JLIAT / The Dancing Horse / JLIAT (CD)
I know I'm not the only one who loves JLIAT. The Dancing Horse
is another hour-long piece, seemingly devoted to consciousness expansion
-- in particular, carefully shaped directions -- through sound. When a
JLIAT disc finally "clicks" for you, conceptually speaking, the results
are truly enlightening. Picture yourself sitting in a dark room; as
time passes, your eyes acclimate themselves to the room and more and
more details reveal themselves. The Dancing Horse is the aural
equivalent -- what sounds like a single, sustained harmonic tone will,
over time, become a forest of similar, yet distinct, sounds that
eventually assert themselves far beyond the station of ambience. Let's
see the Titanic soundtrack do that. -- gz
Here's what happens when you live in the middle of North America. Overseas
releases only sporadically surface. Drive-In Records does some community
service by releasing a domestic 7" from Melbourne's The Lucksmiths. Never
heard of 'em? Well, me neither, but the jangly, pop-inflected tunes are
innocent enough to invoke a smile, yet lyrically complex enough to redirect
attention to the stereo speakers. The B-side "Up" has a quick, upbeat tempo
with some defined Aussie vocals that are sure to amuse. Seek it out as well
as their Candle Records’ releases. -- am
These guys take the elements of rock songs, reduce them to particle
level, and then regurgitate them teeny minimal bit by teeny minimal
bit. Mostly what's here is plodding drumbeats with little stabs of
guitar, miniscule bits of bass and vocals that could've been recorded in a
crowded library without getting thrown out. It's a cool concept, and I
like it, but unless you buy a lot of experimental rock stuff or spend
more than half your waking hours smoking pot, you might find this (if
you'll pardon the contradiction) excessively minimal. -- gz
Hoover's G-String / Gargle / Red Tide Records (CD)
Gargle comes across with a very college radio kind of eclecticism.
There's a little bit of punk, a little bit of funk and a little bit of
grungy pop -- all in all what you'd expect from a college-radio-oriented
band. No song will reach out and grab you and slap you in the face
screaming "Buy me now!" but no song will induce you stumble to the toilet
to throw up either. If you're into "pretty-rough-around-the-edges-still"
indie rock and are hoping to get in on the ground floor of of a
"yet-to-make-it-big" rock band, Hoover's G-String would probably love to
sign you up for their fan club. -- nw
Ryuichi Sakamoto / Anger/Grief / Ninja Tune (CD)
These five "remixes" admittedly employ only selected elements of
Sakamoto's work -- "Grief" in Amon Tobin's case, while "Anger" is
tinkered with by Rare Force, Talvin Singh, and Chocolate Weasel. Tobin
makes "Grief" a frenetic, paranoid drum-n-bass composition (not a big
surprise, but a good track). "Anger" first gains a Consolidated-style
breakbeat loop (Rare Force), then Singh remakes it as a breathless,
tribal d&b take that'll envigorate those jaded by the genre. Chocolate
Weasel's mix is a seething nightmare soundtrack, while
the Original Movement Edit provides a bit of context, so we know what's
Sakamoto and what isn't. -- gz
The Buddyrevelles / Your Casual Smokes / Motorcoat Records
(7")
This Wisconsin trio belts out two pop-rock ditties on Motorcoat Records
that are impressively catchy without the pretentiousness of having one of those
hip-indie-label-seal-of-approvals stamped all over it. Yet. These guys
have some amazing potential, as manifested in the tune, "Michael J. Fox."
Excellent vocal harmonies are coupled with the necessary "catchy
guitar-riff" to furnish a hands-down, signature, good, indie-rock tune.
Look for a full length CD soon! -- am
Dimitri from Paris / Sacrebleu / Atlantic (CD)
A bit long in the tooth as an import, Sacrebleu will hopefully gain new life as a domestic release. It's a piece of cocktail-hour time-travel back to Paris of the early sixties, aided and abetted by cut-and-paste production techniques and a kitsch-o-meter that goes to eleven, and to listen is to recall a time when the word "Continental" was high praise. Of course, there's a lot of modern-day electronic blips-n-beats worked in among the history, but the retro mood takes over, championed by samples of giggly French filles and more semi-ersatz cultural ambience than you can shake a stick at. It's hard not to love it. -- gz
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