Sick and tired of the posturing of today's MTV-optimized hip-hop? You need Mike Ladd. With a low-profile, understated sound and a voice that lulls and mesmerizes, Ladd's not out to grandstand. Look at him as a poet performing in relation to a mood-enhancing music track, less concerned with fitting the rhythm than he is with delivering the message; in that respect, he has more in common with Gil Scott-Heron (and to a lesser degree William Burroughs) than with Tricky, to whom he's likely to be compared. But Tricky's more about artifice -- about altering his voice with machines, and about the sounds he can create with word combinations. Ladd wants you to listen. With solid cuts like "Bush League Junkies," with its brilliant slow-groove loop, and the apocalyptic magnum opus "Blade Runner", this won't be difficult, even when Ladd buries his voice deep in the mix. And the title track shows Ladd's lighter side -- a welcome injection of fun after some of the grimmer cuts on the disc. Sometimes Easy Listening... is anything but easy, but it's full of the rewarding fruit of artistic depth.
Mike Ladd Easy Listening for Armageddon Scratchie CD SOUNDCLIP
			Review by George Zahora

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