Bobby Sichran

  • Bobby Sichran
  • From a Sympathetical Hurricane (Columbia) 1994 

Mixing hip-hop and blues-rock might sound like a dicey concept, but New York one-man-band guitarist Bobby Sichran (a onetime Das EFX studio hand) combines them and traces of folk so seamlessly it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Best of all, Sichran’s music flows so naturally that his genre-blending never sounds self-conscious. From a Sympathetical Hurricane, which walks a line between Beck’s Delta delusions and an especially weird variation on Dylan-loving, is undeniably groovy — even if it’s a bit inconsistent. Great moments include the title track (a mellow slice of hybrid hip-hop) and the funky “Real Live Wire,” during which Sichran samples the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”; some filler toward the end of the album doesn’t prevent it from being enjoyable.

[Robert Levine]

See also: Das Efx