Chocolate Genius: Black Music

When a songwriter as obviously talented as Marc Anthony Thompson, a.k.a. Chocolate Genius, pops up, you'd better listen. After releasing a pair of obscure solo albums, Thompson reinvented himself as Chocolate Genius, one of the most remarkable new acts to flow from New York's always-burgeoning underground. Tom Waits comparisons have already begun to catch on, but Waits hasn't recorded anything this clear-headed in years. Equally fair is mention of Mark Eitzel, whose mopey self-abuse is an obvious antecedent, yet Thompson is too much of a hodgepodge, a man of too many influences, to be pigeonholed as mere downbeat music. Songs like "Half A Man" and the funky "Safe And Sound," after all, do offer at least a glimmer of hope. The album's title itself has a telling double-meaning, too: On one hand, the music is pretty dark stuff, with Thompson tossing off self-deprecating couplets like "I lifted a glass and it kicked my black ass down to the sidewalk / The last thing I heard as my lunch hit the curb was your name" in the bleak "Hangover Five." "Hangover Nine"—like Elliott Smith, Thompson has tendency to number his songs—is a wicked slice of dark swamp funk, spooky as hell with its evil Shaft wah-wah guitar, like funk vamp Betty Davis at half-speed. But the album's title can also be read literally: Thompson plays variations on jazz, blues, and soul, and all are originally black musical forms. Aiding him is a who's-who assortment of New York's finest, including bassist Melvin Gibbs, drummer Dougie Bowne, bassist Chris Wood and keyboardist John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood), and guitarist Marc Ribot. But Chocolate Genius is all Thompson, oozing characters and character from a truly intriguing new talent.