Rating: NNNNN
Badass Breau
By age 21, guitar hotshot Lenny Breau was already an accomplished jazz, country and flamenco stylist, as these recently discovered demo recordings from 1961 – released as The Hallmark Sessions (Art of Life) – stunningly reveal. Backed by Ronnie Hawkins’s skilled rhythm section of Levon Helm and Rick Danko , who keep a low profile here, the self-assured young Breau shows flashes of Kenny Burrell, Luiz Bonfá and Tal Farlow as he effortlessly tears through a series of standards, traditionals and his own swinging tunes that show his signature style was already emerging. The sound quality is amazingly good considering the tapes were found behind a basement wine rack collecting dust for the past 41 years.
Jackin’ beats
The Public Enemy crosshairs are on Jack White , as some anonymous mash-up specialist has cleverly grafted Chuck D ‘s righteous rhymes from Rebel Without A Pause and Bring The Noise onto the White Stripes ‘ Seven Nation Army groove and then thrown in James Brown ‘s Funky Drummer break for good measure. The entertaining one-sided White Enemy 7-inch is said to be very limited, so don’t sleep.
Old school in session
Besides possessing a jaw-dropping library of rare groove joints, Japan’s reigning mix tape maestro, DJ Muro , is also evidently flush with a few classic old-school hiphop bangers that he drops on the über-dope double-disc Golden Era Of Hip Hop (BBP) mix set. But if you’ve already got MDS Productions ‘ I’m A Pro, DJ Prince Ice ‘s Funky Git Down and our own Fresh Wes ‘s Pray To Da East, DJ K-Prince digs even deeper on the second disc to come up with Raw Dope Posse ‘s Listen To My Turbo, Another Def Creation ‘s The Beat Keeper and Sha-Bar ‘s Lethal Weapon. Fresh is the word.
Gearhead getdown
With negligible media hype or fanfare, Mike LaVella ‘s San Francisco-based Gearhead label has been quietly amassing an outstanding catalogue of snotty punk rock ‘n’ roll, now outpacing West Coast rivals In the Red and Sympathy for the Record Industry . The latest low-priced Gearhead label sampler, Thingmaker , boasts 22 high-octane shakers from such Scando-rock royals as the Hellacopters , Hives , Nomads and Mensen along with more belligerent blasts from the Riverboat Gamblers , Wildhearts , Lazy Cowgirls and the Hunches . As a bonus, they toss in four unreleased burners including the Turbo AC ‘s boisterous take on Hank Jr. ‘s overlooked corker O.D.’ed In Denver. Hell, yeah!
