Sadistik - The Art of Dying EP

http://www.mediafire.com/?6bmdbdpcb2a45w7

Sadistik's debut album, The Balancing Act, was without a doubt one the best hip-hop album of 2008. With sharp lyrics that tell depressive stories accompanied with the accomplished beatmaking of Emancipator, the album was a windfall in emotional hip-hop. Tracks like Searching For Some Beautiful, Absolution and Writes of Passage were contenders for song of the year; strong, heart-breaking lyrics alongside searching, wistful beats were a welcoming break from the tedium of mainstream hip-hop. The latest effort in Sadistik's catalogue, menacingly titled The Art of Dying, is a 6-song, 33-minute EP that one can only assume serves as a tasting plate for his next LP. If the EP is anything to go by, then the album will surely be a winner. We see Sadistik expanding his musical oeuvre, most notably through Bed of Flowers, a 7-minute track that meanders along, just as eagerly exploring the constraints of the instrumental as being used to back up Sadistik's story-telling. Save Yourself is the other stand-out track, with grinding drums alongside a mournful piano sample as Sadistik spits another lament. All in all, a fantastic hors d'oeuvre for what promises to be a delicious main course.

8.8

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below

http://www.mediafire.com/?b5navh2da0oyawk

The lead singer of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe is supposedly his childhood alter-ego), began his musical career fronting a rather unsuccessful power-pop band. While my reservations about the merits of power-pop are legion, they are not within the scope of this review, so let me just say that I was not particularly optimistic about the quality of Ebert's songwriting capabilities. But his band's debut album, Up From Below, happily dispels all criticism I envisaged myself levelling at it. The band display a craft that many indie bands nowadays seem to have eschewed; throughout the course of the album we see songs as expansive and triumphant as 'Home,' to the baroque/cabaret stylings of 'Black Water,' to the alt-country offerings such as 'I Come In Please.' Perhaps the most pleasing facet of the album is Ebert's commitment to creating pop songs that do not dissolve into formulaic repetitions of the same chords, ad infinitum (I'm looking at you, Mumford & Sons). Make no mistake, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros are not breaking new ground as far as indie-folk goes, and they aren't as good as bands such as Fleet Foxes (but you'd be hard pressed to find a band that are FF's equal), they are still well worth a listen.

7.2