Wheat / Wheat / Sugar Free Records (CD)
What if a couple of guys secretly persuaded Brian Eno to join their
band? Perhaps it'd sound like "Wheat" -- slow-paced rock and roll
that's often brittle, imbued with an absolutely exquisite, echoing
drone-iness. Even the bits that aren't that droning -- like the sharp,
upbeat "Karmic Episodes" -- drift in and out of tune with an almost
logarhythmic precision, as if it was somehow possible to accurately
"smudge" the music by smearing your thumb along the surface of the
master tape at just the right point. I'm glad I got this on CD so I can
give credit where credit's due! The whole thing's brilliant. -- gz
Various Artists / Iowa / Nettwerk (CD)
I hope this Nettwerk sampler isn't promo only -- it's well worth the
cash if you've heard little from the Canadian label post Skinny
Puppy/Sarah McLachlan. Regular Splendid readers will recall reading
reviews of almost every band/artist here -- Wild Strawberries, Delerium,
Autour de Lucie, Download, Tara McLean, Sully and others -- so the
quality is obvious. There's also an echoey, feedback-washed track from
King Cobb Steelie that's got me wondering about their album, and a
promisingly peppy piece of guitar jangle-work from Dayna Manning. By
all accounts, Iowa: the disc is more interesting than Iowa: the state. -- gz
Beatseed / Moonboots EP / Thrive Records (12")
The "Bass Boys" mix of "Moonboots" reminds me of a "light touch" KMFDM sans
vocals. It's got that whole pseudo-industrial, guitar-driven sound. The
"Giant Leap" mix is a straightforward 4/4 with a broader range of sonic
elements -- from clasic techno/house synth chords to clips of Neil
Armstrong on the moon. It's danceable and it's fun. The "High Up Low Down"
mix is an "in your face" hip hop extravaganza, complete with droning
background pitches, record scratching and rap-inspired vocal samples. The
"Slide Mix" starts out as mellow, dub-inspired fare -- sparse with only a
minimal array of spacey background textures and a pared-down drum beat --
but turns into something that sounds like Crystal Method. I gues Beatseed
wants to demonstrate mastery over a range of electronic sub-genres. -- nw
DJ Supreme / Tha Wildstyle / Interhit (CD)
Sing it with me: thump thump thump thump thump thump thump thump...
Okay, those aren't the lyrics to "Tha Wildstyle", but they're probably
more important. "Tha Wildstyle" is a traditional, funky sort of
techno-house track that's got some fast if inconsequential rapping, some
nice loops and some wicked samples. Mixes range from stripped-down
minimalism to Show The Entire World That You Just Put A Subwoofer In
Your Camaro bass-intensity, and will probably win over most mainstream
dancefloors with ease. -- gz
Nightmare Lodge / The Enemy Within / Minus Habens (CD)
An excursion into experimental composition that incubates and nimbly
slithers from track to track, reminding one of Goblin and Ennio Morricone,
The Enemy Within dictates mood changes and demands attention. Iusco
and Russolo guide, and sometimes drag, the listener through their personal
auditory tour of self-inflicted mental torture with that special Italian
touch of filtering reality through severity and precision. Those critical
of the soullessness of some electronic music should sample Nightmare Lodge,
as it is convincingly soulful and extraordinarily emotive. -- am
Less Than Jake / Losing Streak / Capitol (CD)
Another week, another chance to use the phrase "ska-tinged". Less Than
Jake are fairly tolerable because (a) their songs are consistently fast
and upbeat, and sound more like power-punk tracks onto which horns have
been grafted as a form of Marketing Life Support, (b) the vocals are
better than average and (c) the lyrics, if you take the time to read
them, are mostly pretty clever. So definitely, if you're choosing
between buying "Losing Streak" or some crack or a clip for your 9mm, buy
"Losing Streak". -- gz
Christian Calon / Les corps éblouis / empreintes DIGITALes (CD)
A single, self-contained, metamorphosing composition, "Les corps
éblouis" ("The Dazzled Bodies") clocks in at a little over 22 minutes.
Calon provides a provocative range of sonic disturbances throughout this
piece, ranging from ethereal driftings to tense, terse and turgid jabs into
the surrounding silence. Impressively, Calon has total control over the
variety of moods that his piece conveys (everything from peacefulness to
schizophrenia), and expresses them superbly with this electroacoustical
utterance. Highly recommended! -- am
Various Artists / Connected / Zero Hour/3-2-1 (CD)
My boss called me into his office earlier this week. "George," he
began, "tell me what's going on in the world of hip-hop." Okay, this
horrifying turn of affairs never happened, but if it had, I could've
handed him Connected and high-tailed it out of the office. If
you watch MTV a lot, you could be forgiven for thinking there are only
five or six artists making all the rap these days. This sampler sets
the record straight with 16 artists you might not have heard, including
stellar contributions from Blackalicious, Spida, Badawi, Dubmarine,
Templeroy and DATBU. You may be surprised at the amount of variation on Connected -- it's definitely an eye and ear-opener. -- gz
Edwin Torres and DJ
Wally / "Rhumba Bomballett" b/w "Embroidered Delirium" / Kill Rock Stars (12" Single)
"Rhumba Bomballett" is the first single off of Edwin Torres' upcoming CD
Holy Kid. Mr. Torres' own bizzare approach to spoken word -- as if
the English language had evolved from some kind of fusion of street slang
with Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" -- is hiply backed by DJ Wally's
illbient-oriented trip hop. You'll find the rhythm of the lyrics of
"Rhumba Bomballett" to be very pleasant to the ear, even if the words
themselves are not entirely comprehensible -- flowing nonsense phrases
reminiscent of vocal styles in the dub tradition (like the Wordsound I Powa
collective perhaps). The B-side of this record, "Embroidered Delerium", is
a DJ Wally mix of another Torres track. It features a similar musical
approach to side A but with the music taking the foreground more, shifting
textures more, developing more. My appetite is whetted for Holy Kid --
let's you and I both keep our eyes out for it! -- nw
Jenifer Smith / Code Mesa / Point Music (CD)
If there's one thing you'll learn from Jenifer Smith, it's that it's easier to connect Laurie Anderson, Enya and the Cocteau Twins than you might think. Smith does
a lot with her voice; she usually accompanies herself several times
over, toying with chants and tone poems and Eastern rhythms. Tracks run
the gamut from introspective near-acapella to adult-contemporized exotic
electronica. If you're the type who listens to the voice more than the
lyrics, Code Mesa should go on your shopping list, although
Smith's "hard" American pronounciation may be jarring for some. -- gz
Mystery Machine / Headfirst Into Everything / Nettwerk (CD)
If you take swoony power-pop bluster and make it crunchy and bass-heavy,
you'll get Mystery Machine. When the bass kicks in on "YTV", you'll
realize you're not listening to another cookie-cutter alt-rock band.
Like label-ancestors MOEV, Mystery Machine use really low-frequency
tones to bypass your ears and force their songs right through your
forehead -- but you probably won't find your ears unwilling to let these
cuts in. "Doubter", "What I Want" and others prove that the band can
crank out hummable hooks; hopefully they won't get lost in the alt-rock
shuffle. -- gz
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