OUR WEEKLY COLLECTION OF SHORTER REVIEWS | |
Egon,
Windy & Carl,
Funker Vogt,
Anderson Briefcase,
The White Papers,
The Electro Group,
Earth Crisis,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Lords of Acid,
Yes Virginia,
Thou,
Element 101,
C,
Will Hoge,
Modern English,
The Gaza Strippers,
Acetone,
Lafleche,
Canyon,
Little Darla Has a Treat for You, Vol.16,
Kevin Seconds,
The Pilgrims,
Fred Savage Fanclub,
Matt Easton
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Plenty of arty math rock populates Behind the Curtain, swinging
between gifted distortion runs and chic falsetto vocals. These El Paso
natives keep you guessing on most tracks, swarming your earlobes with a
complex, guitar-centric variety of tunes that have a little bit of
everything in ‘em. There's enough cohesion to define a particular sound for
Egon, but the music is so dense and intricate that you
can't really put a definitive label on it. Vocalist Victor takes care in
crafting his delivery, letting pregnant pauses separate his fiery flair and
cunning choruses, then diving into an unnerving ending.
Favorite tunes include the Brit-rock inspired "The Blameful Ones" and the
rowdy, punk-tinged bass lines of "Writer of Human Malice". This is solid
stuff, and its variety will keep you entertained. -- am
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Windy & Carl / Consciousness / Kranky
(CD)
Hypnotic, winding melodies dominate duo Windy Weber and
Carl Hultgren's latest effort. On the opening track, the main riff moves at a narcotic
pace, slowly opening itself up like a flower turning its face towards "The
Sun". A similar meditative style is evidenced on most of the disc's six
tracks. "The Llama's Dream" adds Weber's wordless crooning to the
revolving music, while "Balance [Trembling]" uses a distorted airplane
drone to build its contemplative core. The guitar is the main melodic
instrument, with keyboards filling a primarily textural role. Together
these elements create an enveloping sound that, depending on the time of
day, could be relaxing or narcoleptic. Nevertheless, Consciousness will please those willing to take a moment to relax from the world of
propulsive drums and weighty lyrics. -- rd
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Funker Vogt / T / Metropolis (2xCD)
Though it looks daunting at first, T is your basic
double EP. In addition to four tracks of new material,
there are ten remixes of tracks from FV's recent Maschine
Zeit CD. If you've paid any attention to the
dancefloor-oriented side of industrial music in the last ten
or fifteen years, you'll recognize this as archetypal
stuff. In other words, you'll observe harsh, ring-modulated
European vocals, throbbing beats in the 130-140 BPM range
and a tendency for unexpectedly melodic, often beautiful
choruses -- the latter a concession to the influence of
techno and rave music. As long as you're not looking for
some kind of emotional connection, T is good fun; the
boisterous "Under Deck (Beborn Beton Remix)", which adds
cheesy Star Trek sound effects and Skinny Puppy-style voice
processing to one of Maschine Zeit's better tracks,
is particularly enjoyable. If you were a Wax Trax! nut in
the eighties but haven't touched the genre since then,
T is an excellent re-entry point. -- gz
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Anderson Briefcase / Self-Titled /
Self-Released (CD)
Anderson Briefcase is an acoustic pop-rock threesome. Pete O'Connell
plays guitar and harmonica, Jody Daub plays drums and piano, Andrea
Bonetto plays bass and all three sing. I have pretty mixed feelings
about the songs here. I like the first one a bunch -- it's a
lighthearted story-song about a guy who's late for a date because he
over-inflates his bike tire and it explodes. This line alone is enough
to win me over: "Somewhere on the side, Of my back tire it says, How
much to put in, But it's written just in metric, And the pump is just
in, Pounds per square inch." On the other hand, I find the second track,
"Rosheen", really hard to listen to. It seems to want to be dark and
profound, but ends up sounding silly and trite. In general,
I like the more straight-ahead pop tunes, like "The Back Tire" and "6th
Sense", a lot more than I do darker, denser ones like "Rosheen" and
"The Phone Call". Of course, there's nothing wrong with the impulse to
move beyond simple, cheerful pop songs, and it's clear that the band has
put a lot of work into figuring out tight harmonies and complex
arrangements for some of their tunes. It's just unfortunate that (so far,
anyway) their simple pop songs are more interesting than their more
ambitious tunes. The good songs are quite good though, and their clean,
simple acoustic arrangements make for a nice treat after a day of harsh,
loud city noises. -- ib
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The White Papers / Self-Titled / Ojet (CD)
The White Papers are something of a
busman's holiday for Lance Walker, of the Houston band Port Vale. In
collaboration with DJ Jeff McLaughlin and producer Scott Garred (Silver
Scooter), Walker has crafted a lovely song cycle, which apparently
captures a single 32 hour period in the songwriter's life. Between the
first lines ("Are you from Sweden?/I would really like to know/I didn't
think you would be/but I had to think of something") and the last ("We
had trouble with the locks/but we'll just blame the beach or the
trains/...I'm glad I met you there...."), the record seems to tell the
story of a swift, fleeting romance. It's reminiscent of Before
Sunrise, the similarly-themed 1995 film with Ethan Hawke and Julie
Delpy, in which a young couple meet on a train and begin a long first
date; a number of the elements are similar, including trains and the
immediate, peripatetic nature of the relationship. Walker's
occasionally poetic lyrics are
more often prosaic bursts of description. The pairing of an acoustic
guitar and a DJ doesn't produce a Beck-like bricolage; the electronics
here are of the ambient variety. The most noticeable touches seem to be
brief intros and bridges between songs, but the overall feel benefits
from the layers of echoing background washes. These six songs, almost
all of which have long instrumental passages, are woven together as one
long piece of music, giving the record as a whole a floating, dream-like
quality. Waking was never so good. -- rt
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Electro Group / A New
Pacifica / Omnibus (CD)
A New Pacifica combines shoegazer
dreaminess with downtown, noise-pop dissonance. The tunes are sufficiently
catchy and imbued with feeling to make them enjoyable, but there's also
something generic about them -- something that keeps them from going into long
term memory. Take a song like "Line of Sight" as an example: its
wall-of-noise texture, muted but emotive, falsetto vocals and finely
crafted melodies all make for a premium indie-rock-type song.
Unfortunately, it never transcends its sound to make a clear case for why I should
pick this particular premium indie-rock-type song from the many other
premium indie-rock-type songs out there. Admittedly, this is perhaps more
related to my having heard too much of the particular musical genre than to
anything inherent in Electro Group's music, but still I assert that it is in
the self-justification category that A New Pacifica falls down. I
give the album my coveted Buckaroo Banzai citation, though, for having a
track entitled "Red Lectroid Orchestra". It's a pretty good track, too --
by far the most memorable on the record. -- nw
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Earth Crisis / Last of the Sane / Victory (CD)
For me, the eighth record by these straightedge metal maestros is far more
revelatory than Metallica's Garage Days Revisited, because Metallica
covered songs I knew were good. With Earth Crisis, they're generally playing
stuff either brand new to me, or else unappreciated. They start off this
"odds and ends" set with a wonderful instrumental, Slayer's "Hell Awaits",
then tackle Led Zeppelin's "Wanton Song", a song I never cared for, with
Karl Buechner in his "Lemmy" mode. If Motorhead never do a Led Zeppelin
tribute, this will definitely suffice. They follow this winner with an
Ozzy-like version of what purports to be DYS' "City to City", followed by
the oft-covered "Paint It Black". My credits say this is track six, not track
four, but no matter. Along with "Holiday in Cambodia", this is one of the few covers here that
I know quite well. I also know I never was interested in hearing
another cover of "Paint it Black" -- until I did. If Karl Buechner does all
the vocals, he's rather amazing; it's like expecting Lemmy to replicate the
Girlschool portion of his classic "Please Don't Touch". As for the Dead
Kennedys classic, it's extended to almost five minutes, and is done in a
straight thrash approach -- definitely a wish I never made. Still, it
doesn't do much damage to Last of the Sane, which remains quite a
kick when you crank the songs up and bang your straight edges away at work. -- td
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Jesper Dahlbäck / The Stockholm Mix Sessions /
Turbo (CD)
Mixer magazine named this album one of 1999's best mix CDs, and I wouldn't disagree with that judgment. You may have missed this disc because it's on a Canadian label, but here's your chance to ammend your error: run to your workstation and order this baby without delay. The vox bits of the album use soul/R&B singers, as in the remix of Blue 6's "Sweeter Love (Jay's Full Vocal)", giving the whole album a smooth, urban loungy feel. The overall mood is sleek, highly polished, lazy sensuality; the sound winds round and through your ears with sinuous motion, forcing your hips and arms to follow suit. Deep house may not be the rage in the U.S. right now, but you shouldn't miss this. Dahlbäck makes you grateful for Sweden in a way that Abba and twee pop bands never will. -- js
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Lords of Acid / Farstucker / Never
(CD)
Lead singers may come and lead singers may go, but the Lords
of Acid remain fundamentally the same. In other words,
they're still the consumer-electronica equivalent of
window-shopping in Amsterdam's Red Light District. New
vocalist Deborah Ostrega slips readily into the equation,
clearly overjoyed to be singing about hardcore sex, drugs,
bondage, more drugs, sex toys and, well, even more drugs.
Embraced not only by the BDSM set, but also by that segment
of the Defying Our Parents market that has too many gay
friends to appreciate the Insane Clown Posse, LoA are too
cartoonish to be as offensive as their lyrics want to be.
The music is key; Farstucker's Nu-Beat keyboard
bloop-blips and buzzsaw guitars combine in highly palatable
fashion (though several songs sound like they've been stolen
from the KMFDM/MDFMK songbook and only minimally
disguised). Of particular note is "I Like It", a
blatant rip-off of Trio's "Da Da Da" (yeah, that Volkswagen
song) that's catchy and likeable enough to score airplay on
adventurous stations. For fans who remember the "I Sit on
Acid" days, Farstucker may be a little over the top,
but as guilty pleasures go, it's more fun than a barrel of
coked-up hookers. -- gz
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It takes some daring to pump out a heavy dance-groove, funk inflected CD in
this era of teenage DJ metal groups. It's even more impressive when
a band battles the groove police head on with a tactical triumph. NYC-based
Yes Virginia reminds me of George Clinton joining forces with The Brand New
Heavies and letting the Dust Brothers mix it all up. Quite frankly, these
guys (and girl) have more soul in them than most, and their cleverly
composed tunes can do everything from guiding you up into a good mood to
driving the party into the late night hours. Are you serious about gettin'
down? So is Yes Virginia, and as wah-guitar, giddy keyboards and one
mean-ass bass line deliver, you'll be unconsciously caught up in all the
ruckus. If your record collection includes labels like Motown, Moonshine
and Ideal, here's another number that shouldn't be passed up. -- am
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On the first couple of listens to Put Us In
Tune, I couldn't help but think that a majority of the tracks had a
strong Portishead undercurrent. Then I read the press releases.
Apparently, Belgium's Thou was experiencing some studio scheduling conflicts
when they were invited to record in Portishead's home studio. This led to
members of Portishead offering discarded master tapes full of rhythm
tracks which they allowed Thou to record over. I guess that would explain
it. Put Us In Tune isn't merely a copy-cat effort, though. Thou has
a style heavily rooted in Portishead's trip-hop realm, but they also hold
their own on pop flavored pieces like "Soon Daladies" and "Amuse", the latter
of which sounds like an out-take from Yo La Tengo's I Can Hear The Heart
Beating As One. I think I'm ready for the Belgian invasion. -- al
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Element 101 / Stereo Girl / Tooth & Nail (CD)
Element 101 is a passably good punkish indie pop band from New Jersey, with
definite All/Descendent influences. That isn't surprising, since Bill
Stevenson (the drummer for both All and The Descendents) produced Stereo
Girl. While the band has a
pretty good sound -- upbeat and radio-friendly -- the saccharine, nasal
vocals coming from the chick lead singer often overwhelm the music. The
perfect example is "Just To Like You", which starts out nice and crunchy,
with lots of energy, and then fizzles when the singing begins. The
instrumental "A Desperate Plea for the Retaliation of the Mundane" is the
best song on the album. -- az
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C / The Empty Present /
ComeHither (CD)
C is a rather mysterious one-man band whose songs
range from folksy acoustic guitar and voice numbers to drum
machine-driven semi-techno tracks. "Face to a Wall" takes a bassline
from the Police and vocals from the Cure and mushes them into a moody,
low-key dance tune. "How Things Change" evokes 1970s folk pop with its
acoustic guitar plucking, tambourine beat and double-tracked vocals. I
keep thinking the cheesy keyboards on "Tiny Paratroopers" are going to
break into the chorus from Van Halen's "Jump". Sadly, they never do.
There's some really creative, interesting music on The Empty Present, but it's all
jumbled up and mixed in with some not-so-interesting stuff, which makes
for fairly frustrating listening -- especially since my remote control
only seems to work about one fifth of the time. It's obvious that C has
a lot of talent and plenty of ideas, some good and some not-so-good. Now
he just needs to learn to tell the difference. -- ib
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Will Hoge / Carousel / Self-Released (CD)
"Rock and Roll is here to stay, it will never die."
OK, but maybe it could take an extended hiatus
every few generations. Carousel epitomizes
rock n' roll in 2001. The production is far from
slick: you get a steady helping of Tom Petty guitar
antics suffused with strident Springsteen vocals which
develop and consistently bellow throughout. Lyrically,
however, the album suffers from a major onslaught of cliché.
"She Don't Care" details -- get this -- how she don't care,
while the rest of the album discusses how he don't
care. "Let Me Be Lonely" is about as witty and
poignant as things get: "My wisdom in years just won't
be washed away by your tears". Well, I'll give a
yeehaw to that! -- jw
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Modern English / Life in the Gladhouse 1980-1984 /
Beggars
Banquet (CD)
Do I need to tell you that "Melt With You" has been played
on the radio more than a million times? That it's one of
the single best-known songs of the eighties? A staple of
the annoying "eighties hits" format? A song we had to put
on every freaking party tape back when I was in college?
No. Of course not. But every now and then some
well-intentioned record label folks decide to remind you
that Modern English also wrote some other
songs...hence Life in the Gladhouse. There are
fifteen songs here that aren't "Melt With You" (though "Blue
Waves" tries pretty hard). They run the gamut from
proto-goth to neo-psychedelic sprawl, bouncy synth-pop to
angular post-punk aggro. They are -- perhaps surprisingly,
if you've only ever heard "Melt With You" -- quite good (remember,
these guys were on 4AD back when that meant something).
Culled from the band's After the Snow and Ricochet
Days albums and various concurrent singles, these tracks
will perhaps give you some sense of how frustrating it is to
be a one-hit wonder. It's a regrettable fact of life,
though, that this disc would probably sell better if it was
marketed as "Melt With You" plus fifteen B-sides. -- gz
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The Gaza Strippers / Electric Bible / Triple-X
(CD)
I'll give you three guesses what kind of music the Gaza Strippers play.
No, they don't sound like Gordon Lightfoot... Why yes, they do indeed play
balls-out rock and roll! Your prize is this re-released album, bursting
with guitar strut and mouthy drums. Musically, the quartet whips up
healthy portions of bluesy metal which falls somewhere between the MC5 and
Guns 'n' Roses. In case the name doesn't clue you in, the band aims
somewhat south of the frontal lobe. This gives tracks like "Brainwasher" a
naughty, greasy grind. Elsewhere, as on "Laced Candy", the Strippers let
loose with massive slabs of tongue-wiggling guitar that scream to be blared
at destructive volume. While the beauty here may only be skin deep, the
Gaza Strippers show that sometimes that's all you need for a little fun. -- rd
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Acetone / York Blvd. / Vapor (CD)
I'm glad I finally gave York Blvd. a proper listen. After two
hurried, aborted listening sessions, I had almost written it off as generic
rock pining. Today I made myself sit down and really hear the album and
I've definitely discovered something worth discovering. Like a
comfortable old Pink Floyd album, this is the kind of thing to listen to
while floating in space. It has a timelessness to it, both in terms of its
apparent place in history and its general mood. York Blvd. would
seem at home in any decade from the '60s on -- at times I feel I'm hearing
The Animals, and at other times I think it's Spiritualized. Furthermore, it has a
certain transcendent quality that makes it very difficult to keep track of time while
you're listening. It's all really very pretty and well worth a listen.
It's particularly recommended for anyone who dug the latest Rick
Bain effort. -- nw
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Lafleche / Montreal Mix Sessions Vol. 4 / Turbo (CD)
DJ Lafleche takes on some hefty remix targets here, including DJ Dan's
"That Zipper Track" and The Hydraulic Dogs' "Shake It For Me", with
gratifying results. As Lafleche relentlessly spins away, heavy bass boldly
pounds in the background and repetitive grooves sink into your soul,
leaving one hell of an electronic blemish. Ultimately, jacking this CD into
your player should provide for those late night heavy-duty debauchery urges
without you ever having to leave your home. Your neighbors may think something
is afoot with the high BPM mix of the DJ Mahens track, which trips through
tribal drumming and dicey keyboard injections, but you'll be ignorant of
your surroundings because you’ll be anxiously awaiting Lafleche's next move,
hoping that he'll crank everything up one more notch. The only thing not
included in Montreal Mix Sessions Vol. 4 is a light show and some mind-altering
chemicals to get the ultimate experience underway. And please, no licking
the CD... -- am
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Canyon / Self-Titled / Slowdime (CD)
One of the most difficult things for any band is to shake off influences
enough to let their own voices shine through. Canyon's debut is wonderful
because its five members are able to combine their most apparent influences
-- the intimate works of Springsteen and Neil Young, and the melodic,
guitar-centered intricacies of slower emo bands -- and twist it into
something quite unique. Their nine songs not only capture your attention,
but demand it repeatedly. While not catchy in a Top 40 sense, songs like
"Wheat Penny" and "Yellow Tape" have a good direction to them, building
mountains of tension when the guitarists lumber over certain chords.
"Canyons" makes good use of spoken word sequences (and leaves you
scratching your head, wondering what was said), and is followed by a beautiful ballad, "Drive All Night". Like Springsteen's song of the same
name, you are glued to the story and the feelings it creates; unlike the Boss' effort, Canyon powers their song with lap steel guitar and keyboards. This is a band that
could make a fantastic country record if they get the urge. A little bit
of harmony singing adds prettiness to "At the Mouth", but the guitar mostly
controls the feelings here; it is played like a river that knows no dam. The
chords are plucked so relaxingly, as if by Buddha on the beach, yet they continue
urgently forward until you feel as if you're under water, struggling to reach the surface.
As with Abilene's recent Slowdime record, a wonderful consistency is
maintained throughout the disc, but Canyon observes the emotions are more acutely. It's a level of observation that truly merits your attention. -- td
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Various Artists / Little Darla Has a Treat For You,
Volume 16 / Darla (CD)
A compilation series doesn't reach Volume 16 unless
the people running it have a clue, right? For pop fans, the
Little Darla samplers are about as safe a bet as
you'll find -- the musical equivalent of the six dollar
Chinese lunch buffet, but without the dubious chicken. This
time out, the mood is more subdued. While the palette mixes
wan, jangly pop, shoegazer fuzziness and bliss-out
electronica in reasonably equal doses, the disc lacks the
energetic highs of previous volumes. Even stroppy rock
tunes like the Photon Band's "Little Mind" seem oddly
restrained, as if they've been allowed to be on the record
on the condition that they keep the noise down and not
disturb anyone. There's no shortage of good music here, but
not one song got my pulse racing. Not every album needs to
have such an immediate effect on your heart rate, and for
six dollars Volume 16 still delivers far more than
you have a right to expect, but you won't be doing aerobics
to it any time soon. -- gz
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Kevin Seconds / Heaven's Near Where You Are / Cargo/Headhunter (CD)
This album quite literally shocked me. Never in my whole life did I expect
to hear Kevin Seconds, lead singer of seminal hardcore band 7 Seconds,
singing and strumming in such a singer/songwriterly -— and most
un-hardcore -— kind of way. Heaven’s Near is a solid and catchy,
although kind of unremarkable, pop-folk album. There are some lovely vocal
harmonies throughout, most notably in "Her Secret World" and "Stumbled Into
Ben." Kevin deserves credit for taking a chance and doing something
different (even if I still like his 7 Seconds stuff better). -- az
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The Pilgrims / Plymouth Rock / S.P.A.M. (CD)
If you can possibly imagine the big, purple blob Barney, Weird Al Yankovic
and any random male porn star teaming up to record an album, The Pilgrims'
Plymouth Rock would be that album. It's full of the sort of "comedy" rock
songs that are played into the ground by small-town "morning zoo" DJs. I really tried to find something redeeming about this disc, but after more listens than I care to think
of, I've come up with nothing. Even when trying to view this disc
strictly as a comedy or satire work (because there is nothing musically
earth-shattering here), I'm still at a complete loss because frankly, it's
not very funny. What's more, as "Jar Jar Binks" proves, this kind of humor just
doesn't endure very well. I really hope these guys have good day jobs. -- al
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Fred Savage Fanclub / Jellybeans with Belly Buttons /
She's Gone(CD)
Jellybeans with Belly Buttons reminds you of little girls, pigtails, sticky fingers, PixieStix and hot summer days -- in other words, the title serves up exactly what it promises. Sara Radle delivers her lyrics in a pared-down, quiet style that echoes alterna-pop pinup girls Tanya Donnelly and Juliana Hatfield; the instrumentation is simple keyboards, a drum kit (with a tambourine thrown in) and guitars. The faster songs are jangly, but remain acoustic in sensibility. Some of Radle's songs sound like REM covers ("Insane" comes to mind) with the angst removed. At least she has a sense of humour: "I wanna be the center of everyone's attention / that's what blonde bombshells do" ("Just Call Me Blondie"). Natural blondes may not appreciate it much, but if the popularity of blonde jokes is any indication, she's got a hit there. The Fred Savage Fanclub is popular in Dallas, and I see no reason why Radle can't extend her reign to become (at least one of) the pinup pop princess(es) of the Naughty Oughties. -- js
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Matt Easton / Love Ambition Demo / Self-Released
(CD)
"The Promise," the first track on Bay Area-based
singer/songwriter Matt Easton's five-song demo, opens with what
sounds like a stalker's entreaty: "Have no more fear/I've known your
name/Comin' to meet you here/'Cause you belong to me." A major chord
takes over as Easton sings sweetly, "And when the waves rise up/I'm in
the water with you", but the ominous tone of the beginning is hard to
forget. The song ends without a clear resolution of its intentions.
It's a problem which plagues almost every song here, especially the
shorter tracks: an appealing or intriguing phrase gives each song an
anchor, but an anchor holds in place as much as it steadies. The
tasteful, understated arrangements of guitar, bass, drums and voice are
easy to take, even without a gripping hook, during a two or
two-and-a-half minute song; the longer "All My Dreams", though, drags
into near-somnolence, with only a bleary trumpet seducing the listener's
attention. "Angelmouth" benefits from having a story to tell: The
sad-voiced narrator and his "mostly-cute" friends run away to a desert
Utopia called Angelmouth, a house "built of love." As these dreams
usually go, "everybody belonged 'til the goin' got rough." Angelmouth
burned down, but lives on in the singer's dreams. The melancholy "Love
Ambition" could ultimately use a lot more concreteness and, ironically,
a little more ambition. -- rt
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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
js - jenn sikes | rg - rodney gibbs | rt - ryan tranquilla | al - amy leach | jw - john wolfe | az - alex zorn
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