Search - Sharkey :: Sharkey's Machine

Sharkey's delivered a sonic masterpiece

Big Rob | Seaside, NJ | 07/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sharkey is a DC D.J. and on this album he teams up with some first-class hip-hoppers (notably Zooks) and Mario Caldato does a great job polishing the tracks just enough to make them shine without dumbing them down. This is the real deal, a very listenable album with an eclectic mix of frenetic hip-hop and smooth-but-quirky groove music. I especially like "Something's Got to Give" with it's understated jazz overtones. Pick this album up!"

Expand Your Mind

alexander laurence | Los Angeles, CA | 06/15/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sharkey is a DJ on the DC scene. This record is wild and more like some old school stuff like Mix Master Mike and Prince Paul. It's wild and off the hook. It's party music and it's fun. Many people make appearances on this record like Cannibal Ox, The Pharcyde, Jean Grae, and Cherrywine. I remember listening to records like this in the 1990s. In the past few years hiphop has become conservative and bland. This is expanding the scope. Right on for that!"

I liked it, but it was nothing to write home to ma about.

Adam P Boots | Valley Village, CA United States | 06/18/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This was a decent effort for a initial solo album, but... It's nothing too groundbreaking. There are a multitude of mid-major stars on the album, most of whom put out subpar performances (will the real Pharcyde please stand up?), and a few gems (Jean Grae rips a track), but the album is both scattered and fairly boring. As I said, this is a decent effort though. The production is fairly clean, though I think the problem with the production is that initial tracks, though initially interesting, become repetitive and boring. There are some decent to good tracks on the album (The Cannibal Ox track is good, the Jean Grae track is excellent, and it was a decent, but not great track by Cherrywine, formerly of Digable Planets). If I were buying a producer-based album again this probably isn't going to be at the top of my list (If not for the interludes, the Creators' album is MUCH better than this one, I like Pete Rock's Soul Survivor considerably better too.) The other complaint I have is that this album seems a bit schizophrenic, which could have been a good thing, but in this case, wasn't. There was little to no flow to this album as you'd jump from one track that was very hip hop into another track that was like bad Uncle Kracker (though there's hardly any other kind fo Uncle Kracker). I guess this review sounds fairly harsh, and I should also give a little input into that too. I bought this album with three other albums on the same day. Two of the other three, I would almost consider instant classics to me, and this one, though I didn't mind the sound, it really wasn't that interesting, given the other CD's and how much I liked them(Jedi Mind Tricks - Violent by Design and Outerspace)."