Too Pure
The majority of buzz surrounding this Welch rock trio has been fortheir latest release and its rough, dynamic energy cast as 'Surfer Rosa2002.' Engineered by Steve Albini, 'Do Dallas' certainly features allthe sonic hallmarks of that seminal influence, with fuzzed-out, franticguitars and a pummeling rhythm section. Rather than Black Francis'verge-of-a-mental-breakdown vocals, we're treated to a sneering AndyFalkous, who is all attitude, confidently convinced that his band isbetter than your band, and more than willing to go head to head toprove it. He delivers with conviction, occasionally dissolving intofits of yelps or slurred syllables in his effort to demonstrate hissupremacy. Mclusky is a tight, energetic group with a guitar that cutslike a serrated knife and their lyrics are almost as sharp as theirlicks, with highlights like "We take more drugs than a touring funkband" and "I'm fearful / I'm fearful / I'm fearful of flying / andflying is fearful of me!" It is a little disconcerting that some of thelyrics seem to crib from other sources, for example, the 'touring funkband' line is from the late comedian Bill Hicks, while a quote from TheSimpsons pops up near the end of the disc. Also, their swagger fails attimes, and Mclusky's bravado comes off as trite, like a confusedplayground taunt ("All your friends are cunts / your mother's aballpoint pen thief") or too cutely ironic and self-referential likethe quiet filler track "Fuck This Band." Straight ahead, surging rocktracks like "Dethink to Survive" show that they can make the familiarsound exciting, while "Clique Application Form," a noisy, shamblingtrack with shouts of "Never been kissed! Never been kissed!" mayforeshadow future attempts to broach new territory. Despite thederivative aspects, 'Mclusky Do Dallas' manages to be exhilarating andentertaining in its brief thirty-five minutes. When Falkous commandsyou to "sing it!" on the standout "To Hell With Good Intentions," youfeel compelled to do something, maybe yell or bark or pump your fist.His band may not be better than your band (In fact, they might haveripped your band off a little), but 'Do Dallas' is a fun, albeitbrainless record. Just don't expect it to stay in your CD player fortoo long.
The majority of buzz surrounding this Welch rock trio has been fortheir latest release and its rough, dynamic energy cast as 'Surfer Rosa2002.' Engineered by Steve Albini, 'Do Dallas' certainly features allthe sonic hallmarks of that seminal influence, with fuzzed-out, franticguitars and a pummeling rhythm section. Rather than Black Francis'verge-of-a-mental-breakdown vocals, we're treated to a sneering AndyFalkous, who is all attitude, confidently convinced that his band isbetter than your band, and more than willing to go head to head toprove it. He delivers with conviction, occasionally dissolving intofits of yelps or slurred syllables in his effort to demonstrate hissupremacy. Mclusky is a tight, energetic group with a guitar that cutslike a serrated knife and their lyrics are almost as sharp as theirlicks, with highlights like "We take more drugs than a touring funkband" and "I'm fearful / I'm fearful / I'm fearful of flying / andflying is fearful of me!" It is a little disconcerting that some of thelyrics seem to crib from other sources, for example, the 'touring funkband' line is from the late comedian Bill Hicks, while a quote from TheSimpsons pops up near the end of the disc. Also, their swagger fails attimes, and Mclusky's bravado comes off as trite, like a confusedplayground taunt ("All your friends are cunts / your mother's aballpoint pen thief") or too cutely ironic and self-referential likethe quiet filler track "Fuck This Band." Straight ahead, surging rocktracks like "Dethink to Survive" show that they can make the familiarsound exciting, while "Clique Application Form," a noisy, shamblingtrack with shouts of "Never been kissed! Never been kissed!" mayforeshadow future attempts to broach new territory. Despite thederivative aspects, 'Mclusky Do Dallas' manages to be exhilarating andentertaining in its brief thirty-five minutes. When Falkous commandsyou to "sing it!" on the standout "To Hell With Good Intentions," youfeel compelled to do something, maybe yell or bark or pump your fist.His band may not be better than your band (In fact, they might haveripped your band off a little), but 'Do Dallas' is a fun, albeitbrainless record. Just don't expect it to stay in your CD player fortoo long. 
This is the second solo release from the guitarist of Union CarbideProductions, Soundtrack of Our Lives and Spain, among others, following1999's apparently well-recieved 'Instrumentalmusik'. There are severalunusual aspects to UPA, all of which are worthwhile. First, upliftingcelebratory music like this is smile and happiness-inducing. LikeShooby Taylor or High Rise, it just works in that way.Next, it is mostly based on unlikely combinations of musical styles: aNotting Hill Festival-style steel band music with heavy progressiverock, Herb Alpert horns with blissed-out space-wah guitar, 80s MORpower ballad with Moricone western and 60s spy movie themes,traditional Scotish dance music with French girl-group harmy vocals,Sweedish folk and kraut rock. The success Olsson has with thesecombinations suggests a rare compositional talent as the tunes gel andjust work as though these styles always belonged together. Quite unlikeZorn's genre-hopping in the 80s, UPA works more as though a master likeQuincy Jones were doing genre set pieces. It's a dazzling, intoxicatingtour that would be surreal if it weren't so natural in appearance.Then, for nerds like me there's some excellent guitar work on severalcuts to be enjoyed, including a storming psychedelic work-out to closethe album. But there's more, the disk has utilitarian strengths too:1.) the post-modern aspect (not that there's anything tounge-in-cheekabout UPA) means that you can enjoy these highly unfashionable anduncool musical styles (that deep down you love and would listen to moreoften if you weren't so self-concious) without fear of losingcredibility among your most sophisticated friends, and 2.) it's so welldone, nice and easy going that straight and square friends are going todig it too.To top it all off, the whole album appears twice on the same CD! The first time around, it is with a polished studio sound while thesecond version is low-fi, apparently having been run through a cassetteplayer with what sounds like a fairly cheesy AGC. With an album likethis which deserves repeated plays, why not have it these two different ways?-
It might happen that the worthiness of an album becomes gauged onwhether it is able to marry the cacophony of firecrackers with thefrailest of human voices. When this happens (and surely it willhappen), then 'Dark Falcon' will be the first and perhaps only recordwhich will measure up to this standard of excellence. 'Dark Falcon,'the first full length from Lucky Dragons (after two lovely EP's on theEnglish Muffin label), does many other things remarkably well, but thispeculiar marriage is the most remarkable. Although there are clicks andclacks aplenty on this album, the electronics grace the songs ratherthan linger at the center of them.
It's very seldom that fans of instrumental rock and electronic wizardryget to hear artists from both genres collaborate, maybe because theresults are often disastrous (anyone hear the Scanner remixes ofHovercraft?). Therefore, it's a rare treat when such a collaborationfares as well as this one. Sonna need no introduction, as their variousCD singles provided that before their critically lauded debut in 2001(stay tuned for it's successor next week). Sybarite, either, whoseoutput has seemed to dim in quality a bit on 4AD, but there's extremehope for the future. Lilienthal may be new to some out there, with onlya few remixes and one CD under his name, but he's already building areputation for amalgamation and an impressive palette. The originalcollaboration, first released as a seven inch on ZEAL, makes up theintroductory two tracks here, where Sonna sent some unfinishednoodlings to both artists for recreation. The results are varied andhair-raising. Sybarite accentuates the melodic side of Sonna on "MakeShift," with beautiful acoustic guitar-picking taking center stage. Asthe steady beat builds and the infectious whistles and backwards soundsswell, you can't take your ears off of it. This is easily the bestthing Sybarite's done lately. Sonna's drone side takes over Lilienthal,as he stutters up "Carousel" towards a complicated and layered climax.He drops out the middle, teasing and taunting with more guitarinterplay, only to return to the same shaky ground on the closing threeminutes, all of which induce toe-tapping and air-drumming in even thetamest lab rats. This is well enough alone, but then we are treated totwo new tracks, credited to all three bands. Here is where the jawsdrop. "Four Way Street" is a slightly remixed reprise of the closingminutes of "The Opener" from Sonna's debut full-length. At just under aminute, it can't really captivate. The final track, "From a Person WeSeam" is astonishing - a real electronic masterwork. The song startsslowly and calmly, with gentle guitar and squelch effects, beforeexercising a labored trip-hop beat and keyboard flourishes with greatsuccess. An open letter to all three particpants: please make a wholerecord in this configuration. The world demands it.
Months of wrestling with a DVD player which didn't initially read this disc has finally paid off and the results were well worth all the fuss. The first DVD to surface from Cabaret Voltaire takes two aural/visual snapshots of only slightly different periods in their evolution, recorded live in Manchester's infamous club.
I bought this album after being captivated by the band name and albumtitle, having no prior knowledge about them. Both had a sonorousquality which made me intensely curious to hear what such a band wouldsound like. To my delight, in doing so, I discovered what was to becomeone of my favorite albums of 2002. Sam Beam, who is almost solelyresponsible for the writing, performance, production and recording of'The Creek Drank the Cradle', creates pleasantly unpolished songs usinglittle more than an acoustic guitar, banjo and his own delicate vocalsthat belie their no-frills approach with a rich, seductive sound. Beamclearly takes influence from Nick Drake and Tim Buckley, but trulycarves his own niche in terms of his folk stylings. This album,however, definitely is not a "folk record," but reaches far beyond,ranging from lullabies to ballads to narrative fragments of memories.The American Deep South features prominently in the lyrical imagery,accented by an eerie romanticism. Beam, who hails from the Miami area,seems to be yearning for a South removed from beaches and nightclubs,on tracks like the twangy "The Rooster Moans" and the haunting "Upwardover the Mountain." There is a purity in the simplicity of Iron &Wine that is so refreshing that 'The Creek Drank the Cradle'unsurprisingly appeals to true music lovers of diverse tastes. As SamBeam's moniker suggests, his music is both weighty and intoxicating.
If Thousands is Christian McShane and Aaron Molina from Duluth, Minnesota, who having decided to depart from their respective backgrounds in classical performance and punk have collaborated to attempt something quite different. The result is a sound grounded less on performance and based much more on assembly, repetition, and duration. With the help of Alan Sparhawk, who produced and mixed the album, McShane and Molina have built resonant instrumental pieces that sound oceanic in their tendency to roll together different recurring samples with the musicians' work, producing a reverberating blend of fluid sound.
If 2002 has been a generally mediocre year for releases, it sure ashell is not going out without kicking and screaming. '24 Hours' arrivedon Monday, December 22nd, and, while I haven't had the time to pickthrough every last second of music on this 25-CD set (yes, it turns outto be 25 CDs for those who mail-ordered it!), everything so far hasbeen incredible. While the Sex Pistols and The Clash were "dressing"themselves as punks, their music was easily digestible pop/rock tuneswith enough of an attitude edge for the kids to dig. ThrobbingGristle's approach was almost the entire opposite, as the band dressedrespectfully on album covers and played various art halls (in additionto boys schools and rock clubs), but made music with far lesscommercial potential. Every concert lasted exactly 60 minutes,controlled by a timer which would cut the power on the stage at exactly60 minutes no matter what point the band were at. Every show wasrecorded and committed to cassette tape, and for this box, it seems aseverything is here from the very first to the very last second of eachshow. 
The plan was to record an EP of cover songs. The coolest singer in rock music wanted to pay tribute to some of her influences, including Nina Simone, Patti Smith's epochal Radio Ethiopia album and Neutral Milk Hotel's "Comely." Then she changed her mind and instead recorded three new songs, an old Uzi number that never made it onto the classic Sleep Asylum and a couple of covers. The fans lucked out, as her songs are drastically superior to the ones she did eventually cover.
