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Like the 23Five label's recent success, Variable Resistance: Ten Hours of Sound from Australia, this new two-disc compilation from Preservation seeks to document a burgeoning sound art/experimental electronic scene among Australian musicians. "Scene," however, may be inappropriate given the variety available here. Motion: Movement in Australian Sound does distinguish itself by veering (slightly) away from headier sound art pieces into a more repeated-listener-friendly zone.
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- Madame Chao - Hologram of Balls (Horrorglam of Bars Mix)
- DJ Enormous Genitals - Don't Stop Bleedin' (Enormous Cock Mix)
- Arctic Universe - Too Good To Be Experimental (Ten Below Mix)
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- O Paradis - Calling for Vanished Faces
- Storm of Capricorn - Crowleymass
- Der Feuerkreiner - Soft Black Stars
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The Legendary Pink Dots might be the best-kept secret of the independent music scene. The band has been playing together for more than 20 years without a single brush with the mainstream, occupying a nebulous space between gothic rock, the avant-garde, progressive rock, the "esoteric" and psychedelic rock. Too goth for the indie fans and too rock for the apocalyptic folk, the Pink Dots have fallen into an odd little niche where few are familiar with them and even magazines like The Wire seem unaware of their existence. It is said that the best environment for artists to produce great work is one in which no one gives a damn, and this could certainly be true for the Pink Dots. Over the course of their career, they have produced a huge catalog of worthwhile music, much of it totally out of step with its time, and always shot through with boundless experimentation and amazingly original soundworlds.
When I first saw Out Hud, they were playing to a crowd of Chicago's finest at the Fireside Bowl in the midst of an old-fashioned Midwestern heat wave. Two feelings prevailed that night, as the crowd anxiously awaited the headlining Locust to come on: the first was the "my god, I could not be more sweaty in this sauna of a club appropriately named the fireside" feeling. The second was the "I don't know who this band Out Hud is or why they are playing this show, but I guess it's cool" feeling. This second sentiment was actually voiced by Out Hud bassist (and !!! vocalist) Nic Offer himself in the banter between two songs. All the perspiring punks could have cared less why Out Hud were there; what mattered was that they were in fact there, and for a 40-minute set on a night when movement was excruciating, everyone forgot about the oppressive heat and started to dance and move and shake to this strange band whose music demanded that our bodies dance and move and shake, regardless of whether we wanted to or not.
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"Darker Times" is a great opener and the only song co-written with Ingo Vauk, who co-produced this album with Dave Ball. The Marc Almond themes of love, passion, desire, and desperation are present in songs as "Last Chance" (the 'sequel to "Say Hello Wave Goodbye"' as announced on tour), "Together Alone", "Desperate" and the incredibly catchy "All Out Of Love," where Almond steps outside of his his favorite terrain and ventures into the familiarity of a sleazy secret world.
There are reflections about the modern lifestyle, the media sickness and the emotional and moral bankrupt: cynically sharp on in the albums preceding single (and video) "Monoculture," intense and dramatical on "Caligula Syndrome," cabaret-like on "Le Grand Guignol," and on the poppy dance tune, "Sensation Nation." Another Almond trademark, the self-reflective introspection, takes the shape of a sing-a-long tune, "Whatever It Takes," the story of somebody's mid-life crisis and the album ends on an up-note with an appropriately titled outro, "On an Up."
The weakest point of the album is the cover version of "The Night," another Northern Soul classic like "What" or "Where Did Our Love Go?" Musically, it's actually quite nice but I whish they had gone for something more daring. Soft Cell are able to push pop boundaries much further (as they proved often enough), but have played it safe with this tune (which is most likely to become the next single). The same could be said of this album, but maybe those are the effects of a 'matured' sound and slick production. Since so much time has passed, it's probably impossible for them to have met all the expectations of their fans. What we are left with is a fine album, one of this year's highlights, full of bouncy electronic pop songs, matched with superb lyrics which are more enjoyable with each listen.
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The limitations of the 7" single medium dictates that songs need to be brief and to-the-point. While this seems like a confining space to work in for a group who has a reputation for lengthy drones, Windy & Carl have actually been doing this for years. 'Introspection' is the first career-spanning evolutionary tour guide of the Dearborn duo, chronologically arranged in triplicate.
As part of Aaron Turner's (Isis, Greymachine, and Hydra Head Records) new Sige label, this split vinyl captures both the look and feel of classic noise LPs, right down to the hand-stamped labels and lo-fi inserts. The aesthetic carries over to the sound as well, with both artists contributing tracks that share a creepy, heavy sound that joins the best of metal and harsh noise.
Functioning quite well as a current statement of what the 12k label is focusing on artistically, this disc features five artists associated with the label performing live from a recent Japanese tour, and the results showcase the variety and nuance of this niche of electronic music.