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It's been nearly a yearsince the first issue of this, I Am Spoonbender's second CD. The vinyledition of this extended-play single comes in a 3-sided 2x12" set. Boththat and the first-edition CD are limited to numbers under 1,000. Now,Vancouver-based Mint Records brings us these 6 tracks to keep ourbreath sparkling fresh. I've become truly addicted to this CD. Theproduction brilliantly combines toyful electronic and driving rocksounds into a heavenly rhythmic mishmosh. Clever melodies and lyricsare all too remeniscent of a time in the 80s when pop music was createdfor the sake of making something sound good, long before wanky guitarsolos, macho vocals and tired chord progressions took over. A surprisegem on the disc is a parody of Berlin's "The Metro" where the singerbellows "Where do all the words go?" Pop is good, pop is fun, and thisis the real sugar - there's no saccharin here, baby.Read More
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The wait is over, the NEWfull-lengther from Kid 606 gets released from Mille-Plateaux in Germanythis week to thousands of waiting fans. So it's not the onlyfull-length new release from Kid this year, so what! On this disc, Kidprobes into deep rhythms, microdissecting sounds at shrillingfrequencies. Gone are the bombastic dubbastyle gabber techno noiseassault tunes on this album. Concept? Perhaps not, but conceptualindeed. Much like the Soccergirl E.P. release earlier this year, thefeeling on this record is love. Perhaps it's a statement on irony asthese songs sound more mechanical and less freestyle. Either way thesounds are charming and the beats change enough to make you wonder howon earth Mille Plateaux released this gem!Read More
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All too often something will arrive in the post with next to no information, the CD will be home made and the music will sound horrible. Occasionally something shows up with nearly no information but it sounds great. EA are from Poland and the disc that arrived is indeed difficult to decipher titles or record label. Thankfully, a plop into the computer brings up the CDDB entry. Although the entries of the database can be completely wrong, I'm gonna trust it this time.Each track is noted as an improvisation - the music is quite free-form dark electronic, yet it's much more interesting than much of the electronic stuff oozing from German Macintosh powerbooks. Perhaps the reason being is that this trio consists of a guitarist/bassist/violinist, an electronician devoted to field recordings and sound samplings along with a laptop fucker (for f/x and noise generating purposes). Their approach to music is to capture the moment without multitracks, overdubs or synthesizers. The sound includes (but is not limited to) all-ecompassing deep droning pulses, thunderous earth moving rumbles, foreground sounds perfectly treated to identify them separate from the otherness, and spoken samples (in Polish perhaps?) Nothing on this disc is too flat and the movements evolve and change over time, whipping up charming frenzied aural gems and quelling down, returning to the heavy low roar. While they look for distribution outside of Europe, their music can be obtained allegedly at www.terra.pl/ea, although I'm still trying to figure out the interface, myself.
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Finally released fromForce-Inc. is the promised second full-lengther from youngster TomasJirku. From the big fuck up on the front cover (the album is named"Requins" on the cover) I'm somewhat leery of this despite myappreciation for his first release, earlier this year on Alien8. On'Sequins,' Jirku walks a thin tightrope between blonky Euro laptopglitch dub and gay designer lounge beats. Although I would appreciatePole sounding as interesting as this, the sound treatment is relativelyflat, lacking a depth or soul I'm more fond of. The disc feels long andrather tiresome if it's providing foreground music, however it wouldfit quite well providing background to a social evening indoors. Therepetitiveness contained herein could very well cause hypnosis orinduce sleep while all alone. It's not advisable to listen to thiseither in the car or at work!Read More
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Coil may very well be oneof my favorite bands, but they do have a few problems with whatsomebody in the film industry would consider 'continuity.' Hence thelatest release. While this clearly is marked as Coil, 'ConstantShallowness' (along with 'Queens of the Circulating Library' and thelive CD that came along with 'Musick volume 2') it would probably bestbe noted as a release from Time Machines. The sound sources are kept toa bare minimum (making it minimal music?) while the structure mirrorsmovements of sound waves, other than form conceptual songs. 'ConstantShallowness' also falters in the continuity scheme of things by sharingthe same Eskaton catalogue number as 'Astral Disaster,' so am I beingpicky? Perhaps the music I'm most fond of I'll bitch about the most...The sounds here are much more varied than any previous release in thisvein, 6 songs (spanning 23 tracks) stretch the senses to wonderfulsonically high and low pitches, adding pulses and lyrics in spots.Noisy and abrasive in parts, this CD comes with the warning not tooperate heavy machinery while listening. Disregarding the warning, myfirst listen was inside the car. I'm still okay but people wanderingthe streets outside who could hear the stuff were perplexed. I hopethey're okay.Read More
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By comparing this to anyother Current 93 release would be pointless, the concept here is muchdifferent than nearly everything David Tibet has released so far in his20 year career. Count Eric Stenbock, a nineteenth-century suicidalmelancholy writer is honored here with a booklet featuring his prose,"Faust". Tibet spared us from his own vocalization of "Faust" howeverand provided us, the consumers with the choice to read it ourselves,silent or out loud, creating our own album. The accompaniment takes theform of one instrumental 36-minute track, and while it's not dull ordrab, it rarely changes. Almost entirely electronic, sparse and eerie,it is clear to me this is background ambience and should not be takenout of context. Out of context, many fans will be in for adisappointment. Over the last two years, Tibet's output has stayedintentionally consistent with each release ('Soft Black Stars,' 'I Havea Special Plan for This World,' and 'Sleep Has His House'). While everyrelease has impressed me to some extent, hopes of a Current 93 album tocompile all these concepts with new material in a variety of sorts willtruly be one of his finer and most regarded works to date.Read More
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I've reached the decision that Broadcast shine much brighter on their single and EP releases than their full-length albums. This year's The Sound Made By People has been overshadowed by the group's release of the four extended-play singles that have surrounded the release.
 
The latest single features five all-new tracks which span about 20 minutes. There's a certain balance contained herein between distorted noise and pretty melodies, apparent on many of the single releases yet missing from the album.
On Extended Play Two, Broadcast do indeed let loose and show us what they're made of. If their albums were half as daring and captivating as their singles, I would be a greater fan. For now, I'll stick with the singles.
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Possibly the mostoverlooked of the brainwashed artists, Ruby Falls have released theirsecond full-length CD. Collected from studio recordings which arenearly two years old now, this 12-song disc features the NYC-based rockquartet exploring more directions in songwriting, time signature andkey changes. I'm partial to "The Brave Ones" as it was given to memonths ago for release on the compilation set to appear in THE WIREmagazine. I hope that it represents the band well, as many people don'tseem to listen to much good rock music any more these days. Ruby Falls'melodies are charming and their lyrics are strong and poetic, the bandis tight and the playing is wonderful. Fans of Ida, Retsin and TaraJane O'Neil who don't have anything by Ruby Falls should damned well beashamed of themselves.Read More
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Alison Goldfrapp has graced albums from Tricky,Orbital and Add N to (x), now teamed up with Will Gregory (a young filmscore enthusiast), John Parish (PJ Harvey) and Adrian Utley(Portishead), a debut CD has been released through Mute. With the aboveroster it's hard to get away from Portishead or film score comparisons,but Goldfrapp owes more inspiration from 40s jazz singers combined witha film noir enthusiasm. Open the CD and images strike up Twin Peakseeriness mixed with breathtaking natural beauty. The music can bedescribed somewhat like that, deep rich sounds with Alison's tendervoice (and whistling) gently layered on the top, echoing voices frombeyond the final resting points of some of the mid-20th Century's bestloved jazz singers. Gothic-jazz? Portis-Peaks? Franken-Sushi? Now I'mgetting giddy.samples:
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Each track as catchy and slightly off center as thenext, all of them single worthy or better. I had heard the song "TheMermaids Hotel" a few weeks back on a local college radio station andhave been humming the tune ever since, after only hearing it once. Nowafter scoring the full record, i'm about as happy as a kid at Christmasthat the whole album is as good, or better (I'll admit, some of theirpast records have been hit and miss). Even better yet, they're touringthe states, fulfilling my wish to see them before i die. It's thesimple things in life, you know.samples:
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