- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
"Pop" is his 4th full-length release as Gasand judging from the artwork it continues the 'forest' theme of thelast few albums. The near 66 minutes are split up into 7 untitledtracks ranging from 5 to 15 minutes in length. Each track has the samebasic formula: loop and repeat, ad nauseum. Voigt uses a variety ofdense and mildly melodic atmospheres somewhere between gaseous andliquid states. They simply flow on repeat for the duration of the trackwith little to no change. Add a simple techno beat to 2 tracks andthere you have it. "Pop" is relaxing but it's also very tedious, evenas 'background' music, due to it's excessive and pointless repetition.Instead of drawing me in it makes me want to play something else that'smore fully developed and more interesting. And the title? You've got me...samples:
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- Michael Holloway
- Albums and Singles
"Red Letters," on theother hand, is to my ears a cohesive, well structured and thoroughlyeffective disc. I'm very pleased with Edward's latest work. The wholealbum has a very slow, somber, moody atmosphere to it, yet "Seeing Red"is a bit faster (though still quite dark). It stirs me, my emotions, mythoughts and has already become one of my all-time favorite Ka-Spelsongs. "Belief on a Breeze," "Red Rock," and "Radio 6," are slow peiceswith plenty of chilling textures circulating around behind the simplemelodies, with Edward's emotive voice at the forefront.A question: Is it just me, or does the progression to "Beleif on aBreeze" sound hauntingly like "Lisa's Seperation" ; and does the pianoprogression in "Red Rock" hint of some song from one of the China Dollreleases...? Of course, it wouldn't be the first time Edward hasre-circulated musical themes.
"The Carrier," "Groovy," "Red Letters," and the latter half of "Beleifon a Breeze" offer the more experimental side of the album -- crunchysounds, clanging percussion, odd vocal samples and other bits of chaos.In a word, *wonderful*. I really like the way on "The Carrier,"Edward's drawled vocals fit perfectly with a very 'non musical'backdrop.
"Swamp Thing" differs quite a bit from the rest; it's musicallybrighter, with peppy keyboard percussion and a catchy chorus of "downboy down boy..." I enjoy the addition of Rachel's voice at the end,too, singing "what you do, you do for love."
Nothing on this disc failed to connect with me. Nice work, Edward!
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
These chicks are God awful at times but never anything less than fun. This debut full-lengther pulls some of their previously issued singles, "Glamor Girl" and "Mind Your Own Business" along with 11 other tasty delights. A new split 7" with V/Vm has just come out and another CD of other bits and pieces - "Unreleases" is next to impossible to find at this point. Get this when you see it as it's a fun ride of bored chick electronica with attitude, equipped with titty twisters and a cover of The Normal's "Warm Leatherette." Limited in the release, this CD is due to surface in about a week through the help of EFA distribution from Germany and Caroline in the USA.
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
His flavor is a choppity chopped up sonicbubblebath of abrasive beats, quick changes and obtrusive melodies.Many fans of Kid 606 shouldn't go without hearing this fella who's beenplaying in the same Macintosh-powered genre since before Kid could seeR rated movies legally. It's less comical but truly imaginative,talented and thrilling to listen to. Those with existing heartconditions be warned. 60 second sound clips truly don't do this artistjustice as each track has many different movements. Short attentionspan theater, indeed. Note: this disc was released with assistance fromForced Exposure and I've personally not seen it elsewhere...
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
Some from other bands as notable asAmber Asylum and Rasputina! Backworld's third album combines masterfulsound arrangement, very pretty melodies and brilliant yet melancholysongwriting to bring you a musical delight. The Death in June influenceis apparent in the song structure of tracks like 'Destroying Angel,'but Backworld's sound quality is far superior. The crisp clean12-string guitar and dulcimer blend so well with violin and cello, andthe vocals are mixed at just the right levels. Remarkably consistent inits high quality, and yet each song has its own unique sound andemotion.samples:
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- Alan Ezust and Dan Levin
- Albums and Singles
For me, most techno is just way too repetitive and irritating.Just because it has a really strong regular dance beat doesn't make itgood! Jean-Michel is an unfortunately confusing band name for this one-manmusical project by Thomas B?cker. It sounds very little likeJean-Michel Jarre, and people keep asking me what's the connection?French? New-age? Nope. Sometimes boppy and dancey, sometimesaggressive, and other times downbeat, blended in with some of the mostbeautiful acoustic guitar and restrained breakbeat you've ever heard.The build-up is long and gradual, but by the middles of the songs,you're drawn into it and there's no getting out. Some of the songs evenhave some jazzy improvisational interludes! 'Supernova,' one of themost brilliant pieces of trip-ambient-intelligent-techno I've everheard, is constantly changing and shifting, yet carrying through theentire piece a kind of energy, mood and melody that is quite appealing.Since the piece is so diverse, it is almost a crime to sample just oneminute of it, so I sampled two! I wish it was more widely available inNorth America; I'd tell everyone to buy it. Fortunately, a couple ofbig mailorder places do at least list it in their catalog now, althoughat very expensive import prices and with a "can backorder" status.
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
The thing I hate most iswhen a band comes out with a whole album where each song soundsbasically the same, or a bunch of rock guitars sounding gloomy. Give itup already, it's been done too many times before. What I really likeabout goth music, especially of the kind you find on Heavenly Voicescompilations or some of the recent stuff on World Serpent or MiddlePillar, is when it brings in another musical influence and blends itin, but then sinks a lot of energy into making it sound good. Eastmeets west, old meets new - Qntal and Love is Colder than Death popinto my head here. Twelfth of Never's debut CD, Blowing Bubbles ThroughBroken Windows, is an example of the kind of stuff that turns my crank.Beautiful vocal harmonies, very lush ethereal soundscapes, andoverflowing with brilliant ideas - each song has its own uniquecharacter and beauty to it. The creepy yet pretty song 'The Cycle'could easily score some of Tim Burton's next movie. Lots of crispacoustic sounds, shimmering bells, flute and dulcimers? Wow! Isincerely hope that Hyperium puts Theanna on Heavenly Voices Volume6,... And they're from Boston, no less. Oh, did I mention I liked theartwork too?samples:
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
This is the second full-lengther from the Duo andstretches about 40 minutes over 8 random length improvised numbers. Asthe ensemble gets smaller, the directions get considerably moreexperimental and electronic. 'Synesthesia' opens up with a multi-part12 minute long piece, "Blue Sparks,..." with a sound that could haveeasily been influenced by watching loads of 1960s sci-fi flicks. "TramTransfer Nine" closes the CD with a cut up experimental track worthy ofrecognition of any experimental brainwashed band fan. Having the albumengineered by John McEntire might have had a role in the more daringsound, but sources close to me say that McEntire merely strategicallybrings out what the band wants to really sound like and accomplish,...Another guest on the disc is the Sea and Cake's front man, Sam Prekoptwiddling with a Moog midway through the disc. When you see the Duo inconcert, the setup is simple Mazurek on trumpet and Chad Taylor on thedrums AND vibraphone. More than just a percussionist, Taylor beats outthe rhythms with his right hand while chiming in the melodies with theleft. Tortoise/Isotope member Jeff Parker often joins in to completemore of the sound.samples:
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
With vibrophone virtuoso Dylan Cristy and music enthusiast/drummer Adam Pierce at the production helm, this disc grooves more on a dub tip than anything else they've done—without compromising the intensity of the ever so prominent vibes.Bubble Core
A somewhat shocking pleasant surprise is the brilliantly executed cover of The Orb's "Towers of Dub." Hypnotizing and intoxicating, those into reverberated echoed dub a'la Twilight Circus and the swirling chiming melodies of vibes-heavy Reich-influenced Chicago bands will find something wonderful in this release. I truly adore it when a band can just jump into a laid back dub groove, and hold onto it as long as they please. Sadly enough, they will not hit Boston on their current US tour.
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- Thomas Olson
- Albums and Singles
- Thomas Olson
- Albums and Singles
And someof them were actually pretty good, and some of them, for reasons knownonly to the Muses, just never made it to CD. There are a handful of oldfavorite records that I regularly hunt CD shops for, hoping that somesmall Lithuanian press will rerelease them on CD-- stupid things likeFlying Lizards "Top Ten", Nina Hagen's "Angstlos", and everything byGang of Four, which only came out a few years ago after lots ofsquabbling. But at the top of my Most-Missed-Records list has been apair of legendary albums I haven't seen in a long, long time. 17 yearsin fact. The year I graduated from high school the greatest albums inhuman history were released: "Our Solar System" and "Sing No Evil" byHalf Japanese.
You might've picked up some of their albums and wondered afterwards whythis crappy band has such a following, and so many albums, and why hiprecord stores continue to keep a 1/2 jap section. You might've evenseen the documentary ("The Band That Would Be King") chronicling theirrise to international fame, glory and rock immortality and concludedthey're nothing more than a joke. But odds are you never heard theirgreatest moments, which have been locked up and/or lost in the dustyvaults of the now-defunct 18,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 VoltsRecords until this happy, happy, day.
These albums record the moment when the world's most electrifyingquartet collided with the world's most cacophanous 13-piece hornsection. The songs record the signature teenage-retard fantasies of JadFair, full of uneasy speculations about girls, girl athletes, girlswith ESP, girls who make him listen to classical music, girls whoseboyfriends were hit by trains, girls he secretly likes, girls who mightbe secretly in love with him. And from there he explores the enduringmysteries of UFO's, Voodoo and Acupuncture, and the immortal "ThingWith A Hook" that stalks lover's lane.Jad Fair never sounded better or more sincere than in these twobrilliant albums, which literally explode out of your speakers with analmost Rabelaisian frenzy of picked-on-nerd-anger and unrequitedhorniness. Music for sociopathic teens? Maybe. But these records areindescribably audacious and document a moment of unbounded, visceralcreativity that began with their mind-boggling first album, HalfGentlemen / Not Beasts, which was released, in consideraion of theiruniverse-conquering ambition, as a three album set. Lyrical andsincerely stupid, Half Japanese lay it all on the line in every song,recalling in their squealing half-assed obsessiveness The Shaggs, TheVelvet Underground and John Zorn... I can't say it's all worth buying,but I can unequivocally say that these two albums are musicalmilestones in their own geeky world. Come visit "Our Solar System" andrediscover your neglected inner retard.
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