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OUR WEEKLY COLLECTION OF SHORTER REVIEWS
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Dollar Love Plus,
Garmarna,
Kevin Bowe and the Okemah Prophets,
Vágtázó Halottkémek,
Bluebird,
MK. Orchestrin,
Palomar,
Calin,
Jel,
The Hockey Night,
Bob Holroyd,
Paul Goodman,
Bracket,
The Maulies,
Beezewax,
The Five Fingers of Dr. X,
Semi Automatic,
Wild Planet,
Stigmata,
Arab Strap
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Dollar Love Plus / Dollar Love Plus / Tom Tommy
Enterprises (CD)
Chicago-based Dollar Love Plus write short catchy pop tunes in a
somewhat new wave vein, with an indie-pop eye to good hooks. For the
most part they're successful. With melodies reminiscent of the Smiths
with an XTC or Elvis Costello veneer, they construct some pretty
interesting numbers. Psychedelic moments and angular, Talking Heads
interludes add to the mix. "Up on the Cypress Tree," "Kick it in
the Coals," "Bottom of the Fifth" and "We Left the Car with Jethro"
are all examples of their facility. The recording quality is homebound,
with a decidedly digital lo-fi, compressed feel. For the most part,
however, this is charming. But in their ability -- both vocal and
rythimic -- the band comes off a wee bit amateurish. Although they need
to polish their chops some, Dollar Love Plus is on the road to poptopia. -- rs
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Garmarna / Vengeance / Northside (CD)
If you're already familiar with Garmarna, you know they sound
like very little else
on earth, combining ancient Swedish tunes and instrumentation
with a modern foundation
of keyboards and guitar. Their music bears a superficial
similarity to Loreena McKennitt's more
intense, traditional Celtic songs; the "otherworldly" nature of
the instruments will be familiar, especially in tandem with the
ethereal, keening voice of Emma Härdelin.
Using traditional texts and, quite often, traditional music,
Garmarna meld ancient and modern styles better than just about
any other group you've heard -- at appropriate volume,
"Vedergällningen", "Gamen" and others will make your hair
stand on end. This is one of those unnaturally powerful albums --
the sort whose energy you can feel in your gut as well as your heart. -- gz
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Kevin Bowe has recently achieved a certain success as a
songwriter. His songs have been included on best-selling albums
by the likes of Kenny Wayne Shepard
and Jonny Lang. On Restoration he sings his own songs,
backed by his own band. The music contained herein can be best
described as "rootsy, folksy rock". There are moments on the album that are quite nice, like the subtle country confession "Leaving to Stay", which thuds along at just the right lazy tempo
and with the correct degree of earnestness. In general,
however, I get tired of the "mutt" aspect of Bowe's music. It's
not quite folk, not quite blues, not quite
country, not quite rock... I'm all for mixing genres, but too much
of that can dilute your music. In Bowe's case, it winds up seeming
a bit contrived. -- nw
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Vágtázó Halottkémek (Galloping Coroners) / Naptánc (Dancing With
the Sun) / Neurot (CD)
The name Vágtázó Halottkémek loosely translates as Galloping Coroners in
the band's native land of Hungary. Formed in 1975, this primeval,
semi-improvised band lets psychedelic soundwaves wash over abstract
experimentalism as they casually brush up against noisy, liberating
gestures of unrestricted tribal outburst. Created with familiar as well
as indigenous instruments, the peculiar sounds that echo from Dancing
With the Sun are as captivating as the loose-knit songs that they
construct. Lead vocalist Grandpierre Atilla shrieks, howls and narrates
tales in both Magyar and English; this adds an even more mesmerizing mystique
to this roaming, seemingly uncontrollable source of energy, radiating an
amazing aura of power and grinding hypnotic control. Beware, all of you
American bands, for listening to Vágtázó Halottkémek is like placing some dynamite
and a detonator in your brain, as it will rip through any
preconceived notions of what you presently consider to be unconventional
music. -- am
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Bluebird / The Two / Pacifico (CD)
Voted best hard rock band by LA Weekly, Bluebird has been
otherwise
underappreciated by much of the press I've read, and I don't
understand why.
Like the group Engine Down, there's a great intensity to this
band, and
Samuel James can scream with the best of them. It's when he does
this,
particularly on "Birth of Inertia" and "Shedding Skin", that the
band really
cooks for me. On these tracks, the screaming style is presented
naturally
through the songs, giving the melody an amazing herky-jerky feel
that most
emo acts should quickly emulate. "Low Gear" and their other,
more straightforward rock songs work fine too. Samuel's voice at
these
non-emo moments is comparable to that of a conventional heavy
metal singer, but
this seems to work well enough, as the band pulls off a nearly
epic
"Moonless" without ever being boring. Of course, hard rock (and
metal songs)
probably work best with the band on stage before a half-drunk
audience. So fill your flasks now, then head out to the club the
next time Fugazi or some other venerable act asks Bluebird to
knock out the audience first! -- td
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Drummer Mirko Sabatini is apparently a pioneering percussionist, attempting
to convey the abilities and potential of his instrument. This
isn't, however, some sort of horrifying "drum circle" album; the disc's
jacket lists motors, plates, springs and rubber bands in Sabatini's
sonic palette. Unfortunately, a lot of -28+Alieni sounds like
someone rummaging through a darkened kitchen -- it's a series of isolated
bangs, pings and knocks. A curious disparity in recording levels comes to
a head on "Eventi", which features the aforementioned motors. If you've
turned your stereo up loud enough to hear the rest of the disc, "Eventi"
will be absolutely deafening. People will ask you what you're doing
running an industrial grinder, and you'll be forced to wave
-28+Alieni in their faces and stammer effusively. Ultimately,
though it has some aurally interesting moments, the disc fails
to live up to the intangible promise of the lurid, angular fish painted on
its cover. Put it in the "needs a visual component" pile. -- gz
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Palomar / s/t / Bang (CD)
I swear that I met Palomar’s drummer Matt at this year’s Noisepop festival. I believe I was introduced to him at the Apples in Stereo/Versus show and if I remember correctly he was very nice and wearing a cool old school 10cc shirt. Not that any of this is really important, mind you -- it's just slightly interesting in a semi-related sort of way. Of actual importance is Palomar’s music, which for the most part is delivered in fiendishly fevered blasts of girl/girl/guy pop-punk. Their self-titled debut album gives you the impression that the band had somewhere to be half an hour before they began recording, so to compensate they played every song at twice its normal speed -- and twice as loud, too, for good measure. Judging by the results, this is a practice that more bands might want to think about adopting while in the studio. Standout tracks include the brutish opener “Washington,” the wickedly melodic chug of “British Spelling” and the brilliantly-titled slow burn of “Sharp Stick in the Eye”. All that potent pop-punk is crammed into a mere half-hour, which still leaves you with 23 and a half hours to kill -- unless you keep hitting the repeat button. -- jj
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Calin / Radiant Shadows / Self-released
(CD)
Everything about this one-man project screams death metal. With song
titles like "Wedding, Mirth, No Love" and "Genosuicide," the only thing one
can expect is bone-shattering abuse, right? Wrong. Actually, the
instrumentals here sound like something you'd hear at an electronic
Renaissance festival. Combining accomplished guitar with keyboard
madrigals, Calin makes music for the Dungeons and Dragons crowd to listen
to in the new millennium. While the result is usually pleasant, the
keyboard tones can sometimes sound a bit low-budget, which is a shame
because his fretwork is highly skilled, and with a higher budget this could
easily appeal to fans of Dead Can Dance. But, like all bedroom musicians,
Calin is constrained to do the best with his available budget, and by
putting a great deal of thought into his work, he manages to make his
talent more evident than his equipment. -- rd
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Jel / Too Much Imagination / Smoove
(CD)
The first song on this CD, “What Kind of Mood?” has actually become a sort of guilty pleasure for me. Mind you, it's not the sort of guilty pleasure that would actually save this disc from the pile of stuff destined to be sold for a quarter at my next garage sale, but the sort of guilty pleasure that might cause me to smile if I happened to be listening to commercial radio and heard the song played. Sounding kind of like a hard rock-influenced Crowded House, Jel thunder through the first song with a good degree of verve. As the CD wears on, though, the band sounds less and less like the Brothers Finn and more and more like a second-rate version of Live. Unfortunately, Too Much Imagination has too little. -- bl
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Hockey Night is the project of one Paul Sprangers (and whomever
else he hooks up
with). Nineteen at the time of this recording, Sprangers has a
whole lot of
talent. The vocals on "The Foxy Situation" remind me a lot of
70s
songs that I loved, plus it carries with it that nice
appropriation of slang
("In the summer, I got it going on") that all young Minnesota
folk seem to
possess. "Rainbow Tour", with its sparkling keyboards and cheery
chorus, is
a mid-tempo humfest, and it's followed by an instrumental, but
don't fret:
it's nice, if not exactly breathtaking. I think Sprangers' voice
is fantastic,
though, and was pleased when the vocals returned on "Carribean
Blue", even
though the melody lacks some punch. With "Fantasy Drowns
Location", Sprangers and
the Hockey Night end with a hints of the music we can now
expect from him -- it's quite like the math rock you find all
over D.C., and
showcases his gifts at guitar. Though it's not bad, I sure hope
he hasn't already
matured beyond the pop gifts he displays on the first tracks.
They're the ones I will
listen to repeatedly, but I think Paul has an incredible future
ahead, no
matter what melodic structures matter most deeply to him. --
td
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Bob Holroyd / A Different Space / Six
Degrees (CD)
Call it an ethnotechno chillout album: Holroyd has incorporated
Asian and African elements into his ambient soundscapes,
creating a series of lush, exotic mid-tempo compositions. Think
polyrhythmic beats, looped tribal drums, chants and other
exotic percussion, fused with layers of indolent melody
reminiscent of William Orbit's Strange Cargo series. A
few tracks -- like the self-explanatory "Drumming Up a Storm"
and the club-friendly "African Drug" -- opt for more frenetic,
dancefloor-friendly beats, but for the most part A Different
Space is best suited for a lazy vacation or relaxed evening
bacchanal, and will please listeners who desire the
option of dancing rather but don't necessarily feel a
genetic imperative to do so. -- gz
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Paul Goodman / Six Computer Tapes (1981-1999) / Paul Goodman (CD)
Paul Goodman describes himself as a Sonologist and Poet. I don't know
about his poetry, but I can confirm that he has quite a knack for making
sound do his bidding. These six pieces can be roughly divided into two
types: those using only synthesized sounds ("Wounded", "Suggestions from
Limbo") and those using samples and signal processing as well as
synthesized sounds ("Babel", "Fragment", "Mirror Images", "Plexiglass
Soundtrack"). The purely synthesized pieces are from the early 1980s,
and they sound a bit dated, although the interesting
oddness of Goodman's sonic landscapes more than makes up for the
somewhat cliched sounds. The more recent pieces are much richer
sonically, and in general more compositionally complex (which
isn't always a good thing). Goodman's sound catalog is pretty broad, but
he seems to have an affinity for hand drum-like sounds and other-worldly
human voices. He's also quite good at getting contrasting sounds to play
off of one another. For instance, in "Plexiglass Soundtrack" there's an
extended section where a woody-sounding percussion voice noodles around
with a cheezy organ sound while a very subtle train whistle thing
whistles in the background. It's nice and strange. While Goodman is
clearly writing "serious" music, there's a sense of fun, and maybe even
a bit of goofiness in much of this music. This is an engaging, strange CD, and it's well worth checking out. -- ib
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Bracket / When All Else Fails / Fat Wreck Chords (CD)
I still remember listening to the first Bracket album and just not getting
it -- I guess
nothing clicked between us. Fortunately, this relationship has changed over
the years, and
the band's latest offering on Fat Wreck not only makes total sense to me,
but has me seeking out recurrent and coveted multiple listening dates with the album. Charming songs like "Everyone is
Telling Me..." and "Parade" have wit and melody,
but aren't overly polished, as a bit of sloppy guitar puts everything into
perspective. Brief glimpses of sarcasm ("Yoko
Oh-No") and seriousness ("Suicide Note") have me laughing and weeping,
ready to take Bracket home to meet Mom and Pop. Now,
if I could only get the parentals to listen to poppy punk and like it... -- am
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The Maulies / On Holiday with the Maulies / Hub City (7”)
While listening to “Rude Limey,” the first song from On Holiday with the Maulies, one cannot help but wonder what -- not to mention who -- inspired such a pissed-off musical response. I mean, you generally don’t tell somebody that you hope that their Green Card gets revoked if they make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Then, in direct contradiction, they turn around and cover the Kinks, seemingly to let us know it was not Ray or Dave Davies that inspired the previous musical tirade. They do, however, turn in an infectious version of “Gotta Get the First Plane Home”, filled with lovely harmonies, flirty melodies and lively strumming. The B-side concludes with the bouncy sun-drenched instrumental “Tofu Pie", a spirited Brian Wilson homage laced with lazy rhythms, sparkling guitars and subdued keyboards. A nifty little summer record, On Holiday with the Maulies will have you searching through the closet for your flip-flops and Hawaiian Tropic. -- jj
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Beezewax / South of Boredom / Pop Kid (CD)
Since South of Boredom is produced by Ken Stringfellow
(of Posies fame), it's tempting
to see Beezewax as a power pop group, and to have certain
expectations for
their songs. While they don't exactly disappoint from this
angle, Beezewax
do not make music that glories in power pop conventions. Most of
their
songs never accelerate much, and the guitars seldom rise higher
than those
in a Squeeze or Crowded House song. Rather, as stated in "Dying
to Hit that Note" -- which is, ironically, their closest
approximation to
power pop -- they mostly "sing every song in minor key,
depressing
everyone". Once you realize this, and don't take them as this
millennium's
Chilton or Stamey, Beezewax simply become the makers of
wonderful pop, with
smart, always unpredictable lyrics and melodies your moods will
wear all the
time. Given Kenneth Ishak's strong voice, and the band's fine
playing, it's
hard to imagine disappointment from anyone not expecting a
screaming
crescendo from "When We're Alone". The album starts off on
a higher note than it finishes; while the first three tunes
("Play It Safe", "In the
Stands", and Dying to Hit that Note") are simply classic, none
of the others are filler, and all do their lyrics proud. This is
a great band, and you will dig 'em (and their funny, surprising
obscenity-laden bonus
track). -- td
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Various Artists / The Five Fingers of Dr. X / Triple X
(CD)
This collection claims to pull together five bands, but except for some
vocal variation it might as well be the same group throughout. Whether
you're listening to the Streetwalkin' Cheetahs, Tricky Woo, the Gaza
Strippers (great name!), ADZ or the Black Halos, the approach sticks close
to a cross between Social Distortion and Guns and Roses. While that may
sound derogatory, it isn't intended to be -- it's just that the
straight-ahead blues/punk formula begins to wear after an hour. There
isn't a single exception to the barreling 4/4 attack, which makes it
difficult to separate the bands from one another. True, ADZ sounds a bit
more like T.S.O.L., while Tricky Woo comes closer to Ted Nugent, but their
similarities are far greater than their differences. If each band had some
more room to stretch out, things might vary more, but given this
presentation, the CD sounds more like a fist than five separate fingers. -- rd
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Semi Automatic /Semi Automatic / 5 Rue Christine (CD)
DJ Rop Style, under a different moniker, used to play for the Peechees, among others.
As he did with his previous group, Rop -- along with primary vocalist Akiko Carver -- takes a very raw approach to the songs on this self-titled debut. However, besides a shared taste for rough, unpolished sound, few Peechees
reference points remain, as Semi Automatic brings to mind a mix of old
school hip hop and garage bands like the Troggs. While the changes sometimes
yield indifferent results -- "Dawn of the Glowbunnies" sounds like an
outtake from Malcolm McLaren's Duck Rock record -- the songs that
most vividly reveal their punk roots are absolutely incredible. "Space
Toys", "Voodoo That Bitch" and "Don't Go Dinosaur" all make a case for Semi
Automatic hooking onto the newest, freshest sound of the underground scene,
and hooking onto it hard! You get fast vocals, throbbing beats and guitars
that sound so dirty you almost want to clean the CD. Hopefully, with their
future records, Semi Automatic will focus more on these aggressive dance numbers and
leave the numbing drones found in "The Chase" to bands who've only got bad
shit like drug addictions going for them. -- td
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Various Artists / Wild Planet / Nettwerk
(CD)
You might not remember it, but there was a time -- the mid to
late eighties, basically -- when Nettwerk led a significant cell
of the industrial and electronic (musical) revolutions. The heyday ended
when, like Wax Trax!, they signed a bunch of poorly-performing
third-tier acts while their big sellers were disintegrating
and/or defecting. This compilation, curated by ex-Skinny Puppy
lad cEvin Key, culls tracks from Nettwerk's slate and the
Subconscious Communications label that's been home to much of
Key and co's post-1995 creative output. By and large, it's a
slightly modernized spin on the dark industrial "Nettwerk
Sound", with lots of moody ambience, clanging metal and
blittering beats, highlighted by multiple collaborations between
the various Subconscious principals. Only the mordant melodicism of
Edward Ka-Spel (in both Tear Garden and Legendary Pink Dots
form) provides relief from the dystopian beat action. Though
Wild Planet's description probably makes it seem
distinctly dodgy, it's actually quite good -- one of the best
industrial/electronic compilations I've heard in ages. -- gz
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Stigmata / Do Unto Others... / Victory
(CD)
Blue collar hardcore has never died -- it just overhauls itself from time to
time. Troy, New York's Stigmata have the classic Victory Records approach,
funneling frustration, anger and aggression through a throbbing mass
of distortion and irascible vocals to produce another version of modern-day
hardcore. Stigmata reminds me of a grittier, early-day
Biohazard, as traces of vibrating, low-end metal and viciously complex
drumming echo through the majority of the album. However, the band envelops
itself in a hardcore wrapper that's still focused on mid-tempo tunes that
damage without the use of excessive speed. Unless you're a
compulsive-obsessive hardcore fan, Do Unto Others... may be a bit
overwhelming in its entirety, as the band never lets down its guard during
these 12 raging tracks. If you’ve had one of those days where
everything goes the wrong way, this smattering of testosterone-fueled fury
is sure to be your great stress reliever. -- am
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Arab Strap / Elephant Shoe / Jetset (CD)
First off let me say that this is the first CD I've reviewed in a while
that has shown up in my CD player's CDDB window (now what does that say
about Splendid?), which is pretty convenient since the CD came in a
pre-release cardboard slipcase with no song titles on it! So I can
confidently tell you that the first of many strange and wonderful tracks
on Elephant Shoe is called "Cherubs". It's got a totally
braindead (on purpose) drum machine track, a really simple guitar part,
neat synths, a great vocal performance and lyrics. The whole CD is sort
of like that -- somehow the boys of Arab Strap have figured out
how to combine really simple, sometimes even simpleminded-sounding
elements, dark, odd, pretty lyrics and dry, honest, sad, pretty vocals
to create a catalog of incredibly compelling, unsettling and lovely
songs. Put on some headphones and listen to "Pyjamas". See if it doesn't
do something to your insides. Or give "Hello daylight" a spin. See what
I mean? If you've loved Arab Strap before, you won't stop now. And if
you've never had the pleasure, well, now's the time to start. -- ib
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gz - george zahora | nw - noah wane | am - andrew magilow | ib - irving bellemead | jj - jason jackowiak
td - theodore defosse | rd - ron davies | bl - beth lucht | rs - randall stephens
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