Formed in Knoxville, TN, Superdrag released a few singles and EPs onDarla and Arena Rock before signing with Elektra Records to releasetheir debut LP, "Regretfully Yours." That's the one with their big"Buzz Bin" hit single "Sucked Out." It was a bit of a fright, really.John Davis, their gregarious frontman, screaming at what seems to bebeyond his register, "Who sucked out the feeLANG?!" This was rawk. Nowonder Elektra went after them. Their next record, also on Elektra,"Head Trip In Every Key," showed the band maturing into a more melodic,grounded sound, while they still had their Kinks/Beatles/Romanticspower-pop moments. Ultimately, though, super stardom escaped them, andthey returned to the studio after a headlining club tour to start workon their follow-up. Elektra had optioned their next three releases, andwere eager for an album to push that, as they saw it, better reflectedthe "Sucked Out" sound. Superdrag emerged from the studio with thisrelease, their third full-length, "In The Valley Of Dying Stars." AndElektra didn't hear a single. They told the band to go back in and makesome more power pop magic. Why is it always Elektra in these stories,anyway? So Superdrag asked to be let out of their contract, and Elektraagreed. So they returned to Arena Rock, and re-worked "Valley," thoughreportedly not much needed to be altered. It may sound cliche, but it'scertainly no surprise: "Valley" is their finest work to date. Foundingmember Tom Pappas left the group shortly before recording, a voidfilled by Sam Powers, a perfect foil for Davis in the vocal department.The sound of the record is dirtier than the others ("Oooh! It evenSOUNDS indie!"), but that's hardly a detriment to these songs. Therecord is dedicated to the memory of Davis' father, and some of thesongs reflect this loss. But the prevailing theme here is one Davisstarted on "Head Trip": the whoredom of the music industry. Not a freshtopic, but one that Davis certainly gets mileage on. The opening track,"Keep It Close To Me," impresses with its pounding drums and hookyguitar crunch, and the lyrics make it the ultimate kiss-off: "I wantrock and roll but I don't want to deal with the hassle/I know what Iknow but I don't want to feel like an asshole." Davis' vocals havecertainly improved, as he seems more comfortable in his range andstyle. The swagger is bigger and better, and the band's shuck and jivekicks the ever-loving hell out of most bands these days. The sound iseven meatier with Powers, a noticeable improvement. If you want to hearsome solid, formidable rock, you can't go wrong with this release,originally put out in September of last year but widely ignored. Giveit a try.
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The Rhode Island-based duo has their first full-length release nowavailable on Tigerbeat6. Clearly this is first effort, as theinstrumentation is decent (they're good enough to get somebody'sattention) but the songwriting skills are somewhat bland. For the firsthalf of the disc, the duo delivers a pleasant but rather sluggish blendof 4/4 beats, unobtrusive melodies, sub-dub noodlings, and colorings ofglitch and sonic glitter. The album gets rather lengthy at points, butdon't underestimate the power of pleasantness, and about mid-waythrough the album the mood certainly becomes more well-defined. On thewhole, this could have been a stronger release if they both started itaround track eight and didn't try so hard to be clever with the songtitles. While it's not bad, and can be quite colorful aural wallpaper,it's nothing that demands high attention. Maybe being a friend of 606just isn't enough to make for a great album release.
Slightly more dull in the composition department but more creativelyglitchy in the production is the collaborative effort between Uwe Zahnand Eliot Perkins, more commondly known as Arovane and Phonem. Out ofthe eight seemingly endless tracks here, four are collaborations whileeach each supply two on their own. It seems like an interestingmatch-up, as Arovane's a hardware-backed gearhead while Phonem's asoftware-based nerdy glitch boy. Once again the music's quite pleasant,but even more so than Stars as Eyes, I'm forcing myself to stay awake.The music on Aer is moderate-paced electronics, unobtrusive andunoffensive, but it's hardly as interesting as something like theaforementioned Phonecia, emotive as something like Boards of Canada,resourceful like Matmos or creative like a whole host of others.Perhaps this could be the start of a new sub-genre, SDM (sleepy dancemusic).
Every once in a not so great while David Tibet of Current 93 and StevenStapleton of Nurse With Wound join their respective Durtro and UnitedDairies labels as United Durtro for collaborations and to reissue theforgotten or nearly impossible to obtain work of late '60s/early '70s'Krautrock' bands they admire. Sand were the first to receive suchtreatment and now fellow Germanic collective Xhol (pronounced 'soul',aka Soul Caravan and Xhol Caravan) are next with two nicely recorded,previously unreleased live performances. Disc 1 is entitled "FreedomOpera" from 1968 and disc 2 is a Frankfurt WDR radio set from 1969,both discs somewhat annoyingly indexed as one 57 minute track. Thetapestry of sound includes vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar, organ,saxophones, flute and drums. First and foremost Xhol are a rock androll band with a soul center, but they also take in a number of otherstyles, and this is no exaggeration: psychedelic, freeform jazz andnoise, rhythm and blues, progressive, '60s pop and rock and even a bitof funk. But vocalist James Rhodes defines it best mid disc 1 simply as"black music". Long, meandering solos and instrumental excursionswander on and off the path of hippie bliss as Rhodes belts out theblues rather nicely or recites timely poetry. Loose covers of VanillaFudge's "Poems" and Donovan's "Season of the Witch" (which was alsocovered by Vanilla Fudge) are among the six originals on disc 1. Disc 2comes with no tracklisting and I think I know why. It seems to be onelong, often spontaneous instrumental jam by just four members, forwhatever reason - bass, tenor sax, organ and drums - it's just as goodand at times reminiscent of recent live explorations I've witnessed byThe Legendary Pink Dots. After hearing Xhol, for the first time might Iadd, I really have to wonder why I haven't seen their name mentionedbefore in the annals of late '60s rock. As a special treat for c93, NWWand Christoph Heemann fans, a third limited edition disc entitled "HotButtered Xhol" showcases superb Xhol 'covers' by each, c93's "Memories"being particularly mesmerizing. The packaging is also fantastic with a12 page insert, beautifully covered up by Stapleton, that contains anon-stage photo of the band, show posters and liner notes, all in Germanunfortunately save for Stapleton, Tibet and Heemann's virgin Xholexperiences. Good job guys! Through the magic of shiny polycarbonatediscs, "Motherfuckers Live" is like an amber encrusted insect preservedfor all eternity to admire.
With the latest offerings, Vert (and Mouse on Mars on their Soniglabel) have proven to be masters of their own kind. The disc opens with"Blindsight," where animated and robotic beats that envoke pure digitalcharm. Melodies and rhythms are moving, physically and blissfully. Fromthere, it gets into the quirky and raw - theremin-esque noises withreverb-soaked samples and voice clips, with a constant click & popfeel. Some of the third track, "Codfish Dada" has a scratchy-jazzyfeel, like typical Sonig-esque squishy squigly noises throughout butstill maintaining nice composition & form. Some of the sounds onthis album remind me of more of what was on their 12",Mooremooseicforme, which I thought were possibly from some of the samesampling/sessions that much of Mouse on Mars' recent stuff has beenfrom. Some tracks, "Somewhere Between Here and Last Week", for example,feature improvised antique organ sounds with dusty blip soundsthroughout. I picture funny little clown-men playing jazz music for amass in a dusty and crumbling old church. But then they break intosomething like a digital hardcore take on dub. Screeching synths andmorphing, building waves of noise ... some trip-hop atari music to justlie back and close your eyes. Then the strings kick in, and it's trulybeautiful, quirkiness or not. As the disc comes to close, a slow fuzzbuild-up turns to nice pensive piano turns into a sonic wall of organsthat force the listener's eyes to jet open after being harshly brokenfrom the moods that the music had previously set up. It fades out, andthe closer, "Scope/Lifetime", seems to tie in the whole of the album -remaining inconsistent within it's boundaries. Seriously, thequirkiness and diversity in this album are really something that fewothers know quite how to do.
You're drifting back in the timeline of electronic music... pastglitch, through drill n' bass, left at Braindance, back to a moreoptimistic time where Black Dog was 3 people, and naive melodies on topof percussion with little or no processing could still be talked aboutas being non-derivative. If you enjoy that classic "IDM" sound,Estermann delivers. His style isn't the most original on the block, buthistorically he's also been one of the artists who do it best. 
"How gerrmann!" me and my friend said to ourselves (in nasal "Deiter"voice) when confronted with this album. It seems like a good chunk ofthe decent electronic music is sourced in one of several cities in thecountry, one of which is Berlin - Enter the Lux Nigra label and Michael(_not_ John, thankfully) Zorn. From his music, one can easily drawkraut connections to the Din, Morr Music, or Chain Reaction labels, orcomparisons to Arovane or Monolake. Pretty wicked stuff with a stew ofinfluences, including house, IDM, and dub. 
The VVMCPS virus spreads its tentacles across the seas, or at least afew ponds, and into the memories of those who dare to deconstruct thecrap novelty minor pop abortions of a comedy cleaning woman. SuPollard, who played the dotty chalet mopper in the Great Britishholiday camp 'comedy' horrorshow 'Hi-De-Hi' has been responsible forfilling the mouldy old singles boxes of many a charity shop. She is nowanonymously employed as a cleaner for All Tomorrow's Parties, or so therumour I just started has it.
Since signing to Mike Patton's label Ipecac, The Melvins have gone high concept, releasing a trilogy of albums with a unifying concept. With 'Gluey Porch Treatments' they've gone back to their beginnings and re-released their 1986 record with the garage demos for the record appended as bonus tracks to the album proper. This brings playing time for the album from 38 minutes to a little over an hour, but it doesn't come out as gratuitous, rather as a nice gesture for those interested in how the songs originally started out and how they changed into the final album versions.
