ACTIVITY SET
DRIFT CD
Chicago Sound 6124 Madison Ct, Morton Grove IL 60053 USA
Nicely recorded acoustic guitar driven rock songs. The bass playing is damn fine, and the drumming is excellent. It actually sounds like a drum machine at first, because the tones are so even. "You Are Exhausted By Risk" opens slowly with fingerpicked electric chords and then explodes into the verse. Always nice. There's a silky, sexy moodiness to this stuff that is very appealing, if only for the fact that JOHN LISIECKI isn't going for the easy, happy pop song format. It's darker than that! And must I say IDAHO already? I just got started here! "Space Is Limited" is kinda emo-ish, sort of not really. The jabby distorted guitar bits at the beginning mainly. "Misspelled Your Name" is a little more extroverted. Distorted, rockin' rock that disintegrates into a piano bit. This is some seriously cool shit!
Ian C Stewart

AFTERTAX
EXIT STAGE FRANK CD
2A Records, PO Box 695, Carrboro NC 27510-0695 USA
Since when is a 9-track record an EP? Damn CDs. When I was young, LPs contained like 8 or 10 songs, and that was it; none of today's useless CD fillers. Humph. Nine good tracks are more value for money than 16 mediocre tracks. (Coughs and limps back to her rocking chair)...What was I saying? Ah yes, AFTERTAX. Cute, if not incredibly original, alterna-pop with a nice ''young'' feel and ass-kicking guitars. The singer sounds just that little tiny bit out of tune, so that you don't know if he's doing it on purpose or not. Reminds me of ancient GORDON GANO from the VIOLENT FEMMES. The drums sound a bit too weak compared to the big guitars - fix the mix next time, guys! My very favourite is ''Backseat'' which rocks like the Seventies; ''Jimmy'' and the quieter ''Ship gone down'' are very nice too. Nobody should deny these guys their well-deserved slot on MTV Fresh.
Paola Sorrentino

AIR (with an umlaut over the I)
"STUPA" | "LAST GAS STATION BEFORE DESERT" 7"
J. Patari, Vainolantie 30, 45200 Kouvola FINLAND
Improv action for rock band instrumentation. Screechy and squelchy and directionless guitar-band. SONIC YOUTH minus the songs.
Ian C Stewart

ALICJACOPO 8"
Dekay Age PO Box 771, Chesterfield VA 23832 USA
Odd sized clear wax from DOUG HARRISON's new label (DOUG K HARRISON = DKH = "decay age" I geddit now). ALICIA WADE of the band ORLOCK and the zine FUNERAL sings in that velvet tone of hers while the ubiquitous JACOPO ANDREINI does his best to spazz out as much as possible. "Free Angels" is a sort of free-spazz piece with delectable vocals. "Time" adds acoustic guitar and benefits from ANDREINI's restrained drumming. Ditto for "Night Scene," which has a smoky lounge jazz feel for whatever reason. Of course I think ALICIA could sing a tax form and make it sound beautiful. On the flip ANDREINI seems to be running things on "Cutting Paintings," actually it sounds like he's running in place. All that panting and weird breathing. And the scattershot nature of the drums and guitars. "It Is Very Simple" works up to a fairly crazed pitch to end the record on an up... Hell yeah!
Ian C Stewart

APOCALYPSE HOBOKEN
HOUSE OF THE RISING SON OF A BITCH CD
Kung Fu Recs PO Box 3061 Seal Beach CA 90740 USA
Besides the dumbo cover and title you get a good punk rock rec. that wouldn't be real outta place on Alt. Testies. Could be a good thing for those of you who miss ALICE DONUT, (assuming they broke up..like I'd know), or other well played, not heavy, non-metal, non-industro rocked out punk bands with a ear open to their eclectic fore fathers and bits of the music in general. A few poppy melodies, hooky guitar heroics, time changes, high energy new waveish moments, a touch of thrash, a bit of HUSKER DU-ish cobble bobble, whatever. The energy level stays up and even if the singer has some of that JELLO BIAFRA about him in his tone. It doesn't really kill the thing. Great painting by ANJA WESTERWECK on the back.
Cin Delane

ARCHANGEL
'TEF 'HANJ-O-VER
Wreck Age 909 Place Soulanges, Brossard, Quebec J4X 1L8 Canada
This recording mimics its exotic and erotic packaging. A solid hour of carefully designed sound atmospheres, employing a wide variety of sources. ALEXANDER WHEILL, the self proclaimed head "cheeze" of Wreck Age, and his collaborator (listed only as "SS") wield a number of synthesizers, a typewriter, a vacuum cleaner, some tapes, a few gongs, some sound effect processors, and a lot of percussive objects with the skill of true improvisational artists. Interwoven into this mix are recordings that sound like a cross section of porn and sex psychoanalysis. (Huh-huh, you said "anal"-Ian) The conversations between the speakers on these tapes are mostly kept very low in the mix, but pop to the forefront on occasion, keeping the listener curious about the mysterious messages that ARCHANGEL is conveying. The mix is nicely balanced between the harsh and the soothing and the rhythmic and the ambient. It all seems to get more interesting with each repeated listening.
Swami Loopynanda

ATAXIA | CHC split tape
CHC PO Box 144 Ashville PA 16613 USA or ATAXIA 6015 S Helena, Spokane WA 99223-8340 USA
Side one is twelve songs by CARNAL H COITUS (CHC). Every song is proto low-tech industrialesque terror assaults on your ears, stereo and senses. Highly filtered vocals make the human voice barely recognizable on tracks such as "Stop the Madness." Listen to this if you want strange and bleak and harsh unending and something unlistenable that will annoy/disturb your family. Vibrating frequencies make a lot of the songs so dense with texture that FARUQ thought his system of hearing wasn't working. FARUQ is quite sure that these are pretentious people making this music and it will appeal to certain folks out there but FARUQ is not one of them. This sounds like the soundtrack for schizophrenic factory workers who only hear the sheer echoes of the machinery as sound is looped into itself and folded over. All the "songs" sound similar but if this is what you like then turn it up and your stereo can sound distorted and broken just like FARUQ's! Side two has nine songs by ATAXIA and offers more of the same as it is noisy, non-melodic, low-tech explorations in how to give FARUQ a headache! A noisy mess for the sake of creating a noisy mess. Two sides of this is too much for FARUQ to listen to without losing his patience and turning against what he hears. Where's the Tylenol? FARUQ needs a good-sized handful to get rid of his headache caused by recording the sound of dissonance looped to 90 long minutes.
FARUQ

ATMOSPHEH-RHYCXX
ATMOS.PHERE
Wreck Age 909 Place Soulanges, Brossard, Quebec J4X 1L8 Canada
This is a single 50-minunte track of electronic/ambient/trance music which was recorded without any overdubbing. The rhythm is great with periodic changes in the instrumentation, and there are occasional interesting samples scattered throughout. It's very reminiscent of THE ORB, and pretty entertaining up to a point. After about 30 minutes, the repetition starts wearing a little thin and my mind starts wandering. Of course, if you're into repetitive rave-type music, this tape is for you.
Ken Miller

BELLOLUNA
LIVID AND LOVING IT CD
Daemon Records PO Box 1207 Decatur GA 30031 USA
Current smooth blend of lightly held poppery between classic airy 60's early 70's pop AM radio & electric singer songwriter solipsism, (you don't have to explain your pain-really-he understands). The mix reminds me of CHICAGO / BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS without horns for the BEN FOLDS FIVE generation/trans. generation (yer Ma might dig it too). The tunes are OK, the singing a bit forced, the blues bred 6 string a-ok, the ass end there but unobtrusive and supportive when it would be nice for it to have some more swing/push-pull to move the arrangements along. Thing is, with tuneage of this ilk it's so enslaved to the singer and his words that not much can go on besides shoring him up. If you want something adventurous along these lines get the TIM BUCKLEY double live CD. It's like this disc gone into super nova, all sorts stuff happens you aren't prepared for but isn't off-putting, the singing is a-may-zing! and the actual music ("wots words worth?"-L. Kilmeister) zooms in and outta the box. CURTIS MAYFIELD, early JACKSON BROWNE, classic balladry, cocktail jazz/funk fusion it all gets gobbled, digested and streamed right into your consciousness node.
Maxine Earnst

BINDLESTIFF
QUIET CD
Studio Seventeen PO Box 461363, Escondido CA 92046 USA
Slow, placid instrumentals that sit close enough to the border between ambience and new age that they can spit on either without getting up. The shimmery synth sounds and programmed rhythms glisten with reverb, giving the two guitarists of BINDLESTIFF an almost aquatic background over which to improvise. "Improvise" is something of a dirty word here in AUTO since the vast majority of improvised sound seems to fall under the heading of "complete trash." But when it's done right, improvisation is a beautiful thing. And the BINDLES definitely do it right. The second track is almost like dueling FRIPPERTRONICS, each subtle layer building on the last, complementing the other. Throw this CD in the 25 disc changer between a whole fleet of FRIPPERTRONIC albums and you'd never know the difference. "Simple Truth" is a touch too WINDHAM HILL for my own liking, the music-box synth loop on the bottom especially. "Pacific Gravity" is a vast, expansive space of sound. Highly evocative of the night sky and, uh, things like that. Big open things. This is an absolutely stunning album, especially when they stay away from the WINDHAM HILL side of things. Like melodic ambience? Get it. Studio Seventeen is becoming a real hotbed of intelligent ambient music...
Ian C Stewart

BLACK MAYONNAISE
COLLECTION II: 1993-1998
Gauge Records 275 S Balch St, Akron OH 44302 USA
I don't know what kind of slow 'n low downers MIKE DUNCAN is on, but I'd have to guess it's a combination of Nyquil and heroin. These tracks are as sludgy as the other BLACK MAYONNAISE tape I heard. A molten tar cocktail of 2-bpm drum machine, detuned + distorted bass gweetar and vocals run through a harmonizer and detuned so low you have to lay down to hear them. The vocals actually have more in common with the low growl of a calm lion than anything human. Or anything musical! Slo-ass doom for the noize set. But not strictly noize (which is why I'm not breaking out the dictionary). Side two is the sweet shit, opening with a one-note synth deal that sort of oscillates in place. Were BLACK MAYONNAISE a live act, this could be their intro. Hell, I might use it myself. DUNCAN calls side two the "minimalist synth atmosphere" side. Can't argue with that! I also enjoyed (and am likely to sample) the synth experiments on side one. Hoo yeah.
Ian C Stewart

BLINDER
MIENAKUSURU CD
603 Jersey Ave 4th Fl Jersey City NJ 07302 USA
This is a 3-piece band with a female singer that has a really unique sound that is hard to categorize. This three-track EP opens with "Pieces," a cathartic rampage which has all kinds of crazy time signatures running through it... in fact, all three songs do. It's kind of hard to get used to, but entertaining and challenging (I couldn't imagine trying to learn how to play these songs). "Carbon" starts out a bit more mellow, but builds up to a great chorus. "Abunai" sounds much like the other two songs, like a fist coming out of your speakers, hard to listen to but daring you not to ignore it. Interesting and compelling.
Ken Miller

BLISS
CHASING THE MAD RABBIT CD
2000 Linwood Avenue #21N, Ft Lee, NJ, 07024 USA
As a New Yorker, I pose the question: what is there to New Jersey besides Atlantic City? Musically, though, New Jersey gave us some hope for the future. After all, the original and still the best offering from New Jersey is none other than BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, which lets us forget the BON JOVI offering...at least temporarily. Now, the tag-team of MICHAEL TRAPP and MATT WELLS gives us another ray of light with their album CHASING THE MAD RABBIT. The CD opens with "Karmic Wheel", a KULA SHAKER-ish tale of Armageddon and pre- millennial tensions. If WELLS was, perhaps, from the Village, skeptics might not be in such great abundance; what sort of spiritual transcendendence can a Garden State dude achieve, after all? Well, listen and believe: shut your eyes if you have to. This is, by far, my favorite track on the album. Peruse the rest of the album with the same sort of aplomb. "Silent Scream" teaches the world about irony and satire better than ALANIS MORRISSETTE ever could dream to, and they don't have to get naked to do it; "Nevermind" is an obvious hat-tip to dear old KURT COBAIN and company that refuses to take a SEVEN MARY THREE stance; and "Darkest Hour" haunts, tantalizes, and delights, in a good ol' rock-n-roll way. But skip "Little Bitches" and "Sick" if you're of the politically correct nature. BLISS doesn't make any promises, but it gives us hope for the future of New Jersey rock with this CD. Punky, funky, and a little bit of junk: the original recipe for rock music is just what they do best.
Bernadette Giacomazzo

THE BLUBBERHEADS
"TRAUMANCE" 7"
Boing Being, Hyytialantie 9, 35500 Korkeakoski Finland
8 tune Finnish band lip blippering rockin' roll punk she-nanigans that'd fit snug with the non-core wing of STIFF POLE RECORDS down in Florida. Tunes are strong, not too fast, hooky and tight enough to work without being pop-punk, emo neo-arena wanna be's. Will go on the tape I'm making for the MEDIA WHORES CD release par-tay, (thats how PAT fuckin' says it, don't blame me). I'll lick JOEL CRINGE's bald head if they haven't played with the LETS GO'S!
Cin Delane

"BOOGABOO BABOON BANG!" comp 7"
Boing Being, Hyytialantie 9, 35500 Korkeakoski Finland
MOUTH ODOUR kicks shit off with "Fnomo," (if I ever have a pet it's going to be named Fnomo) an eerily discordant math-metal riff in a time signature as foreign to me as the language they sing in. Headbang if you want to risk losing your teeth in your lap. The riff is tight as hell and the sort of yelled vocals are perfect. Great song, totally crazed and awesome. The fun continues with MOUTH ODOUR's "L'atra," which is even farther out there than the first track. The scary rhythms punctuated with heavenly chordal breaks are the type of thing that made SOUNDGARDEN so attractive in the early days. FRIDGE goes tearing off in the opposite direction to MOUTH ODOUR. Atonal (clearly) but fairly straightforward rhythmically. The vocals are in English but with a very cool accent. The dude is singing about being a spaniel on "Spaniel Dog." Their "Beautiful Flowers" is a limp stab at San Fran hippy rock. I defer to the mighty FARUQ on the whole hippy thing. LUXURY SPIT is garage rock. Guitars, drums, backing vocals. Lots of open strings. BLUBBERHEADS aren't afraid to inject some singing and drum-spasms when needed. Their tracks are duh-head uptempo rock with screaming and general weirdness. If all music from Finland is like this I might have to relocate.
Ian C Stewart

BRAIN TRANSFER PROJECT
"PANTS" | "L.A. STORY" 7"
Black Bean & Placenta 124 Ventura Ave, Oxnard CA 93035 USA
"Pants" = skittery synth pop that sounds like a hyperactive GARY NUMAN track from the late 1980s. Vocals are more narration than singing but it works. Unquantized synth parts! Very interesting approach, sounds like it's held together with scotch tape! I LOVE the synth sounds used. Homey's voice doesn't necessarily go with the music 100% but who am I to quibble? And a live sax! VERY fucking 80s. Lots of claps from the drum machine, that sort of thing. Just needs some fretless bass and everything else to be run through a couple of chorus pedals and it's an instant timewarp! Oooh yeah!
Ian C Stewart

THE BRATS
"NIGHT OF THE GORILLA" 7"
Boing Being, Hyytialantie 9, 35500 Korkeakoski Finland
Straightforward rock action with what sounds like a room full of guitar players all slashing away on that main riff. Rhythm section pounding away. The singer may have apprenticed under THIRLWELL and GLENN DANZIG for a spell. "Acid Eater" could be a MISFITS cover for all I (don't) know. "Motherfucking ASS-SID, EEE TORRRRAH" Hmm. "Chin Up, Man!" sounds like a punk rock version of THE DOORS, right down to the highly MORRISONic singing. On the B-side, "A Strange Kinda Fever" had me yelping "Holy DANZIG 'She Rides'!" Slow, ass-swaggering guitar groove. And the singer even goes for that strained upper register shit like ole shaggyburns DANZIG. You sure this ain't a cover? Fuck if I know. Rocks though. THE BRATS have clearly studied in the Halls Of Rock.
Ian C Stewart

BREAKING WITH THE WHEEL VOL 1 comp
Android Productions, 94 Fayette Ave, Buffalo NY 14223 USA
A small description of the punishment referred to as "breaking with the wheel" is included in the notes on the inner cover of this tape. Accordingly, it was "probably the longest and most atrocious agony that the power structure could inflict" during the early Middle Ages in Europe. Although I never really felt tortured while listening to this tape, I never really felt like going to sleep right afterwards either. Android presents its listeners with a compilation of eleven pieces created by people who reside in and around Buffalo, New York. The styles range from sound collage to gothic rock, with every piece having somewhat of a harsh edge. The more "rock" oriented pieces tend to stick to the standard instrumentation of guitars, keys and drums while the more "experimental" pieces use lots of mysterious noise makers and prerecorded media. Fans of screaming and growling will find plenty of what they're looking for in pieces by TOWPATH, PRAYING FOR OBLIVION, GRAND INQUISITOR and BLACK MASS OF ABSU. GREG GREG's "I Love Cans Part One" is for listeners who enjoy the cacophonic noises made exclusively by cans. I get the idea from this whole presentation that life is rough in Buffalo these days.
Swami Loopynanda

THE BRIDGES OF DISSONANT COUNTY CD compilation
2A Records PO Box 695, Carrboro NC 27510-0695 USA
This compilation of bands from Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina is fantastic- it must be great to go to bars in those towns. Fast-paced guitar punk dominates most of the 22 songs, and they really rock. The ones that don't rock aren't bad enough to keep you away, either. EL SUCIO opens with "Dogs," a great bass-driven instrumental. STARPOINT NC's "Interested" has a singer who sounds an awful lot like MICK JAGGER, but they manage to pull it off just because the song is so great. LUD almost steals the show with a great sing- along tune called "Work in a Restaurant" which would appear to be about working in the food service industry. GERTY has a really great tune called "ICU" that borrows backup vocals from THE BEATLES' "Back in the USSR." SQUATWEILER has a great old-fashioned punk tune called "Jack Ball," and CRASH CADILLAC backs it up with the driving beat of "Side Streets." The band GRAND PRICKS gets the award for best band name, and their "31 Flavors" features one of the worst singers I've heard in quite some time. THE MISHKI SANFORDS do a bizarre song called "Pollyandrea" that scares the crap out of me. This CD totally rules.
Ken Miller

C BROWNE JR
4
210 University Dr, Chapel Hill NC 27516 USA
He's already been declared MISS AUTOreverse 1999, so what do you want me to say? CLIFTON BROWNE kicks the good shit yet again on his latest and freightest (?). "Sweet Angel" sounds like early solo LENNON. My man rocks guitar, bass and drums with aplomb, and the recording job is stellar. The vocals are excellent, the guy can just fucking sing. The acoustic guitars on "The Only Way To Heaven" sound like sparkling 3-D. "Atoms In Her Eyes" is a great acoustic guitar piece with sexy drum loop backing. Side two and "Friday" starts with a pretty phat drum beat, which misleads into an acoustic up-and-down bass-on-the-beat easy pop folk summertime anthem which could be a huge hit for SUGAR RAY or somebody like that. I'm telling you, make a video for this song with some skirty chicks and some dalmatians and a pool and some fast edits and my man could be BIG! Hugo soy. Ditto to a degree "Always The Player Always The Payer." The sugary (and weirdly familiar-what is that?) drum loop takes the whole thing up several levels. Easy, cheesy, light and breezy. The loops make it good for the ass, the melodies speak to the heart and the lyrics to the mind. He ain't MISS AUTO 99 fer nothin'!
Ian C Stewart

THE BUSTED FANS CD
General Ludd Music 600 Central Ave #297, Riverside CA 92507 USA
Stripped down folk-rock. Sometimes just the acoustic guitar and voices. I like it pretty well. A few songs sound something like the VIOLENT FEMMES. I'm guessing this depends on which of the three bass players is working on a particular track (according to the website, the FANS existed from 1987 until about 1994 and these 13 tracks span their entire career as edited and sequenced by BILL FOREMAN). There's some DYLAN-sounding stuff in there too, circa "Please Crawl Out Your Window". There's maybe a little too much acid-rock style lead guitar and there's not much happening melodically, but there's plenty of clever lyrics---"sarcastic almost to the point of being serious" to quote the 12 page zine serving as liner notes. What's more, they're usually pretty easy to make out. Well worth a listen.
Indy Ana Jones

JAMES CALL
THE NEUROTIC WORLD OF JAMES CALL
Mishap Productions 846 Pine Flat Rd, Santa Cruz CA 95060 USA
My two favorite words in hometaping! JAMES CALL! This is a mix tape thrown together by Mishap comprised of whatever odds and ends they had on hand. All I know is: this shit rules. As revealed in AUTO7, JAMES CALL's songwriting is an uneasy blend of DEVO, THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS and something else. The music is all sequenced synths and drum machines. The vocals are hysterical, the lyrics and delivery are humorous and rhythmic. Last time I said JAMES CALL was like BILL NYE SCIENCE GUY reborn as a songwriter, but this time I'll say it's more like TOM GREEN as a songwriter. CALL's vocal delivery recalls the singers from SOUL COUGHING, CAKE, and DEVO fo' sho' but the party really doesn't stop there. Even the instrumental tracks are engaging and catchy enough to stand up alone. It's tough to pick favorites but I'm going with "I Love The Northwest," the instrumentals "Walking Through A Deserted Mall" and "Thinking About The Government" (not to be confused with my own STAR*PILLOW track "Working For The Government")--oh, and definitely "Party Nazi." The fine line between novel songs and novelty songs is defined here: novel songs work just as well with different (or no) lyrics. Novelty songs are generally corny crap with goofy, topical lyrics. JAMES CALL takes being novel to a new level. Okay, add "Oriental Daydream" to the list too. Sounds like a leftover from POWER. If CALL's press is to be believed (who can be sure), he was recently rejected by major labels for not sounding like BECK! Somebody somewhere better get on the ball and start getting some CALL CDs ready for me to buy, that's all I know. And no, you can't borrow this tape from me! I could get 3 lifetimes' worth of carpal tunnel just from typing about how much I love this shit.
Ian C Stewart

DON CAMPAU
HEARTBEAT 'N LOOPY
Lonely Whistle Music PO Box 9162, Santa Rosa CA 95405 USA
DON goes hog-wild with the sampler and guitars on side one. Playing the SPOT THE SAMPLE game, I guess that track one features a drum loop from RENEGADE SOUNDWAVE. "Salute To My Swami" has a drum loop from MASSIVE ATTACK "Protection" (I know, I just listened to it last night) and some harpy sitar sounds. Who knows. The guitar bits sound mostly improvised and are occasionally way-out-front of music beds that might otherwise go undisturbed. Side one is mostly short little 2-minute bursts of ideas. Side two opens with a collab track featuring the mighty BROCA'S AREA and DON's wife ROBIN O'BRIEN. THE LEGENDARY POPTONES and CARL HOWARD also appear as conspirators variously on side two. Uneasy instrumental listening!
Ian C Stewart

CANDY WATCHES RAZOR BLADES CD
4958 N Keeler Ave, Chicago IL 60630 USA
http://www.cwrb.com
This is a three-piece rock band with a female singer, and sometimes they sound a little like COWBOY JUNKIES after a few pots of coffee. My only criticism of this CD is really a minor gripe, but a something a lot of up and coming musicians need to learn-- the delicate art of sequencing their songs. This six song EP starts off with a kind of mellow song called "Tragedy," which in and of itself is a good song, but a bit too slow to start a CD with. The last song, "Cool Alabaster," on the other hand is friggin' fantastic rock song with a "Peter Gunn" beat, funky and smooth with a sing-along chorus you'll be humming all day-- this should have been the first song on the CD. "He Could Love Me" has some great vocal overdubbing on the chorus and a cool driving bass beat. This band has a unique sound and they can really groove, but my advice to anyone who gets this CD is to program your CD player to play the last song first.
Ken Miller

CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
WE ARE EACH OTHER'S BABY CD
7701 Blue Ridge Cir, Charlotte NC 28270 USA
http://www.blueray.com/captiveaudience
Uptempo instrumental synth pop with movie samples! Great production and very solid song structures. The samples rule as well. Rapid-fire sequencing action and great synth sounds. Like a hyperactive, instrumental DEPECHE MODE, which I only mention because I'm such a lame-ass. Rigid programming, swiftly executed. Sure to find fans on the alt.synthpop newsgroup, if it hasn't already. Very timely for me considering all the DEPECHE tapes I just dug out of the closet. So to speak.
Ian C Stewart

RAY CARMEN
CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG
POP! Productions, PO Box 152, Green OH 44232 USA
Subtitled COVER TUNES AND COLLABORATIONS. And, yeah! That's what it is! The tape opens rather dubiously with a so-serious-it's-frightening version of "Daydream Believer." Other covers include "And Your Bird Can Sing," plus songs originally by SARAH MCLACHHHLAN, PETER BLEGVAD, THE RESIDENTS, and is it QUEEN? I see the name BRIAN MAY, so I'm guessing QUEEN. The collab tracks feature young KAYLA SCHMITZ, KD SCHMITZ and KEN CLINGER. The shit is fine, but you already knew that.
Ian C Stewart

CATCH 22 1/2 VOL. 1 comp
Umbababayee Records, 76 Bacons Lane, Birdholme, Chesterfield Derbyshire S40 2TN UK
When a compilation has only four songs on a 90-minute cassette (hence the title-- they're all 22 1/2 minutes long), you know you aren't a casual listener-- you're in it for the long haul. AQUANAUT starts it off with "The Inducer" which is a slow, moody piece with slidey guitars and thrumming bass over the fading-in-and-out sound of French television. Not a bad piece, though sometimes it does seem a little too long. The next band, COITS, performs a three-part improvisational piece for electric guitar. The first part consists of droning feedback disrupted by plunky warbling sounds, followed by grating, high-pitched feedback, and finally alternate droning and modem-like screeching. These pieces sound like they were recorded in an oil drum because they actually were, which is an interesting idea but made my head hurt more than it entertained me. I really can't imagine anyone sitting around listening to this and enjoying it except perhaps some sort of aural masochist. I suggest you fast-forward to the second side. KOSMOJET starts off side two with "Liquid Smoke," which shows a better way to use feedback. It's a vaguely atmospheric bass-driven droney piece with slidey guitars, adding noises and building feedback as it goes on. STREAM ANGEL finishes the tape off with "Buxotic Rhapsody," an audio collage that starts with a tinkling piano loop and staticky feedback and spoken word bits about sex. Gradually it evolves into an organic, creepy piece with barely audible noise over top. This one makes the tape worth listening to, in my opinion. Overall, I'd say this compilation could have been somewhat shorter (perhaps "Catch 15" would have been better), but if you like long, droney noise pieces, this tape is for you.
Ken Miller

THE CHERRY ORCHARD
ESPRESSO! EP CD
Riviera, 45 Av Charles de Gaulle, 33520 Bruges FRANCE
Blasts of cool sunshine! Everything I said about CHERRY ORCHARD last issue applies on this EP as well. Kitsch pop that evokes the mood of PIZZICATO FIVE (that whole pastel 1960s glam spy movie tract), or BURT BACHARACH. Lots of handclaps and backing vocals and shakers and percussion what-not. And string sounds on the synth! "Latino Especiale" is a brief instrumental that sounds like HERB ALPERT jamming with SANTANA in Paris, 1966. "Smile" breaks the mood only slightly with a pile of dusted drum loop and groovy samples. "Espresso!" is the last track and is more typically sexy pastiche action. Love those bongos!
Ian C Stewart

CHICKLET
LEMON CHANDELIERS CD
Satellite Records, 920 East Colorado Blvd. #151, Pasadena CA 91106 USA
This is good. This is really, really good. You should get this. CHICKLET packs some serious jangly pop into their 5 song CD, and it's almost all worthwhile. This overachieving two-piece (DANIEL BARIDA on vocals, guitar, drums, and keys, and JULIE PARK on vocals, guitar, and keys) sounds, at times, like STEREOLAB, BELLY (if they had been produced by Stephen Street), THE CRANBERRIES, and even THE MAMA'S AND THE PAPA'S (musically, at least). Very psychedelic, very poppy, very ethereal -- PARK's voice seems to float above the music, and BARIDA's lyrics range from "that's deep shit!" thoughtful to utterly endearing ("think of my loneliness and all my fears / Times it by ten, and that's the way I felt"). Even when they go disco ("Limelight" -- an XTC reference, perhaps?), CHICKLET remains interesting. LEMON CHANDELIERS is a top-down, California dreamin', trippy, reverb-laden ride. Enjoy it. Sorry, IAN...but you're not getting this one back!
Ben Gott

CHURCH BIZARRE
BABYLONIAN DAZE
PO Box 175, Antioch IL 60002 USA
We probably have MARILYN MANSON to "thank" for this assemblage of Sa'an-lickin' synth-driven scary new wave. The music is MIDI goth with distorted guitars on the heavy bits. The vocals are double-tracked and are mixed very prominently, giving the techno-macabre presentation a sort of ALICE COOPER feel. This means the preachy, Sa'an-lickin' lyrics are front and center. And even though I agree with much of what they say, I still kinda cringe for some reason. The music isn't heavy enough to jump around to, and the new wave elements aren't prominent enough to make me wanna break out the eyeliner and hairspray. Falls somewhere in the middle, I guess. Almost like a Broadway musical. "kill your god." Oooh yeah.
Ian C Stewart

KEN CLINGER
KC.01 CD
Bovine Productions, 311 Stratford Ave #2, Pittsburgh PA 15232-1108 USA
Archival CLINGER, going all the way back to the beginning: 1983! I remember that year well... it was all about 5th grade, THOMAS DOLBY and little else for me. KEN CLINGER, meanwhile, was already rocking the synths and making tapes. Due to either the timelessness of this recording or the resurgence of analogue synths, this material sounds strangely undated. Beginning with the low synth textures of "Three Blind Mice" and continuing throughout. The spooky fluteyness (or is it saxiness?) combined with CLINGER's breathy, chilling vocal delivery of various poetic elements makes the album unique. The tracks with random smatterings of synth blips (primarily "Star", but there are others) are rather sidereal fun too. A fascinating look back in time...
Ian C Stewart

KEN CLINGER
KCM.20 + ELIZABETH APPEARS CD
Bovine Productions, 311 Stratford Ave #2, Pittsburgh PA 15232-1108 USA
There's not much in the liner notes, but it appears from his interview in AUTO7 that KC does all the instruments and recording: he's certainly a talented musician and producer. At its best, I'm reminded of MIKE OLDFIELD'S great breakout album TUBULAR BELLS. And there's a kind of ROXY MUSIC-style ethereality to "Eyedrops", for example, that I enjoy listening to. At other times, though, it feels more like VANGELIS or, GOD forbid, something from WYNDAM HILL. Actually, there's nothing on KCM.20 I really object to, and some of it's really good. On the other hand . . . ELIZABETH APPEARS is insanely dull. One somber chord is repeated hundreds of times. Vocalist LIZ FRASER appears (the only singing on the album) with the somewhat uninspired lyrics "oh, oh, oh . . . la, la, la". A few minutes later, she does it again. And again . . . and this goes on for damn nearly half an hour. Let's just say I don't get it.
Indy Ana Jones

CLOUD
THE STONES CD
Semper Lo-Fi 11 Orchard St, Cold Spring NY 10516 USA
Loose and summery pop instrumentals wherein the mastermind of CLOUD, MJB, lets his hair down jams and jangles until the sun, it done goed down. Some catchy little themes, each named after a current or former member of THE ROLLING STONES, and I guess the only reason that it wasn't THE BEATLES is because then you could only do some six songs, OK, seven if you count GEORGE MARTIN. Of course, I guess that there are people that exist that actually think THE STONES are BETTER than THE BEATLES, but I sure damn well wouldn't want to know any of them. Anyhow, it could be that I just don't know dick about THE ROLLING STONES, but I don't see any resemblance between their music, and the songs presented on this tape other than the song names. It's really just a buncha laid-back MJB pop gems sans vocals, and that's just dandy by me. Jangle-Out MoFo!!
C Reider

CLOUD
BLUNT SHADE ARTCORE CD
Semper Lo-Fi 11 Orchard St, Cold Spring NY 10516 USA
So MIKE BOWMAN shitcans the vocals and gets down to instrumental biz as CLOUD! And it's awesome! A couple of the songs are like MEDESKI MARTIN AND WOOD jamming with RAY DAVIES. A couple of the songs break out the Tone Bank, which is always fine with me. "Upon Discovering The Lair Of The Secret Beach Boys Fans" makes excellent use of some piano-y sounds and that patented MJB low-tuned snare sound. For those of you just joining the procession, MJB is one hell of a drummer. And the guitar playing ain't bad either. Good recording, excellent songwriting. Am I gushing? I'll stop. CLOUD = excellent instrumental guitar pop!
Ian C Stewart

CONCRETE 7"
Knot Music PO Box 501 South Haven MI 49090-0501 USA
Ass jabbing sound to release the potential of society via "noise" "sound" as liberation from mental shackles. So did some one reread the "Art Of Noise" in the CONCRETE house? Nice wooz-squeak, but not anything that hasn't reached the masses through incidental chasescene soundtrackery in Sci-Fi shoot 'm ups. Still, why not? A double CD set of this quality would get some play around this estate. Petite, but still reet.
Cin Delane

COOKIEPUSHER
KARAOKE DEATH SONGS
Black Apple, 156A South St. #1, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 USA
Simply put: JEFFREY SIMMONS, the brains 'n' brawn behind COOKIEPUSHER, delivers a truly "alternative" piece of work. The songs are musically and lyrically solid, and the guitar/vocal tracks hold up quite nicely (which is a difficult task to accomplish). When I started playing this tape, one of my roommates started whistling along; I was kinda surprised, because this album isn't really the kind of thing you'll start dancing around to...but it is quite catchy, and quite good. "Playing Dumb" sounds like something off TODD RUNDGREN's HEALING album, reinterpreted by BECK. "Angels Can't," which relies almost exclusively on acoustic guitar and vocals, sounds like one of the quieter moments on TOAD THE WET SPROCKET's PALE. "Eventuality," a drum/guitar/bass track, sounds like one of the *louder* moments on PALE. The final cut, "Hands and Feet," is a complex acoustic guitar/vocal number, which ends the album on a quiet, meditative note. If SHAWN MULLINS and RUFUS WAINWRIGHT can get on the radio, there's more than a sliver of hope that I'll be able to say "I knew COOKIEPUSHER way back when..."
Ben Gott

COOKIEPUSHER
HEAVY IS DISHEVELED
Black Apple 156a South St #1L, Jamaica Plain MA 02130 USA
As dour as COOKIEPUSHER's last few tapes have been, this is practically an ABBA record by contrast. The first song, "The Worst Spy," has handclaps and a tambourine! That's not dour! The songwriting is typically gorgeous and the recording is very good. "Careful Correspondence" is a highly touching slow ballady type deal. "Step Outside" is slow and moody, so perhaps declaring that "dour is dead" is in this case premature. The playing is economical and spare, and the acoustic piano adds wonderful earthy texture. The drumming is tasteful and well-recorded. And the speakers don't shake whenever there's a 3-layer thick bit of low vocals! "This Is What" is beautiful, highly IDAHO-like. Is there higher praise? I'll have to learn a new language to express more fully how profoundly JEFFREY SIMMONS rules.
Ian C Stewart

CRAYOLA SUMMER
A PILE OF STUFF
Best Kept Secret, Alessandro Crestani, via Biron di Sotto, 101-36100 Vicenza Italy
Humdrum recordings of 19 lackluster songs. Guitar-driven with LOU REED style vocals, decent live drumming, occasional keyboard or weird percussion. And the bass is okay. The songwriting is painfully dull and as unchallenging and unemotive as the average weeknight bar band. The only cool thing about this tape for me is the 600th-generation-dub-of-a-PEEL-SESSION sound of it. The music is depressingly unamazing.
Ian C Stewart

CYANOSIS
THE ETHEREAL STAIRWELL SUITE CD
788 Franklin Ave, Astoria OR 97103 USA
Epic soundscapes made with bass and guitar! And mo' delay and smacks of reverb! It's a huge sound CYANOSIS make. Like a vast orbicular opiate! And not too dissimilar to FRIPPertronics played at 1/10th the speed. Very sexy and very nice! "The Horses' Lyre" is the first to kick straight up guitar action, but even that is so textured and convoluted and PLAUSIVE that it's soon unrecognizable as such, descending into an experimental SUBAREA that is simultaneously isolationist and STYGIAN. Nice.
Ian C Stewart

JOE E DADDARIO
LIVING IN THE RESTLESS AGE CD
2 Northwind Ct, Newport Beach CA 92663 USA
http://www.songman.com/
Yeah, I was gonna slam the fuh outta this, but why? I mean, its prolly no more useless than rote hardcore etc. It's the kinda post CHRISTOPHER CROSS new ageish singer song writer stuff you heard in the background of "certain scenes" in MIAMI VICE in their 2nd, 3rd season.
Cin Delane

DAS RHYTHMISCHE ORNAMENT / D RHYTHM: O
D.R.O.ne
Nauze Muzick, Str. D. 18. Merz 34, 08340 Schwarzenberg Germany
A lo-fi, lo-tech set of psychedelic electronica workouts in "Super 3-D Mono" showing lots more creativity than 98% of their hi-fi, hi-tech counterparts. Loads of ominous, boomy sound exploration with beats, showing tendencies to both structured ambient electronica beats and a more improvised ambient / noise bent, calling to mind FURNACE era DOWNLOAD. This tape displays a lot of potential, if they can clean up their sound quality a bit, then they're definitely someone to watch. These guys would be a perfect candidate for the soon to be burgeoning home-taper techno remix crowd to have a hand at. Frankly, I'd love to remix 'em myself, and I may just do it to, damn you. This tape indicates that they ALMOST rule, which is sometimes just as interesting as those who DO rule.
C Reider

DEAD
V.I.P. CD
Poserslaughter Records, PO Box 180141, 10205 Berlin, Germany
Porno-obsessed metal cack. FUDGE TUNNEL crossed with LORDS OF ACID. "Evil Gogo Babe From Outer Space" is an uptempo thrash number with pukey death vocals. The guitars are tuned pretty damn low and the vocals are pretty much pukey throughout. The title track features some fairly groovy riffing, but the guitars are too far back to do any positive damage. The vocals and ride cymbal dominate the mix. I doubt that anyone would listen to DEAD for the pure metalness of it though. It's good to see a metal band having enough of a sense of humor to have some fun and fall on its ass now and then. But then again if it doesn't work as pure thrash/mosh fun, and it's not funny enough to get anything more than a polite giggle, what IS the point? Bleeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuaaaaarrgggghhhhhh! That's the point.
Ian C Stewart

DEATH PENALTY
CONVICTION CD
Wild Rags 2207 W Whittier Blvd, Montebello CA 90640 USA
Neck-punchingly heavy riffcore that falls somewhere between PANTERA and BIOHAZARD, which is probably the exact same thing I said the last time I heard DEATH PENALTY. The riffs are HITTIN' and doin' DAMAGE. The production is damn fine as well, the drums especially sound tasty and meaty. The chuggy nature of this recording bypasses the brain completely and goes directly to the fists!!! I keeel you now! I'm easily influenced today so it's good they're not telling me to jump offa no bridges. Absolutely fuckin' STOMPIN'! The vocals are definitely PANTERAlike in nature and the overall anti-racist theme of the lyrics is a plus. Chugga chugga HUA!
Ian C Stewart

DEVEREAUX
"HOLLAND" CD EP
Blazhko Records, PO Box 14078, London N16 7WD UK
"Operation Julie" is a slow, highly affecting acoustic guitar strum and wounded singalong with occasional bursts of melodica. Very nice. "Garage Band" keeps the acoustic guitar going, with a RADIOHEADlike attention to detail and gripping experimentation. Where I'm from, saying RADIOHEAD in a review isn't a bad thing at all. "Lyra" is uptempo rock with a way-past-distorted bass line and some spoken lyrics. "Hawaiian Parasite" makes liberal use of delayed slide guitar, acoustic strumming and some almost subliminal analogue synth action. Which, of course, adds up to one hell of a release.
Ian C Stewart

DILDO MANIA
"3RD REVENGE OF OPPOSITION" 7"
Weird Dreams Orontie 1 as. 2, 53500 Lappeenranta, Finland
Ambitious garage-rock with weird socialist lyrics written in English by non-native English-speakers. Translating politics into a different language ain't easy but it sure is fun! And funny too! "Positive Song" on the flip is more of the same rock-ness. Guitar bass drums and a singer you can't understand. Says here "it's a euphoria day" and who can argue with that? The music is awfully stodgy for a band so concerned with politics. They'd be better off with a cellarful of jeep beats if they wanted to change things with their music. That aside, the production is good and the songwriting is okay. Great band name though...
Ian C Stewart

DOGGED FOR SYMPATHY VS. ATMOSPHEH-RHYCXX
SPAWNED FROM APATHY
Wreck Age 909 Place Soulanges, Brossard Quebec J4X 1L8 CANADA
This is apparently a remix of ATMOSPHEH-RHYCXX stuff by DOGGED FOR SYMPATHY. Or something. Both do "electronic/experimental/techno/ambient/noise", according to the WRECK AGE website. To me it's just noise. You know the idea: some sound deemed to be interesting is looped over and over and mixed in with other such. Clearly it takes a certain amount of trouble to do this, but as far as I'm concerned, the result is, well, like it says in the title, apathy. Think DISPOSABLE HEROES OF THE HIPHOPRISY, but without the vocals that actually made 'em worth listening to more than once.
Indy Ana Jones

DOGGED FOR SYMPATHY
HANDGLOVE (THE WORLD WASN'T MADE FOR STREETWALKERS)
Wreck Age 909 Place Soulanges, Brossard Quebec J4X 1L8 CANADA
There's an old saying that home-recorded music is only as good as the vocals. That's certainly true here. The instrumental bits rule: ambient techno soundscapes with booty-friendly grooves, great samples and synth sounds, and an intriguingly moody overall vibe. But when the singer dude comes on, there's no escaping his hideousness. The vocals are mixed so far forward that no amount of Dolby or EQ can pull them back to a listenable level. And the guy's voice! And the lyrics... yeesh. DFS would be better off sticking to instrumentals, or at least having the good taste to bury the vocals. The music is excellent, fitting in quite easily with a more abstract tract of industrial dance music. I could see this stuff being played on industrial nights at any club in the world. The instrumental bits, I mean. My subwoofer loves it!
Ian C Stewart

DREAM INTO DUST
"A PRISON FOR ONESELF" 7"
Chthonic Streams PO Box 7003, NY NY 10116-7003 USA
Music inspired by the TV show THE PRISONER. It does seem to be. Nice soundtrack-y uneasy listening instrumentals using no sounds that couldn't have been evident at the time of the shows running. Damn near as good as the low-key stuff in classic HITCHCOCK films. Too bad it's not a full on CD, 74 minutes of this woozy, "hey, what tedium or weirdness lies around the corner" stuff would be nice on ear and shelf.
Cin Delane

DREAMSTALKER 7"
Burping Turds Musick PO Box 282, Lancaster NH 03584 USA
Aw yeah baby, DOUG HARRISON on clear wax! First a big fat-ass shout-out to BURPING TURDS who got balls of volcano rock! DREAMSTALKER is DOUG at his discordant, isolationist best. An experimental record for people like me who have no attention span whatsoever. Spooky meso-ambient cycling low-metal-string-tension sounds. Creeps the hell outta me. The first time I played this record, the needle skipped for close to six minutes before I realized something was amiss. The other side is a bunch of DURAN DURAN covers, arranged for waxpaper and comb. Yeah right. Another horrorscape of nightmare ambience. What the fuck did you expect? The part where DOUG came in talking made me die. Creepy creepy shit!
Ian C Stewart

DREKKA | FUSCILLAGE split 7"
BlueSanct Musak 4345 N Hermitage #1, Chicago IL 60613 USA
DREKKA: plonky and way scratchy noizeblisspop. As they used to say on MAIN records, "a drumless space." Kinda. Grizzled guitar speckles and somewhat hazy singerdude singing. FUSCILLAGE does acoustic guitar, foot tapping and singergirl singing. Sounds like SIXPENCE NONE THE RICHER without the kissing. Not really, I've just wanted to say that lately. Four sweet and precious vignettes with varying mixtures of noize and reverb and assorted irrelevant sonicalities such as saxophone. That kind of thing. And they thank "all animals, especially cats and bunnies" on the cover! Very not bad, as they used to say!
Ian C Stewart

JOHNNY DRESDEN
INSECT REVOLUTION
Dig My Art 561 Hudson St. #78, New York NY 10014 USA
Hey, this guy's really good. His influences include MARSHALL CRENSHAW and DEVO (there's covers of "Cynical Girl" and "Beautiful World"), but make no mistake: most of all it's unapologetically BOWIE-esque---there's even a BOWIE song here as recorded by BOWIE. And here's one more pigeonhole for y'all: a couple of the original songs remind me quite a bit of JOHN LENNON. It says on the sleeve that JOHNNY's been making tapes for eighteen years. It shows. There's a *finished* quality to this material that's rare in the underground. Several others are available, according to the website. This is the first tape in this shipment from AUTO to go in my player more than once and I'll probably check out some of the rest.
Indy Ana Jones

DUFUS
THIS (DUFUS) REVOLUTION
Opulence! PO Box 2071, Wilmington NC 28402 USA
Between these guys and SMARTYPANTS there could very well be a new "sound" out there, called simply OPULENCE! Just as SUB POP was synonymous with grunge in the late 80s and 4AD equalled godliness up till the last few years, OPULENCE! is slowly becoming a quick way of saying "quirky-ass clever pop rock with riffaholic guitar madness and goofy singing." Or something to that effect. And if there's a better way of conveying that concept with one word, I suppose OPULENCE! is as good as any. DUFUS, well, let's see. They rock and they're funny sometimes and sarcastic kinda like in a BEN FOLDS FIVE kinda way, but they can rock some crazy pop shit out too, like hot-rodded XTC in the early early 80s. Twisted like some ZAPPA mutation at times. I've never heard MIKE KENNEALLY's solo shit but I presume it sounds a bit like this. Just so fucking clever and wordy and riffy and intricate. I would say also that DUFUS is kind of like PRIMUS in that same kind of freak-out way. The songwriting is highly detailed and so well-executed the band sounds less like a conglomeration of highly skilled instrumentalists than one big multilimbed rockin' monster thing. Like an octopus but more. I don't know either. But it's good! Now I'll say: OPULENCE! meet ORCHESTRAVILLE. ORCHESTRAVILLE, meet OPULENCE! There's my a+r work for the month.
Ian C Stewart

TERRY EASON
THE SUN ALSO SAYS HOWDY CD
Reticulated Records, PO Box 580878, Minneapolis MN 55458 USA
Whoever said that those Midwesterners don't know how to rock? Hah! Obviously they haven't heard TERRY EASON's album. OK, so "Here Comes The Hero" sounds a little like EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER (must be that B-3!), but "All That I Can Do" could just as well have been written by ROBYN HITCHCOCK, and "Inevitable" reminds me a little bit of "Moral Kiosk" by R.E.M. Some of the tracks are a little too crunchy for my taste (like "Here Comes the Hero" and "Hey Man, Is That A Jag?", both filled with fuzz guitar solos and drum machines), but songs like "Any Church Whatsoever" (a sparse piano solo played over a preacher's sermon), "Politics as Usual" (political statement that sounds like it belongs on an outtake from ELVIS COSTELLO's TRUST sessions), and "Sometime This Century" (an acoustic/fuzz guitar tune that sounds a little like something by THIRD EYE BLIND or DUNCAN SHEIK) are interesting and well-done. EASON's songs aren't confined by their lo-fidelity -- in fact, it helps keep them away from pretentiousness. A fine job.
Ben Gott

EGO LIKENESS
SONGS FROM A DEAD CITY
Angelfall 1301 St Paul #56, Baltimore MD 21202 USA
Trip industrial? Ambient-hop? Whatever it is, I likes it! Delectable moody synths and drum sequences (loops too) and distant vocals with traces of new wave somewhere in there. Weird spoken samples in different languages too. Hell yeah, this is what I'm all about. Open minded goths (if there are any) might also latch onto the reverby gloom of this dancefloor-friendly soundmass. Subwoofers like it too! Let's say GARY NUMAN collaborating with one of the CHEMICAL BROS after they'd both gone on a 2-week heroin binge. That's a compliment. Indie electronica! It's about damn time!
Ian C Stewart

ELECTRIC BIRD NOISE
UNLEASHING THE INNER ROBOT CD
ArtFag Records 5708 Long Leaf Dr, Myrtle Beach SC 29577 USA
Whoa! Dr Rhythm power! Mech-tribal drum machine + guitar-squall frenzy! Sort of heavy but not full-on metallllll. "Lazy Tumbleweeds" is all that with a spag-western feel! Imagine that shit! Excellent guitar-centric instrumental rock. The production is damn fine and the playing is excellent as well. "The Hum Of The Moon" takes an atmospheric approach with thick reverby fog thrown on for dramatic effect. It works! If WINDHAM HILL signed the guitarist from KORN, or something. Hot shit makin' ya chill on out.
Ian C Stewart

EXIT
ABRUPT CD
53 Still, S.U. Box 6083, Georgetown TX 78626 USA
Have I already said the thing about vocals being the primary stumbling block of all indie releases? If not, let me say it now. Bad vocals can totally undermine an entire album, regardless of how well-done the rest of the music is. Exhibit A: EXIT. The music on this CD is amazing, excellent synth-driven modern pop. The sequencing is very good, the choices of synth sounds are all tasteful. The songwriting is damn good as well. But the dude can't sing! His shit is wandering like a lost wandery thing, it's like a tone deaf BOB DYLAN singing with his hands over his ears. If my man insists on singing (which he obviously does) he should have the sense to at least bury the vocals! Some tracks break out guitars and leave the synths behind. He can strum, no question. He can sequence and he's obviously got the tone banks happening. Just get the mics away from him and I'll be on his jock!
Ian C Stewart

EXTREME AMERICA 7" compilation
Knot Music PO Box 501, South Haven MI 49090-501 USA
Correct. (k)Not music. Sound wave research/aggro noise. As this kinda stuff has been in the sonic lexicon for half a century 'er so and the pop one for 20 years plus the act of making such a din is judgeable as a mutant sort of pop. Does it engage you? Is it useful to enlivening discourse or stirring the ole emotional pot? Are there any neat new noises to sample? Well, besides some nice squalling/power squeeking. No. Pink/white noise with a bit of variation.
Maxine Earnst

EXTREME AMERICA 2 7" compilation
Knot Music PO Box 501, South Haven MI 49090-501 USA
Sorely fucked pisshole soundscatter. The fact that 6 different artists are credited on the sleeve means nothing. The whole deal sounds like something gone horribly awry. And it's not the sound on the record that I'm concerned about: I'm just not moved at all by this particular collection of noizeshit! Usually it raises my blood pressure at least a little, but not this one. Hmm. I must be getting old. SKIN CRIME, JOHN OLSON/PHIL KLAMPE, BLACK LEATHER JESUS, BASTARD NOISE, BACILLUS and MACRONYMPHA are all listed here. It all sounds the same. And I could give a shit. If you love noize you already have this. If you don't love noize you don't care anyway, right?
Ian C Stewart

EXTREME AMERICA 3 7" compilation
Knot Music PO Box 501, South Haven MI 49090-501 USA
Holy ADENOIDAL PETARDS! If this is noize it must be dictionary time again. OO SPECIES get shit started with a big bunch of feedbacky wank, the sort of which will always SMOOCH a big SMOLT in my book. WALLED LAKE includes an acoustic guitar riff (not a bad one either) in their SNIGGLE of TRIGEMINAL TRIMETHADIONE (n: crystalline drug used to tread epilepsy). FLUTTER, however, just gets back to noize basics. Feedback and overdriven recordings of all manner of soundhacking buuulshit. (http://www.flutter.com/) LOCKWELD surprises everyone with a medley of CARPENTERS hits! No, wait. I mean they use feedback and distorted vocal samples and something they call 'machine noise.' Err, okay. AUDIBLE XXY is actually somewhat musical in their random quirky sampleness. Weirdly phrased musical passages overlaid haphazardly but relatively speaking it's the hottest thing here. BETTER DISEASE "Duo-Trio/Untitled Finale" is a boombox recording of rock band improvisation. Feedback, anarchy, blah blah. Not bad for a bunch of TRICHOPTERANs whose VULGUS is VULVIFORM.
Ian C Stewart

EYELIGHT
SIX YEARS GONE
This tape may not actually be available for public consumption, but hell, it's too fucking good to let it go unnoticed. EYELIGHT is JEHN CERRON. She runs her angelic vocals through a digital delay and sets up a sort of FRIPPERTRONIC loop over which she can improvise. And I really must stress that part about her vocals being angelic. There's really no other word for it. It just melts you. Several of the tracks on this C60 also feature some damn fine trip hop beats that suit JEHN's voice perfectly. EYELIGHT was much of the impetus for me to start AUTO back in the day, and words fail-I can't recommend this stuff enough.
Ian C Stewart

NEXT