It’s impossible not to compare this to Jason Heath’s recent album, solely because this one is so much better–unlike Heath, Lawrence’s slow and steady approach means he never wears out his welcome, and even the accordion he uses sounds like a genius addition instead of like kitchen sink excessiveness.

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What kind of bizarro world did I fall into where I’m beginning to trust the fucking Warped Tour to scout new awesome bands for me?

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Remember all those 80s rock divas? Taylor Dane, Jane Child, Alannah Myles: Alex can match any of them, and might even best the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson for studio-based southern charm.

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For a bedroom band, it sounds surprisingly coherent, evoking the music your big brother might have told you about if you’d been raised in the early 70′s–there’s a punk intensity, some interesting use of whistling, and plenty of minimal chord structure, but also space-fantasy vocals and guttural parts that at times even go cookie monster–I’m talking about a voice that’s between Zolar X and John Waters actress Divine when she was doing her Hi-NRG tunes like “You Think You’re a Man.”

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Though famous for his Sega-sounding synth samples, Computer Jay succeeds because he’s not really either a minimalist or an obscure gear head: he gives you some bold minimal and earlier-electronica flavors, but at his base, he has one major kick pedal foot pointed straight at the recent present.

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… if you’re expecting another A World of Peace Must Come, you’re in for one hell of a motherfucking surprise.

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Every piano plink and rhythmic crackle feels intimate, like a telegraph from within his head—far more than a dance album (good luck dancing to this), it’s a rich singer-songwriter experience, something akin to John Lennon’s Imagine.

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While the coke-fiends out there might miss a bit of the trebly snap, the heightened fidelity actually highlights their most frenetic moments: the stereo is more pronounced, so you hear cool friction in the double-tracked vocals and more Thin Lizzy influence in songs such as “Run the Night.”

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“World music” as a term stinks of imperialism, implying an otherness about the “world” outside of our U.S. borders that makes all nations’ music different from us and similar to each other’s. But it’s hard to know how else to categorize treats such as the Souljazz Orchestra’s Solidarity: this album tackles Afrobeat, reggae, salsa, samba, “semba,” conga, soul, and jazz, and is sung in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and even “Wolof.”

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It’s the third in a monthly series of lit events, and this month, the talent level is huge.

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