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It was inevitable that the children who grew up with Barney the Purple Dinosaur and Power Rangers would eventually start listening to music. This is the only explainable reason why flocks of kids love this group while a number of critics poo-poo them. I'm not saying these kids don't have taste, but maybe they just don't know that music like this has been done far better for years and years. Take the vocals of Frank Tovey and Richard Butler, add a dash of Ride, mix well with the Smiths pretending to be any generic Factory label B-list band and hire any old 1980s producer who's not done much in a while (but will get the critics scatching their chins) and voila, a debut album is ready for a press campaign! While Gareth Jones's take on the group's recordings clearly sound miles ahead of their first EPs and mediocre live performances, even the most talented producer is completely unable to accommodate for atrocious vocals and downright painful lyrics. There are moments of reflection, like on the heavily reverb-effected "NYC" or the up-close and intimate "The New" but most of it is brainless jangly guitar-based minor key dance music like songs like "Obstacle 1" or Joy Division riff-ripoffs like "Roland." To their credit, the group does play well together, despite having numerous moments of one-note playing, but even they will eventually get bored of that.
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- Bill Ryubin
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Some of Palestine's gorgeous drones are now transferred to CD and remastered by Lee Ranaldo and Thomas Koner for the Netherlands-based Barooni label. The two have done a great job too: the sound is crystal clear. This opens with 20 minutes of near static drones and tones in "Two-Fifths".
 
It's so stripped bare that for a while it seems like he's just made a steady electronic pulse, but after a few minutes of saturation, waves and other half-heard fragments start appearing. He uses the piano to create a similar saturation effect on the next two, "One+Two+Three Fifths" and "Sliding Fifths," which relentlessly pound out a mass of sound. His insane ability to play about four rhythms at once keeps the music from ever drifting into the background. After the 40+ minutes of superb piano punishing, the closing electronic drone of "Three Fifths" is a little too empty and sparse to hold my attention. Most of the music here is so stripped down that it's hardly there at all, but there's a lot of strange things going on under the surface.
 
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- Abe Forman-Greenwald
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- Abe Forman-Greenwald
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The typical track on this album combines snippets of scratchy 70s soulvocals and instrumental samples like upright basslines to create asatisfyingly melodic whole. The album is somewhat of an antidote to theprogrammed, mechanical beats that have been dominating recent hip-hopDJ work. In other words, it's very un-Neptunes. Three of his trackshave MCs rhyming over them and each does a good job complimenting theDJ skills without overwhelming the complex instrumentals underneath.They also big up the DJs approach with lines like "RJ's thearchaeologist, diggin 'em up" . One of my favorite songs on the albumis "Ghostwriter," a perfect blending of layers of loops and vocals intoa head-nodding instrumental classic that never gets too repetitive. Ithink it was a great decision by Def Jux to pick up an artist likeRJD2, a talented DJ and master of the sampler who can produce musicthat offsets the label's darker tendencies...I guess he's not thatShadowy after all.
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There's really a fine line between jazz-influenced electronic beats and sleepy nu-jazz telephone hold music and unfortunately, this album teeters a weee-bit too close to the undesirable.G-Stone
Kruder & Dorfmeister made a name for themselves remixing a number of people, which is why it's confusingly ironic that their stunning original products produce such mediocre remix efforts. First it was the dreadful Tosca remixes, now this. The 1999 eponymous Peace Orchestra full-length album is simply a must-have in your collection, but three years later, remixes have reinvented the subdued downtempo classic into a multi car crash of dismissable world jazz beat. Gotan Project opens the collection with the strongest track, the first of two appearances of "The Man" with new melodic elements provided by acoustic guitar, accordion, and Coil-esque electronic twitters. It's all downhill from there, however. Beanfield try too hard to be Herbie Hancock on their take on "Meister Fetz" while DJ DSL's reinterpretation of "Double Drums" gives me frightening visions of passing out on seedy hotel lobby furniture. By the time the false bass and 808 drum machine sounds of Meitz's version of "Marakesch" sound in, I'm aching to be listening to the original album in a big way. The remaining tracks, including remixes from Zero dB, Guilliaume Boulard and Chateau Flight are consistently also heavy on the cross between cheesy retro synths and clinical jazz soloists. While I don't doubt the talent of the number of remixers on display, the days of Harold Faltermeyer film scores should remain two decades in the past.
 
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Billing itself as "an Icelandic Ambient Compilation," Uni:form, in conjunction with Thule, definitely adopts a broad definition of "ambient." The vast majority of tracks on '42 More Things' are more structured than such aforementioned nomenclature might imply, but the general presence of electronic chill-out background soundscapes (somewhere in between Warp's 'Artificial Intelligence' compilations and the atmospheric side of the Morr Music roster) is right on the mark.
Ilo, Thor, Ruxpin, and Biogen will likely be familiar to the more seasoned aficionados of Icelandic music as a result of their remix work for both Múm and Sigur Rós. Ilo's track "Tif" is among the more striking of the contributions: a trip hop-infused tapestry of distorted voices, guitar, piano and seductive beats. The fluffy but listenable "Flying," the angelic and moody "First Contact," and the drum 'n' bass-inspired "Above Sea Level" are Ruxpin's three pieces. These tracks, while exhibiting an impressive range overall, individually don't seem really go anywhere. They do succeed, however, in melding well with the relaxed vibe of the compilation as a whole. Biogen's "Hi-Fi FM" is quirky and up-tempo, while "Afloat" sounds like a digital sea spray overlaid with glistening mellow synths. "I Don't Have a Clue" by Thor is perhaps the closest to being truly ambient with its beatless lilt, along with the Trabant's track "Superman," remixed here by Worm is Green. Other noteworthy contributions come from the lesser-known Krilli (represented here by two excellent songs, one of which beautifully recalls some of the instrumental work on David Bowie's 'Low'), Rhythm of Snow's Autechre-esque "Getting Closer to an Unknown Goal," and Múm's twitchy Kanada remix.
Overall, '42 More Things' doesn't have much that will completely bowl its listeners over with either profundity or innovation, but as a whole, it provides for extremely pleasant and meditative listening.
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- Ilo - Tif
- Krilli - 52cd 4kg
- Biogen - Hifi FM
- Ruxpin - Above Sea Level
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It's hard to believe two years have passed since the incredible first 2xCD compilation from Morr Music surfaced (Putting the Morr Back in Morrissey). Two years later, a number of the bands featured have released marvelous albums on the Berlin-based Morr. This year's 2xCD collection of digital lullabies features a few acts who have become usual suspects from the Morr roster of champions as well as a handful of new faces: one disc of cover tunes, the other with all new material. Allegedly the story goes like this: Creation Records is dead and buried, Thomas Morr tried but failed to obtain the rights to reissue Slowdive's back catalogue, but that didn't stop him from successfully curating a fantastic collection of Slowdive cover tunes by a number of popular Morr artists and friends.
Perhaps I'm a little biased going into this record, as Slowdive was one of my favorite bands during their time, and I can't remember the last Morr release I didn't enjoy, but all of the versions are tasteful, with a personal twist, and never forced. Disc one opens with the sparse version of "Alison" by Future 3 and ends with the breathtakingly shimmering version of "Machine Gun" by Múm. Some of the more heady (nearly-)instrumental tracks have been tackled by appropriate Morr acts like Limp and Manual while contributions from Lali Puna, Ms. John Soda, Styrofoam and Ulrich Schnauss will have you singing these songs in your sleep. If I had only one gripe, it would be the request that ISAN stick to instrumental music, otherwise, I can't imagine a more appropriate group of people to reinterpret some of the most beautiful music released in the early part of the 1990s. Disc two features another sparsely arranged track from newbie Future 3 as well as an original song from the peculiarly titled act Ms. John Soda (which features Micha Acher of Notwist/Tied and Tickled Trio and Stefanie Böhm) which make me anxious to hear full-length albums from each of these. In addition, brand new contributions from Ulrich Schnauss, Limp, ISAN, Manual and Hermann & Kleine will please anybody who's fallen in love with this label as much as I. Okay, I can stop gushing now...
 
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