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On first listen, this CD pulls some real surprises. The first two thirds is all funky and soulful. The songs are mostly slow groove R&B, crooning love songs over solid beats. And then, at track 9, some really familiar, but out of place, chords come in. Yes, they are playing Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter." What's that all about? And that's followed by "Motherfucker", a really hard-edged piece of rap-rock.

But on subsequent listens, Maktub reveal that the hard rock influences were there all along. As early as the third track, "Give Me Some Time," there is a pretty hard guitar playing on top of the funky rhythms. In fact, many of the individual songs follow the same progression as the album as a whole -- starting out with slow, soulful grooves and then adding hard rock elements until positively rocking out.

Then the real strength of the album becomes apparent, which is how seamlessly Maktub blend their various elements and influences. For if the hard rock aspect is not obvious the first time around, it is primarily because it is used tastefully. The songs, even as they progress from soul to rock, are constructed so that they develop coherently; when the guitar comes in, it belongs there, doesn't sound like the element from outer space. The songs hold together because they are written that way, and in the end the whole album achieves the same kind of wholeness.

G. Murray Thomas

Mary Lou Newmark
GREEN ANGEL
Green Angel Music
www.greenangelmusic.com

For those who can do without the noodling of New Age poseurs and who can't abide by the silly stuff that sets Michael Flatley's feet aflame, let me assure you that there is in Mary Lou Newmark a wise and knowledgeable artist whose inspiration lies in the essential and sacred nature of music itself, not in the contemporary execution (albeit excellent) of her ideas. I've never reviewed electronica before, but I find that Ms. Newmark's "Green Angel"--while implementing such present-day elements as spoken word snippets, field recordings, multicultural samplings, and her electric violin-is fundamentally connected to centuries of sacred tradition. Clearly, she takes her role as a sacred works composer as seriously as Lassus, Bach, or Praetorius did in their day. She finds her voice in the violin, relying on that one instrument much in the way that the Mark Rothko chapel relies on the simple, monolithic black canvas to exalt with all the power of the Sistine Chapel. One color or many colors-all can sing in the voice of God. There isn't a whole lot of ornamentation in Ms. Newmark's work, but her urgent, brilliant violin playing cuts as quickly to the listener's heart as any raging "Dies Irae." Somewhere up there, Verdi and FaurŽ are nodding and saying, "This one, she gets it." And as with all great artists of the sacred, her music is quite beautiful.

Composer, performer, teacher, ASCAP award winner, and lecturer, Ms. Newmark got her Bachelor's in Music (Violin Performance) from Southern Methodist University and her Master's in same from USC, as well as a second Master's in composition from UCLA. Thusly informed, Ms. Newmark understands the melodic vernacular of worship in all its permutations from the monk's organum to the cantor's Sabbath greeting. In the opening works, "Prayer" and "Meditation," faith translates into virtuosity on her opulent, green angel, a five-string electric violin (an instrument that combines violin and viola). Ms. Newmark draws her bow with prophetic authority. She has performed these works in a variety of worship services, and the work--with its sidewinding, near-eastern scales and robust textures that echo the West by way of the Mighty Five--could find an easy home in any mosque, temple, or church. "Voices of Faith" evokes the divine from a rich palette of sound, offering daubs and splashes of dovening, mu'adhdhin, matins, down-home Sundays, snatches of juju, and the terribly lonesome chant of someone finding a way to reckon with God on her own terms. "Seven Sacred Stones" works the metaphor of stone (from Stonehenge to the Venus of Willendorf to St. Peter himself) as belief made tangible. Lightening matters, "Comments on the Cosmos" is an offertory of a whimsical (rather than ponderous) contemplation of physics and the universe, complete with such fun pronouncements as "all science is either physics . . . or stamp collecting," delivered by Newmark herself.

Whether you like traditional or innovative contemplations of the holy, "Green Angel" is a solid and moving achievement. Since 9/11 and the ensuing carnage in the Middle East, we have yearned to connect with the divine with greater urgency than ever before. This record is an astounding expression of the variegated, yet unifying beauty of faith. Traditionalist that I am, I'm putting it with my favorite classical music CDs.

Amelie Frank

IVAN SMASON
Marijuana
Self-Released

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What is the difference between spoken word art and ranting? I would say, in order to qualify as art, it must either say something new, or say something old in a new way; preferably, it should do both. If it does neither, especially if done in a repetitive and strident way, it's just ranting.

Most of this CD is just ranting.

Smason has two basic things to say: marijuana is good, white Christians are bad. Most of the pieces here are arguments based on one or both of these premises. Unluckily, he never even bothers to justify these basic positions. The piece "White Christians" attempts to explain why they are evil, but it is merely a list of crimes committed by white Christians. I challenge anyone to find any ethnic, religious or political group of people who could not be accused of a similar list of crimes. What Smason does not do is establish any link between Christianity, or whiteness for that matter, and said crimes. And it's not that such a link would be impossible, or even difficult to establish, but Smason doesn't even bother to try.

The other argument he makes is that white Christians are bad because they banned marijuana, which is good. Although, other than a passing reference to how marijuana is safer than alcohol, he never bothers to make any actual arguments in favor of marijuana.

All this comes to a head in the central piece on the CD, "Saving America: Reconsidering Franklin Roosevelt", in which he attempts to argue that Roosevelt is, in fact, our worst president. Of course, his basic argument is that Roosevelt's administration outlawed marijuana. He does however, make further arguments, the best being that Roosevelt socialized America. But whatever occasional strengths his argument has, he weakens them by repeatedly accusing Roosevelt of "Christianizing" America, as if Christianity had no influence on our lives or politics until Roosevelt came along. Some really sloppy logic (blaming Roosevelt for all the ills of the 1920's, from the Ku Klux Klan to the stock market crash, simply because he was the losing Vice-Presidential candidate in 1920) further weakens his argument, as does the repeated use of the rhetorical device "It's no coincidence..." to link facts and events which have no actual connection ("It is no coincidence that one third to one half the world's Jews were exterminated during his presidency" -- if you're going to throw out accusations like that, let's see some evidence).

The irony is that I agree with most of what Smason has to say. Marijuana has many benefits, and is preferable to alcohol. Christianity has a lot to answer for in world history. And even that Roosevelt could use some reevaluation. But please give me some evidence, some coherent arguments, something beyond stridency and repetition.

On the occasional cut where Smason leaves his politics out of it, he actually proves to be a competent poet. "Crescent City" is a fun little debate between good and evil at Mardi Gras, and "The Xanthic Windjammers" a pleasant appreciation of sailing.

So my suggestion to Smason is either hone your debate skills, or stick to the poetry.

G. Murray Thomas