. The length of the album (only eight tracks) may seem a weebit short but after all it's quality, not quantity, that counts.

-James Casey