Drill For Absentee,
Art Paul Schlosser,
Tram,
day9
Jo & Joe & Friends,
Aspera Ad Astra,
Sounds!,
Love As Laughter
Plunkett & Macleane (soundtrack),
Anthemic Pop Wonder,
Leni Stern,
Catchpenny,
Cinnamon,
Groove Collective
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Drill for Absentee / Circle Music ep / MindWalk (CD)
At first glance Circle Music looks like something that fell out of the classical music bin. It comes housed in a beautifully intricate numbered white slip case detailed with
circles of musical score. But don't be fooled by the rather "soft" packaging, for a raging art-rock beast lies within. Throughout these five songs, Drill for Absentee wind, grind and clang their way through a strange musical landscape that incorportates everything from punk to post-rock. Songs like "Naked Singularity" are at one moment a quiet, Tortoise-like drone and the next a raging, furious
carnal rock beast. The song structures are unique and ever-changing, giving the album a disconnected, yet strangley cohesive
flow. In Circle Music, Drill for Absentee have succeeded in creating an accessible yet musically adventurous sonic collage. -- jj
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Art Paul Schlosser /
Reinventing Myself / Art Paul Schlosser (CD)
Art Paul Schlosser is a Madison, WI street musician who normally performs
his brand of wacky, homespun, dare-I-say folk music on guitar and kazoo.
With Reinventing Myself he shakes things up by switching to cheap
electronic keyboard. Over the duration of the CD's 37 tracks, he rambles on
about his efforts to learn how to write and play songs for keyboard,
mingling his commentary with his rudimentary music. Songs like "Purple
Bananas (On the Moon)", "My Cat Was Taking a Bath" and "Have a Peanut
Butter Sandwich" combine party-clown humor with street-artist mugging.
Schlosser's enthusiasm is contagagious; I defy you to listen to this
without smiling. In fact, this CD isn't really about the music at all
(which is basic at best) but rather Schlosser's oddball behavior.
Definitely file this one under "Weird Record of the Month". -- nw
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Tram / Heavy Black Frame / Jetset (CD)
Heavy Black Frame makes its US debut amid a crowded
market of "slo-fi" artists and their unhurried, pastoral works. What makes this disc worth your while? Paul Anderson's grinningly introspective vocals, perhaps. Or maybe you'll fall for the disc's air of pervasively bittersweet langour, punctuated by asthmatic keyboards and
a gently relentless oboe that occasionally pops up to say "Hey,
there's an oboe on this record." Or perhaps the music's listless,
languid beauty will draw you in on its own. The problem here,
of course, is that Tram's music doesn't so much grab hold of
your consciousness as tickle it gently; this is not an assertive
album, so if you're not listening it's not going to come
looking for you. -- gz
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day9 / day9 / Fastrak Records (CD)
Day9's debut CD offers a lopsided, Janus-headed beast. On one head (the big one), we have a
shiny metal machine: flangy-chunky-riffy guitars, flangy-angsty boy vocals, big drums (not flangy) -- an "Ozzy bites the head off of the grunge monster" sort of affair. The other head is sensitive and quirky, and likes messing around in the studio making subtle, even delicate and pretty little sound worlds. Sadly, the big head hogs the spotlight, leaving the small head little room to flower (these are flowering heads, by the way). Now, this whole setup might appeal mightily to the large-metal-head-plus-small-sensitive-noodly-head crowd, and it's a fine example of the genre. However, were I to produce day9, I would immediately lock up the flanger, turn down the amps and send these boys into the shed for a serious studio noodling geekout. I think the results would be quite good. -- ib
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Jo & Joe & Friends / Mountain View Sessions Vol. 4: INjams / Jo & Joe Music (CD)
Like the other Jo & Joe & Friends discs we've reviewed here, INjams
is entirely improvised and pleasantly jazzy. It's important to point out that
"improvisation" in this instance means a group of skilled musicians playing
off the cuff, which is profoundly different from the (typically less
musically agreeable) "everybody grab an instrument and make some noise" improvisations produced by other, more out-there improvisers. I found many of the occasional vocals
annoying and/or intrusive, but the quality of the music will keep this disc in
my personal rotation for a while. -- gz
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Aspera Ad Astra / Insound Tour Support Series #4 / Insound (CD)
A cool concept developed by the folks at Insound:
release an EP showcasing a different artist or artists currently on tour (the artists get half of the 1000-disc run to sell on the road, too -- ed.).
...#4 showcases the talent of Philadelphia's Aspera Ad Astra. With three tuneful
offerings, the opener, "Godspeed," skims over a thoughtful combination of space-rock-inspired effects and a moody vocal presentation. "Twenty Minutes of the Day" takes a sharp departure, plodding through organ-fused nervousness while the final track, "After All" gazes into the hazy future as the band flirts with the noisier side of pop
music, blending choruses and distorted guitars into a beautiful unison of notes. Limited, and worth the price of admission! -- am
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Various Artists / Sounds! / Charm of Sound (CD)
Now this is what I call truth in advertising. The
twenty electronic compositions on Sounds!
are primarily juxtapositions and manipulations of ambient sounds and pre-recorded sound effects -- everything from straightforward synthesized tones to splashing water,
from stressed-out wind-instruments to clanging metal objects.
Some are musical in the traditional sense, while fall between the cracks -- Teemu Maki's "Granny Cobham", for instance, highlights an intrusive breakbeat loop dribbled over recorded voices. With twenty different compositions vying for CD space, none
of these budding noise operas has enough time to become annoying --
if anything, many create intriguing sonic spaces that cry out for
further exploration. -- gz
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Love As Laughter / Destination 2000 / Sub Pop (CD)
If you insist on making a rock and roll record in 1999, it might as well sound like this.
You toss in a little AC/DC, but also a touch of Sonic Youth. Add a heap of the Stones and a pinch of Rage Against the Machine. Go ahead, get a little crazy and drizzle on some
David Bowie -- 70s style and 90s style. It's all good. Love As Laughter rocks, but they're
not cheeseballs. Nor are they "ironic" rockers, goofing on Journey t-shirts with cut off sleeves. They're just a fun, groovy, hip, late-90s rock and roll band. I'm not convinced that rock and roll should have a future, but if it must, Love As Laughter should be it. -- ib
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Craig Armstrong / Plunkett & Macleane (soundtrack) / Melankolic (CD)
Like the somewhat anachronistic tale it backs, the soundtrack to this tale of highwaymen punctuates its traditional choral and symphonic
elements with electronic percussion and occasional techno
flavourings. It is at its best, and most attractive, when Armstrong
keeps the modern elements in check. Those who can't live without
pop songs should skip ahead to the credit-roll reinterpretation of
the Talking Heads' "Houses in Motion". Labelmate Lewis Parker
is no David Byrne, but he and Alpha's Helen White make a
spirited attempt, with Parker's extraneous rapping only occasionally
becoming annoying. -- gz
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Anthemic Pop Wonder / Wild Thrill-hungry Gurls Who Don't Want To
Know Right From Wrong / Bombardier
(CD)
Though they rival Fiona Apple in the Longest Album Title Department, Anthemic Pop Wonder
are more of a D.I.Y., lo-fi punk doohickey than a bitchy, whiny waif thingy.
Wild Thrill-hungry Gurls ... starts out promisingly with "Liquify",
a hip wiggling/writhing punk number that includes psycho-vocals that even Jonny
Rotten could love. "20-0-0", a pop-punk anthem decrying the turn of the
century, is pleasant enough, but musically it sort of picks up where
"Liquify" left off. After several tracks WTHG ... starts to incite
déja vu -- similar tempos, similar guitar licks, similar vocal technique,
etc. It's not a bad disc if you're into 4-track bedroom stuff,
but be aware that it could really use a dose of variety. -- nw
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Leni Stern / Black Guitar / LSR (CD)
Ms. Stern is widely acknowledged as a pretty damn brilliant
guitarist (and winner of the Gibson Award for Best Female
Jazz Guitarist for 1996-1998). Until recently, she was known
solely as an instrumentalist. In the last few years, however,
Ms. Stern has tried her hand at vocals, and Black Guitar is
her first album as guitarist and vocalist. Her guitar playing
retains a quiet strength -- she doesn't need to showboat here -- and
the vocals are surprisingly assured; you'll wonder why she didn't
decide to sing sooner. The songs skew towards the adult-contemporary/
lite-blues vein, and the lyrics are frequently trite, but Ms. Stern's conviction
keeps them earnest enough that you'll hope to hear her do more as a
vocalist in the future. -- gz
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Catchpenny / dajom / Next (CD)
Dajom is technically impressive, yet ultimately a bit unengaging. Catchpenny craft nice alternative guitar rock, but they aren't exactly doing anything to set themselves apart from all the other indie guitar bands currently infiltrating the airwaves. The disc is full of catchy hooks, clever lyrics and strong vocals, but at times it seems that those hooks and vocals get buried under a landslide of fuzz and feedback. Simplified arrangements could sharpen the band's attack, as could the possible addition of keyboards to broaden their sound. With some minor fine tuning, songs like "I Wanna Be (On Fire)" and "Little Shut Up"
could be blaring from every radio from coast to coast. Dajom is the sound of a band trying to find its own voice in the murky sea of alternative rock. -- jj
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Cinnamon / The Many Moods of Cinnamon / March (CD)
Even if you're not familiar with these Swedish popsters,
the presence of the names Bertrand Burgalat and Louis Philippe
in this disc's credits should (hopefully) warn you to expect some
light, sophisticated international-style disco-pop. Drawn
in equal portions from the forthcoming full-length Vertigo
and from unreleased material, this seven-song EP should
find a happy home with fans of Kahimi Karie, Stereolab
or any of the ever-growing crop of French (and Francophile)
pop artists. As breathy, ultra-sweet female vocals power tunes
formed of jangling guitars and bell-clear vibes, you might catch
a distinct whiff of Northern Soul...or you might just drift away. -- gz
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Groove Collective / Declassified / Shanachie (CD)
The latest sexy full-length offering from Groove Collective continues along
familiar musical territory. The group’s patented
rhythm-heavy grooves and brassy, horn section interjections still distance
the band from today's banal, bandwagon-hopping bands. Like your funk edgy? Your bass and drums thick and heavy? Your genres all commingling into a melting pot of musical
bad-assedness? Then loosen that starched collar, yank out that tucked-in
shirt and prepare to dance yourself into a sweaty mess with Declassified. -- am
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gz - george zahora | nw - noah wane | am - andrew magilow | ib - irving bellemead | jj - jason jackowiak
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