The Teaches Of Peaches (Kitty-Yo) by Peaches is so smutty, you’ll want to wash your mouth out with soap just for listening to this album. I couldn’t help but think about performance artist Karen Finley’s 12-inch dance song “Tales Of Taboo” (a/k/a “The Yam Song”) when I was listening to “F*ck The Pain Away,” the beat-happy opening track to this raw but irresistible disc of beat-box rocking tunes. This is not standard-issue party music, as you can determine after hearing “AA XXX,” “Set It Off,” “Diddle My Skittle” (I kid you not), “Lovertits” (I’m still not kidding), and “Suck And Let Go” (would I kid you?). Too intense to be the soundtrack to a porno movie, it’s sure to piss off your neighbors and startle a few of your most jaded friends.
As exotic, to some, as baba ganoush and halvah, Middle Eastern pop music could potentially be the next big thing. Natacha Atlas and the late Ofra Haza are probably the two most recognizable names to emerge from the music scene in the embattled Middle East, and now it’s up to Atlas to bring the olive branch of her music to the masses with her latest album Ayeshteni (Mantra/Beggars Banquet). Whether it’s her unique interpretations of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s “I Put A Spell On You” (complete with “voice choir scratches” by DJ Awe) and Jacques Brel’s “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” or her own rhythmic and enchanting tunes such as “Ashwa,” “Lelsama,” and “Manbai,” you will feel somewhat more global just for listening to this disc. What you do with the finger cymbals is your business.
If mono-monikered vocalist Janita wasn’t from Finland, it might be easy to dismiss her first domestic release I’ll Be Fine (Carport) as a smooth soul and jazz concoction with a pinch of Latin flavoring thrown in for kick. The fact that she is from Finland, and grew up listening to her father’s R&B records makes for a great story and a good album. Janita co-wrote all ten songs on I’ll Be Fine and is adept at creating the musical atmosphere for a quiet storm (“Angel Eyes,” “In Your Sunshine”) as she is at stirring up the necessary fire for the Latin heat of the title track, “Fruit Of Another,” “Heaven,” and “Give Me A Sign.”