Reprobus,
Tracy and the Hindenburg Ground Crew,
André Duschene,
Vue
Wheat,
I See Spots,
Jason Traeger,
Bardo Pond
Amanita Music,
Povi,
Paul Kahn,
Ronnie Spector,
Atomsmasher,
Ernesto Diaz-Infante and Rotcod Zzaj
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Reprobus / Sonoluminescence / Reprobus (CD)
I find it very difficult to review techno/dance music like Reprobus' Sonoluminescence, and
it's not because I don't like the music. I like it just fine, and in fact have enjoyed this CD quite a bit. The problem is that in order for me to really like a dance record, it either needs to fade into the background and provide a groovy, but non-intrusive sonic space for me to work in, or it needs to be highly detailed and tweeky so that I want to devote my full attention to it. Sonoluminescence fades into the background, and that makes it hard to say anything intelligent (well, that and the fact that I'm a dolt) about it, aside from "I like it!" It's mostly mellow mid-tempo techno, with fairly standard drum/bleepbloop sounds and song structures,
a bit like Alter Ego's Decoding the Hacker Myth. A few of the tracks, like "Awakening," go a little heavy on the handclaps and snare drum samples, but generally the tunes, although repetitive, never get annoying. If I had my pick, I'd choose tweeky, attention grabbing techno over
fade-into-the-background techno any day. But since I'm at the mercy of our (mindcontrolrobot) esteemed editor, Reprobus will do just fine. -- ib
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Tracy and the Hindenburg Ground Crew / King Felix / Action Box (CD)
Acclaimed eccentric twang-folk-poet Tracy Thielen leads his "Ground Crew"
through another
round of his bizarre interpretations of emotional upheaval and botched
relationships. With a
knack for singing peculiarly catchy choruses, Tracy will have some
listeners humming along, while others wil only furrow their brows in bewilderment.
Tracy's got some chips on his shoulder and his witty, intelligent lyrics add fuel to the
fire; you'll
quickly associate and laugh with/at Thielen as he analyzes everyday
situations with a fresh viewpoint on societal transgressions. (His mailing envelopes also make regular and amusing reference to Splendid's submission guidelines, which is an easy way to our hearts. Or at least mine. - Ed.) -- am
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With Réflexions, Montréal-based, classical guitarist André Duschene presents tender solo musings. As the album title indicates, Duschene's music is both reflective and deeply personal. It seems to speak of days gone by, of loves lost and so forth. The track titles are about all that's given in terms of concrete commentary on the music. They are in French, of course, but here are a few translated: "An Afternoon in Paris", "Friday Evening in Andalusia" and "Straight Fingers, Soft Fingers". Réflexions is wonderfully evocative and communicative stuff. It leaves me in a decidedly more melancholy state after hearing it. I applaud monsieur Duschene for his sensitive musical soliloquies. -- nw
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Ahh, this is exactly what I need after hearing way too much emo --
five tracks of urgent, swaggering rock. There's no hidden agenda here
(other that a nagging sense of sexual ambiguity) -- just a healthy dose
of defiant rock posturing and anthemic rebelliousness. None of these
songs are likely to become the theme song of the latest disenfranchised
generation, but they're a suitable soundtrack for driving fast, drinking
hard and...well, loving indiscriminately, I suppose. -- gz
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Wheat / Hope and Adams / Sugar Free (CD)
When most people think of wheat, they think of fields of wispy tan stalks
blowing in the wind. Please discard that image while speaking of Wheat, the
Band. Wheat splash themselves across the sonic palette like a
technicolored pop rainbow. Hope and Adams is the group's follow-up to 1997's stunning debut, Medeiros. Produced by Dave Fridmann (of Flaming
Lips and Mercury Rev fame), the album is a gorgeous assemblage of strange
noises, wispy vocals and beautiful melodies. Songs like "Be Brave" and "Off
the Pedestal" emit a glowing fragility that becomes more
poignant with each subsequent airing. Hope and Adams isn't an album that
will immediately blow you away, but a disc full of subtle charms
that slowly, gently pull you in. Spend an afternoon in the company of Hope
and Adams and I think you'll believe in the power of Wheat. -- jj
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I See Spots / Cantilevered Heart / Arlingtone (CD)
As bleary-eyed Americana-styled folk-rock records go,
Cantilevered Heart is easy to like. There's a bashfully
friendly cheer to these jangly tunes that'll remind you of listening to
old REM records at 3:00 in the morning (if you've ever done it, that is. If you haven't you'll think of something else. Don't ask me what. I've done my job here. If the metaphor fails for you it's your fault for living the wrong sort of life).
A delicate sheen of reverb gives submerged-in-the-mix vocals an air
of bittersweet nostalgia; even when you can't really make out what's
being said, it sounds heartfelt and wistful. There's not a lot of musical
variation here -- the style pretty much limits the options to fast or
slow, with harmonica or without harmonica -- but if you're a fan of the
genre, not much variation is needed. -- gz
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Jason Traeger / My Religion is Love / K (CD)
Jason Traeger has his heart set on making the world -- or at least modern punk rockers -- fall in love. His latest offering is filled with quirky guitar, simple bass lines and one-two-one-two drum beats behind clichéd lines like "love is letting go of fear", a line in a song aptly titled "Love, Love and Love". Traeger's the younger, Northwest version of Johnathan Richman, with silly wit and unabashed directness; you get a sense that he smiles when he sings. Musically, there are underlying tones of Dub Narcotic Sound System and Built to Spill, which isn't far off since members of both bands perform on the disc. Traeger shines strongest on the most rocking songs, such as "Open Sky", "Glorious Consciousness" and "Punk Rock Riot". Recommended for those rides into work, to get you in a good mood and ready to face the day. -- ha-n
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Bardo Pond / Set and Setting / Matador (CD)
Bardo Pond create dense, multidimensional tapestries of interwoven
guitar noise, held in place by a rickety structure of threadbare rock
and roll melody. Listening to an entire Bardo Pond album is rather
like the aftermath of a gin bender that leaves you lying on your front
lawn during a thunderstorm -- a slightly alarming, frequently thrilling
sensory overload that's heavy with electrifying potential. Despite
their relatively relaxed compositional form, Set and Setting
seems like the most concise Bardo Pond album to date; the music
reaches extremes of sound and feeling, bouncing around angrily at
the end of its tether but never breaking free into chaos. If you don't
like your music sugar-coated, you can't get much less sugary than this without
heading into Merzbow territory. -- gz
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Amanita Music / The Third Ear / Amanita Music (CD)
This is a re-release of The Third Ear from performer/composer/improvisor
Joseph Benzola's Amanita Music. It was first reviewed
in cassette form way back in Splendid's IMR days. The 7 tracks on this CD are
of two distinct types: electronic keyboard sound collages and solo piano improvisations. Of the
two, I find the solo piano pieces much more interesting. The electronic works are a bit gimmicky-sounding, mostly due to the use of what I assume are keyboard sound presets, of which my delicate
ears quickly grew tired. There may be some interesting ideas in the electronic pieces, but I had
a hard time getting to them. The exception is track 4, "A Tragedy", which features a nice talking
computer part. I'm a sucker for talking computers. The solo piano tracks are generally mellow,
somewhat tonal and thematically interesting. If George Winston actually had some ideas to work out
in his piano noodling, the result might be something like this. -- ib
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povi / Life in Volcanoes / Nettwerk (CD)
Despite being packed to the gills with electronic jiggery-pokery,
Life in Volcanoes didn't do a whole lot for me. I listened
to it several times, but Cristina Calero's strident vocals never
quite rose above the crowd, and the music, which should appeal
to fans of Delerium, Single Gun Theory and probably Portishead,
rarely engaged me for very long. I'll attribute this to the surplus
of smoky, down-tempo electro-ballads and post-McLachlan technofolk
tunes -- no matter how lush and intricate the instrumentation, sometimes
the musical journey from point A to point B doesn't justify the scenery if we've already taken the same trip several times. I didn't find Life in Volcanoes overwhelmingly unique or interesting, but given Nettwerk's track record for quality music, you are encourgaged to make your own decision on that score. -- gz
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Paul Kahn / These Ears and Eyes / Redwing Music (CD)
Imagine yourself on a rickety porch somewhere in the backwoods of Louisiana,
watching a bunch of good ole' boys wailing away at tunes they learned before
they could even talk. This is what you'll hear on These Ears
and Eyes -- 12 country-folk ditties that any of the boys from Nashville would be happy to call their own. Songs like "Bigger Than My heart" and "Second Hand Smoke" use banjo, mandolin and accordion to achieve a foot-stompin' honky tonk sound, while "Marmalade" has a ragtime feel that would make it a perfect choice as background music for the bar-room
brawl scene in any cowboy flick you'd care to name. And even though the title track sounds like its melody has been lifted from "On top of Old Smoke,y" the album never sounds dated or stale. Kahn croons in a Conway Twitty-esque twang while mining familiar country lyrical
territory: lost love, backwoods tales and bait shops, to name a few. If you're a country/folk fan, don't pass on Kahn's invitation to view the world through These Ears and Eyes. -- jj
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Ronnie Spector / She Talks to Rainbows / Kill Rock Stars (CD)
Sight of this disc will prompt one of two responses, depending
upon an individual's age and musical tastes: either "Ronnie Who?"
or "Ronnie Spector...on Kill Rock Stars?!?!" For the uninitiated,
Ms. Spector damn near singlehandedly defined the sound of sixties
girl groups, and she stays very faithful to that sound on She Talks
to Rainbows (other than the obvious lack of Phil Spector
participation). Of the five rock ballads here, only "Bye Bye Baby,"
a duet with Joey Ramone, hits a few false notes, and this is due
largely to the Twin Peaks-y inconsistency of Ramone's performance.
Ignore the horrible "just-got-my-Mac" graphic design (I was surprised to discover
it hadn't been printed by an ink jet printer. Did Ms. Spector insist on doing the cover art herself?) and give this one a shot for nostalgia's sake. -- gz
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Atomsmasher / Up & Atom / Rock Room (CD)
Apparently, Atomsmasher is working under the assumption that the world needs more mediocre, run-of-the-mill rock music. I'm really unimpressed by Up & Atom. Not only is the music uncreative and bland, but the lyrics are ridiculously bad in spots. The worst is the line "It sucks real bad to be afraid." Argghh! Atomsmasher breaks my cardinal rule, "No bland music!" There is just nothing on this CD that grabbed me (except the cover art which, I'll admit, I thought was quite good). Even "bad" music can be "good" if it has camp value or makes me laugh, but generic, bland, homogenized music is the worst because there's simply nothing to justify its existence. Sorry Atomsmasher -- let's hope your next album is better! -- nw
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Ernesto Diaz-Infante & Rotcod Zzaj / Psychedelic Landscapes / Zzaj Productions
(CD-R)
The wildly prolific Rotcod Zzaj teams up with Ernesto Diaz-Infante for
another recorded
improvisational wonder. These two pieces combine impromptu spoken word over
a jagged ambient
texture composed of dissonant, striking keyboards. The resulting swirling
mass of
experimental matter conceptually provides a form of intellectual escapism:
perfect music to
lose your mind to, or for creating an arousing aural mass which shapes
thoughts and
transforms your mental disposition. Simply put, it’s seventy minutes of
straightforward,
comprehensible spontaneity. -- am
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gz - george zahora | nw - noah wane | am - andrew magilow | ib - irving bellemead | jj - jason jackowiak | ha-n - heidi anne-noel
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