Rux Revue
Rux Revue is the debut album by Carl Hancock Rux, released by Sony 550 Music which operated through Sony Music's Epic Records division. The album was produced in Los Angeles by the Dust Brothers, featuring drummers Joey Waronker (formerly of R.E.M.) and James Gadson, bassists Atom Ellis (of Link Wray/The New Cars) and Carol Kaye, keyboardist James Hall, bass guitarist Wah-Wah Watson and additional keyboard, Keyboard, Piano and Melodica by Money Mark. The album mixes soul, gospel, blues, rock, classical and hip-hop into a collage of machine samples, drum machines, live instrumentation and sound  effects, incorporating a gospel influenced Sprechgesang and Vocalese style reliant upon African American alliteration, consonance and assonance while abstaining from the common techniques of poetic monologue popular in spoken word and slam poetry. Critical reception. Rux's album was critically acclaimed. PEOPLE Magazine described the cd as "Merging poetry, hip hop and ambient beats with old-time R&B, this debut album is hypnotic, intense and thought-provoking." POP MATTERS praised Rux's cd, calling it "fully realized effort to present poetry as musical theater. It’s similar in this vein to Charles Mingus’ A Modern Symposium of Jazz and Poetry  and The Clown, or Wynton Marsalis’ Blue Interlude and The Majesty of the Blues, or Stevie Wonder’s Living for the City. Backed by a live band and singers, Rux’s sound encompasses rock, blues, jazz, funk, and hip-hop, the words allowed the most fruitful representation in sound. His voice is a rich baritone; he sometimes shouts, sometimes croons, sometimes whispers. At all times he is insistent, a quality we have come to recognize as the hallmark of a performance poet. His work grapples with recalling his past and creating out of it a self-consciousness that is productive , rather than self-pitying. The production quality is excellent, a testament to both the producers (among them Toshi Reagon) and to Rux’s command over his material and his relationship with his band." SPIN Magazine commended Rux by citing "No poet signed to a major label has ever sounded as comfortable with a band as...Carl Hancock Rux" and PLAYBOY magazine stated "There isn't a more beautifully written set of lyrics around than on Rux Revue (Sony), the debut album by Carl Hancock Rux. Rux is a poet. But he's also interested in his musical accompaniment, and while  his deep voice will recall Gil Scott-Heron, that isn't his only reference point..."