I finally got it together to scribble some write-ups today.

This honey starts off all ambient and quickly drops into a deep Massive Attack kind of groove with treated voice. There is no actual singing on any of the pieces. The album is what I’ll call hard easy listening. Lo-fi with solid layering, simplicity of concept but with nimble rhythmic and melodic depth that never stales. Instrumentally, the pieces alternate between ambient electronic and inventive electro-rhythms with subtle synth (no cheese here). Want to listen to something slightly jazzy (sometimes funky) but unintrusive that ain’t granola ambience or sci-fi electronic but that doesn’t make you want to slit your throat after four bars from infantile tech-no-brainer rhythms? This is your baby. Stars all the way, not a wrong note in the whole thing.

I heard maybe a track and a half of this album before I rushed to Amazon.com and ordered it. The first track sounds like a Nina Simone remix, a fitting intro to what is to come. The second track should be in the soundtrack for a French movie where the beautiful ingénue is driving away from a tragic encounter through the rain, dressed the nines, and all for nothing. It friggin kills me, this track. Lush symphonic chords, piano, bass clarinet. Man… throw me into that world and toss away the key. That theme is continued in the third track, symph-pads and drums, but if you’re following the story, this one’s from the perspective of the gentleman. The fourth track starts with a killer jazz bass-line, joined shortly by piano and grooving drum kit, the singing reminiscent of the Nina Simone-esque track, but much snappier. And on it goes. I kind of found the energy and high-brow groove fading into jazz cliché toward the 3/4 mark of the album, but who cares? The first bunch of tracks are worth twice the price of admission. And the, as some Web reviewer mentioned, the Steve Reich-ish second last track, (the machine-head string plucking / thumb-piano / Tibetan temple bells one), is just magic. Awesome.

Quality, just not high quality. If you like all your chill to have the same beat (boom-boom-CHICK-daga-boom-boom-CHICK) then this album’s for you. Good guys on the album, DJ Krush, 9 Lazy 9, Jimpsters, just not their best tracks.

Want a party album? This is your baby. And don’t think this is all Latin-influenced lounge. Think big band horns, funk guitar, killer bass and plenty of percussive support behind the driving acoustic kit. De-Phazz, Tower of Power, reggae, Carlos Santana, even a little jungle thrown in. Some of the tracks strike me like they could have tried harder to put their own stamp on it. But hey, familiar is good on a dance floor. Can’t not love it. Their concerts must have drop sheets for the flinging sweat from the crowd.

Yikes, this thing is one of those artsy One-World albums that just make you want to gag at the pubescent New Age sincerity. Hope! Vision! Life! Hurl! Sadly, these guys mean it. Ok, I should shut up now. I completely enjoy the record – as long as I don’t think about it too hard. If you like your Sufi with samples, this one’s for you.

I have a quirk, a flaw regarding albums that sound like they were made in somebody’s basement. My regard for the musical competence of the artists involved has nothing to do with this gut reaction. I listen to this stuff all day. I appreciate the groove. I love being sent into a trance as much as the next guy. But I tell you the pieces that stay with me are not the ones in this category. The people I’d recommend “Sounds from the Ground” to are hip coffee shop owners. No lyrics to get in the way, no brass, no excessive samples, no brain-bending poly rhythms. Just a solid groove to happify your day.

Get down! Man… how down can you get? This anthology makes you want to blow a reefer and limbo low into a deep shag carpet. This compilation is out of Vienna, so think, dub that’s been influenced by (or has influenced) bands like Tosca. The deepest groove… You’d have be in a full body cast not move to this one. (I wonder if they have jerk schnitzel over there?)

Speaking of music out of Vienna, I gotta mention this one. The way this CD starts off completely sold me on it. The first two tracks have these sort of… heavy fluff elements that say, loud and clear, “I am seriously not taking myself too seriously”. This could be the soundtrack to Don Quixote or Gargantua and Pantagruel. Reminds me a bit of Yonderboi’s first album, but the artist here is much more driven, much more, um… “progressive”, in the art rock sense of the word. This album’s eleven tracks seem like one piece – hence the soundtrack association. If you had to take a really long bus ride and had good enough isolation headphones to crank this baby, it would instantly turn the most varied passing scenery into a thematically cohesive unit.

You know, there are a lot of compilations out there that don’t deserve to exist. There just isn’t enough meat to justify them. "The Jazz Influence" is a far cry from that syndrome. Every track is obviously done by "real" jazz musicians. The CD has been playing in my car for a solid month, still fresh as ever. There are lots of "real" jazz musicians out there who decry the rise of ‘non-musicians’ pumping out lounge and chill and nujazz fast as their sequencers can crank it. Well, here’s news for you guys. A) It’s all music and if you don’t like it, shut up and go listen to something else. B) When you hear the real deal, done by highly trained artists, the only thing that will need pointing out is that the old "jazz standard" model is now "big skill arcana" – on the same level as classical opera. It ain’t bad (in fact, it’s really friggin great), it’s just old and no longer interesting.