Audio Imagery stays slick with 'Electric Ladyland'

By Lori Falce

Band: Audio Imagery

Album: "Electric Ladyland"

Audio Imagery is definitely painting pictures with words and music. And with its 2009 CD “Electric Ladyland,” the pictures are satellite-streamed from a hot label video shoot.

The Pennsylvania-based up-and-coming hip-hop crew sparks through a second disc, the followup to 2007’s “Hush,” with an infectious, cross-genre appeal. Is it really hip hop? Is it funk? Or pop? Is that a little rock right there? R&B, maybe?

No, wait, you're all right. Audio Imagery draws on a diverse musical background. A direct current of talent powers up a new kind of musical machine that beats with the street-smart scratch of hip hop, trembles with a funky treble, pops with a bubble-gum snap that makes it surprising they don't have more radio play, is far from shy about bass and drums that would do any rock band proud and offers a throaty slice of soul to smooth out all the rough edges.

The title is an obvious homage to legendary guitar god Jimi Hendrix. It’s a risky move, daring aficionados to dismiss the group as unworthy of the same title that graced arguably one of Hendrix finest vinyl. However, the groundbreaking artist would probably appreciate the combination of trailblazing line-crossing and impeccable musicality displayed on the compilation.

“SupaGirl” is a bolt of Dr. Frankenstein lightning into the stereotypical rap or hip hop video. The cut’s background buzz of electricity, combined with airily sexy vocals from a female singer, instantly transport the listener to the floor of a hot club with a long line at the door and a tougher bouncer by the ropes. It's a party, a great party, the party you’ve always wanted to crash, full of lights and a throbbing dance floor and music music music. What a Jay-Z song has to convey with a video full of close-ups of cleavage and impossibly short shorts, Audio Imagery does completely with sound.

“Lights Off” tempts you to say that it is overproduced. Lots of background, lots of layers, lots of mixing effects. It borders on too much. But the song dances along that border, never stepping over the edge. Less may have been easier on the listener, but it wouldn't necessarily have been better. The cacophony is more an oddly harmonious sound check than a random, jarring mix of sounds. And once again, it draws you to the breathy female voice that complements the guys’ music in a Stacy Ferguson-like rounding of the sound. (Do you remember the Black Eyed Peas before Fergie? It's not that they weren't good, they just weren't as complete.)

If there is such a thing as reggae hip pop, “Cainco II” would have that label. It crackles with a junkanoo energy, bouncing through lyrics on a wild gallop that makes you feel like you are moving forward even if you never hit your feet. It is a super-charged rocket boost to the original “Cainco BLVD” on the groups’ last album. It has the same background tune, but a feel that is faster, more frenetic, more propelled than the first time around, less hip and a lot more hop.