The NY-based Activity returns with a new album, A Thousand Years In Another Way (Western Vinyl) and it continues to do what it does best; grabbing ahold of melody, ripping it to shreds, repeating it over and over again, all the while dressing it with sultry vocal deliveries. It repeats, yes, it’s repetitive, yes, but it’s never overbearing. Activity never delves into being repetitious or monotonous, instead luring its listeners in with hypnotic melodies it builds around, drenching them with instrumentation and effects. The band is a quiet storm of sound, thundering around its own bubble, rarely changing its dynamics. It works though, to the group’s benefit. There’s subtlety in the band’s movements and we should all appreciate that.

I’ll be the first one to admit the Smug Brothers make songs friendly enough for your parents to say, “Hey, turn that up.” Just looking at their un-smug faces you can tell yeah, they’re probably a bunch of nice guys too. The Columbus, Ohio band returns off the heels of its 2024 EP Another Bar Behind The Night with Stuck On Beta. It’s definitely what we’ve come to expect as the band wraps its pop melodies around crunchy guitars. The band does change things up with “Noble Harper,” taking a more relaxed and quieter approach with a sax solo, but we still have those double vocals and enticing melodies. The minute plus “Voltaire Basement” goes even further with a much more acoustic feel before it goes off gently into that good night. I can never say anything bad about the Smug Brothers because there’s always goodness all around them.

CYPRESS HILL & LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – BLACK SUNDAY LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

We never know where life is going to take us. You might think you have your life planned out, but God laughs at your plans because He knows there’s so much more in store for you. Well, most of the time anyway. Even if things don’t go the way you thought initially, you end up where you’re supposed to be. That’s happened on more than one occasion for some kids raised in the ‘hood who have been able to overcome their situations.

One late night 34 years ago, a video aired on MTV, “How I Could Just Kill A Man,” that I initially didn’t take very seriously, but Q-Tip and Ice Cube were in the video. The video ended up receiving an overwhelming number of plays, and Cypress Hill soon became a household name, especially after being featured in the film Juice. The trio of B-Real, Sen Dog, and DJ Muggs surpassed the odds, churning out hit after hit and even without the applause of the mainstream, and have maintained a core audience many would kill for. Now, Cypress Hill returns – sans Muggs – but joins forces with the London Symphony Orchestra to deliver Black Sunday Live At The Royal Albert Hall. One might say this is the culmination of perseverance and hard work because very few artists grind the way Cypress Hill grinds.

The tracks comprising Black Sunday Live At The Royal Albert Hall are as we all expected, reinterpretations of Cypress Hill’s 2nd album Black Sunday in its entirety! The only difference here is Sen and B-Real also include a few of their other hits to cap it all off with 20 tracks in total. The Cypress keeps the sequence of songs exact to that of Black Sunday, but we have to address the elephant in the room, and that’s conductor Troy Miller and the London Symphony Orchestra elevating each track through instrumentation. The strings, the horns, the xylophone, wind instruments, and percussion are otherworldly. The realization comes on “When The Shit Goes Down,” where the melody remains but canvas the duo raps over has changed as if Mack Gordon and Harry Warren were part of this reenactment. It’s a journey that moves through R&B/Soul with string arrangements that are nostalgic. It is intense. One of the group’s more popular songs in “Hits From The Bong” might have you thinking it’s as close to the original as they can possibly get but this isn’t about rapping over recordings and beats B-Real and Sen Dog have performed with over and over again, it’s something much more refreshing. Horns bellow in the distance and you might miss the quick entry of wind instruments coming in and out. The reworked “Illusions” is lowkey, more so than the original, as strings ride a calm wave and B-Real follows the same pattern. Its percussion is off to the side, distant but audible

It may seem some tracks might be daunting in rearranging them structurally, but Miller seems to have been up to the task as witnessed with “How I Could Just Kill A Man”? Yeah, “How I could Just Kill A Man.” That double bass holds it down, and DJ Lord destroys the turntables, scratching those records, creating his own rhythm as well as delivering a captivating solo. The only complaint I might have is the exclusion of the Sly & The Family Stone sample that the orchestra could have easily recreated. Regardless, the song hits all the right spots. They close out with “(Rock) Superstar,” and even if the band didn’t mention its name, those opening xylophone notes are easily recognizable. This is the opus, the grand finale with deep bass, strings, and a resounding rhythm. Sen and B-Real are on top of their respective games here.

It’s been 32 years since the release of Black Sunday, and now, with Black Sunday Live At The Royal Albert Hall, Cypress Hill, with the help of the London Symphony Orchestra, has created another masterpiece. And it’s live! Cypress Hill will always live on.      

BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW – SOFT NEW MAGIC DREAM

You occasionally need a rush of the unknown, whether it comes from your first time doing something or tasting something scrumptiously flavorful. In any case, there’s a satisfaction of accomplishing or doing something you hadn’t before. This is probably where it all comes to a head with Black Moth Super Rainbow, the outfit fronted by musician/beat miner Tobacco. But this is about Black Moth Super Rainbow.

The band has just released its latest offering, Soft New Magic Dream (Rad Cult), which seems to drift farther away from its psychedelia leaning into a much more pop-oriented space. But that’s not to say the group has neglected the road it’s traveled on for so long, as songs constantly drift through a Wonderland strewn with mushrooms, making their way across unkempt yellow brick roads in search of a drunken wizard that’s nowhere to be found. It may just suit the band fine with its sugary sound, hints at watching Lucy play with diamonds as she falls to her death. There’s no reason for her to be flying after jumping off that roof. Ok, I digress, but you get the idea. Tobacco (Thomas Fec) treated vocoder vocals still remain, but there’s an abundance of melody he and the rest of the band, Iffernaut, Pony Diver, Steve SLV, and The Seven Fields of Aphelion (Maureen Elizabeth “Maux” Boyle) are able to contain within 10 songs filling the album. You’re able to literally taste the sickly sweet sentiment protruding out of “Tastebud,” which is rhythm-heavy with a wide array of synths and keyboards strewn across its musical landscape. You just might get a toothache listening to it, and you’ll wish it would never end as you play it over and over again.

One thing is for certain here: the band’s odd use of melody through its music is highly infectious when it probably shouldn’t be. “Unknown Potion” is remarkably beautiful, awash with a wide array of colorful notes and chords, completely purposeful in its oddness, bending notes to the group’s very will. But it’s Tobacco’s soothing voice that brings it all together as he sings along to those guitar notes. There’s rarely a pause throughout the album where Black Moth Super Rainbow takes a breather, instead pushing itself to its limits, if they have any. The group makes it seem effortless, though, as we listen to “All 2 Of Us.” Tobacco’s breathy vocals, a churning pop rhythm, and electronic experimentation all wrapped neatly within the song itself as the band plays with wind instruments, making its song sound heavenly.  To put it mildly, the band is nothing short of enthralling as we wonder what its next song will sound like. With “Open The Fucking Fantasy,” the band has found a comfortable space where it travels within psychedelia and popdom. Keys, synth, and percussion all have their place here, melding into one another, and it’s obvious the band members draw energy from each other. It’s so enticing.

If you’re not enraptured by Soft New Magic Dream, I don’t know what to tell you. For some reason, you might imagine McCartney Christmas songs with a stranglehold around a volcano. Black Moth Super Rainbow does the unexpected while at the same time giving us all something familiar. With its new album, there are just no words left except maybe: They’ve done it again.