a weekly digest from the staff and contributors of brainwashed
V05I02 - 01202002
Click here for other issues
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three weeks left for Brain in The Wire
"You had your chance and you blew it!" Do you want to get an email from us saying that? Didn't think so. Ordering ends after 1500 copies are sold or February 14th, whichever comes first. Tracklist for Disc A and Disc B can be found at the Brainwashed Recordings website, while the contents of Disc X are being guarded by fully armed S1Ws. Ordering information can be found at the Commerce section of Brainwashed. Stores are now welcome to purchase them too so when they sell out, you might be able to find them stocked in your local shops (but at a price much higher than was ever offered here so don't say we didn't warn you). Thanks to everybody who has ordered so far.
brainwashed tee shirts
Buy a shirt, be one of the coolest kids on your block, show up to the next concert and meet loads of interesting people. You can even claim to be Jon Whitney (it's happened on more than one occasion). Pre-paid orders are being taken until February 14th, where you can choose from an array of colors, special sizes and styles. Once all the pre-orders are done, the shirt will be reduced to one style and one color. For more info, investigate the Commerce section.
kranky entertainment
Word on the street is that the Kranky website has been featured in Entertainment Weekly! Find the issue dated January 25th and look for yourself. (We were given an A- for a grade!)
mumma on tzadik
"Live Electronic Music" by Gordon Mumma is due for release Tuesday on John Zorn's Tzadik label. This release compiles live cybersonic performances dating back to the early 1960s, featuring appearances by David Tudor, Robert Ashley, William Winant and others.
Here's what Tzadik has to say about it:
"The ultimate document by one of the most important electronic music composers in new music. A lifetime in the making, these meticulously crafted masterpieces include the legendary Mesa performed by avant garde virtuoso David Tudor on electric bandoneon and the first release of the complete version of Mumma's classic composition Hornpipe fully remastered and reworked by the composer himself. One of the most important releases of this or any other year-absolutely essential music by one of downtown's Founding Fathers."
Web author Jesse Niemenen adds that it's "sure to flatten all this glitch-of-the-week stuff churned out by limp-wristed "artists" with thin moustaches and even thinner laptops."
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| MUSIC IN REVIEW |
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Legendary Pink Dots, "Chemical Playschool 11, 12 & 13"
This is definitely one of the most ambitious releases in months and is quite possibly the most ambitious LPD release to date. This three CD set is composed of nearly all unreleased music, with the exception of two tracks from the LP edition of 'Nemesis Online' ("10th Shade," and "Schatten"). The spirit recalls that of the very first Chemical Playschool cassettes. Volumes 1 and 2 were released together over twenty years ago, collecting various recordings that were either alternate versions, compilation tracks or completely unreleased songs sharing one common characteristic: they never graced a full-length LPD album. In addition to that, unlike Volumes 8, 9, or 10, each disc contains nearly all the songs on one track. Just like good old cassette tapes, you hit play at the start and the hassle of scanning though tracks isn't worth bothering enough to find your favorite songs. Another parallel is the expense of mediums: both in 1981 and 2001 the most expensive commonly produced music medium is vinyl (CDs weren't -that- common until the mid-late 1980s). Cassettes were the most affordable medium then and CDs are the most affordable ones now. Each CD in this set captures a similar "home made" feel to them: lying in standard jewel boxes, absent of UPC codes, URLs, and even copyright notices. The music is a much welcomed return to form—considerably a return to an absence of form—with varying styles from beat-less atmospheric tracks, rhythmic grooves, hypnotic loops, a waltz or two, proverbial Ka-Spelian stories, kraut-rock jams, sparse soundscapes with hammering guitar bits, flute pieces, and electronic noises. The songs, strung together without silent pauses, have been collected over the years, dating back to as early as 1992 it seems, with very Shadow Weaver-like production qualities in parts, and more recent qualities in other parts. Home recordings from Ka-Spel and the Silverman sound like they have made their way onto the collection, as well as full-force band recordings where the drumming and bass guitar work is undoubtedly the work of departed member Ryan Moore. For any long-time LPDs fan whose interest has been waning over the last few years, a collection like this is certainly enough to re-ignite the love. The magic is back. It certainly has worked for me. Be careful as this Chemical Playschool set demands your undivided attention and doesn't fare well as background music or driving music. - Jon Whitney
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Dan Bern, "New American Language"
There are a few prerequisites to enjoying Dan Bern's music: you must enjoy at least new folk music, great harmonies, and quirky lyrics. Fresh after his departure from Sony's Work label, Bern returns on Messenger Records with this, his fourth album. The man who once proclaimed "I am the messiah" and wanted balls as big as the swing of Tiger Woods has toned down his smart ass antics only slightly and has accomplished his most mature effort to date. Bern has also turned up the backing band, making for a fiery and aggressive electric sound not heard quite to this level on previous releases. Mostly, Bern worked best when it was just him and a guitar, playing magical songs of human relationships. This time, every arrangement shows a new strength, from emotionally touching lyric writing on "God Said No" to fun hooting and hollering on "Alaska Highway." The title track is pure, perfect Dan Bern, as he has yet another conversation with someone who simply cannot accept his position: "She said 'love, love, love is everything'/I said 'ok, I guess, whatever'/She said 'what does that mean?'/I said 'nothin' it's just good to have a backup plan.'" And though not as blatantly random as Wesley Willis, Bern does like to riff on popular icons, where here he name checks Rae Dawn Chong, Leo DiCaprio, Britney Spears and Keith Richards, all in the same song. Elsewhere, on "Tape," for instance, his riffing hits real close to home, displaying tremendous growth in Bern's knack for social commentary. I miss the more quirky moments, but if this is a hint of where Dan Bern is eventually going, I'll join him on the whole journey. - Rob Devlin
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"LABORATORY SERIES VOLUME ONE"
Trawling in mostly sonic experimenters and improvisers from the Manchester area, this CD-R compilation offers a partial window on the noises being made at regular events such as Rotations and aLECTRO_eCOUSTIC throughout 2001.
The laboratory bubbles with the multiple musical personae of its curator Dave Clarkson, drummer for the now defunct White Cube who end the CD-R with an oddball ode to sexual shenanigans, singer Su Li sounding off like Eve Libertine of Crass nursing a wound. Dave Clarkson is also behind the sci-fi babble of Gelatine, the sinister drone of Illuminati, the backwards techno of Midget Gems, the dirty factory grind of Valis 33 and the mournful serenade of Monte Christo.
The RSI label throws up three disparate chunks of audio experimentation. Disco Operating System float off 'Just East of Lyra, Northwest of Pegasus' with a new track that signals a noisier direction possibly influenced by Birmingham's cut up noisician Magic City, opening with what sounds like a distorted organ heralding rapid pulsebeat degenerating into abstract dissonance. Magic City starts out with some random squeaks before erupting in a typically noisy squall. There's also a dose of emotive melodic electronica culled from JJ Howard's RSI CD-R 'Human Commodity Recordings'.
Then there's the Welsh industrialists of Fflint Central, Pendro and Oleum. A Pendro drone opens the lab for experimentation with the orgasmic sighs of Debbie doing Dusseldorf in a chunky synth loop, whilst Oleum lights a 'Corpse Candle' with warped squelching beats and engine rumble whilst the church organist worries about his tuning and tries to convince the vicar to update the hymn book with '20 Jazz Funk Greats'.
aLECTRO_eCOUSTIC instigator Daniel Weaver delivers a mulched dose of solo cello mooching, with weird bowed and processed noises flying off at tangents to a jovial plucked chugging centre. He also appears on a more frazzled, jagged and abstract short collaboration with electric toy molestor Alex Impey.
Black Curtain play slow guitar and country banjo picking in a 'Melodica Playpen' which nods to the likes of Papa M and Pullman. Go Go Ghidora sound like they've caged some hellbeast and miked up its rumbling stomach full of lesser demons.
The CD-R can be bought direct from www.planetsounds.co.uk and a second volume with a completely different line up is imminent. - Graeme Rowland
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"KING SIZE DUB CHAPTER SEVEN"
Most modern dub just doesn't do it for me. Ditto most straightforward dance floor music. Put the two together and it shouldn't fare too much better, right? Well, strangely enough, I'm pleasantly surprised how much I've been nodding my head while this disc spins. Germany's Echo Beach present the 7th chapter of their "King Size Dub" compilation with 11 cuts, over half of which are remixes. Most of these tracks have the same sort of digital sheen and rhythms that betray the analogue dub of the '70s, which I usually prefer, but I don't think that's what they're going for here. The subtitle advises 'file under logical dubgression' so they're obviously looking to push the parameters of dub. There's a balance of styles from classic to modern day dabblings in house and techno. Submission and Pre Fade Listening both utilize Tikiman, my favorite contemporary dub vocalist. The former, elegantly remixed by sometime Orb member Thomas Fehlman, features my man at the most animated I've ever heard him while in the latter he casually goes with the flow of a thick, nine minute plus techno pulse. Sounds From The Ground work in the the warmth of reggae brass for hire Crispy Horns. Rockers Hifi, State of Emergency and Seeed rock more of a classic bass groove, Seeed especially so with horns, organ, sonic vortex, 3 piece vocal and way down low end. The remaining tracks by Earl 16, Walkner.Möstl, Tosca, Dubblestandard, Waveform (a far too obvious Beastie Boys sample!) and G-Corp range from good to dull, none that I have to skip but none as snappy as the aforementioned. My generally dismissive attitude towards modern dub has been altered quite a bit. - Mark Weddle
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"bip-hop generation v.3 & v.4"
Possibly the most consistently good series of electronic music compilations over the last two years has been the Bip Hop series out of France. Each disc features musical contributions from six electronic artists from all over the world. The accompanying booklet gives a brief bio, selected discography and website/contact information. This technique is arguably far more effective in introducing new acts than releasing something to the effect of a triple CD set with one song from each contributor and fuckall for background information.
Two pieces from Riz Maslen as Neotropic open v.3. While she clearly moved away from the proverbial big beat sound of her Ninja Tune colleagues with last year's mostly beat-less full-length, 'La Proichane Fois,' beats are reintroduced to the mix here. The depth and feel from the organic sounding album carry over, however, making me more anxious to hear some EP and single remixes from her again. Bovine Life give up a string four tracks of varying styles, from tinkling melodies to random tones and noises to bass heavy bumping beats with analogue hums and spacious synths. Pimmon's tracks sound like algorhythmic software recreations of skipping records knocked off-center whilst playing underwater [Don't drop LSD to these bits, please]. French newcommer Zonk't leaves his mark with a 14+ minute beefy electro piece which takes a bit too much time building up to a mediocre climax. Thankfully Atau Tanaka from Japan cleans out our ears with his 8+ minute segment of gratious head bobbing beats with piercing yet nummy sound effects while the collection ends with a variety of segments from Russia's Novel 23, whose pieces are almost a punchy cross between Ulrich Schnauss and Solvent.
Volume four kicks off with a rather empty, unnecessary piece from Mira Calix with unchallenging beats, irritating clicks, melodically absent, with a pointless vocal loop. Luckily the deep echoes of si-(cut).db jump in with two nuveau dub-ish bits which could easily bury Pole. Twine's slick combination of guitar and other organic elements inside a saturated electronic mix has gained the duo attention from both the Chicago-based Hefty Records and Bip-Hop labels. I've been eagerly anticipating their next full-length record (ones are in store for both record companies according to the booklet notes). Datach'i has been releasing quirky, almost comical instrumental glitch-pop for the last few years on the NY-based Caipirinha, and while he's always had a good response from fans and other musicians, I've always thought there was something missing from his music. Don't get me wrong, it is pleasant to listen to, but nothing I have to go out of my way to drop loads of cashola on. Maybe it's just not pretentious or German enough to be taken seriously, or it's completely lacking in concept. [Maybe after listening to hours of this I'm ready to give up.] The rest of the collection is taken up by France's Vs_Price and Australia's Cray. Vs_Price contributes two gentle, unoffensive clicky bass kick-happy head-bobbers while Cray ends the collection with a nearly 15-minute soundtrack to an adventure horribly gone awry. It's like waking up one morning inside a computer, enjoying the scenery, taking in all the sights, but then trying like mad to get out. There's quite a lot of nicely varied electronic movements to this never stale track, which almost leaves the listener hanging, waiting for some kind of closure.
Thankfully, curator Philippe Petit has recognizably hand-assembled each of these comps with a genuine love of music by not saturating the collections with his own label's artists (haven't seen Tennis nor Spaceheads pop up here yet!) Be on the lookout for V.5, due out later this month. - Jon Whitney
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isobella, "a 24 syllable haiku"
Let me ge this right out of the way: the music on shoegazer band isobella's sophomore release is simply amazing. It's magnetic, even, as the listener is drawn to the speakers immediately upon hearing it. Warm tones, droning guitar, playful keyboards, and solid drumming, although mostly programmed, make for a pleasant backdrop for any vocals to prey upon. Unfortunately, in sharp opposition to their debut release "Akasha," they don't prey upon the music under them. They confound it, they drown it, and, in a lot of cases, you'll wish they simply weren't there. Maybe it's the treatment of them. Laura Poinsette has, as far as I can tell, a very capable voice, somewhat of a cross between Tanya Donnelly and Lisa Gerrard. And her voice sounds like it could float wonderfully above these songs, much as it did on their debut. Unfortunately, on "haiku" it's drenched in effects, with delay, slight distortion, and faded to a point where you couldn't decipher what she's singing on some tracks if you tried. It's a shame, because the music really is lovely, and I would have been happy with a CD of just isobella the musicians, with no vocals at all, as most of these tracks would be just fine on their own. As it stands, the vocals can't really even be counted as vocals on "a 24 syllable haiku" -- they are another instrument added to the mix, nothing more. And a highly intrusive one at that. Tracks like "Olive" and "Broken verbs" show incredible potential, as when the vocals are less treated they sound pretty lovely. My hope is that on the next release, Poinsette reveals her voice for us like before, warts and all, rather than hiding behind effects that mask it. - Rob Devlin
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TWELVE THOUSAND DAYS, "THE DEVIL IN THE GRAIN"
Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza) and Alan Trench (Orchis) return with their second album as Twelve Thousand Days. Unlike their 2000 debut "In the Garden of Wild Stars" which featured some traditional arrangements and excerpts of Alfred Lord Tennyson and W. B. Yates, "Devil" is entirely composed by Bates/Trench. But the poet laureate spirit remains strong in Bates precious words and delivery. I often find the music and mix of his projects, especially this one, an annoying obstacle between his wondrous voice and myself. Here it's bothersome with headphones but without it works just fine. The ten songs are a pretty, sort of mystical and medieval folk with acoustic guitars, unidentified drones, flute and tambourine, often drenched in reverb. "Glistening Praise" and the title track are the lengthiest, the latter over 10 minutes, and they veer off into valleys of instrumental atmospherics. Near the end "The Hand of Glory" disrupts everything, unfortunately, with a blast of electrified guitar noise. But the final track "Plea" placates my own plea by showcasing only the vocal. At first I didn't think this album compared to my favorite Bates work, such as "Dance of Hours" and the "Murder Ballads" and "Chamber Music" series, but it continues to grow on me. - Mark Weddle
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"FLOATING FOUNDATION 1"
This Sub Rosa compilation brings together five artists working with electroacoustic drone and is perhaps chiefly notable as the first reappearance of the hibernating Main in quite some time, but all five tracks will quite likely appeal to fans of Robert Hampson's later recordings such as the "Hertz" and "Firmament" series. Hampson's sound signature is unmistakable, although he's recently shifted the focus of his source material from guitar noise to environmental recordings and deeper electroacoustic influences. 'Hysteresis' opens with a big echoing clunk. Meticulously deployed gurgles, ringings and rustles all compliment each other, looming violently, rising to crescendos and fading eerily. It's a much faster evolving track than his latter "Firmament" installments and makes the compilation essential!
Inventor of the tri-phonic turntable Janek Schaefer has recently been collaborating with Robert in Comae, and his opening track shifts down a gear from his dense "Above Buildings" album for Fat Cat. 'Lithospheric Shifts' slowly fades in with a rumble like muffled motors buried in concrete, and soon the concrete starts to crack.
Christophe Charles is a French sound artist living in Tokyo who helped Markus Popp make Oval's "Dok". His 'Undirected Float' seems very warm and womblike after the spikier soundscapes of the Londoners. Voices are muffled by the protective blood and fat of dreamlike ambience. Similar sounds appear to those on his Yoshihiro Hanno remix, so maybe this is a kind of companion piece?
Former Ultra Vivid Scene lynchpin Kurt Ralske closes the disc with perhaps the easiest going track, a beautiful sunrise tide of smooth waves of processed singing and guitar washing in and out that's a nice way to drift away.
Nam June Paik collaborator Stephen Vitiello's 'Salty Lemonade for Falling Water' might be considered literally womblike, including recordings of his daughter's prenatal vital signs, but it's perhaps the most disorientating recording here. Oddly dislocated traffic noise and machine clatter merge into a nightmarish grey drone sliced by bottle top twisting tones, but then again maybe that's what it sounds like in some wombs? These recordings were made at the Whitney Museum in the old World Trade Center, which adds an unintended grim twist to the title of the compilation - a floating foundation on which the Imperial Hotel stood was given by it's architect as the reason it didn't topple in a 1922 earthquake. The compiler's intention was to use this as a metaphor for 'decompartmentalisation of genre' in music and sound art. This seems to be a slightly pretentious, but educational, way of saying that they made an effort to put together a compilation that hangs together well! - Graeme Rowland
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Alistair MacLean's "Puppet On A Chain" Original Soundtrack
There are some soundtracks that stand on their own. Isaac Hayes' soundtrack for "Shaft," Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly," and, more recently, even David Holmes' soundtracks for "Ocean's Eleven" and "Out Of Sight" were fairly independent from the film, even though the soundtracks did contain snippets of dialogue from the film interspersed throughout. A great soundtrack doesn't need the film in front of you to be an enjoyable experience. Piero Piccioni, "Italian soundtrack maestro" according to the back of the CD, scored many films in the sixties and seventies, many of which never had a soundtrack released until years later. "Puppet On A Chain" is such a soundtrack, seeing the light of day finally in 2001. Having not seen the whole film—the boat chase is legendary, but the rest is utterly forgettable—I must say listening to the soundtrack did nothing for me. Especially since the majority of the tracks have the same part played again and again: the same bassline, Hammond organ chords, and phat drum beat, with occasional augmentation with guitar, horns, or both. The man who played with Ennio Morricone on "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" has real scoring talent, mind you, but I have no real interest in seeing this film after hearing the soundtrack, even though I'm quite certain that it would work much better with the film than on its own. But, as seventies film soundtracks go, this fits the mold: most tracks are under two and a half minutes, the track titles are named after which scene in the movie they are used ("Night Club," "Chase," and "Mystery/The Discotheque," for example), and, as is pointed out in "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka," the hero does have his theme music, as this release plays out repeatedly. As I said, I don't think it stands on its own, but it probably fits the film just fine. - Rob Devlin
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Nobukazu Takemura, "Sign"
Making its way to the shops this week is the CD issue of the now legendary 12" single originally released (and reviewed) back in December of 2000. "Sign" has got to be one of my favorite 12" single releases in the last few years, with a B-side that clocks in over 36 minutes. (You can find the original review here.) On the CD, the original tracks are coupled with the new track, "Meteor" while the remix of "Sign" is omitted. The most remarkable bit this time around is the second "bonus" CD-ROM which contains the full 9+ minute long music video for "Sign." Too big to be downloaded nor fit comfortably on a CD which already has over 64 minutes of music, the video is beautiful but bleak. It's an animated story of the featuring animal experimentation, industrial pollution and war machines starring an angelic robot (pictured on the front) who tries to save the day amidst mass destruction. It's captivatingly snazzy with animation entirely by Katsura Moshino (who I think was providing the animation during last year's Takemura tour opening up for Tortoise). With any luck the video will make the indie animation fest circuts, to those music programs on Sundance Channel or even possibly M2. It's that good. - Jon Whitney
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We know that sometimes these CDs are somewhat challenging to find, which is why we have a community section which can be used to obtain nearly everything available on this site. |
| NEW RELEASES |
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MONDAY
* Can - Monster Movie LP (Mute, UK)
* Can - Tago Mago 2xLP (Mute, UK)
* Can - Ege Bamyasi LP (Mute, UK)
* Can - Cannibalism I 2xLP (Mute, UK)
Drexciya - Harnessed the Storm CD/LP (Tresor, Germany)
Fauna Flash - Confusion CD/2xLP [remix album with mixes by Stephane Attias, Salvador Group, Dixon, dZihan & Kamien, Peter Kruder, Stereotyp, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Charly Dark, Blue Foundation and Pole] (Compost, Germany)
Fog - Pneumonia 12"/CDEP (Ninja Tune, UK/Canada/US)
Kettel - Tadley Management 12" (Planet µ, UK)
Speedy J - Krekc 12"/CDEP (Mute, UK)
Ultra-Red - La economía nueva (Operation Gatekeeper) CD3" (Fat Cat, UK)
Various - Nanoloop 1.0 CD [music exclusively created on the Nintendo Gameboy with the Nanoloop software by Merzbow, Hrvatski, Felix Kubin, Blectum from Blechdom, Vladislav Delay and more] (Disco Bruit, Germany)
TUESDAY
John Beltran - Felicidad Nova 12" (Ubiquity, US)
Blue Six - Beautiful Tomorrow CD/LP (Naked/Astralwerks, US)
Chameleonic - Segments (Cleerance, Canada)
Cornelius - Point CD (Matador, US)
DJ Logic - The Anomaly CD (Rope-a-Dope/Ryko, US)
Dynamo - Aussen Vor CD (Din, Germany)
* Felix da Housecat - Kittenz & Thee Glitz CD (Emperor Norton, US)
Jackie-O Motherfucker - Liberation CD (Road Cone, US)
Kill Switch Klick - Almost Ambient Collection 1 CD (Invisible, US)
Mouse on Mars - Agit Itter It It CDEP (Thrill Jockey, US)
Nine Inch Nails - live: and all that could have been CD/2xCD/DVD/VHS (nothing/Universal, US)
Rivulets - Rivulets CD (Chairkickers Union, US)
* Steve Roach - Freestyle Disco 12" (Mute, US)
S.I. Futures - Krekc 12"/CDEP (Mute, US)
Speedy J - Krekc 12"/CDEP (Mute, US)
Nobukazu Takemura - Sign CD + CD-ROM (Thrill Jockey, US)
Various - Recline CD (Six Degrees, US)
Various - Sounds of Om 3 CD (Om, US)
Various - Montreal Smoked Meat CD (Force Inc., Germany)
FRIDAY
Beequeen - Natursymfonie LP [limited to 140 copies on yellow vinyl] (Beta-Lactam Ring, US)
SATURDAY
Andy Vaz - Clicks_Sounds_Variation 2 12" (---, Germany)
This is simply this week's highlights from the NEW RELEASES provided by Greg and Feedback Monitor.
For a more detailed schedule stretching into the future, please check out the site,
since release dates can and will often change.
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| TOM'S CORNER |
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YOU ALL SUCK
New Flash: All you Bork and Radiohead fans suck.
Saw "Royal Tenenbaums" for the second time last week. What a terrific
film. Detail is excellent, story is the whimsical type of crap that always
works for me and the soundtrack is superb. Unfortunately, the official
soundtrack CD for the film lacks quite a bit of the songs. Bite me,
Rolling Stones and Van Morrison. Saw quite a few critics who
figured they could shit on "Royal Tenenbaums" because it was no
"Rushmore". They can all choke on my cock like it was a pretzel.
Wes Anderson's new film was what I considered to be the best film of
2001 until I got lucky enough to catch "The Devil's Backbone". I was
worried that it might be a crappy french film, but luckily it was Spanish.
The film is a great mixture of atmosphere, story and special effects. I
found out afterwards that this film was produced by that same shithead who
directed such crappy films as "All Over Your Fat Mother" and "Tie Me
Up, Tie Me Down" ("Atame" in Spanish, which amazingly is also
"Cock Hopper" in French). Luckily, Guillermo del Toro directed
"Devil's Backbone", saving it from turning into "Flower of My Secret
II". del Toro directed "Blade 2" and is slated to work on
"Hellboy". Hooray for him.
Is it my imagination, or is "Amelie" really "Unbreakable 2". Must
the French ruin everything? They just couldn't leave "Kung Fu" alone. The
world did not want a period piece kung fu movie with prostitutes, Navajos
and the French Revolution, but thanks to "Brotherhood of the Wolf", we
now have one. "Crouching Fromage, Hidden Vin".
The new "Akira" print looks fantastic! And the new dub almost
doesn't suck. Much closer to the original Japanese version than the dub put
out in 1990 or so with the same voices as the "Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles". Saw it right after Altman's new, forgettable film. I
can't even remember the title of it. It's good, but not remarkable.
Emily Watson has a great opportunity to show us her tits in the
film, but passes. Thanks Emily, I'll just put "Breaking the
Waves" into my DVD player and SO NOT SPANK IT again. Remember that film
where she plays the insane cello player, "Someone and Someone Else"?
Where the woman playing her sister has to convince her husband to sleep
with Watson's character. What a fucking puss that guy is.
And if people tell you that "Moulin Rouge" was the worst movie of the
year, it's probably because they didn't see "Fat Girl" yet. And if
people try to tell you "Moulin Rouge" was a good film, then they
probably write for the Boston Globe, who also picked
'Amneisiacalic' as album of the year. - Tom the Fish
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| LINK OF THE WEEK |
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army men porn
Why are the most amusing links of the week porn-related? http://blake.prohosting.com/armyporn/
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| FEEDBACK |
beating a dead fucking horse
Subject: let down
i'd been excited all week for the end of the year
poll. as i typed the url in my browser i got a pen and
paper ready to jot down names and albums that
i ought to investigate further in the stores and online.
i was sorely disappointed... didn't write down a
fuckin' thing. don't get me wrong, i like radiohead
and bjork (like everyone, two of my fav. albums of
the year), but i can read about them anywhere,,,
rolling stone, spin, the wire (ha!)...
i come to brainwashed because i'm
looking for shit i wouldn't hear about otherwise. i was really happy to see
fennesz and dntel in there among others. it seems
that brainwashed's readers don't dig much deeper
than your content and the general hype bubbling around tower records each
month. the funny thing
is, i don't have much else to contribute either.
p.s. could you host my website and send me some free promos and tell martin
from matmos to give me back my stethoscope?
piss off
Subject: 2002 poll
I'm sure you're all sick of the complaints about the poll, so I have a
suggestion. In my humble opinion, asking the avg. indie net zine reader to
pick their favorite TEN records is too tall a task. I bet most of the people
who polled didn't even buy 10 records from the past year. Most of us don't
have the money to burn every few weeks on a new band they only have a hunch
about, cuz god knows the radio is censoring our ears from the real music.
People like me get sick of checking out this and that overhyped band at the
record store and therefore revert to back catalogs of the more familiar artist
of yesteryear/decade.
Besides, lets hypothesize that someone does buy 10 or 13 new albums, should
he/she feel obligated to fill in all 10 spaces??? For example, it's hard to
deny that the new Jim O'Rourke's album (too whiny), new Silver Mt. Zion (too
much Floyd 'The Wall' influence'), and Tortoise (too slick and predictable) were
some of the worst releases by these artists. And yet since many of the readers
are big fans of their earlier work, they will acknowledge their loyalty to the
band by filling them in. They do this in spite of the fact that they know that
half the album is half-baked. A solution this problem could be a separate
category of favorite band/artist not of the year but simply their favorite
band. It can be easy to expect too much from your audience, especially when
you cover the more intellectual end of the art of music. Or maybe, it should
be kept @ top 10, but the max # of picks for the top albums must be at most
half of the releases purchased by the poller thereby omitting !
the dreaded "sympathy vote" *spoken in a Scottish accent*. Thats probly asking
tew much fer yer audience two tho.
Yeah, well, it's not a science nor should it be.
Many people were confused enough as to what a "guilty pleasure" meant.
I agree about the half-baked comment. I would have voted for Radiohead's "OK Computer" in 1998 but "Amnesiac" was a half-assed overpriced overhyped collection of expensively produced shitty b-sides. There, I reviewed the fucking album finally. It blew. Now go buy Hefty's "Immediate Action" CD comp and leave us alone.
Subject: A comment on your "comment" on the poll:
What does it tell you when your own readers vote for major label recordings?
Are we people that can't determine whether Radiohead is qualitatively better or
worse than Mogwai? Or perhaps, we are people who can see past label
affiliation, and simply appreciate good music.
Problem #1: you probably didn't "see past" Radiohead and don't own the Lali Puna or Telefon Tel Aviv records. Too many people easily accept what the big press says as the truth and can't be bothered to search for something more. It's too hard.
(And what determines whether something is on a major label or not? Depeche
Mode, Aphex Twin, The Strokes and Björk are on independent labels (Mute, Warp,
Rought Trade and One Little Indian) in the UK, but on majors (Reprise, Sire,
RCA and Elektra) in the US.)
If they're on a major label anywhere, we don't want to support them.
Brainwashed is read by people in numerous different countries.
Clearly, your readership believes that there is good music to be found on major
labels. If the point of the poll is "here's what the readership of this
website thought was the best music released last year," then you should leave
it as is. Otherwise, it becomes a poll where the point is "You get to choose
from whom we cover; what was best among those artists?" That's a bit
self-congratulatory, don'tcha think? You might as well just tell us what was
the best and dispense with the poll altogether. Which is fine; lots of sites
do that.
We write this fucking thing every week for free! I think that entitles us to choose contestants. If you went to any other website that had a "best of" poll (Time's Person of the Year, E!'s Movies of the Year, etc...), they usually only gave you five choices.
Perhaps you should do both a readership poll *and* publish your own
"Brainwashed Editors And Contributors Only" poll, if you feel that the
readership poll alone is not achieving your aim of highlighting the best
independent music of the year.
Brainwashed will try harder next year NOT to be NME, Spin, Rolling Stone, The Wire or anybody else, how's that?
Subject: Adult review
Hello.
This message is from ADULT. I just wanted to say thanks for the most hateful
review we have ever gotten. You may think I am being sarcastic, but I am
serious. When we write music, we try and make music that is either loved or
hated, we don't like middle ground. Lately we have been getting a lot of hype,
and it is nice to know some people actually HATE our music, it means a lot to
us, like we must be doing something right.
No need to reply.
Aha, this is how it really works: nobody ever paid attention when we said good things about Le Car. Detroit: the place that brought the world Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and the White Stripes. Patterns are emerging,...
Subject: Staff Feedback
Is it possible to receive regularly some informations about your work ? New
records, concerts in France, etc.
Thank you very much for your work.
The Brainwashed Staff don't play concerts.
Subject: Trans Am
Did Trans Am cover "Godzilla"?
Not that we're aware of. Doesn't mean it never happened.
Subject: electronic book
I'm working on a book about the complete history of electronic music.
There's a great chapter about the industrial age and a lot of stuff about
Throbbing Gristle and Genesis P. Orridge. I'm desperately loking for high
resolution / size photos of them for the book's "inlay". No way, I'm not lucky,
could you help me? thank you in advance.
Try contacting record labels. Mute comes to mind.
Subject: DIJ MGT?
shalom! i would like to introduce myself. i
bring djs & live acts to israel since 96. i brought the orb-live, ozric
tentacles - live, darude-live, josh wink, erick morillo, plastikman, john
acquaviva to name just a few.
im working with the main 80s promoter in israel and
brought acts such as alphaville, anne clarke and others to israel.
we would like to enquire re bringing DEATH IN JUNE to perform in israel and
would highly appreciate it if you could pls send us a contact for the
management or booking agent because im finding it difficult to navigate in
the official site.
looking forward to hear from you.
Is this some sort of sick joke?
Subject: Theatre Plaza
How can I find theatre plaza
I wanna see these prformances
Do they have phone books in your world?
Subject: Console
There is a 99,99999% chance that you've already heard about this, but
Console have released a live album, "Live at Centre Pompidou" (Matador/Payola)
It's wonderful. You should review it.
Sounds great, send it along! We dig Console.
Subject: Tortoise tattoo
Hi! I think Im writing for the webmaster of the Tortoise website. I love
tortoise and thought I'd show it off with a swell tatoo. This site was
recently revamped and the picture I planned on using is gone!!!! I need to
get into contact with the webmaster and see if he can get me the picture.
Please contact me when possible. Thank you very much.
If it's that boy and girl riding the big tortoise, go buy one of the first 7" singles from the band.
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| WHAT'S IN YOUR PLAYER? |
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Give the new kids a workout
Manitoba "give'r"
FOR FRIENDS: Tomlab + Audio Dregs comp
ELECTRIC BIRDS "Strata Frames"
VODOO DRUMS "Drummers of the Societe Absolument Guinin"
Vlasdislav Delay "Entain"
HERBERT "Bodily Functions"
Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra "Liberation Afrobeat Vol.1"
Donnacha Costello "Together is the New Alone"
Robert Bergman, "Junking out on cds & new speaks."
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