Hank Thompson, Astropop 3, Jeff Greinke, The Nonchalants
Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Pat Harman & Rotcod Zzaj, Sm:)e Mix Session 4: DJ Lars, Victory At Sea, Dream City Film Club
The Moon, Pope Factory, Waterstreet, Prolapse

	Hank Thompson / Hank World / Blodshot (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Don't Take It Out On Me" There's only so much of today’s pseudo rock-county, Wilco/Son Volt shit that I can stand. However, you can just go on and praise the Lord Almighty for this hearty compilation of old-school country-genius Hank Thompson's works. With plenty of gin-u-wine steel pedal, feisty fiddles and clever lyrics to boot, this is what country is (was?) all about! These alternate takes, recorded in the early 1950s, are accessible enough for the curious country dance seeker, yet so unquestionably authentic that your Gramps will be singin' alongside you. Giddy on up cowboys and cowgirls, Hank's on the ride again with a swell sounding posse right behind him. -- am
	Astropop 3 / Astropop 3 / Planting Seeds (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "You're the One" The very model of pop understatement, Astropop 3 offers a stripped down (sometimes Brit)pop jangle that claims equal portions of sixties and eighties influences. At their cheeriest, they're as chirpy as the Beatles or a very downscaled Beach Boys. On the melancholy end of the spectrum, Astropop 3 drench pathos in reverb, creating mournful, echo-soaked gems that splice Smiths-y moodiness into folkier roots-rock melodies, underpinning them with wry, knowing asides to emo. Though their sound is occasionally compromised by tinny, constricted production, Astropop make pleasingly hook-laden 'n' hummable use of the traditional guitar/bass/drums troika. -- gz
	Jeff Greinke / Ride / First World (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Ride" Much of what's been written lately on Composer/Sound Sculptor Jeff Greinke has made reference to a supposed ambient element in his thick "soundscape"-like compositions. Perhaps I'm daft, but I don't see much of it, at least not in the strict Eno "background" music sense. Ride requires too much of my attention -- its densely layered sonic textures are complex enough to reward closer inspection. Ride also focuses more on rhythmic aspects (read "dub-inspired grooves") than any of the composer's previous work. Greinke has been doing this sort of thing for years now and he deserves points for trying to make his work more accessible (read "rhythmic"), but I'm not blown over by its originality. -- nw
	The Nonchalants / Drive / Found Dog (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Let's Get Gone" Although Jean Synodinos' quavery folk-rock vocals occasionally threaten to travel that familiar, whiny Lilith Fair route, they never descend into tired predictability. Synodinos and bandmate Steve Uhler cover a lot of ground, checking in with rock and blues riffs as well as more predictable country-folk references. If you like Michelle Shocked (especially her later material) and Joni Mitchell, but aren't afraid of Jewel and the Indigo Girls, Drive should press some of your buttons. Uhler and Synodinos' vocal interplay on tracks like "Don't Need You" is a pleasure to hear -- it's a pity that Drive's rollicking good-time attitude isn't more prevalent in modern music. -- gz
	Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Pat Harman, Rotcod Zzaj / Triple Expression / Zzaj Productions (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Javawave" Another helping of experimental jazz-improv sonic soup from Rotcod Zzaj and friends. Diaz-Infante, Harman and Zzaj are all musicians well-versed in the art of free improvisation, and this recording captures them in fine form as they pluck, bang, key, strum and sample their way through three extended tracks. It gets a little too noodly at times (one of the tracks is over 30 minutes long), but it's generally pretty engaging, especially when they're playing with goofy samples or laying down almost-funky but slightly warped jams. As always, this sort of thing works much better live, where you can in some sense be part of the action. Nonetheless, Triple Expression does a pretty good job of documenting some fine improvisers at work. -- ib
	Various Artists / Sm:)e Mix Session 4: DJ Lars / Sm:)e Communications (CD) Sample 30 seconds of the transition between "La Nina" and "Spellbound" As DJ Mix discs go, this one is pretty inoffensive. The transitions between songs are mostly solid, though Lars cheats a bit in a couple of places by segueing between two mixes of the same song. It's not that such a trick makes the transition any easier -- remixes, after all, are not automatically compatible, and differences between producers' styles are often significant -- but does the track name need to appear twice in the sequence? It's a minor quibble, I admit. Splendid readers prone to television addiction may recognize Lars from MTV's Real World (the London season), though to Lars' credit this is admitted quietly rather than being revealed by specially-printed stickers on the CD case (as probably would've been the case if Lars was American). -- gz
	Victory at Sea / The Dark Is Just the Night / Slowdime (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Seasonal Duties" What do you get when you combine members from seminal noise mongers Spore and the spacey, other-worldliness of the Swirlies? Probably not what you'd expect; Victory at Sea sails off with a tense-yet-lulling tranquility that's reminiscent of June of 44. United by the confident swaggering of Mona Elliott's lurching but serene vocals, these captains of the sonic seas will lead you on a pleasurable listening journey through stormy quietude. -- am
	Dream City Film Club / In the Cold Light of Morning / Beggars Banquet (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Stooge" Brooding and emotionally extreme, Dream City Film Club combine the angsty loneliness of goth, the bristling defiance of punk and exhausted, gospel-tinged confessional rock a la Cave or Cohen. The result is a coctail of misery and sleaze, held together with a miniscule amount of faded pride and self-respect. For some reason -- and I'm not suggesting this is accurate -- when I listen to DCFC I picture a bloated Elvis fronting Tones on Tail under really unflattering fluorescent lights at a third-rate old people's home. The album art, which features a series of stuffed-and-taxidermied animals, is unlikely to conjure happier moods or memories -- "grim" is definitely the mood du jour here. -- gz
	The Moon / The Moon / Surgeland (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "What Do I Know" The Moon plays rock 'n' roll. That single sentence does much to describe the type of too-generic music found on this eponymous release. Some tunes don't offend too greatly, but others -- like the painful, lighter-waving ballad "What Do I Know" -- result in major point deduction. The main problem with The Moon is that there just isn't much to distinguish it from countless other vanilla rock albums. This isn't necessarily bad -- not everyone can be an innovator -- but I must admit that in this specific case, I had a hard time making it through what I found to be a cliché-ridden and bland affair. -- nw
	Pope Factory / Pope Factory / Buffalo Fire Records (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "Smug" Pope Factory is one of those bands that have created their own sound, but it's a sound that's close enough to other sounds that have been created by other bands that they end up sounding sort of wishy-washy. Does that make sense? Their press release says that they sound a bit like Pavement and Sonic Youth, and well, they're right. The Smashing Pumpkins are in there somewhere too I think. Pope Factory plays heavy guitar rock, mixed with a pinch of swirly psychedelia and a little behind the scenes noodling, topped with mostly mellow vocals and a few nice guitar solos. It's complex, well played rock music, but somehow it just doesn't really suck me in. -- ib
	Waterstreet / Waterstreet / Pimp Lounge (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "dirtyclean" This nascent rock band cites Radiohead as a major influence. I do see a certain faux "epic" nature to Waterstreet, a certain effort to be bigger than life. Take "(oo-fo)" and "dirtyclean," for example. They're both steady and confident, with slowly-building repetitive guitar chord structures bolstered by piano and organ respectively, and supported underneath with a subtle-yet-firm bassline. These are by far the strongest songs on the disc and one of them should have opened it rather than the relatively weak, formally odd "Lost and Found". Radiohead they are not, but let's give them a few years. -- nw
	Prolapse / Ghosts of Dead Aeroplanes / Jetset (CD) Sample 30 seconds of "fob.com" Crossing paths with the sensual rhythms of My Bloody Valentine and the not so friendly damaged art-noise of Circle X, this Leicester band dominates with hypnotic, trance-inducing tracks which sport a palaver of sophisticated female vocals and thickly accented male articulations. The striking and unusually present guitars tend to take precedence over the mix, alternating between sharp bursts, and infinitely looping, druggish hazes. Both beautiful and menacing, the entirety of Ghosts of Dead Aeroplanes will have you embracing and rejecting Prolapse like the moody girlfriend who recklessly toys with your precariously fragile emotional state. -- am