You may recall the English male/female duo Ruby from a minor radio hitabout five years ago with "Tiny Meat." The duo consists of LesleyRankine, former singer for Silverfish, and Mark Walk of Pigface, andRuby is the name of each of their grandmother. The duo's latest fulllength is out now through Thirsty Ear with guest production on spotsfrom Christian Vogel, William Rieflin and Mira Calix. The disc isaccompanied by a separate release, 'Altered & Proud', withtweakings from Dot Allison, Kid 606, Schneider TM, Console, Max Tundraand others. While Ruby was a viable venture for Sony Music five yearsback, no major label thinks they can risk it with something that won'teven break commercial alternative radio any more. Their sound is hardlystale however, and would be warmly welcomed by similar aggressiveattitude-heavy beat-oriented female-sung outfits like Lamb, Curve,Laika, classic Scala or even Moloko. The sounds are great, theproduction's wonderful with a healthy dose of guitars, organic andelectronic percussion, trumpets and various synthetic lead equipment,but the writing could use a little more originality and lessrepetition. The remixes on the other hand would please people notnecessarily looking for a pop record, but some great sounds put throughthe wringer and dragged back again, kicking and screaming.
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There is music for the masses, music for the soul, music for the heart,and those hungry of it, and even music for the malls -- or is that justMuzac? HiM is music for musicians, and "New Features" is an impressivedisplay of the talent this group encompasses. The group is tight,driving, sinewy, grooved-out and this time they venture further intotheir exploration of dub, now with an even greater Latin flavor. HiMmake music that demands movement. If you aren't dancing to this record,you're missing the point. This, their fifth release, really showcaseshow incredible the communication is in this band, and exactly how muchpotential lies in wait, ready to be unleashed in a live setting. Live,I'm sure, these songs sound even better with the improvisational bentthey receive, but on record they're just as precious. I especiallyliked how, from even the first track, each musician gets their time inthe sun. No one instrument is a stand-out. And where effects likedelays, beeps, and artificial beats could detract from the quality ofthe playing, HiM use them brilliantly here, using the less is moreprincipal to showcase the playing rather than muddying it. My only realcomplaint would be that several songs seem reminiscent of Beastie Boysinstrumentals in style and feel. But on a CD that features severaltracks over the ten minute mark, including the eighteen-minute opus "InTransition," one doesn't even find the need to complain about songlength. Right when you feel like the music should shift in a newdirection, it does, right on cue. It's all about different flavors on"New Features," and in the hands of less skilled musicians, it could gohorribly wrong. In the hands of HiM, it sounds like these "NewFeatures" have been there all along: you just haven't been listening.
For those who take their improvisational noiscore seriously, a 2xCD setfrom minimalistic screechmonger Keiji Haino is now available. Each CDis a one-track 45+ minute piece for one source and voice. Fans of earlyNurse With Wound would find the listenings both challenging andenjoyable as very little detail is paid to composition, but a delicateattention is paid to sonority of the sources. Ideal for a cande-litseance, disc one, "Hurdy Gurdy" is as dark as the CD jacket, and issimply creepy played out drones on a hurdy gurdy with the creepieroccasional vocals. Disc two, "Electronic Percussion" is built around awave drum scratches and squealing electronics, also accompanied by theoccasional distorted vocal regurgitations. Disc two would perfectlyscore the next time you're stuck in a cold, dark, smelly sewer, coveredin sludge, desperately trying to get out. I never understood where thelight's supposed to come from during those scenes in the movies.Anyhow, purists would love the concept but I personally think 45minutes on each disc is a bit lengthy. Thankfully they're not stretchedto 80 minutes on each disc.
This group, who isn't a trio and released their second full-lengther onDrag City in the USA last year is allegedly a side project of popstersThe Notwist. I say alleged since they've been releasing more asT&TT than as The Notwist lately. Anyhow this album does it right -with five well-developed tracks, totalling about 43 minutes. The musicis entirely instrumental, jazzy-flavored with horn instruments andpiano sounds, but beat oriented with hints of glitch and dub and muchmore complete than last year's album or the remixes which were out latelast year from Morr in Germany. I was rather cold to the disc when Ifirst got it, but it has grown to become my favorite release from thiscrew, mellow while creatively involved, beat happy and musicallyplayful enough with a load of TLC and strong efforts focused on only asmall amount of top-notch tunes.
The original tracks were by µ-Ziq's Mike Paradinas and Speedy J'sJoachim Papp, the disc here is remixes from Coil, Boards of Canada,Matmos, Four Tet, µ-Ziq, Tiper, Horse Opera, and Pole. The good thingis that if you love these bands, you won't be let down. All the remixespretty much sound like the group doing the remix. Fout Tet's got abeefy and beaty contribution, Boards of Canada's bookends are sereneand liquid, and the highlight is most certainly the Coil mix whichnearly approaches 10 minutes, with scraping sounds, a chilling marimbaand orchestral loop, and thunderous low rumblings. What's the point ofreleasing "remix" albums under your own name? It should just beconsidered a various-artists compilation but there's legalramifications surrounding how you credit those whose fingers have beenin the mix. It's great, it's dark, it's light. You are a fan of many ofthese bands so you might as well get it.
Cubismo Grafico is a Japanese outfit doing lounge music with loads ofFrench vocals. Released in 1999, this disc is warm album to listenwhile driving around slowly through the city on a hot day with thewindows rolled down. Pretty vocals, drum machines playing sambas,Brazilian-esque acoustic guitars, chimes of vibes or marimbas make itdreamy and cheery. Yippee. I feel like that sloth getting his groovething on from the old Far Side comic. I don't know what it is aboutJapanese lounge fans but there's a pretty girl on the front, loads offemale vocals but only a picture of a Japenese guy on the inside.Fantastic Plastic what? Anyhow it's far better than this year's(not-so) Fantastic Plastic release and you don't own it. Get it andbring it to the beach with you.
Fucked-up electronic modern exotica, with odd samples, sampled andelectronic drums, random twitters, aircraft sounds, off-key noises andvocals, bizarre collage artwork, and a contribution with the DustBrothers. It's got sitars mixed with 60s-era spy music sounding stuff,crossed with vocal samples about food or sado-masochism. This is easilywhat Add N to (X) would be sound like if they were as cool as theypretend to be. It was released in 1996 by the Dust Bros' Nickel Baglabel out of Los Angeles and Mo Wax in the UK. I found it used andpicked it up on a recommendation. It's rather weird in parts but atevery point, it's quite creative and incredibly enjoyable. Half ofSukia is two guys named Craig and Ross, now known as DJ Me DJ You withrecords on Emperor Norton. The album's titled was inspired by a Mexicancomic book about a lesbian vampire and her well-hung cohort, GarySupermacho. Make sense now?
So while there's this movie out now called "the Songcatcher" by somelady who found it necessary to exploit music of the Appalacians, thisCD does a good job of exploiting Cambodian rock music. It's a 70-minute22-song collection of late 60s/early 70s pop songs brought back fromthis guy's trip to Cambodia. Whatta trip it is - these songs (whichimitate popular western-world music of the late 60s) sound like that'veaged much better than stuff that would imitate popular music of today.There's absolutely no track listing, however, no idea who's doing what,but some record label in NYC seems to be making money off of it. No,it's really fun, but completely sketchy.
While we patiently await another full-lengther from 606, the materialfrom the Mille Plateaux release from last year gets treated on this fundisc. While it's not as campy as his latest live experiences where 606butchers Missy Elliot or the "Sandwiches" song, it is entertaining withcontributions from Matmos (originally on the Twirl EP) who remix aphoto shoot/interview with Miguel himself. Atom TM's contribution is agoofy butt-shaker, Pan American patient piece sounds like upbeat PanAmerican stuff, Twerk is fucking cool and I hope to get their new albumsoon, and the rest (which even include some 606 tweaks) have much morepersonality than the original album in its original form. 606 hasprobably gained more respect in the artful critic circle with his moreintrospective releases but it's really incredible to hear him let loose.
If you like dub and own no Twilight Circus then you're a fucking tool.Ryan Moore has delivered an astounding number of albums over the lastfew years exploring the sound of old school (late 70s/early 80s)organic instrumental dub. This is the real shit, not dub-style glitchylaptop stuff, but a real person playing the drums, bass, guitar andorgan. While the albums don't evolve in style, Moore is most certainlysteadily evolving in the production and writing aspects. Volcanic Dubis 12 new dub tunes, 45 minutes of bliss. This edition is less amake-out album as the other releases but is no less wonderful. It'sindeed volcanic, baby.
