CD reviews: Patti Smith, Far East Movement

Patti Smith, "Banga" (Columbia)

"Banga," Smith's first album of new songs since 2004, sets out to dissolve boundaries: between nations, between past and present, between speech and song, between art and life, between her band and fellow musicians. Like her other albums, it juxtaposes rockers, lullabies, elegies, incantations, love songs and myths in the making.

At 65, Smith presents herself unburdened by age. She identifies on this album with voyagers, adventurers and her fellow artists; she's still determined to explore.

The music is diverse, expansive and surprisingly meticulous; there are string arrangements, Asian gongs and a track built around the folksy mandocello played by her drummer, Jay Dee Daugherty. That one, "Mosaic," hints at Celtic ballad, Bollywood pop and Smith's own imagistic mysticism.

The songs have back stories. "Banga" is named after Pilate's loyal dog in the Mikhail Bulgakhov novel "The Master and Margarita," waiting centuries with his master to enter heaven. But the album is mostly a stomping drone, building and kicking up feedback behind Smith's theological reflections.

Between poetic rhapsodies, the album's concise rock songs gleam. Smith and her bassist, Tony Shanahan, bring slowly swaying doo-wop chords to her elegy for Amy Winehouse, "This Is the Girl." They also collaborated on "April Fool," a fond invitation that tingles with guitar lines from Tom Verlaine, another vital survivor from the dawn of punk at CBGB in the 1970s.

As much as she looks back, Smith isn't limiting her horizons. In "April Fool," she sings with what sounds like a smile, "Come, let's break all the rules."

Far East Movement, "Dirty Bass" (Cherry Tree/Interscope)

This Asian-American group from Los Angeles hypnotized us in 2010 with the pulsing/echoing No. 1 hit "Like a G6." But Far East Movement seems to be moving in the wrong direction if it's looking for longevity.

The quartet's electronic-rap-dance music is invigorating, a muscled-up collection of bone-rattling bass and aural throbs that won't be ignored. At least half the tracks have devices that could slide them seamlessly into a club mix, from the whirling sirens of "Turn Up the Love" to the propulsive boomerang of "Candy."

But the standouts are the percolating near-ballad "Flossy" featuring My Name Is Kay and the title track, which plays out like a sensual, flexi-grooving video game and features guest vocals by Tyga.

Elsewhere, however, "Dirty Bass" is hampered by pedestrian guest performances by Cassie ("Fly With U"), Justin Bieber ("Live My Life") and Sidney Samson & Flo Rida ("Change Your Life").