Ghettoblaster

SoCalled

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 12, 2007)
• Original Release Date: June 12, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Jdub Records
• ASIN: B000Q66HH8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #100,461 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Label
Acclaimed Canadian hip-hop beat maker and musician Socalled has returned from 2005's JDUB release The Socalled Seder with his next installment in the reinvention of Jewish music through hip-hop. Ghettoblaster, the inventive new LP from this hip-hop visionary features a vast palette of musical influences, with Dolgin himself mining rich traditional musics and fusing them with his own contemporary sound. The album spans multiple genres, from rock, Bulgarian and Latin, to funk, Roumanian, Jewish and jazz, all the while returning to and grounded by Socalled's collage-like hip-hop beats.

Ghettoblaster features an astounding list of over 40 guests and collaborators, from renowned artists such as James Brown's trombonist Fred Wesley, folk troubadour Theodore Bikel, hotshot producer Gonzales, rapper C-Rayz Walz, and Klezmer Clarinet god David Krakauer, as well as multi-talented players such as country chanteuse Katie Moore, Godspeed! You Black Emperor's Sophie Trudeau, Montreal-based and LA-bred rapper Subtitle, and gospel singer Doris Glaspie. Add to this list a Serbian band, an Indian percussion virtuoso, Matt Darriau and Frank London of the Grammy-award winning Klezmatics and 92 year old "Bagels & Bongos" legend Irving Fields, and you've got an idea of the party in the works. In addition to handling production and MC duties, Socalled plays piano, accordion, organ, synthesizer and Wurlitzer. The end result is a completely realized amalgamation of traditional and modern influences, a sound reminiscent of the past while standing squarely in the present.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, October 18, 2007

By	J. Dix "fussy psuedointellectual" (the internet) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an extremely well-crafted album. I first discovered it through YouTube's hosted video for "You Are Never Alone," in which the artist (who provides no vocals for this track) symbolically mechanically replaces body parts with those of the actual performers. I ordered the album (through not through Amazon) before it even finished playing. The music -- hiphop and ethnic fusion, with heavy influences from Jewish folk music -- is too dissimilar from anything I know well to adequately summarize, but bears an attention to detail that doesn't detract from its grander sweep. In discussing it with friends, I've compared it to Gorillaz, but only for lack of a better analogy. ...As a last note, something I find personally amusing: "You Are Never Alone" has a (deliberate) Western-ish feel, similar to Mirah (another Jewish artist)'s "Cold Cold Water". I blame Kinky Freidman.

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare breed - good rap!, November 14, 2007

By	A. Wilson (Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Great album. If you like good music, rap and sampling then you will like this album (or you are wrong). While not quite good enough to ascend to the level of Avalanches (Since I Left You) and Pepe Deluxe (Spare Time Machine), it is definitely just as enjoyable. A great album with great songs. Check out the music video for You are Never Alone on youtube! The bottom line is that a Jewish Canadian makes better rap than you will EVER hear on MTV.

5.0 out of 5 stars Check It Out!, November 10, 2007

By	Christophe Willett "Bunny Hugger" (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Brilliant! Portished meets Gorillaz while both on acid at a barmitzvah! Really quite perfect...highly recommended if you like cleverly blended samples, genius beats and beautifully delivered (and sometimes sarcastically wry) vocals.