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13 March 2005

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This odd release follows closely on the heels of Nagisa Ni Te's recent album The Same as a Flower.It's odd because it's a 40-minute album containing only four tracks,all of which are re-recorded versions of songs from their back catalog.It's hard to work out just what motivated Shinji Shibayama and MasakoTakeda to record this brief album, other than a desire to liberatethese songs from their previously relatively minimal instrumentalpalette and their low-fidelity recording style.

Jagjaguwar

It's no secret thatNagisa Ni Te have been inching ever closer to 1970s psych-rockterritory over the course of their last three albums, and this albumreflects this slow transition. At various times, the tracks on Dream Soundsevoke the Laurel Canyon sound, Neil Young and Pink Floyd: dreamy popsongs given a crisp rock sheen, with resounding electric guitar solos,multitracked choral backing and loads of spacious, canyonesque echo. Inthe midst of all this production sheen, however, the voices of Shinjiand his artistic muse Masako arrive untouched, with all their roughimperfections and flat intonations intact. Though the music clearlywears its Western rock influences on its sleeve, it's still peculiarlyJapanese, not least because the lyrics are sung in Nagisa Ni Te'snative tongue. The lyric translations provided in the sleeve notes byJapanophile Alan Cummings are almost extraneous, as one could easilyguess that the lyrics are full of light, breezy imagery about natureand romantic love. Three of the tracks are from the 1998 Japan-onlyrelease True World, with the track "The True Sun" extended intoan epic, sidelong exercise in folk-rock dynamics. Shinji mounts thisfinal track as a sequel to Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer," stretchingout its length with grandiloquent guitar soloing and soaring melodieson Fender Rhodes piano and various synthesizers, interrupted by quietacoustic passages. Five albums deep into their career, the onlycomplaint that could be leveled against Nagisa Ni Te is the deja vufamiliarity of many of their songs from album to album, which tend tosound more alike than different. This tendency is emphasized on thisalbum, which puts together several songs with similar sounding vocalmelodies. Since the majority of Western listeners won't understand thelyrics anyway, this places an emphasis on Nagisa Ni Te's arrangements,which do vary quite a bit and provide much of the richness and nuanceof the album. Even at their most rock n' roll, as on the track"Anxiety," there is still a light, insubstantial feel to a lot of thismusic which may ultimately prove the be the band's undoing. Theillustration of a cute pink Teletubby riding a wave on the album'scover doesn't help the problem, but with a track as epic andmagnificent as "The True Sun," Nagisa Ni Te prove that they still havequite a few pleasures in store.

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13 March 2005

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Albums and Singles

John Fahey was a master musician, completely redefining the guitar andpioneering several styles that are distinctly and wholly his own. BlindJoe Death was a name he ascribed to a few tracks on his first album ofthe same name. John Fahey is Blind Joe Death and, as the sleeve of thisrecord suggests, Blind Joe is still very much alive. Loren MazzacaneConnors and Christina Carter (along with artist Conrad Capistran andByron Coley) have composed the first in a proposed series of duorecordings dedicated to the memory and work of John Fahey.

Ecstatic Yod

The artworkis absolutely gorgeous, imitating the style of many of Fahey's recordcovers down to the small essays sometimes included on the back of hissleeves. The music, however, does not recall the material on Fahey's Blind Joe Deathrecords. Instead, Connors and Carter have opted to stick their guns andrecord the music as they know best. This undoubtedly works to theiradvantage as any attempt at copying Fahey's style on these recordswould be both redundant and futile. The record is broken into twoside-long pieces, each of which is broken into several parts. The firstside, entitled "Smoke," includes piano and a guitar whose tone iswhite, but distorted by some blanket, as though I'm only catchingechoes of the actual performance. The movement of both instruments isslow, cold, and somber, invoking Fahey's ghost in a series of drawn outtones and shadowy folds. The guitar playing, at times, is reminiscentof Fahey's latter work, but remains far less complex and more focusedon atmospheric effect. Haunting in its slow creep, the seven-part trackslowly fades away and leaves a feeling of complete emptiness andabsence; Fahey is obviously missed. The second side is entitled"Mirrors" and is broken into five pieces. The guitar and piano on thisside move with a certain grace that reminds me entirely of Faheywithout being an actual copy of his work. The mood is still solemn insome ways, but the instruments have more life in them and each notesomehow vibrates and harmonizes with Fahey's attitude and approachtowards music. The album ends with a sample of a recording from whatmight be an old 78 playing in the background. It simultaneously makesreference to Fahey's love for the history of blues and folk music andto Death himself, still responsible but unknown for so much greatmusic.
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13 March 2005

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Albums and Singles

Psychedelic music has been getting a lot of attention lately, but I'mhard pressed to find anything with such a tag to be truly psychedelic.The first side of this LP from the duo of Brian Sullivan and NateNelson was refreshing for that reason. A vaguely rhythmic series ofchoppy and sloppy hi-hat smacks and tom pops lays out the framework forvibrating guitar noise and deeply running bass hums throughout thefirst side of Loam.

Ecstatic Peace

It's messy, beautiful, and recalls all the effects and variables of apsychedelic painting or a hyper-real physical experience. Theinstruments swim in and out of each other while a clattering of sheetmetal provide a point of reference or a singularity through which allthe random sounds can be filtered and processed. "Yota" and "SheepDust" together and together they sound like one fantastic side-longepic of feedback and blossoming pseudo-melodies. The second side,however, fails to provide anything too interesting. More solid andcomplete rhythms come from this duo on the last three tracks and theirguitar work ruins the moody and elemental nature that they introducedon the first half of the record. It's difficult even saying thisbecause the first two tracks have been spinning for about eightrotations now and I can't bring myself to stop the constant onslaughtof the keyboard-like melodies and the ear-splitting bursts of static,whines, and hellish winds. "Must Anubis" and "Throat" both have theirmoments, but less vibrant and seemingly less thought out ideas manifeston them. If only these songs hadn't been released on this record; theydon't even sound like they belong on the same album as "Yota" and"Sheep Dust." Those two songs have me absolutely spellbound and standout as two of my favorite songs I've heard this year.

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13 March 2005

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Albums and Singles

I have to admit that I'd previously never been a huge fan of Tarwater, despite their being an integral part of the German electro/pop scene with a direct connection to one of my favorite groups in the last five or so years: To Rococo Rot.

Morr Music

For some reason, the bits and pieces I had heard over the span of a few of their discs just did not appeal to me, although all the key "cool" elements were there: slick, programmed minimalist grooves augmented with drum kit; simple and punchy bass lines occasionally performed on the upright; lush layers of synthesizers drawing out interesting chord progressions. With their recent move to the Morr label, I can now say that I've quickly fallen for them thanks in part to the subsequent release of their brilliant The Needle Was Traveling disc. All the same elements as before are present, only now with a clearly defined direction, clever hooks, swifter tempos and catchy guitar riffs figuring in more heavily on their tunes. The duo of Bernd Jestram and Ronald Lippok spent the better part of a year working out a pile of compositions; the thirteen originals on this disc having a definitive pop song structure in comparison to older material. Throughout the disc, various guests (some of whom had just happened by Jestram's studio during recording) turn up on a bevy of instruments including violin, cello, guitar and (of course) the trombone to tastefully augment the already voluptuous tracks. Lippok's deadpan, near-spoken word vocal performances, although a juxtaposition in comparison to the instrumentation, are well-supported by the backing tracks and are perfectly blended into the mix. Perhaps it was the move to the Morr label that raised the bar for Tarwater to yield such a strong collection of tunes and become more song-oriented rather than just turning out musical beats. For the disc's token cover song, the timing couldn't have been any better in choosing Minimal Compact's "Babylonian Tower." With a heavier guitar/bass combo and lower-key treatment, Tarwater have cleverly transformed it into an ominous musical metaphor for the U.S. superpower's encroachment of the Middle East. Although there's no measuring when musicians and bands have "paid their dues", Tarwater are poised for a well-deserved break out of their micro electro/dance club scene to take it to the world stage. Can I get an Amen?

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13 March 2005

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Albums and Singles

The fifth full length from Australia's own Severed Heads lies somewhat comfortably on the timeline of the project's natural progression from dark industrial (Dead Eyes Opened 83) towards more accessible dance (Dead Eyes Opened 94). Released in 1989 on the Nettwerk and Volition labels, the album spawned a trio of dancefloor designed singles that by themselves warrant this reissue by the highly regarded LTM Publishing imprint, known for giving similar treatment to albums from Section 25 and 23 Skidoo.

LTM

The disc begins with one of those singles, the Robert Racic produced album mix of "All Saints Day." Over an infectious bassline that is as much EBM as it is acid house, Heads' mastermind Tom Ellard sings airily and hopefully while keyboard flourishes and echoed handclaps run amok. The second track, "Triangle Tangle Tango," warps and warbles in a stew of playful cacophony held together by a steady beat and a few key melodic elements. "Greater Reward," the album's first single, brings to mind some of New Order's like-minded material from that same period, particularly on the chorus and in the track's outro. "Big Car" follows afterwards and continues along that same logical route of new wave-inspired grooves with squirmy panning synths, distant sampled voices, and Ellard's repeated "shine a light on me" vocal hook. While still catchy thanks to Ellard's voice, the title track's lamentful bells and ominous atmospheres manage to give off a quasi-gothic feel not found elsewhere on the album. Middle-Eastern chants and oppressive bassy drones set the tone for the beatless "Chasing Skirt," the final song from the original album, leaving a gloomy aftertaste to this largely bright album. The five bonus cuts that accompany this reissue include the original version of "All Saints Day" and the non-album instrumentals "Star Spangled Bradbury" and "Bombs Fell." The booklet features an impressive abridged version of Bernie Maier's biography of the band, found in its entirety on the LTM website. Those who recall Severed Heads' far more experimental albums like Since The Accident and City Slab Horror (the latter recently self-reissued by Ellard) might very well be turned off to something that is so decidedly reaching for more mainstream success. Nonetheless, music lovers not limited solely to difficult listening and elitist esoterica will find Rotund For Success both a worthwhile treasure and, on another level, an upbeat throwback to a time where electronic dance music was still going through growing pains.

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13 March 2005

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Albums and Singles

This marks the fifth in Die Stadt's ongoing Tietchens reissue campaignand the last of the artist's early works to be released initially bySky Records. The sound is similar to the previous Sky discs and closestto the best of the five, Biotop and Spät Europa.Die Stadt

Tietchens is again working within the pop format to produce warped,retro-futurist jingles from an intimidating collection of antiquesynthesizers, but here, as on Spät and its successor In Die Nacht,he toys more and more with the a-melodic fragments and jagged, sinisterrhythm tracks of a developing industrial personality. The mood is stillall fun, but for the first time Tietchens seems involved in creating amystery, allowing the pop context to assert itself only for reasons ofparody. Rhythm remains flat and static throughout, the music's tune-fulelements accomplishing little more than a program of retarded waltzes,coated in plastic echo and hideously pixilated accents. Songs areshort, but feel long, drawn into a distant nocturnal sprawl,de-energized by the metallic flavor of the sounds and their explicitlymechanical construction. Though criticized for exposing a fusion of theartist's interests too uneven to be enjoyable, Litia soundstoday like an odd voice of dissent, dark and harsh enough to reject thepop perspective, yet immediate beyond the visceral associations ofindustrial music. A punk sensibility enters, encouraged by Tietchens'reliable deadpan presentation, lending the album some of itspredecessors' light-heartedness without a sacrifice in the coldexactitude of the music. New comparisons might include the more lo-fiwork of Flux Information Sciences whose own brand of cut-up,industrialized pop reaches a similar apex of plasticity, self-parody,and gritty self-indulgence. And while the music simply does not achievethe same addictive quality of Biotop or Spät, the Litia reissue attaches more bonus material than any before it, including Rattenheu,a 10" from the same sessions. Without the stifling rhythmic linearityof album tracks, these become some of highlights of the reissue,sounding much less dated (not surprising, as the 10" was released in1996, years after the 1983 recording), similar to the looserpop-oriented late 90s work Tietchens did with the Hematic Sunsets andthe Scorpions.

13 March 2005

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Albums and Singles

This is the first in a projected series collecting studio material thatappeared on singles, compilations and other formats. This first volumecompiles seven tracks that were originally available briefly as freeMP3 downloads from Bardo Pond's website.

Three Lobed

The seventh and final trackwas originally available only as an excerpt, and is here presented inits full, epic 31-minute length. All of these tracks were recordedaround the time of 1999's Set and Settingalbum, and thus reflect the band's sound during that time. The BardoPond sound has not changed all that much over the course of theirprolific career: a heavy, atonal rock sound characterized by mountainsof hypnotic feedback, reverb and drone. Typical of bands comprisedlargely of non-musicians, they focus more on the textural quality ofsound and less on melody and dynamism. Though their lyrical imagery andsong titles often reference psychedelics, their sound is much closer toSonic Youth or My Bloody Valentine: more artsy noise rock than spacerock. One of the problems with Bardo Pond is that their liveperformances have always been vastly superior to their recorded output,much of which sounds stiflingly uniform. And these tracks are noexception, playing up the band's tendency towards churning rock pushedinto the red zone of distortion, with singer Isobel Sollenbergerproviding indecipherable, vaguely bluesy vocal moaning. There are a fewmoments scattered across this collection where Bardo Pond goes outsideof their usual repertoire, notably with the sparse, subtle ambience of"Nomad" and "Quiet Tristin," which seem to be drawn from freeimprovisations, providing some quietly hypnotic moments that stand outon an otherwise routine album. "YaYaYaYa" is an interestinglydeconstructed funk track, which is a study in layered chaos, butdoesn't really go anywhere. "Black Turban" begins with a verytraditional-sounding blues-rock riff that could have been lifted fromany number of Jimi Hendrix albums and repeats it ad nauseum whiletaking several tangential trips into aimless improvisation. "From theSky" is the album's behemoth final track, a slow burning epic thatmakes the most of the interplay between dual guitars and drums,endlessly riffing as the noisy sediment compounds and buriedalmost-melodies bubble to the surface and fade away into the heavy,oppressive hash smoke once again. As could be expected from materialthat is nearly six years old, nothing here is earth shattering, andBardo Pond continue to be in no danger of igniting any trends. Instead,they rather relentlessly pound away at their same signature sound,which is this current market of trendspotting and postmodernchameleonism, has got to be worth something.

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13 March 2005

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Albums and Singles

Since their formation in 1996, the only thing that has stayed the same about Piano Magic is how much they've changed. That and Glen Johnson, the only fixture of the group, which includes a revolving door lineup of musicians who come and go like breathing over the course of the project's numerous albums, EPs, soundtracks and compilations.

Important

This collaborative atmosphere has resulted in wildly inconsistent results, which may be an advantage for the group, as it keeps their cult of interested listeners in a state of constant suspense about what each new release might bring. This new EP is the band's first release for Important, and it's also their first foray into full-blown electronic laptop-pop. There's been a heavy experimental, bedroom electronics feel to past releases, but this is the first time that Glen Johnson and Co. have gone high-tech, throwing their lot in with the likes of The Notwist and Postal Service. It seems a peculiarly calculated move for a band that never previously seemed to care about musical trends, and ultimately, I'm not sure if it pays off. The opening track "Echoes on Ice" employs the vocal talents of Klima's Angele David-Guillou against a cold backdrop of sparse digital glitchery with the barest subliminal suggestions of melody and rhythm. It's all very nice, but it sounds nearly identical to the music on Bjork's Vespertine album, and doesn't share the same tantalizingly mysterious atmosphere of previous Piano Magic efforts. It seems fairly derivative, and while it will doubtless appeal to those can't get enough of this sort of thing, it sounds rather tired and dull to me. "The Journal of a Disappointed Man" is inspired by the diaries of W.N.P. Barbellion, a work of terse miserablism that informs Glen Johnson's spoken-word vocals on the track, which continues the same minimal atmospherics from the opening track. "I Didn't Get Where I Am Today" again features singing by David-Guillou, another pointless Bjorkesque wintry ode to depression and solitude. Rounding out the brief EP is "This Heart Machinery," with vocals by Johnson, this time with slightly more compelling backing electronics. Judging by the liner notes for the album, which inform me that Jerome Tcherneyan and Cedric Pin are solely responsible for the music on the album, with Johnson only providing lyrics, it seems to me that Johnson has leaned too heavily on his collaborators this time, ending up with a release that is bland, faceless and unremarkable.

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06 March 2005

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Albums and Singles

While the Aeolian String Ensemble might not be a household name aroundthese parts, David Kenny, the man behind the "ensemble," should berecognized from the credits of some of the fans' most favorite Current93 and Nurse With Wound releases as well as production on SPK's "InFlagrante Delicto" and the first Cyclobe record. "Espacios" opens thisthree-song release like a fog drifting into the dark night.

Robot

It's slowmoving, chaotic in its continuously morphing volume, yet perfectlysettling and comforting. The low frequency rumbles that come in and outof phase are a complete mindwarp and play well to the higher pitchedsomewhat "lead instrument" sounds. I can't be sure what sound isactually being created by the alleged Air Harps or Wind Vanes but likea Mirror record, it's sometimes best to just sit back and let it takeover rather than overanalyze it too much. "K1" is the second piece onthe disc and if it sounds remotely familiar to some, it's because itwas originally named "Sucker for a Sob Story" back in the 1980s. "K1"was originally recorded and mixed with Steven Stapleton back in 1981 atIPS Studios. On the Historical AuricleCD, Stapleton is listed as contributing mix and sounds, while here he'sjust noted for his encouragement! Regardless, the 11-minute 24 year oldrecording sounds perfectly preserved and timeless, remarkably predatingall Nurse With Wound ambient recordings. "Eclipse" ends the CD, anearly 17 minute excerpt of a live recording which took place duringthe 1999 eclipse which seemed to effect other Europeans like Richard H.Kirk (see Darkness At Noon), Einstürzende Neubauten (see Total Eclipse of the Sun),and probably others I'm forgetting or avoiding. The Aeolian StringEnsemble's performance took place at Bosham Harbour and for the firstfew minutes it sounds as if the sea was captured in the background.Eventually the ensemble's own music overcomes all extraneous sounds aseverything builds into a thick, lush, and gorgeous aural soup,eventually breaking and giving way to the mutated sea sounds. Onceagain, the recording is nothing less than completely mesmerizing, andits brevity is almost a blessing and a tease at the same time. I doappreciate a well-developed ambient track but there are some people(I'm looking at you, Basinski) who need to know when to cut the songoff. The entire CD lasts less than 45 minutes, and it's perfect enoughto anticipate the next release, whenever that may surface. Like theonly other Aeolian full-length release, Eclipse is once againcovered by the artwork of Christoph Heemann and although it would benice to hang on a wall somewhere, the joy in this release is not anyfancy packaging, but the fantastic music contained herein.

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06 March 2005

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Albums and Singles

Eluvium differs from his fellow electronically-damaged guitar virtuosos(Fennesz, Remedios, et alii) by his insistence on repetition. He findsa hook and sticks with it, unapologetically and uncompromisingly. Thisisn't to say that Matthew Cooper's songs sound repetitive. There can berepetition without attaching the stigma of repetitive dreariness.

Temporary Residence Limited

Infact, Cooper has shown his ability to change dramatically not onlywithin songs but between albums. Whereas last year's An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death was a collection of crisp and clean piano pieces, Cooper's first album Lambent Material was a sonically dense patchwork of melody and static. Talk Amongst the Trees sounds much closer to Eluvium's debut album. But where Lambent Materialexplored the submarine, this album is an extended rumination on allthings celestial, ethereal, and airy. Song titles alone suggest part ofthis motif. "New Animals From the Air" starts the album with fivedistinct and critical layers of sounds all criss-crossing each otherand interweaving. There are echoes, reverberations, and ellipticaloverlaps. "Show Us Our Homes" looks up to the sky from the perspectiveof the ground instead of the suspension and flying in the previoussong. It is a calmer and more pensive affair, like looking up at cloudsor stars lying on your back. In harmony with the motif, "Calm of theCast-Light Cloud" is precisely what the inside of a cloud would soundlike, no more and no less. The centerpiece of the album is "Taken," aseventeen-minute expanse of pure altocumulus beauty. If the gods weretruly just, this song ought to have scored Nintendo's Kid Icarusgame. But since the game and the song are separated by about eighteenyears, I have my doubts regarding justice in this world. "Taken" is oneof the most narcotically dulcet songs ever put to ones and zeros. Youwant the song to continue interminably because everything about itseems right. Since it repeats a twenty-second melody consistently forseventeen minutes, it also has the effect of elongating and warpingtime, making the song seem longer than it is and giving the illusionthat you have been granted your wish for the song's interminability.The closer on the album is called "One" and it chimes equally withwindswept tones and oceanic resonances. A marriage of the aquatic andthe ethereal culminates in this song. The spectral power of Eluvium isall too crystal clear in Talk Amongst the Trees and you get thesense that the talk alluded to in the title is no more than the windrushing through weary boughs and leaves, giving form to what isessentially formless. This album simply floats and it is all butimpossible not to hover along with it.

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06 March 2005

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Albums and Singles

Aside from her quirky, yet laid back style of songwriting andperformance, the thing that stands out on Berlin-basedsinger/songwriter Masha Qrella's second solo recording, Unsolved Remained, is the distinct care and quality put into its production. Her 2003 debut, Luck,had been recorded mostly in secret at her home with little outsidehelp.

Morr Music

Her peculiar neo-folk/pop piecemeal brand of instrumentalsongwriting, brimming with pauses, false starts and isolating ofinstruments, had fallen short of attaining a certain level of adhesion;her first recording as a solo artist and not having a bevy of supportbehind her (remember: secret recording). The experience of recording adebut disc and subsequent performances over the past year-and-a-halfhave solidified Qrella's songwriting style and certainty as a soloartist, which are apparent on this new release. Again, recorded andmixed at "Villa Qrella," a more knowledgeable approach in studioproduction gives more conviction to the disc's eleven tracks. The titletrack's subtle electronic treatments, drawn out minor key chord changesand bright acoustic guitar lead off Unsolved Remained. Qrella'slyrics reflect on a past relationship; her vocals retaining theirdelicate and breathy characteristics as the electric guitar powerchords ring out over controlled feedback. The heavy bass end andoffbeat guitar stabs of "I Can't Tell" play against shifting andbroken-up rhythm programming, choppy vocal lines and various synthlayers. The whole thing eventually settles into a unique country/reggaemanipulation (!!) completed by the addition of flutes. "DestinationVertical," by far the coolest track on the disc, is based on a synthand steady machine-beat pulsing track by Berlin-based electronicaudio/video crew, Rechenzentrum. Qrella's addition of descendingvibrato-laden guitar melody, power chords and lyrics that conveyimagery of being high atop the snow-covered mountain peaks have thistrack yearning to be busted out by club DJs in the regulation 12"format. As her first release for the Morr label, Qrella's fashion ofvocal electro-pop is in good company with like-minded artists such asStyrofoam, the Go Find, Tarwater and Lali Puna. With any luck, she'llsoon be as prominent a figure as her label mates.

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