review me!
cassettes except where noted
ACROYEAR
BUG REPORT MP3
Abandoned Arts 24-75 38th St #9B Astoria NY 11103 USA
abandon@tenthcity.com
http://abandonedarts.tenthcity.com/acroyear/
http://abandonedarts.tenthcity.com/acroyear/audio/bugreport.mp3
Techno-punk that’s a cross between Ministry, Foo Fighters and Blink 182!
Two minutes of melodic guitar thrash pop with a drum machine. Great performances.
Very nicely mixed and sounds like a good version of something you’d hear
on the radio, basically. Nice!
Ian C Stewart
Activity Set
“in three”
Chicago Sound 6124 Madison Court Chicago, IL. 60053
activityset@aol.com
I’m guessing that John Lisiecki, the whole of Activity Set likes Radiohead.
A lot. I do too. Thom Yorke et al are a wonderful breath of fresh air (did
I really use that cliche) in this current musical world. “In three”
plays like a homage to Radiohead. And John very nearly pulls it off! He really
does. The sounds and arrangements are beautiful when they need to be and biting
when that’s what is called for. Nice chord changes that sometimes go
where you don’t think they will. I love it when that happens. All these
songs make sense. Except for one. And it’s the most important one. THE
FIRST ONE. It’s called “Typewriter Gate Guitar”. It goes downhill
from here. It sounded shitty on first listen. It’s getting worse the
more I hear it. There’s no direction or point. But it gets like a million
times better in a hurry. The song “Almost” is fucking brilliant.
I wish I wrote the guitar riff on this one. My one quibble ( not counting
the first song. Have I told you how much I dislike the first song?) is that
there needs to be more lyrical content. All the music is great.
The long instrumental parts need singing to be balls out fantastic and powerful.
The songs exude emotion. Interesting lyrics would rip the hearts out of the
listener. At least it would for me. The guitars are bright and in your face
and the drums are clean and crisp. This is a great start. Where do you go
from here?
kev
Eric Alexandrakis
“I.V. Catatonia”
angelpop72@aol.com
I consider myself to be open minded. I enjoy everything from Tootsie Rolls
to Lobster Salad. Likewise is my musical taste. I can find something endearing
in most all styles and genres of music. And after SEVERAL times through it
I found something that didn’t totally suck on this CD. Don’t get
me wrong though, not one of these songs grew on me. The liner notes say that
this was recorded on a 4 track. If that’s really the case, Eric got his
money worth on his investment. The sounds he made are to be commended. It’s
just that when these sounds are put together-they make no sense. But it is
mixed very well. Do you see my dilemma? This recording isn’t for me.
Or anyone I know. Or anyone I would want to know.
kev
ALLEGHENY WHITE FISH
THE ANTI FREAKOUT METHOD CD
Fuckeroo Records PO Box 655 Allison Park PA 15101-0655 USA
f_eroo@hotmail.com
http://go.to/fuckeroo
Goofy, distorted, melodic, catchy, wacky shit. Like Butthole Surfers getting
it on with Ween. With drum machines and acoustic guitars. “Lo-Fi Satan
Go Baby” is a slapback psychobilly freakout stream of consciousness kind
of thing. “What You Gonna Say To Me?” recalls that song Gibby Haynes
did with Ministry about ten years ago. Kind of psychedelic techno thrash with
lots of slide guitar action. “The Bees Love Me (Hello Method)” opts
for an uptempo fake hiphop beat under wandering, echoey acoustic guitars and
buried vocals. “Left Out (The Freaky Pieces)” is a melancholy little
slow guitar bit with the dude saying “freaky pieces” over and over
and over. The party concludes with “(Goodbye Method),” which features
live drums! It’s kind of a ballad and the vocals don’t come in for
about two minutes. But when they do show up, they’re layered in shloads
of echo and flange and whatever else so you can’t understand the guy
anyway... Just like all the other songs!
Ian C Stewart
ANDY’S CAR CRASH
FORMES CD
Pandemonium USA, Stick Figure (Gavin) PO Box 55462 Atlanta GA 30308 USA
stickfigure@phyte.com
http://www.pandemoniumrecords.com
Experimental dance music? Sort of, though dancing may be out of the question
for the majority of the tracks. “Eres” opens with a some growly
low samples and tense ambience which gives way to a slow motion abstract construction.
Thing. “Cardio” features manipulated samples of various buzzing
and percussive sounds. “150 Jap” has samples from a Japanese movie
over an ass-friendly drum and bass groove. That’s the bits I like. “Stabbat
mater” opens with a dude yelling so long and loud that I wasn’t
even sure that’s what it was at first. Nice. The shouting and freaking
out continue for about five minutes. “Madchen” has fits and starts
like a loungey trip-hop joint with chopped drums. “Studio K2” sounds
like videogame music or a Yellow Magic Orchestra track. To summarize: experimental
rhythms and loops too arty for dancing.
Ian C Stewart
ASHLAND
SIX SONGS
Black Apple 156A South St. #11, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 USA
This review was translated into Portuguese and back into English at babelfish.altavista.com
The guitar dissonant indie-estala saturated to the times with distortion,
other times that assemble 2-chord thing of jangle of the drone. Vocals melancholic
sounds as they had been sung very quiet, singer that the microphone Baehr
also started a pleasant voice. The luck of shoegazery... remembers a little
to me of MEDICINE of the band of 90s. The heading of the alone song: the “first
professor in the space” makes me sad. This is fucking cool.
C Reider
A SONIC DETERRENT | MOZ
split 7"
Anti Everything 22 South Mallory St #1, Hampton VA 23663 USA
A Sonic Deterrent rips shit up with a ton of distorted nizzoize for that ass.
It sounds like a cat in a washing machine. The vocal bit. Wow. And I fucking
hate cats, so I rather enjoy that bit. Moz “Model Input” on the
flip takes a more cinematic, dramatic approach, employing spoken samples over
their unique brand of overdriven fleachh. The background blah is a whirling
mass of low rumbling and sampled orchestration or something like that. Played
forward and back. Whee. Happy music for the criminally insane.
Ian C Stewart
A SONIC DETERRENT | PRURIENT
split tape
Anti Everything 22 South Mallory St #1, Hampton VA 23663 USA
ASD goes apeshit with the distortion again, though this time it’s broken
into bite-size pieces with funny names like “Chronic Anti Work (Pains),”
“Fatigue Shuttle” and “Undesirable Employee Relationship.”
But soundalistically it’s just like that record they sent, it’s
fucking ballistic and is creepier than shit. Prurient is a great name. Their
side is called “Museum” and is pretty fucked up too. It sounds like
you’re standing under a big waterfall near a construction site.
Ian C Stewart
BAXENDALE
MUSIC FOR GIRLS EP CD
Riviera, 45 Av Charles de Gaulle, 33520 Bruges, FRANCE
What a weird CD! Dance tracks distributed by a French record company, sung
by a Brit, and influenced by ABBA and the sounds that my Macintosh makes when
I mess up. I think that they’ve probably been listening to The B-52s,
but there’s something nicely “band-next-door” about these songs.
They’re funny, they’re sharp, and Tim (the lead singer) sounds very,
very much like he’s a...well, a high school teacher who’s taken
up music, actually. You know the kind — the “dork” who’s
finally made it big? Kinda like David Byrne! Yeah! There’s the connection!
I knew I’d make it! I’d like to hear more from these blokes, because
I know it’ll be worthwhile. (By the way: “Switzerland” is a
friggin’ hysterical song.)
Ben Gott
B.E.
RED/YELLOW
4315 NE Brazee, Portland OR 97213 USA
File under “experimental improvised rock.” Guitars and drumset.
Echo on the guitars. Kind of like what the first couple of layers of the average
Harlan Lyman tape probably sounds like. For those who like their rock raw
and unplanned.
Ian C Stewart
ADAM BEEBE
PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINE
Mishap Production 846 Pine Flat Rd, Santa Cruz CA 95060 USA
From the label that brought you the amazing pop genius James Call. Of which
this tape bears no resemblance. What we have here is more of a sound collage
type thing. Art. I guess. Samples that have been fucked with and fucked with
and fucked with but not quite to the point where they just go all Phil Anselmo
and say “You can’t fuck with me anymore! I’ll kill you!”
Just like, uh, reverb and messing with the tape speed and shit.
Ian C Stewart
ADAM BEEBE
PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINE
Mishap Productions 846 Pine Flat Rd, Santa Cruz CA 95060 USA
The following review was translated into Portuguese and back again into English
at babelfish.altavista.com:
Breathless wood-edits collage with a rhythm. Fuckery of Collage applied it
the random sources and also to jams lunatic of a band to cry out freak-out-for
is laden of feedback that they periòdicamente estalam above here and
there throughout. Guy fêz examination obviously much time and a lot
rank of the care in assembling this music of collage in contrast to many made
designs haphazardly of this type that I saw. This attitude is indicated well
also in placed agradàvel for is of the art of the cover. Done well.
C Reider
BENT WITH LIGHT
F2 CD
Exoteque Music PO Box 340431 Columbus OH 43234 USA
stvcd7@excite.com
Abstract, rhythmic kinda-industrial “dance music,” for lack of a
better term. Not unlike a more balls-out (in the instrumental sense) Skinny
Puppy or anything else Cevin Key has done since then. Wow. Sequenced blips
and blops and cut up beats and layered rhythms that unfold like a grand sonic
collage. Dancing to this music seems possible but unlikely. You’d probably
fracture a rib trying. The production is sweet and the tracks are just fucking
ridiculous. “Biofeedback” includes a latent bass line and a slappy,
jumpy beat that sounds like driving too fast on the freeway downtown at 2am.
“Axiom” is a sizzly 13-minute ambient epic that sounds like robotic
soundtrack music for a furutistic Satanic love-in. “Rusted Pieces”
recalls the ragtag “hit everything and sample it” sequencing in
much late 1980s “industrial dance” music. I’m in love.
Ian C Stewart
JACOB BERENDES
ROBOT MOPED DEHUMIDIFIER CD
6 Hurtle Ave, Worchester, MA 01624 USA
yourdeadneighbors@yahoo.com
http://www.nindy.com
Take Beck, Dimitri from Paris, and a public access cable channel and put them
in a blender. Press purée. Besides attracting a little unwanted attention
from the local law enforcement, you may get some idea what Jacob Berendes
sounds like. A collection of superstereo sample-based dub experiments, Berendes
manages to take a potentially lethal concept and make it good. Really, really
good. It’s not always easy stuff to listen to, but it’s worth listening.
“Did Andy’s Sister Steal My Sweater?”, the paranoid chant of
a whiny young man, is surprisingly catchy. “Project Orange” is a
specially commissioned composition based around the words “I hate Kenny”
(“Man, don’t blame me, my ass got commissioned,” Berendes whispers
at the end). “Tougher than Heather Diamond” is an egotistical gangsta
rap, with an explanation and apology following. One of the quieter tracks
is “A Sorry State of Affairs,” which is based around a basic piano
loop and a series of spoken observations— those of a sampled narrator
speaking on the nature of impermanence, those of Mr. Rogers, and those of
Berendes himself (“When you drop-kick your jacket no one cares”).
It’s quiet, simple, and really somewhat pretty. The disc is extremely
diverse, and it is difficult to say anything general in this review, but one
thing— Robot Moped Dehumidifier kicks ass.
Megan Heller
JACOB BERENDES
SIMULATED WOODGRAIN VINYL CD
6 Hurtle Ave, Worchester, MA 01624 USA
yourdeadneighbors@yahoo.com
http://www.nindy.com
This album reminds me of old home movies. Not the actual movies though, the
unwanted scenes that you accidentally recorded because you forgot to turn
the camera off or something. Set to music. I mean that in the good way, the
shit just cracks me up. There are a few exceptions. “Tipsy McSwagger”
- drunken poetry readings left on someone’s answering machine. “The
Ground Is Round” (my favorite) - static-y monotone female voice rhyming
hilariously over plinky keyboards with a male narrative that sounds like the
guy who tells you what to do in a how-to video. Also, “Under So Many”
...which sounds like a funkified “Over the Rainbow” from the Wizard
of Oz. Kick-ass bass line, sweetly simple drum loop and under 2 minutes, you
gotta’ love that! I was a little disappointed by theme from “Shaft
in Space,” though, dammit. Too much astronauts and not enough Isaac Hayes.
All things considered, an enjoyable listening experience. You may just have
to play it a few times before you like it.
Michelle Nollan
Big Meteor
Wild River CD
PO Box 6043, Ottawa J, 1365 Richmond Road Ottawa, ON K2A 0A0 Canada
http://www.bigmeteor.com
Something about this country-rock band really annoys me, but I’m not
entirely sure what it is. Maybe it’s the incompetent vocals, the dumb
lyrics, or the way all the songs seem way too long, or maybe it’s the
stupid name. It’s hard to say why this band is so bad, but it’s
not fun to listen to this CD. The title track is a rocking tune which is completely
ruined by the vocals. “Poor Boy” at 6:16 will have you reaching
for the “next track” button on the CD player, but don’t expect
things to get any better. All the way through to the epic-length “Big
Meteor” track (7:04) you’ll be wincing and staring at the speakers
in disbelief. Without the poor vocals, this band might be tolerable, but this
singer can hardly carry a tune, and it’s not like he’s trying to
sing that way- he’s trying to be a “vocalist” and it’s
not working at all. The instrumentation is great, and the guitar work is competent...
maybe he just needs more effects (like “Big Meteor,” which sounds
like an old record) or at least some heavy echo on his voice to cover up the
problems he has staying on key.
Sven Golly
A BOY NAMED THOR
ROCKET SCIENTIST BLUES
Best Kept Secret, Alessandro Crestani via Biron di Sotto, 101-36100 Vicenza
Italy
http://www.indiepages.com/bestkeptsecret
So if you take away the irony and the low low voice and gayness away from
Magnetic Fields, what does that leave you? The answer is A Boy Named Thor.
Homeboy cobbles together whatever instrumentation is on hand (Casios, guitars,
drums or not) and along with his voice crafts some mighty mighty fine pop
music. His voice is kind of thin and wimpy like you’d just want to punch
him in the face but he can keep a tune and it actually adds to the songs.
The slide guitar and Casio drums are particularly Magnetic Field-like. In
a good way. Nice. Side 2 is “Sleepy Scientist #1” and “#2”
which take up the whole side. Progressive space-pop! It’s like Pet Shop
Boys doing Yes covers! In a good way.
Ian C Stewart
BROWN25
LUNAR MODULAR UNIT CD
The Bionic Milk Plant PO Box 111 Ashland, KY 41101 USA
http://www.bionicmilk.com
Beck. Mutations Beck, not Odelay Beck.
Michelle Nollan
BUMBLEBEES | ROSELICOEUR
Diesel/Quand Vient le Tourment split 7”
Metropolitan Audio La Nove/B. Sonnette F77750 Bassevelle, France
metroaudio@hotmail.com
“Diesel” begins well enough: two quiet little guitars playing prettily
with a quiet little bass. Plus quiet little cymbals just keeping time. This
continues for a few measures and builds nicely to a power-chordy guitar and
slammin’ drums. But just when you think the song is really rocking, the
singer dude comes along with a voice like Brak from Space Ghost and kills
the whole mood. I know it sounds like this is cool (who doesn’t love
Brak?!?!)...trust me it’s not. I had such high hopes. Sigh. “Quand
vient le tourment” starts out with spacey lute sounds over more power-chording
that seem to wander around without direction or melody. French singer guy
adds to the confusion as do some random bass lines and a second set of vocals.
I think I have a headache now. Sorry.
Michelle Nollan
BUNKER SOLDIER
INFECTION MP3
Neo Cultural Front Records PO Box 612243 Dallas TX 75261 USA
bunkersold@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/neofront
Funky dancey semi-industrial kind of like everything on Wax Trax in 1990.
Synths and loops and some guitars in the background. A dude sings the verses
and then a chick comes in and sings the chorus. And then talks a bit in French,
which is always very Gary Numan and always very welcome. It’s like the
coolest remix Shriekback never did! It’s good as hell!
Ian C Stewart
BUNKER SOLDIER
INNUENDO CD
Neo Cultural Front Records PO Box 612243 Dallas TX 75261 USA
bunkersold@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/neofront
The first two tracks are nice/pleasant/rad/great etc instrumentals in the
“industrial dance music” tradition of fairly big beats, menacing
bass lines and ghouly atmospherics on top. “Break The Ice” employs
live drumming, adding punch and verve. “Come To Me” is pure first-album
Ministry. I’m in love. The lyrics about trying to score with a goth chick
out dancing are fucking rad. The octaved vocals are especially very reminiscent
of Uncle Al. Several of the songs add a middle-eastern sort of vibe. “Innuendo”
is kind of industrial surf music, which I’d never even contemplated before.
The new wave overtones recall the glory days of the early-mid 1980s. Sigh.
“From The Dark” lays waste to Mussolini Headkick’s entire catalogue.
The vocal mix of “Break The Ice” would make a great 12". It’s
moody and ghouly and danceable. Like your mom.
Ian C Stewart
BURNSIDE PROJECT
BURNSIDE PROJECT CD
6020 Blvd East Ste 52, West New York, NJ 07093 USA
burnsideproject@yahoo.com
http://www.burnsidemusic.com
Dope beats and doodly guitar-rock songs clash sometimes violently here. The
beats are cut and pasted and recut and refuckedwith and retrofitted to some
otherwise by-the-book guitar rock action. The vocals are mixed way over the
top, which doesn’t necessarily suit all of the tracks. Using sweet beats
instead of a drum machine is a very cool thing to do, but I’d actually
like to hear the beats higher in the mix. Quibble quibble. Good songs and
a unique presentation, you can’t beat that, now can you?
Ian C Stewart
CAMPER VAN HALEN | GT
ARPE
Tape & CD Records 64 Gilman St, Somerville MA 02145 USA
nanziuino@hotmail.com
Lo-fi slacker acoustic rock! Though Camper Van Halen “is” GT Arpe,
this appears to be a split release between CVH and GT himself. You figure
it out. “998 AD” is a moseying little thing that sort of stumps
around for too long then goes away. Eventually a real rock band emerges complete
with fine drumming and guitars but my man is definitely having some challenges
in the vocal department. The songs with the hammer-on guitar accompaniment
are kind of funny. That’s all part of the “charm.” The lyrics
are kind of messed up and they seem really serious. And the Stanley Jordan
jamming with Pavement vibe is certainly unique. The GT Arpe side appears to
be digital sound-manipulation and wanky guitar solo instrumentals.
Ian C Stewart
CAPTAIN 3 LEG
1999
Andy Koettel 713 Grace St, Ottumwa IA 52501 USA
Wow. These guys went from grindcore goofoffs to technogrindcore groovers!
What the hell?!?! They discovered sampling and The Residents and got all technological
and freaky. And I like it. “Soul Price” features DJ scratching over
a busy, Flea-like bassline and drum groove. Can’t say I saw that coming!
“Haunted” combines a slow drum machine rhythm with postpunk guitar
bits and a busy bassline, coming off like a techie PIL or something. Did I
already say wow? And there’s a fake country song called “Cowpie”
that reminds me of the video game I’m playing, Redneck Rampage! Awesome.
Ian C Stewart
CHIRONE RISING
AIR
Face Like a Smacked Arse 216 Dividy Rd, Bucknal, Stoke on Trent ST2 9JT UK
The following review was translated into Italian and back into English again
at babelfish.altavista.com:
The entire tape consists of combo a classic not identified of jazz mangled
beyond acknowledgment with the use of that what could be extreme digital effects
or a recorder of tape really fucked-up-in on, or both. The idea is simple
and non-personal, but it is concluded on to be enough cold “ the cited
air “ in the title must be a reference to the sibilo of the tape, because
this is the tape that more hissiest has felt long all the edition.
C Reider
CHUPACABRA JR
International Fan Club, 33 Pine Grove Amherst, MA 01002 USA
Driving music: tunes that makes the miles go faster, every curve choreographed,
road running pleasurably under your wheels. A car stereo can change how you
hear a song, how you feel about it. Chupacabra Jr. is driving music, a punky
funky blend of polar opposites (“Fast Love”) and family effrontery
(“Hate Me Brudder”). Heard first off, C Jr is a decent collection
of punk songs with smart guitars and singalong back-ups. Popped in the tape
deck of my car, these five songs transform into something more: a loud, singable,
push it to 90 and tap your fingers on the dashboard fuck you to Britney, Christina
and all the other monopolized radio drones. The lowdown, song by song: 1.
“Hate Me Brudder” - Cool, tripped-out anti-homage to the stereotypical
bedwetting bastard brother. Catchy while still retaining its punk cred (check
out that innocently amateur guitar solo). 2. “Fast Love” - “Her
dad owns the McDonald’s, my dad owns the Burger King.” It’s
punk Romeo & Juliet, kids. Reminiscent of classic Dead Milkmen (and that’s
a good thing). 3. “Walk Down Memory Lame” - A rant about a Thing
Gone Bad, complete with story-esque lyrics, background whoops and hollers
and dusty front vocals. A westerly-influenced John Wayne hootenanny. 4. “Crazy
Mixed-Up Nut” - You got it. Good organ, btw. 5. “Sensitivity”
- Sweet? Lilting? Dare I say...heartbreaking? Delicate noises behind female
voices, drummer takes a break, are you guys really this freaking sensitive?
Not a bad song, but definitely the runt of the bunch. Prognosis: Good
Windi
MARCO CONELLI COMPLEX
EXPECTATIONS AND DISMAY CD
PO Box 590 Glen Oaks NY 11004 USA techroom2@specnarc.com
I think I heard “The News Of The World” on a movie I saw on Comedy
Central one Saturday a couple years ago. The movie was from the mid-80s and
had lots of teenagers in it. There was this one scene where the main character
goes a big dance at their school, and there was this band playing there. The
singer had hockey hair and he was singing into an unplugged mic. Singing words
so cheesy it made me laugh out loud, in this accent that said “I’m
from New York and I like to rock and roll.” And the drummer had a red
(or was it white) Simmons drum kit, with three China cymbals that were much
higher than all the drums. And the guitar player! He had one of those pointy
fake Explorer things, and when he played his guitar solo, he held his guitar
up as high as it would go so everybody could see him! He was wearing these
baggy white (or were they red) pants and scarves tied around his arms. There
was a keyboard player with a beard. And the bass player had one of those Longhorn
basses, but if you look closely you can see he isn’t even really playing.
They played another song that had lyrics that include the name “Johnny,”
at which point I turned the TV off!
Ian C Stewart
COOKIE LOGS
SWEET THINGS | COMMODORE VIC 20
Black Apple 156A South St. #11 Jamaica Plain MA 02130 USA
The following review was translated into French, and back into English at
babelfish.altavista.com:
Independent art-rock-jump with involving melodies, lyric absurdity provided
with a soft and attitude-free male voice. Sonic youth eliminated from wing
from the nose of weirdness of guitar or my Valentine strapping. It would’ve
be nice to hear more than this couple of the songs in order to better obtain
a processing on their noise. Couples of Nice of the airs.
C Reider
THE CURIOUS HAIR
SAY HELLO TO HAPPINESS CD
Evol Egg Nart Recordings PO Box 570763 Miami, FL USA
Hair@nartworld.com
http://www.NARTWORLD.com
Folk-rocky songs led by a high-pitched, almost whiny male voice with jangly
guitars, solid drummage and nice vocal harmonies. Skip past “Pied Piper”
which sounds like a 6th grade band recital (trust me on this one, I should
know), ignore the overused “fade to nothing/pause too long/finish the
song” sequences (I count three!) and you should thoroughly enjoy this
album.
Michelle Nollan
CYANOSIS
GALLOWS DANCE CD
Torture Music Records, PO Box 685 Cannon Beach OR 97110 USA
I never really understood dissonance. I guess I’m talking about experimental
music that purposely hacks around on found objects and prepared instruments
simply making noise. Now, I know, I know before you all start spouting off
about the “art” of the matter, I’m all about that. I understand
that it’s audio art, but in the same sense, I’m not sitting around
all day looking at a sculpture made of rusty buckets and shoe. Therefore,
I’m not going to sit around and “listen” to dissonance and
pretend it doesn’t give me a headache. That’s certainly not to say
that Gallows Dance is all rusty buckets and shoes. I was particularly fond
of #2, #22 and #14 (with a real drummer and drumbeat) and the artwork on the
album is particularly splendid!!! There’s no buckets, mind you, instead
a fantastic drawing of a guy hanging around (if you get my drift). I blame
my parents for my lack of understanding since they played Barry White records
around the house when I was a kid (as opposed to plucking the spaghetti strainer
with a steak knife), but I’m telling you, if you mix some of the fish-line
strings on classical guitar with a Parliament riff, you may be on to something.
J Mundok
STANLEY DAVIS
NICE...NICE CD
McG Music 3830 E Flamingo Rd C-1, #173, Las Vegas NV 89121 USA
http://www.mccmusic.com
Ian C Stewart is my friend. I think that, if I was ever in Ohio, that he and
his wife would probably let me sleep on their couch. However, when Ian sends
me CDs like this, I want to seriously re-evaluate his friendship. I have this
CD by a woman Nancee Kahler, and that’s the only thing that I can compare
this album to. As you can imagine, with a name like Nancee, it’s gotta
be bad...Nice...Nice contains mostly uninteresting instrumentals, all suffering
from an intense MIDI lag (see “Peekin’”) that makes the sound
that much more unprofessional. (You can hit the “Quantize” button
so many times, but when the channels are loaded, they’re loaded!) Stanley
Davis shines when he strips away the “let’s experiment” pretense
and lets loose with a nice piano solo. Stanley, you’re a fine pianist...Stick
to it! Like, solo! George Winston-y! PLEASE!
Ben Gott
DEATHSQUAD
THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT EP
Nick B, 8 Cain Court, Castlebar Mews, Ealing, London W5 IR4 UK
skitkom@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/deathsquaduk
Not to be confused with the death metal act of the same name from a few years
back, this Deathsquad is based in London and has a kindred spirit in the songs
of our Aussie partner in crime Macka! Keyboard drums and bass with wandery
guitar solo and semi-aggressive vocals run through the echo unit. “Life
Kills” wanders along at a modest pace. “Janet Street Porter”
bashes along like Atari Teenage Riot. Everything distorted to hell, at a punk-rock
pace. “Let Them Eat Crap” squanders a nifty drum ‘n bass shuffle
under bass guitar and a stultifying vocal track. Too bad, so sad.
Ian C Stewart
DIE KOSMO GESELLSCHAFT
|
WROUGHT:IRONSMILE
split 7"
Swingbeat Marienburger Str. 29, 10405 Berlin, Germany
swingbeat@geocities.com
http://www.swingbeat.de
So the Die Kosmo half is clean-guitar scree, math-punk hardcore brain music.
Screaming in German. “Familien Portrait” features a highly dreamy
bit in the middle with keyboards. Mmmm, nice. Keyboards good. Not that screaming
math-punk isn’t good. The contrast is nice. Wrought: ironsmile kicks
some unusually straight-forward clean-guitar scree of their own. Not the screaming
melees they usually crank out! And hey, there’s some flute too! What
the hell!??!?!? I mean that in the nicest possible way. These biotches can
play, and the production is merrily modest. The bass chording has always given
me the shnoobies and the long breakdowns with the flutey trills continue to
do so. Ahhh. The instrumental bit on the end of the record recalls King Crimson’s
1970s uber-ballad “I Talk To The Wind.” Whoa!
Ian C Stewart
THE EARWIGS | NAKED INSECTS
FREAKS R US split
Mike Jerk PO Box 221 Pittsfield NH 03263 USA
The Earwigs have the dubious honor of going first on this split noizer. Uhh,
well, let’s see. There’s feedback and shit, and low rumbling sounds
and everything is totally totally distorted. Then a dude comes on and starts
yelling and shrieking through a distorted mic. Mmm-hmm. That goes on for a
while. The Naked Insects side is, wow, more of the same kind of thing! Different
angle on the fidelity, but still pure fucking noize throughout.
Ian C Stewart
EDGE OF NIGHT - RUSSIAN
GOTHIC COMPILATION CD
Sergey Merenkov, PO Box 129, Moscow 117331, Russia
coroner@gothic.ru
http://www.gothic.ru
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the BEST thing I’ve ever come across in
all the long history of AUTO. It seems that while you were all thinking that
Russians only loved Led Zeppelin and Michael Jackson, a collective of Gothic
bands, artists and journalist was working hard to create a Gothic scene in
Russia. And quite a brilliant job they did: this humble comp kicks ass with
pointy buckled boots. I can’t believe my ears. Most of the 15 bands (Canonis,
Romowe Rikoito, Neutral, Dreams, Lunophobia, Kratong, Moon Far Away) are in
the ethereal 4AD style we all know and love, with sugary melodies and shimmering
sounds, and always with a perfect female vocalist that sounds as if perched
on a cloud and wearing a flowy white tunic. And oh, by the way, the production
is always flawless and inventive, so from now on I will have even less patience
towards US or Euro-slackers who can’t make their recordings sound half-decent.
Then there are a couple of perfectly reconstructed Medieval tracks (Djembé
and Caprice), some good old gothic rock with gloomcookie guitars and deep,
deep, deep voices (Phantom Bertha and No Man’s Child), some pleasant
synth work (Cyclotimia), a Swans cover (TNT, with “Better than You”),
and an 8-minute exercise in Goth Ambient (Cisfinitum). But the two most bizarre
things on the CD have to be Dvar and Damsel’s Dream. Dvar is a band whose
members and even location is unknown (now that’s a lesson in brilliant
marketing to you, mates) and who in fact seems to be all the rage in Russia
right now: they just chant “Taaaaai Liiiiiiraaaaa!” for five minutes
with a nice collection of spooky background noises and at a pleasant pace,
but the general effect has a sinister quality that was lost in Goth music
ever since the end of Peter Murphy’s malevolent antics in Bauhaus. Damsel’s
Dream describe themselves as “dark trip-hop”, and their lovely “Elegy
for rhythm box” gives you the eerie feeling of listening to a Goth version
of “The girl from Ipanema” with trip-hop rhythms and Russian lyrics.
The mind reels. And should I say that even the CD artwork is amazing, not
black but a refreshing blue and silver, sleek understated typography and not
a Frankenstein font in sight? Somebody really cared for this CD. *sniff*.
A priceless piece of work. I want to go to Moscow and see these bands play.
Paola
ELECTRIC VOODOO
STAYIN POWERS CD
Tekito, PMB #432, 828 Royal St, New Orleans LA 70116 USA
tekito@excite.com
In the liner notes it says “Around thee pitou mitan tree, thee drummers
settle down to play while thee fire is built. As thee dancers and drummers
are blessed by thee houngan thee spirit ov thee Stayin Powers fills everyone
with an ardour ov life.” The record is a percussional orgasm (I think
I may have just made up a word). Track after track of some of the hottest
voodoo beats around. Though it was recorded in Voo Studios I could swear they
planted a couple mics in the Thee Broken Cross Cemetary and taped the whole
ritual live. Of course Voo Studios could BE Thee Broken Cross Cemetary. Hymns
and calls (and other strange noises) blend nicely into the voodoo beats that
transform you into a participant throughout the recording until the last track,
which is a short analog synth piece that wacks out over some simple percussion.
My only complaint is that the record is way too short.
J Mundok
THE END
KILLER APPLICATION 7"
Odd Qvan, Ole Bulls Gt. 23-1, 0475 Oslo, Norway
odDq@online.no
Pink vinyl! Sweet! Holy first-album Godflesh! This shit is noisy and wanton,
using a drum machine and layers of highly fried samples so it sounds like
a big fucked up industrial nightmare. “Meat Wagon” appears to have
guitars, but who can be sure exactly. It’s like old Skinny Puppy, when
they’d use a shitload of samples very musically. “Voices And Noises”
totally rules, it’s like Skinny Puppy’s album RABIES. “Last
In Line” doesn’t sound like a Dio cover, though for all I know it
is. This is hellish, but in a very inviting way. All the songs including “Mentally
Ill” have old horror movie samples of women screaming. I can’t say
I blame them either, after listening to this pink little record, I’m
screaming like a girl too.
Ian C Stewart
EPISODIC
2 Tree Ct, Setauket NY 11733 USA
episodic@post.com
“The Library Of Babel” sounds like everything I recorded on my four-track
in 1991 after I got a Dr Rhythm and another Casio. Programmed everything and
every sound possible. The focus shifts to guitar-rock after that, with live
drums. The one with the “girls in the front guys in the back” lyric
sounds like a Tom Waits rip, except that the dude on the mic doesn’t
sound four hundred years old and like he’s been gargling gravel for a
month. It definitely sounds like somebody got a new keyboard for their birthday.
Over the thirty tracks on this tape it sounds like a lo-fi hoedown with tons
of songs and ideas of varying doneness flying past. A rap track that Insane
Records would shit itself for. Is that a DJX? This tape is fun. Loose and
momentary and a total hoot!
Ian C Stewart
EULOGY
DAWN OF DECADES CD
Justin 218 Buckingham Pl, Philadelphia PA 19104 USA
“Invisible Cities” is a longwinded spoken manifesto of sorts over
improvised rock band backing. The fun kicks in on “A Rememberance,”
a fat raccoon of a punk rocker. “Escape Artist” kicks in similarly
about 3 tracks down the line. “Flesh” rocks hard and melodic-like.
But with theremin, violin and whatever else they can find over the top, it
sounds quite unlike anything else. Eulogy rocks weirdest.
Ian C Stewart
EYELIGHT
23:23 CD
651 Woodward St B, Orlando FL 32803 USA
sevenlight@hotmail.com
There was a time when I aspired to write objectively about Jehn Cerron’s
output as Eyelight. But what’s the point? The only criticism I could
possibly level at Jehn would be to put out more music! And that’s just
me being greedy. Two of the three tracks feature gilded guitar textures by
Travis Hartnett, profiled in AUTO9. Sigh. Wow. Let’s just ponder that
point for a minute: Travis, who’s responsible for some of the most engaging
ambient guitar CDs this side of Dave Stafford, joining forces however briefly
with Jehn Cerron. Discuss. And in case you’re wondering (and there should
be no doubt at this point, but if you’re just not paying attention),
the result is every bit as dreamy and lifechanging as you’d expect. The
third track introduces some saxophonic interplay from Jim Ivy, and gets a
little more experimental. Sigh.
Ian C Stewart
FOOFIE
Liandra Recordings c/o B. Sonnette La Noue 77750 Basseville France
foofie@altern.com
Woo-hoo!! Stuff from France, which is apparently rare. Cute name, cute songs,
cute little star stickers everywhere. Plus it’s fun to say “Foofie”,
try it! To figuratively judge a book by the cover, I would say it’s a
girly album. And Ian likes it so...you know. This is totally Moonbabies +
drums for the first few songs. Some of the tracks reminds me of Star*Pillow,
except that the vocals aren’t quite as unhearable. Guitar-driven pop,
a little bit noise-y with unintelligible lyrics. Are they singing in French?
Who fucking cares, this rocks! More Foofie please.
Michelle Nollan
GERBIL BLISS
MILK CRATE MADNESS
2181 NW Glisan, #307, Portland, OR 97210
gerbilear@aol.com
All right, “Tele” makes me want to kill something. Plain and simple.
Rockabilly must die. Please tell me the whole tape isn’t like this. “Haze.”
Okay. This sounds like the Doors. The Doors must die. “Park” is
better. Are these songs all covers? I know there’s a thread but I don’t
remember what it is. “When” is extreeeeeemely fucked up, starting
with a jumpy and totally wrong sounding drum loop (yay), joined by jumpy upstroke
guitar and a stabbing bass line. And keyboard. Mr Gerbil sings a bit like
the guy from Wolfgang Press. Kinda. Not so low and croony. But y’know.
I feel like I’m missing the joke on this one.
Ian C Stewart
CLEVE GIBSON
DRAGON CHILLS 1
Hazelmere, 5 Highworth Road, Faringdon, Oxon SN7 7EF UK
Wow. Our first “spoken word” tape. Cleve Gibson wrote six pieces
of nonfiction. Gerry Hughes is the narrator. There are sound effects too.
The stories are very professional and would probably appeal to fans of Dr
Who book-on-tape type things. Or NPR. Hughes’ wacky west-country accent
kind of had me wondering at first if he wasn’t joking. But he’s
not. He does put on a couple of voices to get into the characters as he’s
reading, which isn’t as goofy as it sounds. The recording is BBC broadcast-quality
so it doesn’t even sound ghetto in the slightest. Wow. I’m totally
shocked.
Ian C Stewart
GLOSSALIA
SLAIN IN THE SPIRIT
PO BOX 356, BRUNSWICK, VIC 3056 Australia
Gloom and doom synth-driven straight-beat instrumentals (mixing much drum
machine/live bass rhythms) and soundscapes make up the meat of this one. A
true servant to the CD revolution, I had a hard time keeping up with which
track I was on, but somewhere near the south side of side A the outside world
vanished and I was sent downward into some real mind fuck acid shit...and
I really liked it. Side two continues with the “songs” vs. “soundscapes”
including some excellent experiments in self percussion. He’s hitting
something, I just don’t know what. Three cheers to the pleasant nod to
Lovecraft with “The Disco of Erich Zann”. One small thing, next
time please put the band name somewhere on the cassette. If this doesn’t
sound like your music, it’s because your tape is in someone else’s
box.
J Mundok
GOODSEY GREENE
FULL MOON HIGHWAY
104D W POPLAR Ave. / Carrboro, NC 22510
The following review was translated into Spanish and back into English at
babelfish.altavista.com:
A sweet outbreak more jangle-fest of some unexplained alter-ego of C. Browne
Jr. The only true difference which I can discern between this and other tapes
of the cliff, not being clarified to the concept of Goodsey, is that music
is a bit more without processing, polished less, refined less than their previous
work. A southern sensation is also a little folksy to some of the songs. Other
times it invests to the reverie semi-psychedelic of Bowie-esque as in the
“gold hands”. Greene / Browne is one of our finer doctors of the
outbreak, thus worthy of his time.
C Reider
HEBEPHRENIC
BLURRY
Tapehiss 260 N Keswick Apt C, Glenside PA 19038 USA
Lo-fi ambience from the Tapehiss archives. Shit sounds good for being 10+
years old. Expect lots of textural samples and loops and lengthy swooshes
with a hint of melody hidden in the back. Plus it’s got “Moving
At The Speed Of Hair.” Title of the day!
Ian C Stewart
OLIVIER JESUS HISTIQUI
ESCUDRINANDO POR LA PUERTA DEL SOL
Face like a Smacked Arse 216 Dividy Rd., Bucknall, Stoke on Trent ST2 9JT
UK
The following review was translated into Italian, and back into English at
babelfish.altavista.com
Constructions of the sound of Avant-Psychedelic from Bolivia. Abstract Warbly
and sounds murky like that I have not never thought to exit from the South
America! Senor Histiqui is informed of that they are sure, as the first track
of the tray: “the ido of the haber of the puede of noche of Esta a folkloric
one of concierto de a music” it holds its cultural music until to one
mirror of the funhouse for a new look. A lot disowned and interesting.
C Reider
THE INCINERETTES
MY HEART GOES TIPPY TIPPY BOM BOM BOM
PO Box 356 Brunswick Victoria Australia 3056
The following review was translated into German and back into English at babelfish.altavista.com:
Drum machine and - guitarre Multitracked of back-up. It cannot seem to form
its understanding whether one is unsmiling a heavy metal project or sneering,
sarcastic a punk ishsache or, friendly, tape cartoonish few bezaubern. I liked
instrument as good: “rock pigs for power station“ were fun... a
robot impact, which was connected with skronky Guitarre. I liked also “bored
again“ sore in the cord females over the music scene in its section of
Australia. More interesting than absolutely well.
C Reider
INTERFACE
THE ARTEMIS COMPLEX
1208 Chicago Ave, Bay Shore NY 11706 USA
interface76@juno.com
http://listen.to/interface
Electro, post-industrial or techno with vocals. Whatever you want to call
it, artists like Interface are ushering in the latest (dark) wave of electronic
music. Fans of Apoptygma Berzerk or anything else recently released on Metropolis
records will dig The Artemis Complex, a relentless surge of synth lines and
sputtering beats. “Frantic” lives up to its title and gets really
intense, while “Autostation” benefits from hypnotic synth loops.
Great choices for sampling top it off, such as the befitting line from Aliens:
“Not bad for a human.”
Kenyon Hopkin
JOHNSON
BLONDE ON BLUE 7"
Play Records 1/r 9 Hampden Terrace, Mount Florida, Glasgow G42 9XQ Scotland
http://www.playrecords.co.uk
“Blonde On Blue”: Somewhat musically similar to first-album Prefab
Sprout or maybe China Crisis (ie-fussy, fiddly pop-rock with gargoyles and
latticed arches). Which adds up to a great fucking record! “Bare And
Blue” is a drumless revisit of the a-side. Nice. I’ll play it often.
Ian C Stewart
KHAOS ON
DNA - TWIST OF FATE CD
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Loge/6988
khaoson@tiscalinet.it
These people call themselves Goth-metal, which made me worry for a while,
until I received their CD. No metal in sight here, mate! It’s just five
songs of rather well done, epic Goth rock, sounding a hell of a lot like the
Nephilim (who were never a favorite band of mine, but I’ve heard worse).
The male singer uses and abuses the trademark Nephilim-Sisters vocals’o’doom
(he must have tonsils of steel....). The woman’s voice is simpler and
nicer, and has a slight Italian accent that goes well with the music. (Bit
like Moonspell doing their vampire songs with a Portuguese accent - Vampeeeeeria!!!).
The music is well written and lovingly performed, my fave has to be track
2 of 5, “Trista (A dead girl named Lily)” - subtle eh?. This musical
genre is now tragically old-fashioned (everybody wants the bleepy shit now!
And they wear goggles! And plastic tubing hair! Sigh.....), but they could
become rather well-known. I’d definitely go see them live. The only thing
they should be careful about is their tendency to dwell on lyrics featuring
vampires, corpses, unholy blood and cold souls that no Goth over the age of
16 should write about.
Paola
KIRCHENKAMPF
THE FIRST CIRCLE CD
Cohort Records 1824 Pierce St, Lafayette IN 47904-2544 USA
http://members.aol.com/cohortrec/music1/index.htm
Massive ambience. Though the release has only six tracks, it’s every
bit a full-length release checking in at just under an hour. The ambience
portrayed here could be perceived as beautiful by many, but I find it more
metallic, not harsh, but metallic. Imagine walking through the guts of a really
big machine that digests metal as opposed to organic materials. It’s
the soundtrack to a very dark day. This record is recommend for those who
just need some time to think about things. The artwork on this first edition
is astounding. The handpainted, cracking green and black jewel box perfectly
captures the mood.
J Mundok
THE LACES
FOREVER FOR NOW CD
Mighty Feeble Records PO Box 603 Iowa City IA 52244 USA
The Laces sound like a band who really, really, really wanted to sit down
and sound like The Pixies, but they couldn’t find any Pixies CDs, so
instead they bought the entire They Might Be Giants catalog. With lyrics like
“It’s the end / Of the tail of my shirt” and “I can’t
believe you’re gone / And I miss you so much” (from the song “Lament
of the Lonely Pet”), they manage to craft songs that, with some money
and a studio, would do quite well. I didn’t know what to think of The
Laces when I first heard their CD, but I’ve grown quite fond of them.
They seem like nice guys (as witnessed by track 11, “Reality for Nice
Guys Everywhere”). Hey — if Weezer can do it, then why not The Laces?
Ben Gott
THE LEGENDARY POPTONES
+ BIDOCHE MUSIQUE
Joe Fluery, Dailles 22, CH-1752 Villars-sur-Glane, Switzerland
The following review was translated into German, then into French and then
back into English at babelfish.altavista.com:
Bulgarian Poptones by stations of the Joe Fluery work in collaboration the
Swiss cord. Fortunately a small number of a melody instrumentals, like, so
completely charged on the laughter, the gas receives and tested, the music
of show C CAN make outside. There is then Song with FRANTIC FRED which bejammert:
“wish me that I am a god of sex like my friend”, OUCH. to arrive
at the medium feared male with only one program, why not it? It is worthy
hearing mainly for the percussion. It resounds it like a package of the pots
and buckets and gates of box and of Sammelpacks and with totals directives.
And how can you badly with Songnamen like the “Fresco of a conductor
of truck“ be?
C Reider
LIZARD LIE
INSIDE CD EP
Elastic Fiction 5 Nursery Road, Bedhampton, Havant, Hants PO9 3BG UK
elasticfiction@hotmail.com
http://www.elasticfiction.co.uk
Professionally recorded three song single. Lightly atmospheric rock with female
vocals. Aspects of the songs hint at the moody melodies of The Cure, diluted
with a bland alternarock sound that fell out of favor sometime in early 1994.
“Edge Of The End” is uptempo, melancholy track that recalls latter-day
Cranes, Scheer and Glee Club. Not unpleasant but not exactly earthshattering
either...
Ian C Stewart
THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN
ON NO EVIL STAR CD
PO Box 7204, Syracuse, NY 13210 USA
http://www.koalasyndicate.com
Here’s some straight up indie rock for yer head to suck up. Recorded
on a four-track in Chicago and Syracuse, NY, The Mandate Of Heaven is the
project of one Greg Pier. The instrumentation is standard guitar, bass, drum
and the vocals are pretty clean and straight up. For the most part, I really
like this record, there’s nothing that I can really say about it that
to describe why, except that it’s very well written rock songs that are
in no way annoying. I particularly like the guy’s voice and the whole
feel of the record reminds me of the garage days before computers and sampling.
J Mundok
MEET ME ON THE OTHER SIDE
CD compilation
Medicine Recordings 1603 E 19th St, Ste 108, Edmond OK 73013 USA
http://www.silvermoonmusic.com
Damn it, Janet! This compilation rocks! You know how you make mix tapes when
you throw a party so you have kick ass music playing all night long? You could
just put this sucker on and not worry for an hour or so. The leadoff song,
“What Does Millennium Mean” by Eric Hesson sounds like it comes
straight from the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. A great little rock
song. “This Island Earth” by Ten Story Love is a textbook pop song.
Songwriter Brad Page has passed Songwriting 101 and can collect $200. Lots
of catchy hooks. And I’m a real sucker for a one note and coinciding
harmonics guitar solo. It’s happy hour again for the Neos. This song
reminds me of Happy Mondays. So much in fact that it could be included on
The Best of Happy Mondays. If there is such a thing. Did they have any other
hits? If you’re jonesin’ for the Godfathers, look no further than
Doug Powell. His song “Bye Bye Magpie” is a Godfathers-like gem.
Great chorus! “One In Ten” by Becki diGregorio is reminiscent of
Morrissey’s cover of the Jam’s “That’s Entertainment.”
Are you still with me? The song is very soothing. Nice angelic vocal effect.
“Down To Love,” by Cheap Blondes, sounds beautiful. Great vocal
arranging. If I close my eyes, I see Kate Bush singing. And I’m amazed
at her vocal range. Whatever happened to her anyway? The thing that pisses
me off about “Shot Like A Bullet Into The Sun” by Doug Powell is
that I haven’t heard it on the radio yet. This is a great fucking song!
Tremendous mix and sound. Very interesting use of reverse sounds. There are
so many hooks in this song that fish could never escape it. Hey, both of his
songs are very polished and catchy. I’m beginning to think it’s
not a coincidence. Do you follow? All in all this is an outstanding compilation.
Someone at Medicine Park Records has a great set of ears....
Kev
MINMAE
VONSACHIANG CD
Airborne Virus Records PO Box 16207 San Diego CA 92176 USA
ebolagirl@email.com
http://hometown.aol.com/minmaeblasters/page1.html
I don’t remember Minmae being this Sonic Youthy on the other stuff I
heard. But this ain’t bad. I’m going to call it Post Rock even though
it isn’t. It’s very much During Rock. The guitars scrape and scream
and don’t quite sound like normal guitars. The drumming pounds along
and is there bass? Yeah. The vocals are all pretty fucked up too. “The
Celcius Vs The Fahrenheit” is an under-a-minute Neil Young type of deal
with just guitar and singing. Track six is called “Twisted Sister.”
Sweet. It sounds more like a Galaxie 500 jam than Dee Snider’s band though.
Oh well for them. Next time they should write a song called “Galaxie
500” and have it sound like Twisted MF Sister! “The Alchemist”
is reverby steeples of guitar for two and a half minutes. Gripping post-rock
that’ll have backseat drivers axing “who’s that?” when
you play it in the car.
Ian C Stewart
M-THEORY
THE PEPPER RING CD
125 South Barbara St, Mount Joy, PA 17552 USA
jmundok@hotmail.com
http://jmundok.tripod.com
Finally an album the whole family can enjoy! A little new-agey, ambient environmental
hippy shit for the folks with the “Untitled” series. A kick-ass
bass heavy tune with spooky vocals and satanic lyrics that I would call industrial
if I knew for sure what that meant. All the 13-year-olds I know love it. Also
in the plus category, a catchy x-mas carol with a dreary twist for the children.
Plenty of enjoyable and amusing samples along the way. My only issues are
that Untitled 1 sounds a bit like the theme song from “The Young and
The Restless” and “Surf Dogs” seems a bit too “Born to
be Wild” for this album but I’m not sure why. A whole bunch of everything
thrown together randomly (it seems) and yet it works.
Michelle Nollan
JERRY MUNDO
HARD MONEY CD
McG Music 3830 E Flamingo Rd C-1, #173, Las Vegas NV 89121 USA
http://www.mccmusic.com
Whoa, after hearing the world metal mayhem of Zakas Shunk Daddy Grind from
McC Music I really didn’t know what Jerry Mundo’s Hard Money would
be like. The cover is Jerry with one of the sweetest mullets of the new century
superimposed in the middle of a twenty dollar bill. Turns out it’s bad-lounge-blues-brothers-kinda
shit that I might hear on a night out on the town with my parents in the heart
of south Florida. With tracks like “Choco-lay” and “Lesbo City”,
I’m going to suggest holding off before sending this one out for Mother’s
Day though. Complete with the occasional steel drum riff, this stuff is really
really lounge. I don’t mean lounge like “lounge”, more like
I’m going into this lounge and there’s a guy over there playing-kinda-lounge.
Dig? I’m getting the idea that I’m never going to have a clue where
his label is headed.
J Mundok
J MUNDOK
SATURATED CD
125 South Barbara St, Mount Joy, PA 17552 USA
jmundok@hotmail.com
http://jmundok.tripod.com
I found about half of this disc, twelve tracks of instrumental ambient synthesizer
compositions, fairly good. The opening track, “The Curse,” recalls
an early project by The Cure, “Carnage Visors.” The track “Death
of Greatness” sounds influenced by Brian Eno’s Music for Airports;
if one is to be influenced by an ambient album, that is certainly a good place
to start. “The Slumber Showers,” “Movement,” “From
Underneath,” and “Gardens” are all very traditionally ambient,
and do a very nice job at it— soothing, quiet, and the last is very pretty.
Even “San Francisco Street,” which is a little less stock ambient,
has a bit of verve and is very light and pleasant. The remaining five tracks
are dull, lifeless, and were more effective than Nyquil at putting this reviewer
to sleep. The clichés I heard in many of the tracks were tired enough
to be distracting. Honestly, if I never hear another ambient track with a
drum machine droning “THUD, click-click” over and over again in
the background, it would be too soon. Same with the clicking dance beat that
takes over the background on “Chemical Flow.” I have nothing against
drum machines as a rule, but it is better not to sound like one merely pushed
a button on a Casio keyboard for one’s rhythm selection. The previously
mentioned “San Francisco Street” is the only use of drum machine
on this collection which shows any skill— the rhythm is syncopated, and
the track is not dominated by the sound. I see a great deal of potential for
J Mundok— I mean it about “Death of Greatness” sounding like
Eno— but turn off the drum machine and stick to pure ambient. Otherwise
there is the risk of being just another casualty of your synthesizer.
Megan Heller
MUSIC FOR THE FUTURE
EXPLICIT ELECTRONICA
Gearlust Studios PO Box 1267 Grand Junction CO 81502 USA
synthman@peakpeak.com
http://www.my.treeway.com/m2kplus
Borderline ambient synth music with strong melodies and very good production.
The sounds are all very nice and the mood is generally mellow. While most
of the tracks work well as chill music, a few flare up a tiny bit, using more
aggressive tones and textures. But overall very soothing stuff.
Ian C Stewart
MYSTERY HEARSAY
EAR GEAR CD
PO Box 240131, Memphis, TN, 38124 USA
choneyc1@midsouth.rr.com
Classic instrumental hometaper madness digitally remastered and rereleased
on CD by Harsh Reality (who originally released this as a C-60 back in the
day). Recorded between 1988 and 1989, this masterpiece is clearly timeless
since it sounds like it could have been recorded last week. It starts with
two epic tracks at nearly a half hour each that fluxuate between soft floating
ambience to bombastic percussive attacks while (I truly believe) hitting nearly
all possible points in between. The last three tracks are pretty much straight
ambient, though occasionally resembling noise...almost. For the most part,
this 5 track adventure made for an excellent soundtrack of the ride I took
on my mind’s spaceship. Thanks for keeping this one alive.
J Mundok
NAKED INSECTS
Mike PO Box 221 Pittsfield NH 03263 USA
I’ll bet anything that’s a noseflute. Homeboy has like three notes
and a lot of breathing and it sounds like somebody’s nephew with a new
pickle-shaped piccolo from a Happy Meal! Were it a relative of mine I would
not hesitate to knock the thing from his lips and yell loudly at his face.
But life is never that easy and this “exploration” with unaccompanied
flute continues undaunted. There is, it would appear, no point to any of this!
Ian C Stewart
NEW SWEET BREATH
ACCELERATION & DISTORTION
Magwheel, PO Box 115, Stn. R. Montreal, QC H25 3K6 Canada
Fairly interesting Morphine-ish pop with some Jason Falkner thrown in. “Check
Out Queen Anne” sounds like an outtake from Bon Jovi’s Slippery
When Wet sessions. Not much else to say, really — it doesn’t catch
me and spin me around, but someone’s gotta like it.
Ben Gott
NOVALIS
DEMO 1999 CD
gimedici@libero.it
http://digilander.iol.it/gimedici/Novalis/
Brilliant college Goth from Italy. (Is college Goth a genre?). Two Italians
and a Lebanese kid - the latter embarrassingly portrayed wearing a boa on
the CD back cover - recorded this EP in something that sounds like a bedroom
basement, but don’t be fooled by the poor production: there is some excellent
songwriting here. Novalis cleverly begin the EP with their strongest song,
“Never Together”. Boyfriend-o-meter: “sounds like early Gene
Loves Jezebel crossed with the Essence, with a hint of Simon le Bon vocals.”
Boyfriend is a poser, I hear you say. Sounds to me like a very nice mid-period
Cure song, with a lovely melody and a nice dynamic bass line (which could
have used some more “pumping” though, but I guess this was beyond
the technical means of the band). “My Whore” is dark and menacing
and begs to be sung by Christian Death (when they were good). The following
two songs, “Ceneri” and “La Notte”, are on the same line
as “My Whore” but tend to ramble on a bit. End with a “MY Whore
GM remix,” complete with EBM beats, rather superfluous and absolutely
not a patch on the original version. These kids are good and need a contract
right now, so that they can re-record these songs in a real studio. Chadi
the singer also sounds very “young”, as if he still doesn’t
have real control of his vocal abilities yet, but this could be a trademark,
if used smartly. Brilliant.
Paola
ONE TWO BLOW CD compilation
25 Records, PO Box 3006, Poole BH12 2HU UK
http://www.25records.com
Crazy tunes from every genre, and over a dozen different different artists.
Some stuff is good, some stuff is not so good...but these folk are all from
England, so that’s a point in their favo(u)r from the beginning. Standouts:
Red Ash And The Love Commandos’ “Build,” which features some
nice narration over a chill instrumental track, and Dan-T’s Inferno’s
“Eyelinerrefinery,” which featurs some nice narration over a chill
electronic track. Oh, what the hell — you’d like it.
Ben Gott
OPAQUE
BA531/99 CD EP
Dental Records 1 Lodge Street, Lancaster, LA1 1QW UK
Improvised rock band sklarnch that starts nowhere and stays there. Track two
features a very distorted bass guitar line that could’ve lead somewhere
but didn’t. Track three is a Painkiller-style 45-second freakout. This
is an absolutely essential CD to own for anyone who played on this session.
Ian C Stewart
ORANGE ENTROPY RECORDS
SAMPLER CD
Orange Entropy PO Box 1198, Hightstown, NJ 08520
http://www.orangeentropy.com
This is weird. And I mean weeeiiiiiird. But good weird. There’s lots
of different stuff here — from the poppy jangles of The Side Projects’
“Last Day in Pittsburgh” to Intrans’ “3 Tones,” a
techno-y, ambient piece of lovin’ that sounds like a cross between Moby
and a Smiths instrumental. Other standout tracks include Plastic Ash’s
“Seeing Everything,” an acoustic ballad that features an egg shaker;
and Smokey Retardo’s strange but cool “I’ll Show You NASDAQ,
If You Show Me Yours” (Ever wondered what NASDAQ is? This song’ll
explain.) Actually, the whole damn thing is good. Pick it up.
Ben Gott
PELZIG
THE CAR COMPILATION LP
Kollaps, Christoph Merk, Obere Riedl 1, D-82395 Untersochering, Germany
http://www.hausmusik.com/English/eKollaps/Kollaps.html
Arty math-rock that’s equal parts art and math. The production is fucking
excellent (especially the drums) and the playing is very nice. The songs have
crazy, weird, fat grooves and lots of jagged guitar parts. Sigh. “Can
You” sets the tone with a great bass-and-drums groove before the guitars
stab in. A less hectic Jawbox. “Syrup Dance” is, eh, “mellow,”
for want of a better word. Big fucking chords and mimimal drumming. You could
say I’m in love and you’d be mostly right. “John T” is
a mean fucking song, all distorted and twisty, sounding like a fully-realized
SubPop band from the late 80s. “Casual Lover” closes the album kinda
like “Syrup Dance” did for side one. It’s a very artistic approach
to old-fashioned rock music. And I lick it.
Ian C Stewart
PERNATH | RICHIE CUNNINGHAM
split tape
Morc, Boerderijstraat 10, 8880 Sint-Eloois-Winkel, Belgium
Kaw 94 Main Street, Forth Lamarkshire ML 11 8AR UK
http://www.geocities.com/morctapes
Released jointly by England’s Kaw label and Belgium’s Morc Records,
this tape is the first in the low-fi “Soup versus potatoes” series
by Morc. Pernath is fairly charming. The guitar work is lovely and very lush.
This is most apparent on “Snowball,” a jangly strolling instrumental.
The vocals vary a bit - the opening track, “Snaus,” is excellent,
but the vocal on “A Better Living” recalls early Dinosaur Jr. in
its whininess. Still, a good collection of songs. The stronger side of this
tape, however, belongs to Richie Cunningham. They manage to go beyond anything
one would normally expect from a lo-fi release. The group takes something
as common as lo-fi rock and molds it into a style of its own. The cynical
lyrics and vocalist’s delivery recall The Magnetic Fields, oddly enough,
although not much else of the band’s style would point to that. The emotions
feel true, not trite, in the track “Love = Loneliness,” and “Secret
Wish” captures the fear and obsessiveness of an unbalanced relationship:
“I cut your hair and you look like a boy / Let me kill this gender and
have it destroyed.” Overall, an excellent cassette.
Megan Heller
PRAYING FOR OBLIVION |
OUTERMOST
split 7"
Final Judgment Church Ov The Great Oblivion PO Box 22103 Nashville TN 37202-2103
USA
Clear vinyl! Sweet! And Oblivion’s side is beautifully treated percussive
stuff with subtle harmonic overtones. Everything is manipulated and run through
some type of effect and it mooshes together very nicely. Outermost takes the
opposite approach of just being noisy and confrontational and annoying with
scratchy feedback loops and hellish misery. This track could be used as a
weapon.
Ian C Stewart
DANIEL PRENDIVILLE
TANTRUM EGO CD
Reincheque Recordings 6 Clonaslee, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland
http://listen.to/reincheque
For some reason, this CD amuses the hell out of me!!! The songs are hard for
me to categorize, though I will say they’re great for doing some funky
dancing in the living room. There is some catchy pop, some guitar-driven rock,
and some shit that sounds like either 70s TV show music or porn music (I can’t
decide which). And after listening to “Bad News Day”, I have to
wonder exactly what Daniel did to that hotel room in Boston...or do I want
to know?
Michelle Nollan
REUBENS
REUBENS CD
Global Warming, PO Box 123, Leeds LS11 5YN UK
I’m really, really fond of this band. I don’t know why, because
they’re not the kind of band that I think I’d like. Reubens is a
four-piece, with two members (Nikki Harvey and Mike Gemmill) who play cello
and violin, respectively; combined with programmed drums and guitars, their
sound is nicely unique. I’m not too keen on lead singer Mike Opl’s
vocals (he sounds like he’s singing with marbles in his mouth, and through
a cardboard tube), but I can forgive that. (In case you’re wondering,
I rarely forgive lead singers...) Keep on truckin’, Reubens, and make
your weird Euro-chamber-pop (like Babybird meeting Kronos Quartet) for a long
time to come!
Ben Gott
SCOUNDREL MUSKRAT
WORLD TODAY
Jason Goude PO Box 61 Elon College NC 27244 USA
scoundrelmuskrat@hotmail.com
http://www.scoundrelmuskrat.com
Maaaaaan. Man. Something happens to music-dudes when they spend too much time
alone. They start listening to themselves, and believing what they say. And
start thinking they can do things they can’t. Like the vocals on this
tape, for example. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a rap he’s
doing over every single song, or if he’s just tone-deaf and is doing
his best. Or perhaps he’s just taking the Lou Reed delivery to its logical
extreme. I remember when I sang in the choir in high school (shut up, it was
better than taking another math class), whenever we’d get a new piece
of music, the instructor would lead the choir through the words and rhythm
first, not bothering with the melody at all. So it would be this atonal but
rhythmically right-on practice thing. And that, my friends, is what the vocals
on this release remind me of most. And it annoys the piss out of me. Sing
or rap, shit or get off the pot, in or out. I don’t care either way,
just pick one! The music is an okayish mixture of keyboards and drum machines
that could’ve been something very special. And I can’t take it!!!
Ian C Stewart
THE SHARP CHUCKIES
GUNRUNNING WITH THE SHARP CHUCKIES
Black Apple 156A South St. #11, Jamaica Plain MA 02130 USA
The following review was translated into Spanish and back into English at
babelfish.altavista.com
Rock of the garage of Smart-Ass that is counted pretty and idiot pretty. If
it only enchanted really, or still amused some times then perhaps the attitude
of Smart-Ass she would be authorized. Riffs repeating of the punk-ish of the
garage with vocals snickering outside the líricas as “me I have
taste of duckies and the conejitos and the umbrellas and the kitties/I obtained
wallpapered all concluído my blue house to them goddamned/light baby
and yellow and pink/but that one does not mean that I cannot fix its sink
fucking.” Oh, paper receiver at least that laughed, because it did not
make I safe.
C Reider
RUTH SHERBOURNE
INSIDE OUTSIDE REALITY
Lonely Whistle POBox 9162 Santa Rosa, CA 95405 USA
The following review was translated into French and back into English at babelfish.altavista.com
Thoughtful, vocals female to be sulky with the acoustic support of guitar.
It is dark and despairing like some of the groups early of Darkwave, but always
mislaying little too close to nice-isms to Sarah McLachlan or with severe,
“there is not any joy to be” modes have of a hawker of Tracy. It
is not my cup of tea of the whole, but (Lilith-Fair like case-in-point), it
is definitely with the taste of a certain part of the population. Mrs. Serbourne
is surely sincere and puts her whole heart in him, I can say so that it, but
this is not with my taste of the whole.
C Reider
SLYDOG
SLYDOG CD
McG Music 3830 E Flamingo Rd C-1, #173, Las Vegas NV 89121 USA
http://www.mccmusic.com
Damn, Kip Winger is going to be *pissed* when he hears this! After he cut
his hair and got all serious, along comes Slydog to gank all of his band’s
moves! Holy shit. This sounds like it was lost in a timewarp from 1987, right
down to the four guitar solos (two each, traded off on both speakers). You
can hear the drummer twirling his sticks and throwing his hair around. These
guys were obviously very moved by Winger’s song “Seventeen.”
Big production. And they sound exactly like Winger! You have got to be fucking
kidding me.
Ian C Stewart
SONIC DISORDER | DAFOSM
split tape
Erik Disorder 1911 Redondo Ave, Salt Lake City UT 84108 USA
Short blasts of noise interspersed with short blasts of Casio Mayhem! It’s
crazy and noisy and sounds like Sore Throat only I think these guys actually
could play if they absolutely had to. Not that they would.
Ian C Stewart
SUGARWOOD
SMOKE CD
PO Box 204, Durham City DH1 5XX UK
http://www.sugarwood.co.uk
Way back in Spring 1999, I wrote that “Sugarwood certainly know what
they’re doing,” and this CD proves that they’ve matured as
a band. It isn’t often that I get to review a CD that’s this...well...”comfortingly
good,” I guess. Last time I compared them to Temple Of The Dog and Mother
Love Bone, and although those comparisons still ring true, this album (which
contains a few rip-roarin’ live tracks, including a spectacular song
called “Sunblind”) demonstrates that Sugarwood will go far. With
the glut of shit bands clouding up commercial radio and TV here in the US,
we desperately need a band like Sugarwood. Pure, hook-laden alterna-rock isn’t
dead...It’s very much alive, and it’s living in Durham City.
Ben Gott
TELEPHASIC AMBIANCE COMPILATION
CD
Lianora Rds c/o B Sonnette, La Noue 77750 Bassevelle, France
metroaudio@quid-info.fr
This 16-track collection, consisting of artists from France, the UK, the US,
and Japan, has a split personality worthy of Jekyll and Hyde. The first eight
tracks, when taken on their own, make up a great pop collection with a lot
of influences. PALA’s “Machine” resembles early Teenage Fanclub.
Mogul’s “We Are Efficient” sounds like a lost Tubeway Army
track; edgy guitar and burbling synths create a convincing early eighties
sound. The peak of this portion of the album is certainly French band Foofie’s
“For a While,” a haunting and simple song; the hushed tones of the
vocalist are framed by bare acoustic guitar and sparse use of keyboard. At
the eighth track, however, the collection changes. It begins with “Elemental,”
a six minute acoustic intrumental by Lazer Guided; it is, frankly, a bit dull.
The tracks that follow are various dub and bass experiments, none of which
is particuarly intriguing. The next to last track, TG’s “Ruchill,”
recalls EVOL-era Sonic Youth, but in all honesty, it was difficult to maintain
interest to that point. The first half is excellent, but this isn’t a
collection to which I will feel the need to listen all the way through again.
Megan Heller
VAGINAL DISCHARGE
FROTH
Reality Impaired Recordings, PO Box 1285, Joplin, MO 64802 USA
I know there has to be people out there that really really like when people
sit around with acoustic guitars and write really silly simple songs about
remotely funny topics that, for the most part, rip on your average obvious
target and include references to really sick things (like vaginal discharges)
to make people go “Ooooooo...” and make those squinty faces and
sorta chuckle under their breath as an instinctive reaction to the nasty visual
that naturally popped into their mind. If you’re one of those people
I have two things to say: you’re gonna fuckin’ love this CD (because
there’s 26 of those very songs plus an instrumental bonus track for her
pleasure) and if you want it, please send me an e-mail and I’ll gladly
send it to you...cause I don’t! jmundok@hotmail.com
J Mundok
VAS DEFERENS ORGANIZATION
DRUG BUBBLES CD
http://www.vdostudios.com mattcastille@excite.com
Vas Deferens Organization think they’re clever. They also seem to think
that the music world needs a recreation of the score to a 1970s drug-fest
film. They are mistaken on both counts. Drug Bubbles is completely unenjoyable.
Beyond that, it is completely uninteresting. The disc is divided into three
main tracks— “Hors D’Oeuvres,” “Entrees,” and
“Candies And Confections”— and further subdived into sections
with titles like “Absinthe Lagoon,” “Chocolate Mescaline Atomizer,”
and “Wasabi Steambath.” The music itself gave me indigestion. It
is an incoherent collection of synthesizer warblings and twistings which have
nothing innovative about them. Perhaps I would enjoy this collection if I
were on drugs; as it is, it could be adopted as anti-drug propaganda. VDO
cite a long list of obscure seventies composers as among their influences
on their webpage, but I came no closer to understanding their vision (I hear
nothing of the quality of Kraftwerk, among those on said list), only to thinking
that this project is just as pretentious as I believed upon listening. In
a word, awful.
Megan Heller
THE VICTORIA PRINCIPLE
MIS EN SCENS CD
Ruido Union PO Box 7141 Richmond, Virginia 23221 USA
http://www.ruidounion.com
ruido@hotmail.com
Oh! These guys are so clever! A word-play on actress Victoria Principal. Kinda
emo-core and mostly instrumental. Sounds like some kind of concept album cause
there’s no song listings and each track goes right into the next without
skipping a beat. Really cool if you dig instrumental math-rock. And guys,
next time include a little more information in your bio, please!
Kenyon Hopkin
THE VOLARES
THE NIGHT WE TAUGHT OURSELVES TO SING CD
Inactive Entertainment PO Box 720714 Dallas TX 75372 USA
http://www.thevolares.com
Sentimental, traditionalist take on rocking guitar pop music. The classic
rock roots are on full display, proudly invoking names like CSN&Y, Led
Zeppelin and The Small Faces. Acoustic guitars and live drums and twenty-part
vocal harmonies. They’ve also got some big-name guests too, including
a guy from The Church, a guy from Current 93 and a chick from All About Eve.
Pro production and artwork and everything and the songs all sound like something
you might hear snuck onto a classic rock playlist. My dad would probably even
like these guys.
Ian C Stewart
Roger Yeardley
“Roger Yeardley’s Communal Effort”
Balance Productions P.O. Box 54170 Cincinnati, OH. 45254 USA
balance@one.net
This CD of some of Cincinnati’s finest musical talents surprised me.
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. Ever since “the incident”
at Kings Island when I was a small child, I haven’t been very fond of
all things Ohio. But maybe I’ve been wrong. This CD is quite catchy!
With obvious kudos to Little Feat, Jimmy Buffet, The Neville Brothers, the
Monkees and Brian Setzer (try and figure this sound out) Roger Yeardley gathered
his friends and recorded a very enjoyable musical moment. The engineer is
the shit! These songs flow easily from one to the next. Every one of the players
on this release obviously knows how to play. This is the kind of band I’d
want to see at an outdoor summer festival. I wish I could’ve joined in
on the sessions. You can’t ask for more than that.
kev
ZAKAS
SHUNK DADDY GRIND CD
McG Music 3830 E Flamingo Rd C-1, #173, Las Vegas NV 89121 USA
zshunkdaddy@aol.com
http://www.mccmusic.com
I’m really confused about this. Self-described as industrial/world/metal,
the record officially has 23 people playing, with Zakas credited for all percussion
and programming and vocals on a few tracks. I attempted to find some answers
at the website above and came up short. What is Zakas? It remains a mystery
to me. The music itself sounds a bit like post-revolution Prince had he spent
his earlier years with Manowar (or any similar 80s metal act). The tracks
just seem to slide through from one style to another (and one singer to another).
I’m listening to an Ozzy Osbourne track cut from the mold get up to get
a glass of water and come back dancing through an ancient egyptian tomb...very
strange. I’m going to recommend this disc to all the metalheads out there
who are really bummed that Priest never used more middle-eastern flutes and
shit.
J Mundok
ZAKAS
SHUNK DADDY GRIND CD
McG Music 3830 E Flamingo Rd C-1, #173, Las Vegas NV 89121 USA
zshunkdaddy@aol.com
http://www.mccmusic.com
Sometimes people do stuff that’s so funny you just assume they’re
kidding. But I think these guys are serious. Which just makes it funnier.
Let’s see if I can describe this thing: Heavy metal guitars and growly
metal singing, with sequenced drums and bongos and shit, with occasional bits
of slapped bass guitar. At first it sounds like heavy metal Yanni, then it
kind of sounds like a quantized Savatage. The production is totally over the
top. It’s bizarre in a really off-putting way, like Ripley’s Believe
It Or Not’s more yucko moments. “Bunechu Shenobi” opens with
a long Yanni-goes-Native-American instrumental bit that overuses the “pan
pipes” preset on the keyboard. The Kip Winger clone from Slydog sings
on “Tranq. Dart.” Ugh. The last song on the disc, “F—
Johnny” sounds like the entrance music for the dumbest guy in the WWF—
or a commercial for a really sucky radio station. And the guy actually says
“Eff Johnny” toward the end! He says the letter F! Not swearing
is fine, and actually swearing is even better, but just stopping short like
that is weak and noncommittal. I bet these guys still have ponytails dating
back to the 1980s. And now they’re trying to update their sound by moving
out to the desert to get “mystical,” and spending all their time
in big recording studios. Yuck.
Ian C Stewart
ZEROTONIN
GODDAMNED MP3
G. Wilson 26 Beverley Road, Carnmoney, Newtownabbey, BT36 6QD Northern Ireland.
http://www.zerotonin.co.uk
Highly pissed off modern metal that’s also a bit melodic. Loud guitars.
Lots of yelling. The verses sound like Therapy? but the choruses go kind of
Morbid Angel. Double-bass drumming, which is always nice. And screaming “god
damned” like that should be mandatory for all songs.
Ian C Stewart
ZIA
BIG BANG! CD
http://www.ziaspace.com zia@chaoscontrol.com
Any band that makes its own instruments gets automatic praise from me. Circuit
boards for drum pads, crazy-ass synthesizers and a guitar-shaped object with
buttons that activate sound effects. I’ve seen them play twice, so believe
me, it’s true. It’s all part of their mission to promote space exploration
and colonization of the moon. All three girls have degrees in Music Synthesis
and it’s no surprise. Their blend of electronic pop is well polished
and best described as an industrialized Siouxsie and the Banshees. There’s
an obvious new wave influence, evident in the sci-fi frolic of “Nibiru”
and “Resolution.” Big Bang is truly out of this world.
Kenyon Hopkin