ANATHALLOCanopy Glow(Anticon)
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I tend to like the individual parts of the Assembly’s songs better than I like the songs themselves. Almost every track on the band’s recent full-length debut, The Tide Has Turned, has a stretch where it’s just vintage synths and simple beats—the kind of thing you could loop to make a decent backing track for a chilly retro-electro tune. But more often than not the band piles on arena-size guitars for a combination that brings back terrible memories of the mid-90s, when metal bands were just discovering electronica and doing neither genre any favors (protip: do not listen to the Spawn soundtrack). When the Assembly leans harder on either component of this unfortunate fusion, though, the situation improves. Relatively rocking tracks like “Criticality” and “Systematic Unknown” spike their new-wavey glam with a little SoCal pop-punk snot, and my favorite track, “Rejuvenate,” tops a dry, snappy electronic beat and throbbing bass synth with electronic chimes and squiggles and the album’s catchiest vocals—I bet it’d even get a smile out of the goths dancing at Neo.
TIMOTHY REMIS & AL BURIANTanglefoot Family Band/Ill-Ego split single(I Love Drugs)
Now that platinum records are an endangered species and a new crop of faux-punk popsters have poached so much of gangsta rap’s largely suburban audience that even big-time MCs sometimes struggle to post indie-label numbers, the kind of dick-swinging braggadocio that used to make the hip-hop mix-tape scene feel like a cross between the WWE and a soap opera can seem kinda sad, like a bunch of dudes willing to start a fight over the last slice of cold pizza. Part-time Chicagoan Yung Berg might’ve been able to break big in the mainstream a few years ago, when unremarkable rappers could get by on personality and a catchy synth line, but he’s had some hard luck lately—he became a magnet for online snark when he got a chain snatched off him at a club this summer, and his major-label debut faded fast after modest opening sales. He seems to be trying to make up for it by pulling a Lil’ Wayne and releasing mix tapes in bulk. His latest, with New York beat maker the Kidd Domination, is full of drama, shit talking, and swagger—”Fuck being humble,” he says—but the largely hook-free songs and clumsy wordplay don’t do much to back up his boasts. Things improve remarkably when he brings in collaborators like dancehall MC Collie Buddz and R&B singer Lloyd, who seems to have a golden touch with cameos.v
Fri 11/14, 9 PM, Quenchers Saloon, 2401 N. Western, 773-276-9730. F
