Tugboat Annie / Separation Songs / Big Top Records (CD)
I'm still surprised that the emo-pop of Tugboat Annie has not made them the
next college-indie darlings. With undeniably catchy, crisp and moving
melodies, this CD-EP picks up where 1997's "Wake Up And Disappear" CD left
off. Spacey atmospheric guitars, with an occasional overdriven punch,
effectively combine with alienated vocals to produce some delicious tunes.
Tugboat has perfected the art of the pop song and added its own unique
signature to harvest another crop of great songs. -- am
Mixmaster Mike / Valuemeal 12 Inch Combo Deluxe / Asphodel (12")
Mike, late of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, goes it alone for three of the
best hip-hop/turntablist cuts I've heard in donkey's. "Atmosfear" is a
monstrous magnum opus, a thundering collage of massive beats, echoing
bass drum samples, loops, rapping and scratching. It is to die for.
"Vycegripp" turns on the heavy bass, taking a slower and more
scratch-intensive pace, and "Can of Ass Kick" gets my "It's about time
somebody sampled that" award for dropping in that alien pulse
transmission noise from Contact. Damn solid. -- gz
Bob Koenig / Prose and Icons / Cats Paw Records (CD)
I hesitate to tackle a description of the music on Prose and Icons
because it's clearly a "labor of love". It's obvious that everyone
involved with the disc really digs it but I'm not sure who in the outside
world will reciprocate (other than close friends and family members of the
band of course). Maybe there's an amateur adult contemporary radio station
somewhere that's looking for fresh stuff, if so please send me your
coordinates and I'll forward you my copy of P & I. I can't say that
Koenig's music is bad -- in fact it is generally well-executed, it's just
not particularly exciting. Take an aural ogle at Koenig's remake of
Sting's "Fragile" and judge for yourself. -- nw
Michael Robinson / Indian Jasmine / Azure Miles (CD)
This selection from the Michael Robinson catalog sports two long pieces
(30 minutes each, pretty much) and one short one. The longest piece,
"Earth and Rivers", works its way lazily across an unstructured musical
countryside of Eastern percussion and instruments. "Indian Jasmine" is
similarly leisurely, though distinctive sitar melodies bring it further
into the sonic foreground. "October Sky" uses its five minutes wisely,
creating a dense, enveloping atmosphere of strings, bells and chanting
voices in which a lot more happens in less time. Recommended, though
perhaps it's best as background or meditation music. -- gz
REO Speedealer / REO Speedealer / Royalty Records (CD)
Roaring with Dallas Monster Truck ferocity, with added octane and fuel
injector cleaners, Speedealer plays sleazy, sweat-soaked garage punk in the
vein of Nashville Pussy, but with a slightly stronger metal tinge.
Rip-roaringly quick and full of testosterone, this quartet swish around
topical thoughts on drugs, drinking and fucking like a hearty swig of Jack
Daniels, and then proceed to spit them out, full force, in your face. With
tracks like "Cocaine Dave," "Pig Fucker" and "Ain't Fuckin' Around," how
could you go wrong? -- am
Charles Tapp / Tapp / Rudolf Music (CD)
There are some intriguing, new wavey melodies here, and some very
eighties synth-rock ballads, held aloft by dense walls of keyboard
bluster. Charles Tapp's voice, deep and plummy, works well with his
music. However, the more you listen to Tapp, the more it starts
to sound a bit canned; it's rather like the musical equivalent of being
in a crowded room with a very low ceiling. Tapp's lyrics waver between
borderline-clever and Someone Else's Cartharsis, but unless you're listening
closely, they won't really be an issue. -- gz
Gogh Van Gogh plays indie power pop. Catchy, hooky, it passes the
"melody-sticks-to-your-brain" test of pop music. Lead singer Beets reminds
me of Missing Persons sometimes (which is pleasantly nostalgic to me -- I
can't speak for you). The production of the CD is not stellar -- sonically
it's not shiny and that's too bad since the music is quite attractive and
deserves quality presentation. Oh well, there's always next CD! -- nw
Various Artists / Wing Commander: Prophecy / E.A.R. (CD)
Yep, it's another entry in the burgeoning computer game soundtrack
field. The Wing Commander series being about as top-shelf and high-end
as things get, the game boasts a wealth of big names in the
techno-metal-angst-darkwave-thrash genres -- including new tracks by Die
Krupps and Project Pitchfork. Current faves like Rammstein, Junkie XL
and Juno Reactor are well-represented, and there's even another chance
to hear KMFDM's "Stray Bullet". Though the cynical (and even the not so
cynical) will see this as cross-promotion at its most overt (there's a
preview of the game on the CD, for Chrissake), it's still an
above-average compilation CD. -- gz
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