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20 June 2006

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So many bands are incestuous that using a term like "supergroup" seems meaningless more and more. Nick Castro's third album utilizes the likes of Joolie Wood, Jon Contreras, Brian Dyson, and B'eirth. All in all, representatives from Current 93, In Gowan Ring, Damo Suzuki's Network, and Cul de Sac make an appearance, but the recorded outcome of this gathering is less than super.

Strange Attractors

Continuing the annoying trend of "free-folk" hipsterism is Castro and his medieval band of merry marauders. The Young Elders come from a wide array of musical backgrounds and one would expect this fact to influence the sound and continuity of the record. Instead, Castro sticks to using unconventional instruments in familiar ways. There's a reason that knights in shining armor and damsels in distress come to mind when this album fires up and it's not because the record is imaginative. In many cases it mimics stereotypes about some period music that everyone should be familiar with. Hollywood has made it easy to recognize what some sounds are supposed to emulate. It is impossible to create genuinely medieval music because we aren't living in medieval times and, as a very smart man once said, all music is folk music because all music is made by people. As a result, these songs can be nothing more than new voices looking back at stereotypical examples of music most people never got to hear anyhow. These two facts situate this album somewhere between fanciful adoration for a series of instruments that belong most strongly to a certain period and poor reproduction meant to express the ideas of a musician who lives in the 21st century.

I'm quite familiar with the fact that Current 93, Six Organs of Admittance, and many other bands I enjoy use "folk" music and "medieval" conventions to mold their sometimes unique sound, but there is a difference between someone like David Tibet and Nick Castro. While Tibet joyfully exudes his love for histrionics and period instruments, he also leaves an impression of himself on the music that gives it character, a shine that is impossible to find elsewhere. Castro, on the other hand, merely reproduces what everyone is already familiar with. The music is absolutely gorgeous, the musicians involved have all had their hand in performing lovely ballads, intricate instrumentals, and shimmering bits of harp and recorder driven melancholy. Aside from that beauty, however, is nothing new with which to become enamored. A song like "Altar" sounds festive, bringing to mind all manner of fairs, competitions, and heavy drinking, but it also reminds me of Robin Hood in a bad way. This brings me back to the whole "free-folk" association: Castro is neither free nor folk. His music is emulative, an attempt to incorporate the past with the present and a stab at tackling some very well arranged music that positively shines with beautiful melodies and unusual instruments. There are no free form jams nor drones of guitar work that claim to have their heritage in jazz music. There's plenty of unusual instruments that feature elegant performances and soothing bits involving cello, oud, harmonium, and harp, but there's nothing particularly experimental or unusual about any of it. It all sounds very, very familiar most of the time.

If any of the names on this record float your boat, then chances are this record will be of interest. The songs aren't bad, they aren't poorly written, and with all the talent in the band it goes without saying that everyone plays quite well together. I can't help but feel that this is just another album in a long line of "folk" records, though. "Folk" records that have absolutely nothing to do with folk music (as in Nick Drake) and even less to do with free form music (as in John Coltrane and Derek Bailey). It's pretty, but there's plenty of it to be found everywhere.

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20 June 2006

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Albums and Singles

This is the best musical recording Rjyan Kidwell has ever taken part in. Collaborating with seven other players including both members of Nice Nice, Actual Fucking is an achievement. Unfortunately the lyrics and singing get so bad sometimes they're painful to my ears.

Automation

The albm consists of eight songs, all of which named for cities where either Rjyan Kidwell or each of the eight players have most likely lived at some point. The title, Actual Fucking seems to be a reverse euphamism: explicit sexual words used to describe something non sexual. The musicians engage in playing with each other, moving together in rhythm, making sounds they wouldn't be making alone. Live drumming, live guitar playing and digital manipulation jam on tunes which are both far from cliché and fun to listen to. The music grooves from the first minute and during the instrumental breaks the musicians break into some hot action.

For me, the route chosen on Being Ridden would have been great, as I would love to hear an instrumental version. I don't like the spoken/singing that Kidwell is doing on nearly all the songs and whoever the girl is singing on "Denton" is bordering on unbearable. The string sounds and acoustic guitar interplay on "Chapel Hill" is gorgeous while the lone instrumentation of a multitracked guitar on "Ybor City" after the phone message is endearing. "Covington" opens the second half of the record and grooves like a top notch Nice Nice track and Rjyan's vocals and lyrics are enjoyable, but not sing alongable nor memorable. While he's both rapped and sung in the past, he's proven himself capable of words both amusing and catchy. When the lyrics are simplified, like on "Chicago," with repeated refrains and direct melodies and muliple singers, the execution is a bit too show-offy. It's like everybody involved wanted to make an LCD Soundsystem record but didn't quite achieve effective results. A stunning instrumental, "Tucumcari," closes the album on a beat-less Moon and the Melodies-ish (Cocteau Twins clearly -with- Harold Budd) feel, and if this is purely the work of Cex, then I'm eagerly waiting the forthcoming release on Temporary Residence. If it's the work of the rest of the lineup then I'm gonna start a letter campaign to get all the players together again.

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19 June 2006

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Albums and Singles

While it may sound like an entire Balkan gypsy orchestra playing modern songs as mournful ballads and upbeat marches, Beirut's first album, Gulag Orkestar, is largely the work of one 19-year-old Albuquerque native, Zach Condon, with assistance by Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel, A Hawk and a Hacksaw) and Heather Trost (A Hawk and a Hacksaw). Horns, violins, cellos, ukuleles, mandolins, glockenspiels, drums, tambourines, congas, organs, pianos, clarinets and accordions (no guitars on this album!) all build and break the melodies under Condon's deep-voiced crooner vocals, swaying to the Eastern European beats like a drunken 12-member ensemble that has fallen in love with The Magnetic Fields, Talking Heads and Neutral Milk Hotel.

19 June 2006

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Albums and Singles

You may have already heard Roots Tonic. In fact, you may love Roots Tonic and not even know it. Roots Tonic is Hasidic reggae superstar Matisyahu's band. Matisyahu's star has risen dramatically in this past year, culminating in the recent release of Youth on Sony/Epic (currently #4 on Billboard's Top 200) and the certification of Live at Stubbs as a Gold Record. One cannot underestimate the importance of Roots Tonic to Matisyahu's success. Roots Tonic bassist Josh Werner co-writes many of Matisyahu's songs, and Roots Tonic brings those songs to stage, to record and to life, making them pop with the drama and dynamics you'll hear on this album.

It is no coincidence that world class bassist and producer Bill Laswell is involved in this project. For one, it is Laswell who produced Matisyahu's Youth. Laswell, the world music genre-fusing genius, has worked with so many notable artists: Mick Jagger, Afrika Bambaataa, Yoko Ono, Brian Eno, Fela Kuti, John Zorn, Peter Gabriel, George Clinton, Herbie Hancock, Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson, Motorhead, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sly & Robbie, Swans, Last Poets, and has remixed the work of Santana, Bob Marley & Miles Davis. As one writer puts it, "Bill Laswell is god. Can you prove he's not?" He is a true maverick and a perfect match for Roots Tonic and Matisyahu's blend of reggae, hip hop, soul and traditional Jewish music. Their chemistry was so perfect, in fact, that after the Youth sessions were completed, Laswell invited Roots Tonic back to his Orange Studios to record this album, Roots Tonic Meets Bill Laswell, which is NOT to be confused with the dub version of Matisyahu's Youth.

With no Matisyahu, Roots Tonic was forced to stand and deliver on an album without vocals or lyrics on which to rely. Deliver they did. With Laswell serving as studio lion Lee "Scratch" Perry to Roots Tonic's Aggravators, Josh, Jonah and Aaron have created a living, breathing disc of instrumental reggae, as funky as, say, the classic "Macka Dub" by the Barrett Brothers (Aston "Family Man" Barrett & Carlton Barrett, The Wailers' rhythm section). The grooves are so loose and lively you can tell they were having a blast recording. At the mixing board, Laswell economically weaves in everything from synth stabs to phone touch tones to unrecognizable sound splatters. He stays out of the way of the bass, and heaps echo on the drums and guitar, allowing the high end to spiral out from the music.

Dub as a genre always seems to be making a comeback. Its influence is consistently heard in other forms of music from Radiohead to Missy Elliot. But, judging by the surge of interest in and activity by bands like Heavyweight Dub Champion, Goathead, Dub Nomads, LA's Future Pigeon, to the reunited Systemwide, to Roots Tonic labelmates Dub Trio, Dr Israel and 10 Ft Ganja Plant, American Dub is currently very fertile musical ground. This spring, expect Roots Tonic's popularity to bloom with the release of this album, plus live Matisyahu and solo dates. There is even talk of Roots Tonic opening for Matisyahu.

Roots Tonic: Josh Werner - Bass & Keyboards, Aaron Dugan - Guitar & Sounds,
Jonah David - Drums & Percussion

Produced by Bill Laswell at Orange Music Sound Studios, West Orange, NJ

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19 June 2006

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Albums and Singles

Dub Trio is one of the few bands that can open for Mike Patton (featured on this record), reggae legends The Wailers, hip-hop MC Beans, electro-pioneers Meat Beat Manifesto, firebrand Capleton, jazz-funkers Soulive, and electronica maestro Prefuse 73 (all of which they did in 2005). And to flame that fire Dub Trio will be embarking on a 10 date tour w/ Polish punk rockers Gogol Bordello starting April 1st. It speaks volumes about their music's versatility; one minute it's gummy dub, the next it's chest-beating, chug-a-lug metal, shredding punk, and bleeped-out electronic psychedelia. At its best, Dub Trio's music is simultaneously all these and more. Their sophomore album, aptly-titled NEW HEAVY, is undoubtedly a rock record that retains enough dubby elements to save the boys a name-change:

Dub is the foundation. It's in everything we do, whether it's the structure, the effects,
or the bass line. It's what all other elements are based on. You hear that
even on the heaviest parts of the new record. - Joe Tomino, drummer

New Heavy is indeed heavy, and hard. It references Metallica more than Marley, and features the one and only MIKE PATTON (Faith No More, Mr Bungle, Tomahawk, Fantomas) on "Not Alone," which Billboard Magazine describes as "an old school Faith No More-style rocker." A re-mix of this track by Mike Patton as "Peeping Tom" will soon be released on Mike's own Ipecac Recordings later this year.

How did this collaboration come about? Simple. Mike Patton heard Dub Trio's music. Yep, that's all it took. No mutual friends, no money, no label pressure, just a few rough mixes from the New Heavy sessions and Patton knew they were on to something:

Dub Trio are very talented musicians that cover many different genres in each
piece they play. They are doing something that very few artists are doing today,
and doing it their own way. - Mike Patton

Their versatility and singularity have as much to do with musical acumen as with the communication between each member's unique personality:

We have our own musical language. We communicate with each other through
our instruments, eye contact, energy. That's why no two live shows are the same,
no two performances of a song. That's also why it's as important to see us as it is to hear us,
because you can see that interaction on stage. - Stu Brooks, bassist

THE PLAYERS:
Joe, Stu and Dave not only bring individual talents and personalities to Dub Trio but also a unique set of professional experience, having worked with 18 Cent, Common, Mary J. Blige, Mos Def and Mobb Deep. Joe currently drums with the recently reunited Fugees. Stu continues to work with G-Unit & 18 Cent (he dropped the massive bass line on this summer's hit "So Seductive (feat. 18 Cent)" by Tony Yayo). And Dave, along with his brother, started the punk/emo band Like Yesterday with Matt Rubano, the bassist for Taking Back Sunday (who Like Yesterday tours with frequently). And perhaps all this crept into Dub Trio's sound, which is undoubtedly more aggressive and bigger than before. They are poised for a large impact, and this album will put them there.

In Joe Tomino's hands, the drums function as an entire section, rather than as one instrument. You will hear this section transform over the course of a song; the pulse never wavering but morphing from drum machine-esque sounds, to a big rock assault, to spaced out dub rhythms, echoes spiraling from his kit. In other words, Joe is a madman on drums--the Muppet's Animal in human flesh--guiding much of the band's energy and intensity.

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19 June 2006

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Albums and Singles

Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves is the Legendary Pink Dots' 25th anniversary album (and in the running for best album title ever). It's hard to believe a quarter century has passed since the Pink Dots first unearthed their complex vision where fate and whimsy cast stones at each other on some hazy, polluted playground. LPD's unusual legacy of psychedelia, industrial gloom, and textural madness has made them a constant presence on the innovative fringes of cult music, and has earned them near-universal respect from critics and peers. It was this legacy that shaped much of the album:
The actual theme of "legacy", "the consequence of past and present action on the future", has consciously informed much of
this release. In some ways, it's been a central-core-theme of all our songwriting these last 25 years. - Phil 'The Silverman' Knight
Twenty-five years later, the Dots have hardly paused for a breath. Edward Ka-Spel, The Silverman and company (Niels Van Hoornblower, Raymond Steeg & returning member Martijn de Kleer), still make boundlessly weird, beautifully disturbing music.
This is an album about mortality & immortality, about time ticking away mercilessly, about seizing the moment and damning the consequences. Your victims are lining up on both sides of the corridor, unborn yet forgiving. We are all pitifully human and we all want to take everything with us at the end, but there is no end...just a darkening endless horizon...
- Edward Ka-Spel

In addition to the 25th anniversary album, the Dots will embark on a massive North American tour this June to celebrate this landmark occasion. Then they'll disappear into the ether...until their next haunting.
TRACKLIST: 1) Count On Me, 2) No Matter What You Do, 3) Stigmata (Part 4), 4) Feathers At Dawn,
5) Please Don't Get Me Wrong, 6) Peace Of Mind, 7) The Island Of Our Dreams, 8) Bad Hair,
9) The Made Man's Manifesto, 10) A Silver Thread, 11) Your Number Is Up
PREVIOUS RELEASES ON ROIR: The Whispering Wall (cd - cat#RUSCD 8286)
All the King's Men (cd/lp - cat#RUSCD/LP 8278)
Under Triple Moons (cd - cat#RUSCD 8231)

PRESS QUOTES:
"Since 1980, LPD have created some of the most enigmatic and challenging compositions in modern music. The uniqueness of their work is due in large part to its omnivorous ability to consume and transform a variety of styles into a new, cohesive entity. The introverted folk of Nick Drake may be found here, as well as the graphic cyberpunk nightmares of Frank Tovey (Fad Gadget), not to mention the rhythmic permutations of Philip Glass. From Beefheart to Brahms, the sources of LPD's quicksilver soundscapes are myriad. What holds them all together is Ka-Spel's dense lyricism and grim obsessions." - ROLLING STONE

"Proceeding out of a hodgepodge of gloomy/fringey/hippie antecedents -- Joy Division, Syd Barrett, Faust, etc. -- but adding a classical sensibility, involuted mythology, found-sound sampling weirdness, plus all sorts of stylistic cross-mingling and experimentation, Edward Ka- Spel (vocals, lyrics, keyboards), Phil Knights (aka The Silver Man; keyboards) and a shifting collection of associates have turned the Legendary Pink Dots into an open-ended adventure. Although certainly prone to enigmatic risk-taking, the enormously resourceful LPD is a mellifluous and dynamically restrained proposition: this is one dip into the rock netherworld that won't send you running for cover. The lyrics, however -- a disturbing onslaught of doom, violence and apocalypse -- are a different story." - TROUSER PRESS

19 June 2006

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Albums and Singles

Debut album by a new supergroup consisting of Robin Storey (Rapoon),
Mark Spybey (Dead Voices on Air) and Andy Eardley (Delayer), all three
ex-members of Zoviet France. The sound is like a digital modern version
of ZF cmposed and played by three living legends of experimental music.
Prices: EUR 14,- per copy excl. VAT and shipping.
Wholesale please ask.
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19 June 2006

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Albums and Singles

This record, originally released in 1981 on Sterile Records, is
probably the NE´s heaviest and noisiest album ever. It has never before
been re-issued on compact disc and comes with the original artwork. The
sound was carefully remastered by Nigel Ayers in 2006 and stays close
to the original analogue recording. A very limited edition of only 300
copies, so please order soon to avoid disappointment.
Prices: EUR 14,- per copy excl. VAT and shipping.
Wholesale please ask.
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19 June 2006

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Albums and Singles

This is the second in Fovea Hex’s Neither Speak nor Remain Silent series. It is a logical continuation from Bloom but it is more dramatic and beautiful than its predecessor. Clodagh Simonds, the centre of the Fovea Hexverse, has outdone herself this time; it is truly an astonishing work.

Die Stadt

Simonds' words are concise and dense. These aren’t just lyrics but carefully constructed poetry. On paper they take up little space but on the CD she instils a mighty power in them when she sings. This is especially evident in “Huge (The Joy of Trouble),” which opens the CD. It takes up from where the previous volume left off. Simonds is joined again by Brian Eno but this time Roger Doyle and Hugh O’Neill have been added to Fovea Hex’s ranks. The music is subtle and multidimensional. Doyle and Simonds both play glass which gives a fragile and ethereal sound and complements her vocals wonderfully.

The Hafler Trio’s Andrew McKenzie also makes a reappearance on “A Song for Magda.” This instrumental track (well it features voices but their effect is atmospheric as opposed to lyrical) is positively chaotic by Fovea Hex standards. McKenzie’s doesn’t hold as much sway on this as he did on Bloom. Colin Potter joins the group as a performer here and it is his influence that comes to the fore here. The music keeps shifting; it never stays still long enough for anything concrete to take hold. The only constant in the piece is Percy Jones’ remarkably deep fretless bass.

The final track on Huge, “While you’re Away,” is exceptional. Doyle plays more glass on this piece to create that delicate atmosphere again. Simonds plays a gentle rhythm on her harmonium and a small choir of herself, Laura Sheeran and Sarah McQuaid sing blissfully. The lyrics evoke the freedom and the greenness of the countryside: “I’m with the fox and goose my feet run wild and my tongue is loose.” Further adding to the beauty of the piece are the strings arranged and played by Cora Venus Lunny (daughter of the legendary Donal Lunny). Her arrangement is simply gorgeous. The song finishes with crystal clear recordings of a marsh warbler and a dipper, adding a stronger pastoral feeling to the music. I cannot get enough of this piece.

For the lucky few who got Huge early on, there is a bonus disc called “The Discussion” with McKenzie reassembling the material like he did with Bloom. The result is drastically different to what I encountered on the other disc. Whereas Simonds’ music seems very much to be based on earth, looking up, McKenzie’s reinterpretation of the material sounds like the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey should sound. It is celestial and magnificent.

Reading back on what I’ve written, the above could look like gross exaggeration. Huge is an absolutely stunning release which I urge people to get on board about. The one drawback is its brevity: at just under 20 minutes it is gone far too soon. However, being such a rich composition, it lends itself well to repeated listens.

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19 June 2006

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Albums and Singles

After a mediocre attempt at recording latin versions of rock standards and an appalling attempt at latin standards, Uwe Schmidt revisits the music he clearly knows best: electro pop. This tribute to Yellow Magic Orchestra has the energy and excitement as his Kraftwerk covers despite the overused latin samples and pointless interludes and transitional pieces.

Essay

Gathered for Yellow Fever are a number of friends including Mouse On Mars, Burnt Freidman, Towa Tei, and the three members of Yellow Magic Orchestra themselves. Argenis Brito is back on lead vocals and live musicians, when used, make for fantastic results. Thankfully with CD technology, it's easy to avoid every odd numbered track, as they're usually rather irritating 20 second bits with cut ups, sampled words, and underdeveloped themes. In the perfect world these tracks would be far longer and fully realized, like "Coco Agogo" with Akfen and Jorge Gonzalez, and appear on a 10 track second disc, leaving the 10 YMO covers on the first disc.

Perez Prado's oversampled grunt can be found on more than one track (actually, nearly all) and plenty of the rhythms are actually sampled but the music in songs like "Limbo" with Yukihiro Takahashi and "Tong Poo" with Ryuichi Sakamoto is so finely arranged and executed that it becomes easy to forgive. The marimba and vibraphone playing combined with the shaking percussions become so mesmerising on nearly all the proper songs that it's hard not to enjoy. The Haruomi Hosono contributed "The Madman" is a clever nod to the YMO sound in its tacky synth horn and percussion sounds (a'la YMO style) alongside the live horn and percussion playing of Senor Coconut's orchestra while the finale, the classic "Firecracker," is grand indeed with the dense, feverish interplay between the musicians, ending with the crash and long resonant fade of an Asian gong. The classic Macintosh alert sound on track 21 which follows is, as nearly all the other odd numbered track titles, completely useless.

I warmly welcome more Senor Coconut releases recycling the techno pop that Schmidt and many German music nerds grew up on, but if I see more Deep Purple covers or original attempts at Favela, I'll know to stay away.

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18 June 2006

Administrator

Albums and Singles

With Baird’s deep, commanding voice, Lullaby for Strangers is more likely to induce troubled sleep than peaceful rest. In fact, her hypnotic singing could very well induce trances, if not somnambulance.

Secret Eye

Baird is like a siren of the deep woods who can enchant travelers with a few well-chosen words. Songs like “Breaking the Roofs” and “The Last Word” remind me of folk tales in which faeries kidnap humans. “Morning Song #2,” on the other hand, sounds like an organ that’s played late at night in a forest clearing, while everyone else is fast asleep and upon waking cannot account for their disturbing dreams. “Storms Stay Fine” is the song that’s the most like a lullaby, with water and Baird’s soothing singing.

Baird’s only misstep is “Bury Deeper,” which is too overtly morbid and has a vocal melody that’s a little grating at times, but the song is so brief that it subtracts very little from the whole. As further testament to her talent, Baird also plays almost all of the instruments on the album yet makes it sound as if she has many collaborators with their own communication styles. Although the album runs a little short of half an hour, I prefer Baird’s economy of expression compared to an album that’s padded merely to fulfill running length expectations. Lullaby for Strangers proves that she can bewitch in a short amount of time.

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