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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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- Christopher Anderson
- Albums and Singles
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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This music wasessentially the foundation of American minimalism (and influential uponthe subsequently influential Velvet Underground) and has until now gonelargely unheard and unreleased due to credit/ownership conflicts.Recorded live at Young and Zazeela's NYC loft on April 25th, 1965, "Dayof Niagra" is a single 31 minute piece that is unfortunately presentedhere in poor sound quality due to it being derived from amulti-generation tape. This is one reason Young was opposed to it'srelease by Table of the Elements. Cale and Conrad dominate with thecontinuos dueling drones of their respective viola and violin, so muchso that Maclise's hand percussion and Young and Zazeela's vocals areinaudible or inconsequential. The sound is tinny, dissonant and gratingwith a few recorder drop outs and it all comes to a mysteriously butmercifully abrupt end. The result, at least on this disc, is neitherdreamy or mesmerizing or even very interesting. The insert offers onlya very brief group bio and a few quotes from Cale and Conrad, which isvery disappointing considering all that could and should be said.Despite the intriguing and pioneering concepts being explored and thewelcome attempt to document a bit of musical history, one has to wonderif releasing inferior quality packages such as this one does anyone anygood. Hopefully Young will present better quality recordings for futurerelease so myself and others may make a more informed judgment on thismusic ...samples:
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- Mark Weddle
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The 60+ year oldCzukay has been busy as of late with a 2 disc live collaboration withDr. Walker of Air Liquide and 2 solo studio albums, all for the U.S.based Tone Casualties label. "La Luna" (The Moon, subtitled 'anelectronic night ceremony') is a single 47 minute piece recorded livein the studio in 1996. Czukay uses his extensive cut-up skills to laydown a murky, Ovel-esque loop foundation to which he adds a metronomelike beat and sporadic fills, sonic textures, voices and the like. 18minutes later most everything drops out then it slowly rebuilds withglass bottle like percussion and waves of ambient sound and we're backon track by the 23rd minute. By the 30th minute it all drops off againand the vocals / spoken words of U-She debut with lines such as "laluna ... goddess of the moon". The 38th to 42nd minutes are the mostactive with percussion and noise stuff and the final few minutes bringit all to a close in a beat absent cloud. That's a long 47 minutes. I'mthoroughly unimpressed and utterly disappointed, especially consideringCzukay's background. Most of the sounds are generic and dull and whilethe piece as a whole does change over time, it fails to progress ordevelop much and remains lifeless. The lunar themes just seem sillyhere unlike, say, those of recent Coil records. "La Luna" simplydoesn't have the magic. And Tone Casualties - please, I'm begging you -hire someone with a sense of design to handle the artwork for futureinserts.samples:
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"It sounds like a filmscore," I claim, but it's really more than just a film score. It soundslike the bits of the film score which never make it onto the record.(Those bits and pieces of sound effects sans dialogue, coupled withunderlying noises and aural effects.) These noises sometimes are thebest parts of the film's score but for some reason only the played-outorchestral repetitive themes ever make it onto a "score" disc (if one'sever made in the first place). All too often there's scabs of hits fromhip alterna-major label starlets littering a movie CD, with a coupleinstrumental tracks tossed in for good karma. On Purifying Fire,Lustmord has collected recordings from 1995-1999 and pieced themtogether much like a film score of his own. Add some dialogue andInstant Hollywood! The disc is pleasant, sounds are great but in myopinion the themes are rather weak. Sounds like a true Hollyweirdprofessional!samples:
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