*PaulvanDyk =
The Politics of
Dancing

Scar Culture
Inscribe
Century Media 2001

Most people are somewhat
turned off by the concept of
death metal. When most peo-
ple imagine death metal, the
image of some greasy look-
ing fifteen year old moshing
to music that sounds like a 50
gallon metal drum, filled with
rabid cats, rocks and hypo-
dermic needles being kicked
down a steep hill comes to
mind.

Well, as colorful as this
image is, not all death metal
is bad music and Scar
Culture proves that. Their
music is very heavy, very

Paul Van Dyk
The Politics of Dancing
Nettwerk 2001

(For this CD we decided to
do something a little different.
We had 2 reviewers listen to
it and their opinions were so
different | had to print them
both. -Ed.)

An old-timer in the world of
progressive trance, Paul Van
Dyk has played with the big
boys. As a contemporary of
trance giants Paul Oakenfold,
Sasha, and John Digweed,
Van Dyk has to produce
impressive sounds to avoid
being shadowed. His latest
release, “The Politics of

Dead Prez
Let’s Get Free!
Warp 2000

The Dead Prez’s “Lets Get
Free” album is almost purely
political. The CD’s lyrics are
generally pro-black, anti-
white. The music found
inside the CD is, however,
some pretty good hip-hop
when you can see past the
lyrics and just enjoy the
beats that it'll send through
your system. The songs |
particularly enjoyed on the
CD were “Mind Sex’,
“Discipline” and “Its Bigger
Than Hip-Hop”. The CD will

aggressive, and surprising-
ly...good. No I’m not kidding
you.

Their music is not to be lis-
tened to for its fantastic lyrical
content or out of any sense of
intelligence. If you are looking
for music that will assault you
though, Scar Culture is for
you.

Their music is nice and
catchy, with rhythmical
pounding melodies. Scar
Culture’s singer Pheroze is
really talented, his voice is
full of primal, screaming fury,
but he has the talent to pull it
off. The best part of
Pheroze’s vocals are his
thick, gritty voice. The rest of
the band is talented too, the

Dancing’ serves to prove that
Van Dyk can hold his own
quite well. Full of progressive
and breakbeat trance tracks
from artists such as Timo
Maas, ActiveX, U2, and Way
Out West, this album has an
endless variety of beats and
sounds. Van Dyk’s transitions
are slick, and his progres-
sions are logical. There is not
a misplaced beat to mar the
flow of energy that Van Dyk
unleashes from his turnta-
bles. !f you're looking for a
new addition to your trance
library, go out and pick this up
at your local record store.
The Politics of Dance
---Dana

probably start some fights at
home if the younger kids
picked it out and Mom and

_ Dad heard it, but try not to

concentrate on the hate
found inside and focus on
the reason why people buy
CDs of music, the music.
The message in the songs
are generally the same
where the members of Dead
Prez tell “their people” that
the blacks should be helping
out all other blacks to fight
against the white oppres-
sion. The only difference
between a few of the songs
and that messages can be
found in “Mind Sex” or “Be

vocals are backed up by a

band that is no less talented.
Even if you think that most

death metal is stupid and

sounds terrible, you need to

check out Scar Culture. They

are well worth a listen.
---Kathleen

To be perfectly honest, the
one track that made me want
to listen to the CDs was U2’s
“Evelation.” | found the music
to be incredibly repetitive and
crossing the fuzzy grey area
into boring. The beat stayed
relatively the same, and
“Evelation” was totally ripped
apart. In my opinion, “The
Politics of Dance” would have
been a lot less painful to lis-
ten to if the music was signif-
icantly more varied. However,
take to mind these are just
my opinions. Dana loved it!

---Steph

Healthy”. “Be Healthy” pro-
motes the use of “soul food”
to support their black her-
itage where the white peo-
ple’s food is made to better
themselves and not the
black man. In general, Loud
Music, has put out an album
filled with political messages
not unlike what people would
expect the Black Panther
movement to have preached
in the past. If you can see
past the lyrics and enjoy the
beats however, | do suggest
at least giving the CD a lis-
ten.

---Matty