It's worth hearingjust for Boredoms' two chord big drum hoedown and the spoken wordtwilight psychedelia of Bardo Pond, whose warped eastern percussion led'White Turban' is the highlight. 'White Turban' builds wonderfullyhypnotic layers of tidal guitar ebb and flow over which IsobelSollenberger recounts a disjointed tale of something queer likestarlight. Boredoms gain big kudos for their long instrumental windtunnel which sounds unlike anything else they've done but couldn'treally be anyone else. Sonic Youth play a restrained sparse fireflyflickering instrumental that segues neatly into the more distortedUnwound who sound here like they could almost be the same band withtheir ghost piano, skittering footsteps, thick chunky bass andoverloaded drums. This track pisses all over everything from theirdisappointing "Leaves Turn Inside You" album. Dead C also sound oddlyas if they're paying distorted homage to Sonic Youth circa "Bad MoonRising", although this is probably unintentional, and the joyous racketthey kick up seems less artfully considered with drums even moredistorted than Unwound or Boredoms. Stephen Malkmus shrugs off a tweethrowaway demo tune about 'good kids' which becomes pretty irritatingafter repeated listening, whilst Papa M despairs of how to tell someonehe loves them in a maudlin folky style. Catpower also does the folkything but whereas Papa M sounds convincingly fraught about his wordsblowing away and deploys emotively effective dynamics, Catpower juststrums bland and forgettable. Table top guitar mangler Kevin Drumm andSatan's Tornade (Merzbow and Russell Haswell) end it all with somesuitably apocalyptic laptop noise. Drumm has more textural variation inhis track whilst Satan's Tornade go hell for weather in random digitalstorm clouds. All tracks are exclusives except for the ever bland andboring sickly sweet Stereolab and the much feted hip hop combo CannibalOx, who leave me feeling indifferent as they hang Zeus on the crucifixand scream Phoenix. - samples:
- Boredoms - Super Now
- Satan's Tornado - Amalgamated Computer Experience
- Unwound - Behold the Salt
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