Cadence Weapon

Afterparty Babies

(Upper Class)

4 1/2 Stars

“I never had fun in the club scene,” Cadence Weapon laments on “House Music,” the second single from his sophomore disc Afterparty Babies. But over the track’s throbbing synthesizers and Prefuse 73-esque chopped samples, it’s clear that Edmonton’s ambassador of rap is being ironic—with 14 songs this danceable in his arsenal, Rollie Pemberton’s second home might as well be the club scene.

Weapon takes the blueprint he laid out on his more abrasive debut, Breaking Kayfabe, and smooths out the edges in favour for a sound that’s more accessible but no less intricate or compelling. The result sounds less like made-in-the-basement rap than Basement Jaxx and is more The Streets than the streets.

And speaking of The Streets, Pemberton shares Mike Skinner’s eye for detail and knack for sharp character sketches. Afterparty Babies is an investigation into the lives of twentysomething middle-class hipsters growing up in Edmonton (the cover art is a “class photo” of E-town recognizables), packed with keen observations and affectionate pokes at scenester culture—which Pemberton fully admits he’s entrenched in, whether he likes it or not.

The disc cements Cadence Weapon as one of the most endearing and unique voices not only on today’s rap landscape but in Canadian music, period. Afterparty Babies will be monopolizing iPods, house parties, and—if local DJs are smart—clubs around town and beyond for years to come.

RENATO PAGNANI  

VARIOUS

Unsound: BEAMS CD 2

(BEAMS)

3 1/2 Stars

Electroacoustic music, of the kind Edmonton’s Boreal ElectroAcoustic Music Society has been playing for 20 years, feeds sounds through electronics for tweaking, zapping, or complete obliteration into white noise. Much like BEAMS’ concerts, this disc is more a series of experiments than a cohesive whole. “BSQ,” Reinhard Von Berg’s “golden age electroacoustic” piece from the 1970s, is extreme but engaging, as is leo.fx’s awesome “Celtic Ayre” for theremin and didgeridoo. (The piece almost won Moog Music’s theremin composition award in 2005.) World and funk fusions by Dave Clarke and Karen Porkka get thrown against gritty industrial ramblings from Tippy Agogo and Philip Jagger, while Shawn Pinchbeck tells a complex story with simple sounds, and the unfortunately named Condoleezza Rice Paddies contribute a track as deliberately annoying as their name. Edmonton’s experimental music scene has done itself proud.

PROSPER PRODANIUK 

Janet Jackson

Discipline

(Island)

2 1/2 Stars

I will never understand why critics slam Janet Jackson for being too old to be singing about her sex life. If you’re that freaked out by a 41-year-old woman who’s still active in the bedroom, then I’d suggest your sexual hangups are a lot worse than Jackson’s excursions into S&M. (Who would you rather hear singing about S&M anyway? Better a mature woman like Jackson than, say, Miley Cyrus.) 

Too bad the title track on Discipline is so ponderous—listening to its (psychologically revealing) “punish me, daddy” fantasies is like walking through quicksand... while ballgagged. And despite serviceable assembly-line dance tracks like “Luv” and “Greatest X,” Discipline suffers from a fatal lack of humour, nowhere more so than on the eight “interludes” in which Jackson carries on pretentious conversations with her computer, “Kyoko.” Discipline’s problem isn’t its obsession with sex; it’s that the only man in Jackson’s boudoir is a laptop.

PAUL MATWYCHUK 

EMC

The Show 

(M3)
3 1/2 Stars

Few rap supergroups have ever actually materialized, and those that have ran the gamut from pretty great, like the first Westside Connection album, to abysmal. (Remember The Firm? Nas doesn’t want to either.)

Together as eMC, Masta Ace, Wordsworth, Punchline, and Strick resurrect the rap supergroup on The Show. Following the precedent set by Ace’s last two albums, The Show is a concept album narrating a single day in the touring life of eMC. One of the more empathetic rappers around, Masta Ace sinks his teeth into a supporting role, and his three partners are equally up to the challenge. Ex-Little Brother beat chemist 9th Wonder cooks up some sped-up soul for the standout summer cruising anthem “Traffic,” and ensures tracks like “We Alright,” with Strick’s call-and-response refrain, don’t come off as hokey. With the exception of some dated production, The Show is grown-man rap done right, and rappers of all ages should listen up. 

RENATO PAGNANI