Saviours – We Roam
A highlight from the third Saviours album, Accelerated Living, which is out on Kemado Records now. Research shows that Oakland, California spawns 60% more quality metal bands than the average dull suburban sprawl: death-metallers All Shall Perish, sludge-rockers Totimoshi and doom-merchants Asunder also scream across the bay at the bigger, better, cooler city.
Chief Boima – Born Again
(From Trash Menagerie)
Another (less shouty) son of Oakland. Born Again stutters and thuds with a pop dancehall rhythm – twisting over a bassline that gradually becomes more sinuous than sensuous. Boima's a busy boy: he also runs the excellent Ghetto Bassquake blog in collaboration with Brixton DJs Vamanos and Fruko.
Black Spade – Evil Love
(From Blind For The Kids)
Unlikely, as the title suggests, to prompt perfectly choreographed head-banging. Instead the evil of Black Spade's love lies in the way it slides slickly and sickly in and out of the St Louis rapper's life, ebbing when he's ready to settle and flowing when he's not.
Saidah Baba Talibah – Fall Again
(From MySpace via The Cyberkrib)
"I like to fall again," sings the daughter of Canadian jazz star Salome Bey during this spaced-out soul number's glowing climax. A fan of crackly vocal effects (it's what makes her voice sound Ella good – sorry), Saidah has recorded her forthcoming Phone Demos album using only a mobile – a device normally known for making annoying noises rather than capturing great ones.
