JOINING THE FAMILY
Brainwashed is proud to announce the wonderful swank new addition of godspeed you black emperor! to the family. Take some time and check it out and get your fill...

EDWARD AND ELKE AND RYAN
"DNA Le Draw D-Kee" has finally been released on CD, it features Edward Ka-Spel, Elke Skelter and Ryan Moore from Legendary Pink Dots. Also due out soon from Ryan Moore's Twilight Circus Dub Sound System are reissues of "In Dub Vol. 1" and "UK Steppers" as well as a new full length record in October, "Dub Plates Vol. 2".

DURTRO PRESS
There is a book coming out in November, The Collected Strange Stories of Robert Aickman, published by Tartarus Press in collaboration with Durtro Press. Aickman is one of David Tibet's (Current 93) favorite writers -- the most disturbing writer, with Thomas Ligotti, since World War II. Tibet has written an Introduction and Appreciation to it. The main editor, Ray Russell of Tartarus Press, will send details of the book and how it can be obtained shortly. Information will most likely go on the C93 website.

V/VM, "THE STRANGER"
New material from the ones that brought you Machine Components, Pig, Turkey and Stuffing and various other wax-only offerings. This CD, the first to materialize despite the AuralOffalWaffle comp due imminently, ranges from very spaced out thuds and drones, to beat-stricken noise, to curious rhythmns - all very basic v/vm style, subtly minimalistic, skull gnawing and static drenched. From scratchy to soothing, absurd to eerie, this disc has a variety of different abstract emotions - feelings of immense anxiety to a strange sense of humor. This is a very nice CD(-R) - but be sure to pick it up quickly as it is limited to 250. - Daniel McKernan

SND, "MAKESND CASSETTE
The guys in the record shop told me "Yeah, it's like Oval doing House", and they couldn't have been more mistaken. Yes, while snd share Oval and Pole's love for the new sound (digitally-bleached interference music), there is not a binary lick here that makes me want to wiggle my ass. There are plenty of beats and rhythms, but each is scrubbed clean and filtered, then carefully stacked like Jenga. Unlike label mates Oval, there is a lot of forward momentum to these tracks, propelling you into a trance-like state rather than a dancing frenzy. The fifteen nameless (again!) tracks flow into one another, and don't really give you too much space to realize one has ended and another's begun. Not bad for a late-night soundtrack when you don't want to wake up the neighbors, and one my hard drive loves to sing along to. snd have crafted a perfect minimalistic/ambient manifesto, a brilliant heir to the "Diskont" throne. - Jason Olariu

STEREOLAB, "COBRA AND PHASES GROUP,..."
"Cobra and Phases Group Play 'Voltage' in the Milky Night" is the full title of this beast, I think it'd be more appropriately named "Astrud Gilberto Impersonator Sings Marxist Ideals Over Charlie's Angels Theme Music." Neither the spectacular production of John McEntire or Jim O'Rourke nor the precision playing on the part of their new bassist and phenomenal drummer could mask the poor writing skills exhibited on this album. The songs are dreadful and flat, Laetitia sings too many "doo bee doos" and "ba dee das". The album is all production and no substance. A couple songs grab me like "People Do it All the Time" and the first actual single, "The Free Design". For the most part however, it seems as if we're hearing outtakes from 1997's "Dots and Loops" here. It's alarming how a band like Stereolab can be simply brilliant on EP releases like "Fluoresences", "Modulations" or even the "Amorphous Body Study Center" but when it came time to put together an album, they seem to have written it as they went along. I haven't lost any respect or fondness for the groop but this album doesn't do it for me. - Jon Whitney

DJ TRON, "CHROME PADDED CELL"
The new album by DJ Tron called Chrome Padded Cell is for those of you who like Digital Hardcore & Alec Empire, but kind of find them to cuddly & happy. Lots of people can create a fast techno beat that's technically proficient, but to give tracks a bit of diversity & detail work & keep it dark...well that list is much shorter. Fast, dark & funny (come on with a name like DJ Tron?), you'll hear beats to make you writhe, isolationist backgrounds, & samples from oh so scarry movies (the Prophecy & the box theme from Hellraiser by Christopher Young). Even the tunes that are ambient are still wonderfully heavy & keep the mood of the whole cd. Repeat listenings even provide subtleties I really hadn't expected. If you've seen that godawful movie Blade repetedly because you loved the wonderful dancing in blood scene, then this release was made for you. When you see the artwork on this release don't laugh to hard at how cheesy it is, you'll feel better when it's disturbing your neighbors. - Justin Headrick

NINE INCH NAILS, "THE FRAGILE"
This release ends the 5 year period between albums for Nine Inch Nails. To make up for the wait you do get 2 CDs, labeled Left (54'57") and Right(48'50"), 33 tracks in all. The album artwork is composed of grainy still life photography made even more gritty by enlargement and digital processing. Packaging is a digipack with lyrics booklet. So enough already, how does it sound? Well, if you're of the type that loved Pretty Hate Machine but hated all the rest then this double album is probably not or you. Those who have heard the single of 'The Day the World Went Away' may have been slightly (well maybe not at all) surprised by the track's mellowness. It was, of course countered by 'Starfuckers, Inc.' The majority of the work does not lean in either of these directions but is rather akin to listening to both tracks at once. Much of the songs have softer, textural underlying elements with the crunch searing away at the top. Both discs seem to flow in song context. Seemingly arranged in a deliberate order as if to illustrate an emotional flow of storyboard sense. The production quality is higher than that of previous discs. Bob Ezrin is listed in the liner notes as "providing final continuity and flow." More non-sample based instruments are used in this release than in NIN's previous works. Some of the rhythm tracks, primarily in the bass and piano sound as if living in New Orleans has began to wear off on Trent. This is in no way to imply that The Fragile is a jazz or blues album (although that would be interesting). The musical composition in general has matured quite a bit and in some places is quite sophisticated in its use of modal interchange and motif development. The lyrical content seems to be flowing in the same direction as past albums with no lack of angst, thankfully tempered by softer, more thought out and reflective pieces. Six of the tracks are non-lyrical and are the part of the release that could attract more people interested in textural, ambient and noise musics. The rest of the work is good but I don't believe that it is of the type that will draw more fans than it will redeem those fans lost. Then again astounding numbers gather when you say Fuck on the radio, a method tried and true for Nine Inch Nails. - Eli K. Moore

We know that sometimes these CDs are somewhat challenging to find, which is why we have a RECOMMENDED STORES section which can be used to obtain nearly everything available on the site.

MONDAY
Aedena Cycle - Cargo Cult CD (Beatservice, Norway)
Appliance - Manual CD/LP [initial copies of LP are numbered with a poster] (Mute, UK)
Black Lung - The Great Architect CD (KK/Nova Zembla, Belgium)
Blackalicious - Nia CD/2xLP (Mo'Wax, UK)
* Boards of Canada - High Scores 12"/CDEP [reissue ltd to 2000 of each format; first time on CD] (Skam, UK)
Broadcast - Echo's Answer 7"/CDEP (Warp, UK)
The Clarke & Ware Experiment [Vince Clarke & Martyn Ware] - Pretentious CD [mail order only release] (Mute, UK)
Cocteau Twins - BBC Sessions 2xCD (Bella Union, UK)
Everything But The Girl - Tempermental CD/2xLP (Vrigin, UK)
Faultline - Closer Colder CD/LP (Leaf, UK)
GF - Limited Series Vol. 3 10" (KK, Belgium)
Gentle People - Simply Faboo CD/LP (Rephlex, UK)
Kreisel [Mike Ink and friends]- Kreisel 99/39 7" [ltd edition] (Kreisel, Germany)
* NON - Pagan Muzak 7" LP [reissue of NON's debut release, featuring 17 locked grooves playable at any speed] (The Grey Area of Mute, UK)
Pet Shop Boys - New York City Boy 12"/two CDEPs (Parlophone, UK)
Quannum [DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, Latyrx] - I Changed My Mind 12"/CDEP (Mo' Wax, UK) Talvin Singh - OK 12"/CDEP (Island, UK)
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Heavy 12" (Mute, UK)
David Sylvian - Approaching Silence CD [instrumental album including previously released material from the Ember Glance box set] (Virgin, UK)
Various - Ricci's Pieces CD [packaged with an issue of FAQT Magazine; with audio tracks by V/Vm, Tranquil, Burning Rome, Cex, Electric Company, David Kristian, Puppy, Precenphix, Lesser, Mourning Cloak, TM & The Schoolgirlz, Oxbow, Cathars, KK Null and Kid 606, plus MP3 tracks by Qwerty, Colongib, Fingernail, Persona and Marumari] (Mindfield, US)
TUESDAY
Aube - Ricochetentrance CD (Amplexus/Lunar/Soleilmoon, US)
Meg Lee Chin - Piece & Love CD (Invisible, US)
Controlled Bleeding - Best Of Controlled Bleeding CD (Cleopatra, US)
Dna Le Draw D-Kee [Legendary Pink Dots side project] - Dna Le Draw D-Kee CD [reissue of out-of-print LP, probably with bonus material] (Soleilmoon, US)
Everything But The Girl - Tempermental CD/2xLP (Atlantic/Warner, US/Canada)
Material - Intonarumori CD (Rykodisc, US/Canada)
My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Dirty Little Secrets: Music To Strip By CD [collection of old tracks and remixes plus new material] (Rykodisc, US/Canada)
Plone - For Beginner Piano CD (Warp/Matador, US)
Stereolab - Cobra and Phases Group Play "Voltage" in the Milky Night CD (Warner/Elektra, Canada)
Tear Ceremony - Emulsion CD (Simulacra, US)
Various - Electric Kingdom CD [with Rennie Pilgrim, Freq Nasty, T-Power, Tipper, Diaskaeust, Buckfunk 3000, Synapse, Thomas Krome and more] (SmartSystems/Cowboy Spliff, US)
FRIDAY
Qwerty - i dolori del giovane qwerther CD-R (Kitchen Sink/Lucky Kitchen, US)

For a more comprehensive release schedule stretching far into the future, please check out the NEW RELEASES brought to you by Greg and Feedback Monitor.

RACHEL'S
Add this band to your list of something never to miss. Possibly because tours are so rare and the production is always intense. I might not have liked the latest album from the Rachel's but the live show was brilliant. Taking place in Cambridge's Brattle Theater, a 200 capacity movie theater. With no opening acts, two sets for the night The Rachels took the stage, peforming their wonderful blend of instrumental songs featuring viola, cello, bass, guitar, drums and of course Rachel on piano. The backdrop of the set was a blend of 16mm film projection: images and pictures, nothing exciting but a pleasant atmosphere to add to the band. It's hard to actually describe the music if you haven't heard it before. It's pretty, it's got a lot of interesting instrumentation, and it can be quite intense, quite involved. The group from Louisville KY were sort of on a down note because while they love playing venues like this, their local movie theater which has housed their concerts in Louisville recently closed down. Something tells me they've been to a godspeed show however because this is the first time I have ever seen them get down and rock for a couple tunes. Perhaps they saw the show and thought "wow, we can actually play loud and get away with it!" Either way, Rachel's have been doing it for years and do it perfectly. Shows are few and far between so if you see this in your local papers, don't miss it. - Jon Whitney

TOM WAITS - NYC / BOSTON
First of all, going to see a Tom Waits performance is a lot like major surgery, it doesn't happen all that often and the anticipation is almost enough to kill you. That said, I was lucky enough to see Tom Waits twice, within the span of two days and in two different venues (I nearly died twice). Each night had its differences, however I'm blurring things together here. Without having toured for something like twelve years, he couldn't have done it any better. Both nights the show started as Mr. Waits wrangled his way through the seated crowd with a bullhorn, a spotlight, and handfuls of glitter tossed in the air. The tune he sang for his entrance was the title track from "The Black Rider", which put me in a carnival type mood. Completing the band were four musicians: two guitars, percussion, and keyboard. He worked into the show by playing a mixture of old and new tunes such as, "Down, Down, Down", "Jesus Gonna Be Here Soon", and "Get Behind the Mule". Of particular note were "Chocolate Jesus", which came projected through his bullhorn and a lengthy version of a song he introduced as being about a small town, "Hold On". A few songs and a few show tricks later, Mr. Waits moved to a familiar position, behind the piano for a session of banter and rough, magical music. A few of the songs he played in this personal setting included: "Invitation to the Blues", "Hang Down Your Head", "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis", and a great audience participation number of "Innocent When You Dream". One note of contrast comes in a song he played the second night in New York and not the first, "Picture in a Frame". When you hear the lyrics: "I love you baby and I always will, ever since I put your picture in a frame" coming straight from the man himself, it is striking. When the band returned, it was again a blend of old and new, comic and intense. "16 Shells", "Black Market Baby", "Gun Street Girl", "Straight to the Top", and the severely rockin' and bluesy "Filipino Box Spring Hog". The regular set lasted pretty damn close to two hours, and neither crowd was going to let him out of there without two encores. Each night for the first encore a chair was brought out and Mr. Waits came on stage with no lighting except that emitting from his flashlight for the creepy, droll rendition of "What's He Building". A song that reminds us that there is good reason not to trust people with routers. The encores varied slightly as did the banter, but each night he ended up with the affecting, "Pony" from Mule Variations. The stage setting was simple and physical, using small devices to evoke his special charm, such as handfuls of glitter, a shiny disco-ball type hat, and a chalk substance that billowed around his feet as he danced his dance. As always, it is incredibly hard to classify the music and performance of Tom Waits and I personally think there is no need. If someone is in a class by themselves, then that's probably enough classification right there. - Milcah Roden

LAMB
They're back on tour in the USA in full effect! Wow, electronic drum and bass styled love songs, brought to you by a live band. Anybody who was there with me at the show can attest to how annoyingly excited I was leading up to the show. Vocalist Louise Rhodes eminates so much sexuality while her voice blankets the jagged rhythms generated by other core member, keyboardist Andy, coupled with their live drummer on this tour. A double-bassist plays frantically while his notes get pumped through effects and pedals while a slick trumpet player adds a certain edge no other "dance" band has. The show consisted for a good hour plus and featured some of the best tracks off their first two albums, even including a couple of the instrumental pieces. It's so damned powerful, the love songs tug at your heart strings while the beats make your blood pressure burst. So much energy and talent on one stage, it's a shame that the tour is so short and only hitting some major cities. Check out cottonwool.com to find out if you're one of the lucky ones. And yes, they do in fact play Cotton Wool almost exactly as it appears on the first album. Remember how difficutl that one sounds to pull it off! I was in heaven for a night. - Jon Whitney

AMERICAN BEAUTY
Here it is, not even October, and we have a movie that seems as if poised to reap in those metallic statues. The debut of Sam Mendes as a director reveals the slow deteroriation--or recovery, as the movie eventually leads us to believe--of Les Burnham, a middle-aged ad man whose family considers him a grade A loser. Entrenched in a life which he can't remember "being so sedate," Les discovers the answer that the answer to his mediocrity lies in the best friend of his teenage daughter. Fueled by this intensity for a life where he remembers the simple joys of getting high and getting laid, Les quits his job, establishes himself with his dope-selling neighbor, and begins to flip burgers in his search for happiness. Ahh, but the movie has only just begin. What ensues is a poignant and insightful look into the lives of his success-driven wife, his melancholic daughter, and their gender-confused neighbors. A wry and sardonic tale sometimes reminiscent of last year's Happiness, American Beauty delights in the absurdity of our lives. - Carter Adams

THE ADVENTURES OF SEBASTIAN COLE
This here is your average story of a young man - an existential, aspiring author with an alcoholic mother and a transexual stepfather who is attempting to live his life to the fullest and allow himself the freedom to go on various "adventures." With an overall eccentric feel to the film, it manages to nicely capture the audience's attention and sympathy for Sebastian. Through his typical teenage journeys such as tormenting high school hallways, drinking himself into a coma, and helping out stranger prostitues, there is a keen sense of randomness tugging playfully at your attention, keeping you engulfed in the moment, hanging on for what curve ball comes next. I recommend it to both loner/outcast boys and horny teenaged girls (according to the girl I saw it with, "Sebastian's a hottie"). But in all seriousness, it was a really nice movie and truly charming. - Daniel McKernan

STIGMATA
Patricia Arquette has funny teeth. This movie boldly challenges Catholicism, and it does it well - starting with the life of priest/scientist and his mission to disprove supposed "miracles" for the Vatican. Then there's Patricia Arquette, who becomes inflicted with the wounds of Christ in sporadic artsy episodes (which are nice efforts yet get kind of ridiculous). This priest has to go and help her out and the story begins. Throughout the film, we see this girl's torment (who is an atheist, and thus shouldn't have Stigmata in the first place) and the priests quest for the truth! The Church is the bad guy and I don't think hardcore Catholics would be pleased with the film. Recommended highly because there is blood in the bath tub. - Charles Hoehnen

STIR OF ECHOES
Artisan's latest release stars Kevin Bacon - playing an aging punk rock guitarist decked out in Social D. and DK shirts. The movie however, isn't about his abandonment of his punk rock ethics to become a good father. It's about ghosts! Thus, we see this buff and blue-collar Bacon struggling with haunting visions of a dead girl. The reasons why this movie was mildly dissapointing is two fold - one: the climax is decidely unsupernatural, and two: it had bad computer generated breath like in the Sixth Sense. A while lot of it was like the Sixth Sense actually, including the little boy who could see dead people. This one had precognition too, so I suppose it was a little bit different. But don't go see this movie, see Stigmata! - Charles Hoehnen

THE SITUATIONIST CITY
Unreal city. Well, short of a revolution, what else could a situationist city be? In this rich, jargon free book, Simon Sadler sets out to tell us, doing his subject almost more justice than it deserves. He does so by ignoring the later divisions to concentrate on those members interested in imagining utopia before they were expelled. Starting in defensive mode, acknowledging that pro-situs will rightly view this as another academic appropriation of the revoluionary cause, Sadler outlines with great care the place of situationist urban theory among the history of radical design movements. His work is split into three chapters: the first outlines theories of the modern city focusing on Corbusier, the second lays out the basic Situationist precepts, the last focuses on Constant's designs for his New Bablyon. Never fawning before the Situationists (and often taking up the cudgels for Corbu), Sadler is excellent at showing where their ideas came from and how they played into the larger context of architectural design. This may be a problem for some, since Sadler's work is as much about city planning as it is about radical theory. His second chapter, however, is worth the price of the book in itself with its clear and detailed introduction to psychogeography,unitary urbanism, detourment of maps, and drifting. Amply illustrated and footnoted, with an awareness of other, mostly English, radical groups, the work can lead a reader on to a wealth of sources. But in his third section Sadler exposes the poverty of Constant's notion of the ideal city, New Babylon. Time and again Constant repeated without variation the dutiful catch phrases of the freedom to drift, to construct situations, and to live in sustained disorientation. The very wish to overturn all existing social relations robbed him of the ability even to imagine, beyond the generalities of infinite leisure, what he was suggesting for society, while the obligatory drifting sounds hardly more fun than a forced march. It is clear from the start that you must be a situationist to enjoy New Babylon, and even then you'd likely find yourself bored and somewhat embarrassed by the earnestness of Constant's efforts. The problem seems to be that despite all the psychogeography, Situationist attempts at scientific descriptions of their own city, Paris, are too meagre and pale to build upon, especially when compared with the work of writers like Djuna Barnes, Louis Aragon, Jean Genet, or Marcel Proust, who portray the effects of place with such precision. This is not to take away from their critique of social ills; their attack on "the Corbusian vision of people at ease in an ideal urban landscape, a place where the struggle with nature, with the body , with space, and with class had inexplicably come to an end" still has meaning. But this criticism left no room for utopian images; rather than in the architecture of New Babylon, Sadler makes clear that the ideal Situationist City might only be found in moments of direct action as in the Paris Commune or the Watts riots. - Paul McRandle

NOTHING BUT RESPECT
Not too long ago, I received an e-mail, one of my many record store lists of new arrivals I subscribe to. It spoke of pre-ordering Autechre's "Ep7", and also expressed some distaste towards dealing with Trent Reznor's Nothing imprint, the label issuing said CD domestically. It went something like "I hate Nothing, I will not deal with Nothing, unless a customer special orders it", a sentiment that was echoed by a friend and local record store owner. This is not due to poor business practices on Nothing's part, but because of the reputation attached to it. I don't know about you, but, even though I'd like the pretty frosted Warp version of the latest Autechre release, who wants to (or can) pay the import prices regularly? Why should we fault Trent because he is putting up his own money to bring this stuff in cheaply, and expose great music like Squarepusher, Autechre, and Coil to the unwashed masses who only purchase their Cds in the mall? Like his music or not, he is doing a great service by putting his ass on the line, financially, by domestically issuing music a lot of people, including himself, enjoy! Boy, I know most music snobs are going to be S.O.L. when the new Coil album finally comes out on Nothing and they have to buy it. Most of them don't want to remember those high school days of listening to Skinny Puppy and wearing mascara, and that's what that will mean to them! - Jason Olariu

Editor's comment: Autechre's EP7 sells for an EP price here in the USA - $9.99 - $11 approximately. Nothing's domestic US release of EP7 bears a higher manufacturer's suggested list price of $11.98 AND omits 10 minutes hidden before the index of the first track (as well as does not have that "frosted" cover). Nothing also has refused Warp acts like Boards of Canada, Nightmares on Wax and Two Lone Swordsmen, leaving Matador to pick up the refused acts. Nothing is merely an imprint of Interscope, part of the mega-conglomorate known as Universal -- Trent Reznor should neither be blamed nor heralded for anything aside from being one of Interscope's finer A&R execs. As for business practices, don't blame Nothing -- it ain't up to them. Indie stores have to deal with indie distributors and one-stops, many of which will overcharge for major label product, such as Interscope - making it quite difficult for indie shops like you mentioned to even carry their product.

TOOLING FOR ANUS
In the rush to get this damned issue up, we've pulled a link out of, well, Tom the Fish's butt. www.well.com/user/cynsa/newbutt.html is a charming site not for the anal-retentive, but anal-explative. Hell we were desperate, okay?

I know we've seen silly letters from people wanting record deals before, but this is classic - mistakenly sent here instead of Kranky central. Imagine the possibilities of a girl named Tiffany guesting on a Labradford or Stars of the Lid record. ALL NEW FOR 2,000! POST-POP!!!