Tim Brady / 10 Collaborations / Justin Time What makes Brady so unique is the way he doesn't let showmanship usurp sensitivity. 10 Collaborations is a testament to the philosophy of musical restraint. Yes, each track is a collaboration. On one track Brady might be the composer of a piece that he performs with other musicians. On another, he might perform a solo work written by someone else. On still another, the music might be the result of live improvisation between Brady and another instrumentalist...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Mouse on Mars / Idiology / Thrill Jockey Let's address the most obvious change first: there are "vocals" here. Performed by drummer Dodo Nkishi in a style that's equal portions singing, rapping and a sort of post-industrial declamation, they are treated less as lyrics than an unusually agile and variable type of keyboard. On Idiology's opening track, "Actionist Respoke", you'll hear Nkishi's voice pulled along the same twisted technical path that warps and deforms the rest of the music. The words are stretched into choppy, granular chunks...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Bill Rieflin and Chris Connelly / Largo / First World Eschewing both prominent drums and synthetic sounds, Largo is dominated by two forces: Connelly's poetic voice and Rieflin's haunting piano. The roots of this approach can be found in "The Last of Joy", a collaboration between the two which first appeared on Connelly's Whiplash Boychild album and resurfaces here in a new form. The title track begins the album with only these two textures, setting up a mood of uneasy solitude. The music could almost be peaceful...more» FEATURED ON THE BOOMBOX!
		Arab Strap / The Red Thread / Matador Though it is perhaps Arab Strap's best and most interesting record yet, The Red Thread shows the limitations any artist will face when presenting a stance that seems destined for moral crisis, but never achieves one. Lou Reed scored wonderfully with his song "Mad" because the rights and wrongs of behavior were vividly layed out. In Arab Strap's case, Malcolm Middletown and Aidan Moffatt's vocals seem too deliberately sleepy...more»
		Creeper Lagoon / Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday / Universal Often, when a "big" label sweeps up a band from indie obscurity, as Dreamworks has done with Creeper Lagoon, my first reaction is dread. I automatically think that the result will be a watered down, bland version of the band, with slick production values and radio-friendly "pop gems". Ick! I think we'd all agree there's enough of that sort of music seeping from MTV's lame TRL. Keeping this in mind, Take Back The Universe... far surpassed my piddly expectations...more»
		Chantal Dumas / Le Parfum des Femmes / OHM/Avatar It took me a while to puzzle this all out -- the translated liner notes are a bit confusing -- but this is an album by French-Canadian audio artist Chantal Dumas. There are four pieces here, although two of them are in fact the same piece reworked in different languages (French and German). Dumas calls these works "short sound novels", and while the stories they tell aren't exactly obvious (especially if you don't speak French), they're clearly narrative and dramatic...more»
		Hefner / We Love the City / Too Pure At one time or another, quite a few of us have been unlucky enough to be in an unrequited love relationship, and at such times we generally feel as though our hearts are empty shells. We Love the City attempts to catalogue that particular emotional colouring, in all its shades (it has no tints). Like blood, the feeling can only congeal and grow darker with the passage of time. Hefner's general urban/folk style is peculiarly suited to painting these feelings...more»
		Impaled / Choice Cuts / Death Vomit As Choice Cuts' grisly cover accidentally crosses the sight of my significant other, here we go again, with her questioning my taste and lack of decency and raising the almighty question, "What will our kids think when they see stuff like this?" Ah, death metal...it still shakes the nerves of the ones I love, and more importantly, I don’t have any spying kids’ eyes to worry about -– yet. So, if you're still reading this after examining Choice Cuts' cover, the soon-to-be sawed off baby’s head probably didn't drive you elsewhere...more»
		Even Johansen / Quiet & Still / Five One Inc. Solo, soul-baring debut albums from frontmen usually tend toward the melodramatic, bigger on ego than on quality. Even Johansen escapes this trap, emerging with a sharply-written portrait of "beauty in decay". Quiet & Still proves that Johansen, the Norwegian vocalist for six-year-old London-based band Libido, is a consumate craftsman and a versatile musician; besides writing all but one of the songs, he played all of the instruments, engineered and produced the album...more»
		Mogwai / Rock Action / Matador It's been two long years since we've heard anything new from Mogwai, and during that time the band has once again re-evaluated and re-formatted their shared musical vision. Named after a song by punk icon Iggy Pop, Rock Action is actually closest in spirit to the band’s altogether more mellow 1998 offering, Come on Die Young -- though at times it allows us a glimpse of the distortion-ravaged Mogwai of old. As with CODY, the omnipresent Dave Fridmann has handled production duties...more»
		Red Stars Theory / Self-Titled / Suicide Squeeze Context is a decisive factor in appreciating this self-titled Red Stars Theory retrospective. The CD encompasses two out of print releases, both recorded in 1995, prior to the addition of full-time violinist Seth Warren. Engineered by Calvin Johnson at Dub Narcotic, the disc does an excellent job of documenting the auspices of the then up-and-coming band -- and displays, to a much greater extent than their later albums, the band's connection to other members of the mid-'90s Northwest scene...more»
		Andy Votel / Styles of the Unexpected / XL/Beggars Banquet Andy Votel is a busy man: a DJ, producer, label honcho, filmmaker and graphic designer as well as a musician. It's not unusual for a multi-talented individual to want to prove himself in yet another artistic capacity, although such efforts often wind up sounding surprisingly unfocused; while they're accustomed to riding herd over other groups, producers-turned-artists rarely realize that they too can benefit from the presence of an in-studio "authority figure" who'll speak out when ideas aren't working. Fortunately, Votel seems to have dodged the self-indulgence bullet...more»