Tell Me What You're All About

Jahcoozi - GetYoShitOut

I'm really all about the ladies this week. I'm not referring to the cute girls you see day after day making love to some nightlife photographer's camera, I'm referring to the women in music who consistently put out stellar material and thus, perhaps inadvertently, challenge us to assume the role of an artist/active participant instead of passive consumer looking cute on the sidelines.

Jahcoozi - BLN

Sasha Perera, lead singer of Berlin's own Jahcoozi, blows my mind sometimes with in your face lyrics like "Why's everybody chattin' 'bout the LDN/When we know what's going off in the BLN?". If you're not familiar with the group as a whole, then you'll probably recognize Sasha from the track "Silikon" on Modeselektor's Hello Mom! record. I wrote about Pure Breed Mongrel, their debut LP on Kitty Yo, when it first came out but their new full-length, Blitz 'n' Ass, is one step above and beyond their previous work. And it doesn't hurt that the cover art seems to be a tongue-in-cheek throwback to their "Black Barbie" track from Pure Breed.

Maybe it's because I heard Jahcoozi in '04 before I even knew who M.I.A. was that I hesitate to make a comparison, but it's probably unavoidable because Sasha's also Sri-Lankan although London-born. There are some vocal similarities on this record but that's where it starts and ends. Lest ye forget, this is a group, not a solo effort so Robert Koch and Orlen Gerlitz deserve equal praise for crafting some spectacular, genre-bending beats.