When I first heard about these four HEAVYbreathing volumes of erotic music, I wondered what more they could possibly contribute to this already oversaturated kitsch niche. Somewhat different from others like it is that these volumes are further subdivided into themes. The series is subtitled "The Sounds of Sex," and that's pretty much what this disc is, for better or for worse.
Two new shows just for you. We have squeezed out two extended release episodes for this weekend to get you through this week. They contain mostly new songs but there's also new issues from the vaults. The first show features music from Rider/Horse, Mint Field, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Anastasia Coope, ISAN, Stone Music, La Securite, Bark Psychosis, Jon Rose, Master Wilburn Burchette, Umberto, Wand, Tim Koh, Sun An, and Memory Drawings. The second episode has music by Laibach, Melt-Banana, Chuck Johnson, X, K. Yoshimatsu, Dorothy Carter, Pavel Milyakov, Violence Gratuite, Mark Templeton, Dummy, Endon, body / negative, Midwife, Alberto Boccardi, Divine. Cow in Maui from Veronika in Vienna. Get involved: subscribe, review, rate, share with your friends, send images!
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Little Esther Phillips breathes new life into this series when she notes the time in Pete "Guitar" Lewis' "Ooh Midnight." Weary, deflated horns wheeze in the background of this raunchy teaser, recorded on a sly summer’s night in 1951. It's ultra-slow and unavoidable, starting this disc with a bang.
MCIAA are always generous with the music's technical elements on their liners, if only they'd go a little deeper with content for the head as well. This latest MCIAA release might be a sort of flipside to their Cosmic Light Of A New Millennium album, also on Important, this time exploring dark instead of light. If that is the record's aim, then it falls slightly short as Roberto Opalio's vocals are too beautiful for the black of nothingness.
To dismiss Laibach's work as ersatz, corny, fascist, or communist is the easy way out. The group has always let conceptual content dictate formal content. For over the quarter century of the group's existence, their work has been one over-arcing concept: control. Laibach's oeuvre is an exploration of how states, religions, and corporations manipulate our behavior.
Minimalism of this sort makes for a difficult proposition on the part of the composer. It takes an extremely talented artist to shape quiet sound into something that compels the listener to pay attention despite its inherent subtlety.
Released in 1973, this is the first CD version of this psychedelic pop album. Much of the inventive melodies, delicate harmonies, and breezy guitars are rooted in the '60s Western tradition but contain enough twists on the genre to give the tunes a subtly unique flavor. While not terribly groundbreaking, this album does hold the distinction of being the first available psychedelic album from Indonesia.
The debut album from the latest Bad Seeds off-shoot is a breath of fresh air compared to the recent stodgy and MOR output of Nick Cave. What the Bad Seeds did years ago with the blues, Grinderman have done with garage rock. Eleven songs of no bullshit and no fucking about with song structures or melodies have resulted in an exciting album. To paraphrase Cave, Grinderman is old farts making music for old farts (and Martyn P. Casey's "I love Status Quo" haircut certainly backs up this statement). Well if this is growing old, then I cannot wait for my bus pass to arrive!
