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our weekly collection of shorter reviews
Third Window,
Splendor (soundtrack),
Ernesto Diaz-Infante,
Commercial Breakup
Goldstein, Heward, Wiens,
Junior Communist Club,
The Jezebelles,
The Bolshoi
Leadfoot,
Best Boy Electric,
(Members of)June of '44 (Insound Tour Support series #4),
Robert Normandeau
Unrest,
Permissionslip,
The Chemical Brothers,
Ocean of Doubt: The Emo Diaries, Vol. 4
Amanita Music,
Turn Century Turn
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Third Window / Tell Me Why / TWindow Records (CD)
Tell Me Why is the exuberant title track of this six-song EP. The softly rollicking light rock songs selected for inclusion here suggest that Third Window are a trio which can be appreciated more
fully live, because it seems as if the recorded medium constrains Bryn and
Jacky Bell's vocals. Songwriter Bryn has a knack for producing
memorable choruses, with straightforward lyrics detailing life's
complexities, and also by maximizing Bell's backing vocals. All six tunes
are driven by Jeff Lauterbach's throbbing bass lines -- in particular the
funkified and well produced "In a Crowded Room". -- dd
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Various Artists / Splendor (soundtrack) / Astralwerks (CD)
It's unlikely that I'll bother to see Splendor, the movie, but
I quite enjoyed Splendor, the soundtrack. The high points
here are songs we've all heard before, sort of: specifically, a series
of great shoegazer-era (and pre-shoegazer) pop songs buffed up by
contemporary remix artists. For a change, most of these songs don't lose
their original magic in the remix process, which is more of an "update"
than a revision. As you might expect, Astralwerks artists also make
an appearance -- Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, Air and the
Micronauts are present, though only the Air track (Moog Cookbook's
stellar remix of "Kelly Watch the Stars") requires your special attention.
The disc closes with New Order's classic "Bizarre Love Triangle",
a reliable (if somewhat overused) soundtrack staple that's actually
more relevant to Splendor, the movie, than anything else here.
-- gz
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Ernesto Diaz-Infante / Ucross Journal / Pax (CD)
Ernesto Diaz-Infante is back with more of the subdued solo piano music we've come to expect from him. Ucross Journal documents the composer's month-long residency at the Ucross Foundation in Ucross, WY. Each of the CD's first 25 tracks represents a day and time of his stay there. These works are loosely structured, formed around an "idea" more than a precise collection of pitches and rhythms. They are short (1-2 minutes in length) and sparse, like fleeting glimpses of the wide open Wyoming landscape. The last 5 tracks of Ucross Journal are improvisations. They are slightly longer and more verbose than the "journal" pieces but maintain the trademark Diaz-Infante subtlety and grace. Among Mr. Diaz-Infante's prolific oeuvre, this is one of the "should haves". -- nw
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Commercial Breakup / Nothing But a Lie / Motorway (7")
Sounding like the nightmarish spawn of Bjork, Kraftwerk-lite and Hello
Kitty!, Commercial
Breakup gives you a taste of its kinda jazzy, sorta funky, keyboard based
cutesy pop. With
drum machines in full force, it's up to the heavily accented singing to
produce the mood.
"Comme toi" rings in a Euro-disco beat with squeaky, strained vocals, while
the flipside,
"Nothing but a lie," is more soft spoken, with soulful female vocals that
deliver the goods
in a harmless fashion. Likeable in a kitschy, forgettable way, here's a
vinyl dedication to buoyant, bashful beats. -- am
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Goldstein, Heward, Wiens / Chants Cachés / Ambiances Magnétiques (CD)
Free improvisation is a mystery to many people. Reactions range from "that's not music" to
"they're frauds" to "my five year old could do that" to "wow." What many people don't realize is that despite its free and open nature, it is possible to become very good at free improvisation,
particularly when you play with a close group of people over a long period of time.
Malcolm Goldstein (violin), John Heward (percussion) and Rainer Wiens (prepared guitar) make up
one such group, and wow are they good! Chants Cachés is a richly detailed, subtle yet
energized disc, and it really shows off the highly developed musicality of three improvisational veterans. Chants Cachés might be tough listening for a while if you haven't listened to much music like this before, but it's well worth the effort. -- ib
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Junior Communist Club / Freedom of Speed / Sugar Free (CD)
Freedom of Speed combines the best efforts of Jack Drag
(possibly the best band ever mishandled by A&M) and Master Cylinder
(as in Jung at Heart aka "that song from that Volkswagen
commercial"). You'll hear beat-friendly pop -- a little bit less psychedelic
and a little bit more Beck-ish than standard Jack Drag -- pumped up with
electronic twiddling from Master Cylinder. The six tracks here are
toe-tappingly enjoyable without ever quite reaching the heights achieved
by either artist in "un-teamed" mode, but they're certainly good for an enjoyable
twenty-six minutes of high volume funkiness. -- gz
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The Jezebelles / Throwing Pennies in Fountains / Vamp (CD)
Imagine if you will, a dark bar in the middle of some college town.
It's not the hip bar that everyone frequents, or the scary bar filled
with raging drunks out with their girlfriends and lying to their
wives. Instead, it's the bar attended by the kind of people who don't
know where the hip bar is. Now imagine the kind of band that
would play at that bar: a band just there for noise filler. No one
pays much attention to them since they don't know who they are. The
music isn't awful, yet there isn't one song that is striking enough to
get the crowd's attention long enough to get them to look towards the
stage...though there are a few songs that sound vaguely familiar.
That's the kind of band The Jezebelles are. Each song sounds like
something you've heard before but can't quite place. None of the
songs grab your attention, but it's not so bad that you'd turn it off.
Noise filler. Background bar band. The Jezebelles. -- ha-n
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The Bolshoi / AWay: Best of the Bolshoi / Beggars Banquet (CD)
Remember the Bolshoi? If you're under 21, or were unusually preoccupied
between 1985 and 1987, you probably don't. Progenitors of an EP and two
albums during those years, the Bolshoi had a sound that was hard to
pigeonhole -- lots of
nervous, wry minor-key pop songs loaded with unexpected chord progressions and
sarcastic lyrics. Mostly mishandled in the US by a waning IRS Records, the
Bolshoi
never enjoyed the success that charismatic frontman Trevor Tanner could've
brought
them (as anyone who saw them live can attest). In this collection, you'll
find their
almost-hit, AWay II (sadly not in its extended version), a number of
near-classics
("Books on the Bonfire", "Happy Boy", "T.V. Man", "Someone's Daughter" and
more) and two new songs from Tanner's forthcoming solo album (yes, cynical
readers, I know what you're thinking). I was surprised to discover, again, just
how many good songs the Bolshoi had, even though I own all but a few singles. On
the downside...where the hell is "Waspy"? This demented classic deserves a new audience.
-- gz
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Leadfoot (featuring former Corrosion of Conformity members Karl Agell and Phil Swisher) reminds me a lot of the big rock days of the '70s. I think anyone who has fond feelings for bands like Big Star will dig the pure, "high-octane" (if my editor will let me get away with such a cliché! [Yes, I will, but that's it with the clichés now, please -- Ed.]) rock 'n' roll contained on this sophomore release. I've been curiously drawn to my old AC/DC vinyl recently, so Leadfoot hit me on a good day! I heartily endorse songs like "Redline," with its down 'n' dirty riffing and down 'n' dirtier attitude. The little "police breaking up the party" interlude towards the end of the song might strike some as juvenile, but I assert that it is precisely the kind of low-brow shenanigans that make a record like Take a Look work. Turn up the stereo now! -- nw
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Best Boy Electric / Songs of Latitude and Longitude / Grand Theft Autumn (CD)
This is a very slow, somnolent album -- a minimal mesh of
snail's pace guitar and quavery analog keyboards, offset by
plaintive, prettier-than-average vocals. Alan Sparhawk of
Low recorded Songs of Latitude and Longitude, which
perhaps has something to do with its overwhelming mellowness --
maybe the band was afraid of scaring Alan so they played as
quietly as possible. I've listened to this disc at least fifteen times,
and with each successive listen it becomes harder and harder to
notice the individual songs, with the exception of attention-grabbing
elements like the assertive keyboard/bass drone on "Wormwood
and Distaff". It's simply the sort of music that slips beneath
your consciousness and stays there -- a sort of higher grade of
ambient aural furniture that's only noticeable when you suddenly trip over it. -- gz
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Members of June of 44 / Insound Tour Support Series No. 4 / Insound (CD)
The individuals who make up June of 44 feature their own unique styles and
influences on
the Insound Tour Support Series #4. From the disparate, swooning
style of Doug
Scharin's
H.I.M. project to the dramatic Dueling Hearts ensemble (featuring Fred
Erksine on trumpet),
and its haunting jazz on "Love lost. Had again. Lost again," it's no wonder
June of 44 is so
prolific, and so genuinely entertaining. Support Series #4 is not so
much a
fertile sampling of the band's collective sound, as a sonic glimpse at
individual skill
sets, solo outings and the unreleased offshoots of this Chicago-based
mainstay. -- am
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Normandeau's most recent release collects four compositions:
"La Renard et La Rose", "Figures de Rhetorique", "Venture" and
Ellipse". "La Renard et La Rose" combines, in largely unrecognizable
form, the audio and musical soundtracks from a radio dramatization
of The Little Prince; if nothing else, you'll probably never
look at Antoine de Saint-Exupery the same way again. "Figures
de Rhetorique", created for tape and piano, is the most overtly
musical piece, while "Venture" comments on the states of existence via
heavily manipulated slices of rock music. "Ellipse," which closes
the disc, is one half of a sonic dialogue with guitarist Arturo Parra;
you get the call, sans response, or vice versa. Of these
pieces, "Figures de Rhetorique" is the most conventionally ear-pleasing,
while "Venture" offers the most overtly intriguing set of sounds.
All four works are dynamic and stirring, making this an excellent
starting point for the empreintes DIGITALes universe. -- gz
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Unrest! / Kustom Karnal Blackxploitation / Teen Beat/Caroline (CD)
What a strange, quirky, varied CD this is. Originally released on Caroline Records in 1990,
Kustom Karnal Blackxploitation finds Washington DC's Unrest in experimental, genre busting mode. There's some pretty catchy stuff here, like "Teenage Suicide", which is probably one of Unrest's best known singles. There are also some nearly unlistenable gems, like "Eyeball from the Socket of Davis", a long monologue in which Sammy Davis Jr. recounts the events leading up to the loss of his eyeball. Then there's some basic DC hardcore, a dose or two of 80's style emo-rock ("She Makes Me Shake Like A Soul Machine") and even some spoken word a la Ken Nordine. Heck,
there's something for everyone! Plus, Bridget Cross (bass) and Mark Robinson (guitar/singing) went
on to form Air Miami, which is pretty cool, so you should buy this CD. -- ib
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Permissionslip / Arc-Sodium Visions / UAOSR (CD)
Permissionslip's quirky synth-pop would be quite enjoyable if it weren't for singer/one-man-band David Watlington's melodically-challenged vocals. The songs on Arc-Sodium Visions are clever quasi-'80s throwbacks with catchy melodies and idiosyncratic electronic instrumentation. The music alone intrigues me; it's just odd enough, just unique enough to draw me in. But the minute the singing starts, I'm repelled like a vampire from Buffy (note the obligatory seasonal reference). My advice to Watlington is to stick to the synth programming and leave the vocals to someone more inclined to intonation. -- nw
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The Chemical Brothers / Out of Control / Astralwerks (CD)
Catchy as all hell, the Chemical Brothers do it again with "Out of
Control," a seven minute look into the future of music. Filled with entrancing dance beats, whirring blips and pop
bliss, it's set to pave the way for the Chemical Brothers to gain
more well-deserved exposure. "Power Move," stuck between "Out of Control" and its remix, shows that even the Brothers'
b-sides are hits: a simple, almost casio-sounding underlying
beat is offered and layered with crazy drumming, whizzes, whirls and
engaging melodic hooks. The Chemical Brothers are able to make it
sporadic yet coherent. -- ha-n
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Various Artists / An Ocean of Doubt: The Emo Diaries, Vol. 4 / Deep Elm (CD)
They say there are a lot of fish in the ocean..and it appears there are a lot of
emo bands floating around in there as well. An Ocean of Doubt is the fourth
chapter in Deep Elm records' Emo Diaries series, and gathers together 12 more of the most promising emo upstarts on the scene today. While all 12 bands deliver strong efforts, there are a few who stand up
and seemingly dare you not to take notice of them. The first of these is Ed Matus'
Struggle, who offer the furiously melodic "Distance." Next we have
Keystone Sinatra, who serve up chiming guitars and catchy lyrical twists on
"Tweny1." Rounding out the list of overachievers are two class pets:
Merrick, whose "Milk and Lots More" is a jubilant, catchy-as-hell guitar-driven
romp, and Flux Capacitor, whose 12 minute instrumental opus "Sasshe" is a frenzied, dissonant-yet-flowing, beautiful musical journey. An Ocean of Doubt is an
album you definitely won't want to throw back. -- jj
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Amanita Music / Reflections / Amanita
Music (CD-R)
The confusing, digitally-generated psychedelic colors of this CD booklet
and CD face
certainly reflect Amanita's style. Like a computer gone haywire, the heavy,
synth-generated
tunes continually spit out sounds in seemingly random directions, producing
a testy,
tumultuous and tense group of compositions. The steady stream of keyboard
notes can be
trying on your nerves after seven tracks, but overall, Amanita succeeds in
creating a
swirling, maddening concoction of frenetic notes, guaranteed to up your
pulse rate. (Editor's Note: This is a CD re-issue of the 1995 cassette release)-- am
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Various Artists / Turn Century Turn / Mother West (CD)
Making "music" is rather simple these days; all you have to do is grab a tape
recorder, head down into your basement and bang on the water pipes, the washing
machine and whatever else happens to be lying around. Doing this will result in compositions that sound a lot like those on Turn Century Turn. Unfortunately, I found the majority of this compilation to be overblown, indulgent, wanky, progressive-electro garbage. These songs need some serious editing. Take, for example, the entirely too-lengthy "Dxui"
by Tangle Edge. This song could be a slice of quite-enjoyable funk infused
space-dub, if you could trim off its repetitively droning last six minutes. This soon becomes a familiar pattern -- too many of the songs get lost in their own complexity, thereby destroying any effect they may have had on the listener. To be fair, there are moments when the disc shines, most notably on Zen's "Lady in Red" -- which, thankfully, sounds nothing like Chris DeBurgh's 80's MOR hit of the same name. Fans of Dream Theatre or Yes might find this collection exciting, but it might just prove to be too complicated for
the rest of us. -- jj
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gz - george zahora | nw - noah wane | am - andrew magilow | ib - irving bellemead
jj - jason jackowiak | ha-n - heidi anne-noel | dd - deirdre devers
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