CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
(V2)

Another of the many bands burbling up out of the artistic cauldron that is present-day Brooklyn, Clap Your Hands take stripped down New Rock Revolutionaries aesthetics and leaven them with subtle references to New York elder statesmen like Lou Reed and Sonic Youth and indie-rock heroes such as Yo La Tengo and Stephen Malkmus. Which is not to say that their debut album is overly derivative. Vocalist Alan Ounsworth has a thin, reedy voice that is nevertheless capable of great urgency on songs like “Let the Cool Goddess Rust Away.” When backed with Spartan guitar lines and occasional harmonica, organ or even harp, the quintet conjure a musical mood that is as accessible as it is exhilarating. Clap along with Clap Your Hands at their Jan 24 Japan debut. DG

DJ UPPERCUT
Street Revolution
(W+K Tokyo Lab)

Signed to the same cutting-edge ad agency label as sampling wunderkind duo Hifana, DJ Uppercut shares with them a mastery of hip-hop scratch turntablism and 21st-century digital technology. But where Hifana bust out in all directions with comic wit, the 24-year-old Uppercut hooks up with a number of American MCs for some tough, streetwise collaborations. Rosco P. Coldchain joins the DJ for the hard-hitting beats of the opening track, “What you Standin’ For,” while Fatlip from the Pharside makes an appearance on the tasty “You Better Watch Your Step.” Hifana and world-champion Japanese turntablist DJ Kentaro also strut their stuff on a debut album that marks a good start to the solo career of an artist whose previous claim to fame was a gig as Hikaru Utada’s tour DJ. DG

NEED NEW BODY
Where’s Black Ben?
(5RC/Kill Rock Stars)

Certain pairs of words—“fun” and “mathematical,” “whimsical” and “challenging”—don’t make much sense when used together. Then again, there’s not much about Need New Body that makes sense. Over five years and three albums, the Philadelphia freak collective has been breaking rules and splicing styles with a skill rarely seen since Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. On Where’s Black Ben? NNB are their mercurial selves, packing the disc with buzzing keyboards, spoken-word nonsense, dizzying drumming and glitchy production gags. They’re at their best on tracks like “Eskimo,” when they inject the mechanical momentum of Krautrock with a healthy dose of melodic ADD. The kitchen-sink approach to songwriting can be confounding, but it’s a giddy antidote to the homogeneity that afflicts most rock records these days. Sebastian Roberts

ORANGE PEKOE
Grace
(BMG Japan)

Hailing from Kobe, Orange Pekoe lead singer Tomoko Nagashima has clearly studied the great jazz vocalists, and alongside composer Kazuma Fujimoto has carved out a light and breezy niche in the J-pop market. In their case, the “J” stands for both jazz and Japanese, a combination that seems completely at home in Pekoe’s hands. Grace is their delightfully packaged fourth, a record full of the joys of spring. Showers of delicate acoustic guitar give a warm intimacy to “Graceful Reign” while bossa nova influences appear throughout, continuing their evolution of encompassing diverse styles into the cool, carefree sound of their repertoire. Fun and inventive, shining and happy (thanks, REM), Pekoe make this set sound nonchalant, and that says everything about their credentials. Robert Poole


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