Being thankful for an earful.
Brand new music by Marie Davidson, Niecy Blues (feat. Joy Guidry), CEL, Marisa Anderson and Luke Schneider, Stina Stjern, Carmen Villain, Murcof, A Lily, and Far Golden Pavilions, with music from the vaults by Tomaga, Ozzobia, Jan Jelinek.
Sushi photo by Lindsay.
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Opium Jukebox is MartinAtkins (Pigface, The Damage Manual, Invisible Records) and BobdogCatlin (ex-Evil Mothers, Pigface, Pseudo Buddha) and a dozen othermusician friends. This cd is a contemporary covers album: Nirvana"Smells Like Teen Spirit", NIN "Head Like a Hole", Gary Numan "Cars","Ball of Confusion", Jane's Addiction "Been Caught Stealing", EMF"Unbelievable", "Tainted Love", Devo "Whip It" and Dead or Alive "YouSpin Me Right Around".
samples:
I am amazed at the madgenius that is Richard H. Kirk, once again he manages to blur the linebetween music and noise as entertainment in a very thought-provkingmanner.
Kirk expands on ideas from more recent works including,"Loopstatic" and "Darkness at Noon"; using found sounds, sampled mostlyfrom shortwave radio, mixed with his signature "Clonk" and tribalrhythms. This time almost the entire song structure is built up fromthese odd test tones, crackles and overheard conversations. It is evenless synth-based than before, the samples ARE the instruments and Kirkputs these cut-up fragments together to invoke a cacophony of chaoticcomplexity reminiscent of an automated factory assembly line or thebridge of the Starship Enterpise.samples:
Remember Tricky? Theformer music media darling amicably parted ways withPolygram/Island/Def Jam in 1999 and now calls Epitaph branch Anti homealongside Tom Waits and Merle Haggard. Mission accomplished? This UK EP(also due out February 6th in the States) gives us a little over 16minutes with 3 new songs and 1 previously unreleased old one.
samples:
Slammin' mutherfuckingballsy-ass shit. This debut CD release is probably the most excitedI've been about a new rock-genred band in as long as I can remember.The energy is fierce, the music is fast, funky and full of wakka wakkaguitars, crazy effects, beefy bass chops, electronic and organic drums,wild cheering, hoards of percussion and a splash of horns.
They say history never repeats but almost unsurprisingly much of the 2000 Brainwashed Readers Poll looks closely identical to the first time we took the poll, 10 years ago. Thanks to everyone who participated in both rounds this year. Now it's time to go to your collections and dig out the music from 1999 for the nomination round (coming shortly)!
 
 
 
 
 
Silver Mt. Zion
Album of the Year
1. godspeed you black emperor!, "Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven"
2. Coil, "Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2"
3. Radiohead, "Kid A"
4. Sigur Rós, "Ágætis Byrjun" [despite the release being in 1999, the international distribution through Fat-Cat will qualify this release for 2000]
5. Yo La Tengo, "And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out"
6. Current 93, "Sleep Has His House"
7. two way tie:
Broadcast, "The Noise Made By People"
Legendary Pink Dots, "A Perfect Mystery"
8. Antony & the Johnsons, "Antony & the Johnsons"
9. two way tie:
Amon Tobin, "Supermodified"
Trans Am, "Red Line
10. two way tie:
Kid 606, "Down with the Scene"
Primal Scam, "Xtrmntr"
BAND
OF THE
YEAR
1. godspeed you black emperor!
2. Coil
3. Radiohead
4. Sigur Rós
5. Legendary Pink Dots
6. Current 93
7. Kid 606
8. Low
9. Yo La Tengo
10. Antony & the Johnsons
SONG
OF THE
YEAR
1. Coil, "Batwings (A Limnal Hymn)"
2. Boards of Canada, "In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country"
3. Radiohead, "Idioteque"
4. Antony & the Johnsons, "Cripple and the Starfish"
5. Current 93, "I Have a Special Plan for This World"
MUSIC
VIDEO
OF THE
YEAR
1. Outkast, "B.O.B."
2. MDMFK, "Missing Time"
3. Add N to (X), "Plug Me In"
4. Eminem, "Will the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up"
5. Radiohead - all those little short video clips
NEW
BAND
OF THE
YEAR
1. Antony & the Johnsons
2. Goldfrapp
3. A Silver Mt. Zion
4. The Damage Manual
5. Cex
[note: Sigur Rós actually got the most votes but since their first album was released in 1988, they were disqualified. Their current album is their third album.]
CONCERT
EVENT
1. Legendary Pink Dots/Dead Voices on Air
2. godspeed you black emperor!
3. Nine Inch Nails
4. Coil at the Royal Festival Hall (2nd time)
5. Wire
BEST
LABEL
1. Kranky
2. three-way tie:
Constellation
Thrill Jockey
Warp
3. World Serpent
4. Soleilmoon
5. two-way tie:
Mille-Plateaux
Ant-Zen
BEST
PRODUCER
1. John McEntire & Jim O'Rourke
2. Steve Albini
3. Steven Stapleton
4. Christoph Heemann
5. Frank Verschuuren
WORST
BAND
1. Limp Bizkit
2. Creed
3. Moby
4. Radiohead
5. U2
WORST
ALBUM
YOU
BOUGHT
1. Radiohead, "Kid A"
2. Download, "Effector"
3. Coil, "Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil"
4. Chicks on Speed, "Will Save Us All"
5. Badly Drawn Boy, "The Hour of Bewilderbeast"
BEST
COMP
1. Wild Planet
2. OHM - The Early Gurus of Electronic Music
3. Attitude
4. Xen Cuts
5. Chicago 2018
BEST
MOVIE
1. Requiem for a Dream
2. Dancer in the Dark
3. Gladiator [??? don't our readers have any taste?]
4. High Fidelity
5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
BEST
TV SHOW
1. The Simpsons
2. South Park
3. Futurama
4. The Daily Show
5. The Sopranos
BEST
BOOK
1. Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"
2. "Apocalypse Culture 2"
3. Dave Eggers, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"
4. Naomi Klein, "No Logo"
5. Bill Drummond, "45"
BEST
ACTOR
1. Russel Crowe
2. John Cusak
3. Philip Seymour Hoffman
4. Ed Norton
5. Kevin Spacey
BEST
ACTRESS
1. Bjück
2. Ellen Burntsyn
3. Christina Ricci
4. Kate Hudson
5. Angelina Jolie
BIGGEST
DISAP-
POINTMENT
1. US Presidential Election
2. Y2K and no armageddon
3. lame year for films
4. miserable lives of the readers who think their lives suck
5. Dancer in the Dark
EVENT
1. Endless US Presidential Election
2. New Year's Day 2000
3. Coil live
WEBSITE
1. brainwashed
yuck!
2. theonion.com
3. nosepilot.com
4. amihotornot.com
5. heavy.com
HERO
1. Ralph Nader
2. assholes who voted for themselves
3. George W. Bush
4. Jon Whitney
5. Dan Rather
VILLAIN
1. George W. Bush
2. assholes who voted themselves
3. RIAA
4. Al Gore
5. Jon Whitney
MOST
ANNOYING
TREND
1. Scooters
2. Rap Rock
3. "Whassssup" greeting (shouting or text messaging)
4. cell phones
5. Who let the dogs out
Barrelling forward with releases, John Hughes' Hefty Records has boldly issued a series of stellar limited edition 12" singles.First up was the Savath + Savalas 12" - something I missed, limited to 700 copies and now sold out. Second up is the debut of A Grape Dope, a delicious subsonic bass cochlear vibrating dub-friendly three-tracker from Johnny Herndon (Tortoise/Isotope), limited to 750 copies. IA003 is limited to only 525 copies and features two primo tracks from Twine, plunging deep and low with thick frequencies, lengthy intros and a disregard for conventional low-tempo high-fidelity. Side one is a chunky sexual feast, side two hypnotic and divine. Retina provides three top quality constructional head bobbers for the fourth in the series, also limited to 525 copies. The fifth 12" comes from Samadha Trio, limited to 850 copies and featuring four tracks of various origin. A studio tune opens with organic drums with space-jazz organ riding alongside a spacious fluffy electronic bubblebath, followed by a live-ish tune of bass, piano and drums with slick electronic mixing. And finally, the last in the series conveniently wraps things up with a couple remixes from The Aluminum Group, John Hughes, Slicker and Savath+Savalas as well as two new tracks from an entity called Process. Along with the minimal packaging and uniform design I must say I haven't looked at vinyl this gorgeous with grooves this deep and pretty in a long time. Glancing at their website, a forthcoming 2xCD release appears to have stuff from this series, but I sure hope nothing's left out as these 12" singles are quite astonishing.
From Morr Music inGermany comes a wonderful offering of many of their fine artists. Don'tlet the title fool you, there's nothing to do with the former Smithslead singer on here. In the last few years, the electronic instrumentalrock hybrid scene in Germany has grown exponentially from what once wasonly a handful of acts who used to share loads of members. Collectedhere are some of the more prominent groups like The Notwist, Arovane,Lali Puna, Flowchart and the Tied & Tickled Trio. Disc one featuresfourteen new and exclusive cuts while disc two features fourteenincestuous remixes of many of the first disc's artists trading mixeswith others. Solvent remixes Kevin & Paul, Schneider TM remixesMicha Archer & Ms John Soda, while Kandis and the Tied &Tickled Trio remix each other. This provides a great introduction toMorr, which appears to be sort of taking off where Kitty-Yo decided toleave off when they pursued trashy cash cow kitch like Peaches andGonzales. Kudos to Morr for keeping the artwork alive.
In an almostanti-post-kraut movement, Ladomat (who gave us the compilation 'L'ageD'or' earlier this year) has unleashed a two-disc compilation of theirown, showcasing their artists like Sand 11, Egoexpress and CommercialBreakup. Flying in the face of the instrumental movements (like theMorr comp exposed), these groups are clearly pop-minded. The groupssing (frequently in English) and bring a jovial bounce and step totheir brand of futurism without going completely off the deep end intosomething that would wear thin after the novelty is gone. Germans canrock as they proved earlier this year, now they're telling the worldthat Germans can smile and make fun artistic music without beingstereotypically overly serious stiffs or churning out disposablecartoon techno.
The disc starts off verypromising. The rhythms are sexy and the music is rich in texture.Driving beats set the disc in motion from the start, but all of the funsoon begins to fade. What spoils the disc for me is when a guestvocalist either raps or sings. The rap is never interesting enough tohold my attention and the lyrics are rather embarassing to listen to.It's almost as if Red Snapper use vocals as a crutch for songs theyfeel need a better lead instrument, but when they keep them out, theintensity of the music grows to epic proportions. Going forward on thedisc, Red Snapper do however make some choices to keep other tracksinstrumental. A very nice option for tracks like the album closer,"They're Hanging Me Tonight," a wonderful play of overprocessed drums,guitars crying backwards and drone-like string samples.
From Tonschacht inCologne, Germany comes this heavy slate, cleverly disguised as a 7"single. I honestly don't think I own a 7" record pressed this thick.Anyhow the three tracks which compose this single bring together bothHrvatski's technical expertise of precision electro-meddling and afondness for outside sources laying down constant voices to be carriedthrough with each composition. Keith Fullerton-Whitman makes songs andsomething like this is a tease to his fans out there waiting foranother full-lengther from the boy. Look for a remix project due outsometime in January. The single's limited to 500 numbered copies buthas seemingly had an easy time making the distribution outside ofGermany.
