Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Kyle "Guante" has been making noise in the Minneapolis hip-hop and spoken word scenes for the past few years. Guante is a performer, slam poetry workshop facilitator and spoken word champion.

Pantha du Prince's "Black Noise," which came out Febraury 9 on veteran indie label Rough Trade, is a curious album that straddles a handful of already-blurry genre borders.

Robot children? Check. Influences ranging from a 1930's boxer to the female drug lord of Miami to Coldplay? Check.

Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall - known respectively as "3D" and "Daddy G" - are the founding members and driving force behind Massive Attack. I've been a fan of this band since my first listen to their full length debut, Blue Lines, back in the very early 90's. Massive Attack have their own "sound." While many trip hop bands sound a bit similar, Massive Attack stands out, yet offers a kind of certainty. It's not like the samey-same sound of one of The Ramone's songs versus another. It's more like a flow and a similarity to even their most decidedly different downtempo beat.