INTERVIEWS

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Political-themed Artist Re-releases ‘Yankin’ the Food Chain’.

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...Multi-Talented, Political-Themed Artist Re-Releases ‘Yankin’ The Food Chain’. Polarity/1, the multi-genre artist best known for bold, honest, hard-hitting songs, is re-releasing his hit album, Yankin’ the Food Chain, now with re-mastered tracks. Polarity/1’s music has been incorporated by dance theaters and documentarists, including Danny Schechter’s feature-length film documentary ‘In Debt We Trust’ and Battery Dance Company’s 26th Annual Downtown Dance Festival last year.

...Yankin’ the Food Chain fuses electronica, acid jazz, alternative and electro-folk to create a set of funky-fresh beats infused with crucial political messages to future generations. The serious issues covered on Yankin’ force listeners to reanalyze their own ethics, especially when cornered with their own self-images in “Look at Your Shoeshine”: “Can you see yourself in your shoeshine?/ Step back!”
...From the excitingly chilly vocals of “Salesman,” to the persuasive political raps found in “News Goo,” to the astoundingly real lyrics of “Di Hard” (”The good die young/ and the bad get paid”), Yankin’ has something to offer every music-lover. Perhaps most notable, though, are the album’s funky, upbeat tracks, such as “Boomers Blues,” “Jam Inya Jimmies” and “Cincinnati Pink.” With lyrics like “She’s catchin’ the groove and won’t let go,” it’s obvious that once you put on this Polarity/1 record, you won’t be letting go of the groove either..

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P/1 Featured on BMP ONLINE MAGAZINE and on NEXTCAT:

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"Polarity/1, the multi-genre artist best known for bold, honest, hard-hitting songs, is releasing a brand new instrumental record titled Music From the Other Side. Fitting to the title, the album consists of smooth, jazzy tracks much different from louder albums like Yankin’ the Food Chain. Polarity/1's music has been incorporated by dance theaters and documentarists, including Danny Schechter's feature-length film documentary 'In Debt We Trust and Battery Dance Company's 26th Annual Downtown Dance Festival last year.
....Music From The Other Side is the soundtrack for a dance performance by Lisbon's Quorum Ballet. The Other Side's principal objective is to fuse the style and art of the dance of Lisbon and New York. The work is the collaboration of choreographers Daniel Cardoso, Jonathan Hollander and Thaddeus Davis, artistic directors of Quorum Ballet, Battery Dance Company and Wideman/Davis Dance, respectively. Dark, moody, erotic and aggressive, it explores the theme of oppression, which has always been an issue for the people on both sides of the Atlantic. The piece examines the roles of the different agents: the instigator, the oppressor, the oppressed and the observer.

The most impressive song is the vocals version of "Fulano de Tal," included on the album as a bonus track. Also noteworthy is the exotic, media-infused sound of "Land O' Debbies." The entire albums feels like the fusion of every type of media coming together to blend spooky, unique melodies that echo through every track. What really drives the record, though, is the steady, trance-like beat that proves impossible to ignore.
The music of Polarity/1 is exactly what the name suggests - "conjoined opposites," including the new (cutting-edge electronica, hip-hop and nu-jazz) and the old (roots music of America, including blues, funk, country and early jazz, Brazil (samba, pagode, etc.) and West African groove science)." -- m2n.com
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SEE WHAT'S ON THE CHART..

REVIEW OF Koko Dozo gig at CRASH MANSION May 20, 2008:

.....Take Your Protein Pills and Put Your Helmet On...
.....Cause Koko Dozo is Out of This World
.....Posted In: futuristic rock, new music. By Sheena Beaston
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.....Koko Dozo want to invade, probe, and prod every ounce of your earthly body with the sound of space that is so defyingly abstract whilst being ultimately palatable. That being said, I immediately fell in love with their sound.
.....To put it mildly, Koko Dozo are nonhuman. They're of an out of this world proportion that the general masses simply could not fathom amongst themselves. So what does KD do?
.....They bring the funky party to you!
.....Amy Douglas, Polarity/1 and Rubio are the talented trio that defines the space age sound. While P/1 provides the backbone of silky laced synth beats and tenacious electromorsels, Rubio maintains the spazzed out keying which mesh so well, launching the tunes into orbit.
.....And no alienesque incorporation would be complete without the faceshredding vocals of one, Amy D. Ranging in styles from brash baroque to futuristic funk, her golden pipes weave magic into the ears and souls of all who listen.
.....It's no secret (as I have no shame in mentioning it in almost every post I do) that I will back an act/song/style of music no matter who the artist or what the genre, so long as it gets my booty on the floor. Within a mere :05 seconds of throwing on Face on the Dancefloor, I knew my appreciation for Koko Dozo was firmly cemented.
....With a hearty house beat, the track begins quite oddly enough, but stick with it, as it explodes with Douglas' vocals shortly thereafter. "You know you got that face... put your face on the dance floor...
....."Don't mind if I do.Koko Dozo's Illegal Space Aliens (released on subTEKst Records) can be ear-imbibed here.
.....If you missed Koko Dozo at their latest gig at Crash Mansion, I'm truly sorry for your loss. But good news! KD plays SOB's on a date TBD in the near future. Be sure to check back here for updates as they come in. (and as an early appeteaser...Sheena Beaston herself is brewing together a fiery night of music later in July, so stay tuned for lineups/details/etc...)

.....Warning: overtly cheesy/standard space themed title for a post.DEAL! Cause I'm about to lay some cochlear pleasures upon you that will rock you to the core.

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..REVIEW OF the Koko Dozo album "ILLEGAL SPACE ALIENS":

.....Future psychediscorama With Koko Dozo's Illegal Space Aliens
.....Brothers and a Sister From Another Planet

.....Mark Kirby 2008-05-13

.....One night several years ago at an Irish pub in the East Village of New York City, the discussion of music turned to disco. It involved musicians and people over 40 years-old, people who might know what they’re talking about. Several of us were, in the heyday of Studio 54 and the disco era, into punk rock. Others of us were -- me especially -- strictly jazz heads. I reminded my friend of lonely nights in college smoking out of a four-foot bong and listening to Zappa and John Coltrane and wondering how to meet girls. They were at the campus disco parties, while we were above it all. And alone, getting in touch with ourselves.
.....Now a guy walked into the bar - no, this is not a joke, this is true - leans over and asks Nancy, the bartender, to put on a CD he brought. He had a box set called 100 Disco Hits and wanted to hear it. She put it on over a few protests and by the third cut half the bar was up dancing. "This shit is great, what were we thinkin’?" What were we thinking? The cuts that he played -- "Boogie Nights," "Disco Lady," "Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now" -- were all songs with soul power. Killer musicians, great singers, and songwriters that had some skills were at work on these gems. So many of the songs that turned off the young cynic back in the day -- and I was one of them -- now sound like musical versions of the politics of hope. Besides the quality of the music and the infusion of beer and liquor, these cuts stood out because the party music of today consists of desperate, vapid consumer fantasies "sung" over prepackaged, overly mechanized "music." From Justin Timberlake to Mariah Carey, this is what dance music is all about. Like rap agitators Public Enemy asked back in the ‘90's "who stole the soul?"

.....These memories and thoughts came to mind while listening to Koko Dozo’s new CD Illegal Space Aliens. The band members present themselves as bizarro characters. Chief producer Polarity/1, who created the beats and sounds that make the backbone of the music, dresses like a pro wrestling manager who is channeling Sun Ra. Though using synthesizer sounds, drum machines, and synth bass, his music has a distinctive, organic quality, a certain freshness and vitality. Rubio -- the self-described "multi-brained, Viking, Satanic wizard"; complete with Viking helmet and wizardly robe -- provides funky, jazzy keyboards that flesh out and add spice and musicality to the grooves. Singer Amy Douglas, the "Inter-Galactic Empress," looks like a grown up Punky Brewster turned dominatrix from Brooklyn by way of worlds beyond. But for all the outer spaceness of their image and electronic sounds, the music on Illegal Space Aliens is rooted in the organic soil of the disco, funk and soul of a bygone era.

.....The CD starts with dense electronic sounds that morph into a groove consisting of bass, a looped piano chord, and a beat made of these dense sounds, on the opening cut "Second Time." Amy Douglas brings flesh and soul to this cyborg of a song. With musical experience covering punk cabaret, funk with George Clinton and down-home jazz with Illinois Jacquet, she has the pipes. She also has the musicality and taste to do it just right. "Face on the Dance Floor" starts with disembodied female voices and a vocal loop of laughs. A house beat kicks in and Douglas busts out with a Donna Summers-like vocal blast: "You know you got that face... put your face on the dance floor / wave your feet in the air / make us believe that you don’t care / smash your face on the dance floor / put your kicks in the air / wave it some more / put your fuckin’ face on the dance floor." The song grooves along with interesting musical riffs and keyboard counter melodies, as Douglas goes off. The backup group female voices come back and the song’s next verse comes in. These little touches elevate this and other songs on the CD above average, boring house and dance music. You can dig this music without drugs or dancing.

.....Some of the album’s cuts resemble the classic disco of the‘70's and ‘80's. "Boomchi" has that signature four-on-the-floor drum beat, offbeat funk bass lick, and soulful strings. The vocals come in like Chic’s classic "Good Times." Busting out in Spanish, Douglas lets fly some wailing diva vocal blasts. The song’s break down features bass drum, breathy, chanting vocals, and an over-the-top spew in Spanglish by Rubio. Euro disco brought in the dominance of synthesizers and more mechanical rhythms. "Shine" is in this mold, but the piano licks and, once again, Douglas’ voice gives the song a human face: "Shine a light / I need to know that I’m alive / Shine a light / guide me to your secret side / give me breath that can revive."

.....Koko Dozo mines other types of music, particularly the expansive side of soul and funk, on the slow jam "Down." This features sweet lead and backup vocals, as well as chords that move and glide in an extended middle part that seems to drift away. Then, from silence, the song starts up with vocals that remind one of soul diva’s like Chaka Khan. "D.C. Whore" combines political satire and discordant, complex funk. "Fulano de Tai" is dirge-like, with music that evokes the image of an emotional desert and recalls one of Ennio Morricone’s more psychedelic soundtracks.

.....One of the strengths of Illegal Space Aliens, and my regular readers please forgive me, is that there are nine choice cuts on this record. No fluff, just a statement. This should be the new trend. This should also be an example of how to make dance music that is intelligent and cool, not dumbed down to the level of morons in too-tight $90 designer jeans..

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.REVIEW OF the Koko Dozo album "ILLEGAL SPACE ALIENS" on GBH.tv

.....Koko Dozo - 'Illegal Space Aliens'
.....They're only just starting out, but we could see Koko Dozo becoming
.....your next local heroes. Read our review here.

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..........Koko Dozo: Illegal Space Aliens
..........released on subTEKst Records
..........reviewed by Gaspar Oliveira for GBH.tv
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.....As anybody who lives in a city knows, melting pots are always a mess. There's plenty of bad that comes with cultures and backgrounds being crammed together in a tiny space: people get pissed off at one another, tensions sometimes arise, and that romanticized harmony never quite rounds into form. But when it's time to party, it's pretty easy to get close enough to ignore the problems.
......The New York trio Koko Dozo strives for that party-time closeness, and their debut album Illegal Space Aliens definitely gets close enough. Every New York sound imaginable is crammed into Illegal Space Aliens' nine songs, from the city's camera clicks and metallic clanks to the clubs' salsa, house, r&b, techno, funk, and hip-hop. That might seem like a dangerously long list, but the band's got the musical experience to highlight how closely related they are. The shuffling, clattering percussion on album opener "Second Time" might sound very different from the disco whoomp of "Boomchi," but the evocative keyboard chords in the former and the swirling (fake) strings in the latter show the songs come from the same family. Even elements that see the band wandering further out, like the blown out techno-inspired drums on "Kokodozonomics" or the restless piano improvisations on "Fulano de Tal," feel more and more at home once you get to know them.
.....And if you need any additional incentive to keep coming back to Illegal Space Aliens, look no further than the vocals. Lead singer Amy Douglas doesn't always have the perfect lyrics to sing (probably the most iffy aspect of this record), but she's got a voice that can do anything. She's got four octaves at her disposal, and she uses them to sass ("Face on the Dancefloor"), emote ("Down") and just plain belt; her emotional coloring's right in step with the music backing her, even when the music's a little silly.Koko Dozo's music is a little involved by clubland standards, and as such it's understandable that they only play the occasional gig. But New Yorkers looking for music that embraces their city's cultural diversity ought to check them out. The best way to survive in a melting pot is to get close.

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REVIEW OF the "SPEECHLESS" CD in StarPolish.com:
Polar Levine, a/k/a Polarity/1, has been making textural music for roughly 20 years, creating an intriguing plate of jazz slapped with interference, loops and found noise.... The splicings are far from random -- Polar knows exactly what he's doing and why... I love the fact that Polarity/1 uses several live musicians instead of relying exclusively on samples; saxmaster Michael Blake is particularly adept at his craft. Polar succeeds in his mission of forcing you to pay attention and not lull into the sounds you "expect" to hear. However, the result is even more effective if you enjoy without reservations the sounds you hear instead.

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REVIEW OF "SPEECHLESS" in TheRecordIndustry.com:
Polarity/1 is the brainchild of NYC composer/producer/visual artist Polar Levine, who, when not making music, is running his own little spin of web subversion, with PopCultMedia. In it's entirety, Polarity/1's "Speechless" immediately strikes you as a lost soundtrack to some latenight & long forgotten acid trip. An electronic soup of beats, retro, tribal, and fragmented house peppered with bits of incoherent, nanosecond splices of altered speech snipits, off-time breaks, and unrecognizable audio from way back when, in pop cultures' collective consciousness. As a sample in one of the tracks states, "If you don't like the music, go out and make some of your own," but chances are that you will dig on this funky little electro unit. Highly recommended. Download the track and buy the damn CD already.

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.ard" from Yankin' The Food Chain: Recording Magazine:
"Di Hard" is a medium tempo groove with rapped and sung vocals, everything done by Polar except for exquisite backing vocals by Scott Parker Allen and Sabina Sciubba. The song is a comment on Princess Di's demise, the role of the media, and the times we live in, serious without becoming sentimentalized or preachy. An interesting exercise in a style that's very hard to pull off. We hear stylistic nods to Innervisions, Sugar Hill and Paisley Park, yet it's an entirely original project, taken from the polarity/1 CD "Yankin' The Food Chain."

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The song has so many segments, from sparse to complex, that it reads like a book. Tension, release, suspense, it's all there, yet none of the quieter moments feel weak, they are part of an overall plan that simply works.

READ FULL REVIEW

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BBC ARTICLE ON SALMAN AHMAD AND POLAR ABOUT "NO MORE."

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REVIEW OF CD "Yankin' The Food Chain": MediaChannel.org:
Polarity/1: Yankin' The Food Chain (subTekst Records) It'as a group with attitude, musicians with mishigas and consciousness. Polarity/1 is a musical force unleashing some of the hippest beats and timely lyric on the scene. Who else takes on the testy relationship between blacks and jews with such honesty, affirming the common bonds that are often frayed in a song called "Howl." In "News Goo" Polarity/1 fires off a hip hop attack on media mergers and censorship of what matters. Sample line: "So where's the news of a people left out?/ Put a camera in my face to hear me shout/But they don't want to hear what I shout about." But Polarity/1 doesn't stop with safe subjects....Their "Di Hard" looks at the death of our late lamented Princess skewering both her media whore obsession and the disgusting attention paid to her by the paparazzi (and the men who hire them).

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I lean to the more timely newsy songs but no one is left out--the music is strong and the subjects varied. They'll be yankin' your chain if you let them. And you will be better for it!

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