VOTING OVER
Voting for the Brainwashed Best of 2000 poll closes tomorrow some time, whenever the brainwashed staff wakes up and realizes it's a new year. Results will be posted here sometime soon hopefully. Hope everybody has a happy and safe New Year's!

RUBY FALLS CALLS IT QUITS
Ruby Falls have decided to throw in the towel after four years, two full length albums and a scattering of singles and compilation appearances. The four members of the band will continue to make music through various outlets and the albums should remain in print.

CURRENT 93/NURSE WITH WOUND, "PURTLE"
The first collaborative album ever by Nurse With Wound and Current 93, PURTLE. First numbered issue mailorder only released on February 3, 2001; orders now being accepted. Mailorder copies come with additional free CD which will be unavailable elsewhere. Price: £15 worldwide including P&P; cheques drawn on a British bank/Eurocheques in UK£ sterling only to be made payable to "Durtro Press"; UK£/US$ cash also welcome. Orders to: Durtro, BM WOUND, London, WC1N 3XX, England.

HEFTY'S "IMMEDIATE ACTION SERIES"
Barrelling forward with releases, John Hughes' Hefty Records has boldly issued a series of stellar limited edition 12" singles. First up was the Savath + Savalas 12" - something I missed, limited to 700 copies and now sold out. Second up is the debut of A Grape Dope, a delicious subsonic bass cochlear vibrating dub-friendly three-tracker from Johnny Herndon (Tortoise/Isotope), limited to 750 copies. IA003 is limited to only 525 copies and features two primo tracks from Twine, plunging deep and low with thick frequencies, lengthy intros and a disregard for conventional low-tempo high-fidelity. Side one is a chunky sexual feast, side two hypnotic and divine. Retina provides three top quality constructional head bobbers for the fourth in the series, also limited to 525 copies. The fifth 12" comes from Samadha Trio, limited to 850 copies and featuring four tracks of various origin. A studio tune opens with organic drums with space-jazz organ riding alongside a spacious fluffy electronic bubblebath, followed by a live-ish tune of bass, piano and drums with slick electronic mixing. And finally, the last in the series conveniently wraps things up with a couple remixes from The Aluminum Group, John Hughes, Slicker and Savath+Savalas as well as two new tracks from an entity called Process. Along with the minimal packaging and uniform design I must say I haven't looked at vinyl this gorgeous with grooves this deep and pretty in a long time. Glancing at their website, a forthcoming 2xCD release appears to have stuff from this series, but I sure hope nothing's left out as these 12" singles are quite astonishing. - Jon Whitney

"PUTTING THE MORR BACK IN MORRISSEY"
From Morr Music in Germany comes a wonderful offering of many of their fine artists. Don't let the title fool you, there's nothing to do with the former Smiths lead singer on here. In the last few years, the electronic instrumental rock hybrid scene in Germany has grown exponentially from what once was only a handful of acts who used to share loads of members. Collected here are some of the more prominent groups like The Notwist, Arovane, Lali Puna, Flowchart and the Tied & Tickled Trio. Disc one features fourteen new and exclusive cuts while disc two features fourteen incestuous remixes of many of the first disc's artists trading mixes with others. Solvent remixes Kevin & Paul, Schneider TM remixes Micha Archer & Ms John Soda, while Kandis and the Tied & Tickled Trio remix each other. This provides a great introduction to Morr, which appears to be sort of taking off where Kitty-Yo decided to leave off when they pursued trashy cash cow kitch like Peaches and Gonzales. Kudos to Morr for keeping the artwork alive. - Jon Whitney

"WIR"
In an almost anti-post-kraut movement, Ladomat (who gave us the compilation 'L'age D'or' earlier this year) has unleashed a two-disc compilation of their own, showcasing their artists like Sand 11, Egoexpress and Commercial Breakup. Flying in the face of the instrumental movements (like the Morr comp exposed), these groups are clearly pop-minded. The groups sing (frequently in English) and bring a jovial bounce and step to their brand of futurism without going completely off the deep end into something that would wear thin after the novelty is gone. Germans can rock as they proved earlier this year, now they're telling the world that Germans can smile and make fun artistic music without being stereotypically overly serious stiffs or churning out disposable cartoon techno. - Jon Whitney

RED SNAPPER, "OUR AIM IS TO SATISFY"
The disc starts off very promising. The rhythms are sexy and the music is rich in texture. Driving beats set the disc in motion from the start, but all of the fun soon begins to fade. What spoils the disc for me is when a guest vocalist either raps or sings. The rap is never interesting enough to hold my attention and the lyrics are rather embarassing to listen to. It's almost as if Red Snapper use vocals as a crutch for songs they feel need a better lead instrument, but when they keep them out, the intensity of the music grows to epic proportions. Going forward on the disc, Red Snapper do however make some choices to keep other tracks instrumental. A very nice option for tracks like the album closer, "They're Hanging Me Tonight," a wonderful play of overprocessed drums, guitars crying backwards and drone-like string samples. - Jon Whitney

HRVATSKI, "RÄUME"
From Tonschacht in Cologne, Germany comes this heavy slate, cleverly disguised as a 7" single. I honestly don't think I own a 7" record pressed this thick. Anyhow the three tracks which compose this single bring together both Hrvatski's technical expertise of precision electro-meddling and a fondness for outside sources laying down constant voices to be carried through with each composition. Keith Fullerton-Whitman makes songs and something like this is a tease to his fans out there waiting for another full-lengther from the boy. Look for a remix project due out sometime in January. The single's limited to 500 numbered copies but has seemingly had an easy time making the distribution outside of Germany. - Jon Whitney

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
Deep Chill Network - Yukon CD (Dark Duck, US)
Various - 1x CD-R [first in a series of monthly releases featuring untitled and uncredited tracks by various Dark Duck artists in various styles] (Dark Duck, US)
Various - Aurora CD [ambient compilation with Sense, Melf, Phonex, Proem, Salice, Ilkae, Oblique, Threehz, Syndrone, Kiyoshi Ono, Pandorabox, Soundstate and Eu] (Merck, 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.

AMERICAN PIMP
Two years in production, with 30 pimps interviewed in 15 cities has come together in one of the most bold, entertaining and insightful documentaries in the last few years. Questions like "Why does a ho need a pimp?," "What does a pimp do?," as well as definitions like Mack, Player, and Knockoff are all covered in the words of active and retired pimps and hos. From the ruthless player types to the seasoned professional, from the nation's capital to Hawaii, the characters are genuine and enlightening. 'American Pimp' documents what is generally believed to be the origin of the pimp, through the uprise in popular culture to the present day, where many of the film's stars have retired and moved on. The truth can be glamorous yet unsettling, with the perpetually looming dangers of drugs, jail and death. The lyrical mastery and swave debonair of real-life players Fillmore Slim, Payroll and Gorgeous Dre are alarmingly more animated, intelligent and lovable than much of the fictitious characters often portrayed on the screen. An undertaking like this is a triumph for the Hughes Brothers, as the subject matter must make it difficult to seek out the stars and capture them in their own words. Seek it out.- Jon Whitney

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
I can truly say I agree with Tom the Fish on a movie. Although the bastard was too lazy to write about it, I thought I'd give it a shot. This Chinese film centers around a restless, disrepsectful and arrogant aristocratic young girl, Jen (played by Ziyi Zhang) who is facing an arranged marriage she doesn't want to go through with. Chow Yun Fat plays a legendary warrior who is tired of the warrior life and is trying to retire a 400-year old magical sword, the Green Destiny. The love of his life is a female warrior, Shu Lien, who is played by Michelle Yeoh. From early on, young Jen expresses to Shu Lien that she too wants to be a warrior and leave the aristocratic life. Little did everybody know from early on that Jen is indeed the hidden dragon: powerful yet stupid. Chow Yun Fat might be the most Amercan known actor in the film but the ladies take center stage in this film, all of whom kick some serious ass. The fighting scenes are stunningly choreographed, meshing martial arts, ballet and inventive camera angles and effects. The scenery is breathtaking on the large screen and the interplay between Jen and her true love, Lo are amusing and entertaining as well. Throughout the course of the film, an alarming number of people take an interest in leading young Jen down a path they all feel is right for her. I'm not going to give the ending away, but I will say the three of us who saw this film on Christmas Day all had a different take on what actually happened in the end. It all depends on how pure you, the viewer, believe her heart actually is. This movie has definitely become one of my top choices for best film of 2000. - Jon Whitney

"45"
Bill Drummond is most known for his involvement in the KLF and related incarnates, but the guy has put in his time as a musician and record executive since the early 1980s. "45" was planned when he was 33 1/3 years old, in 1986 upon his release on Creation Records as The Man. The book collects various thoughts and observations of the music world around him through his experienced, yet jaded and cynical eyes. Various short stories provide basically a snapshot in his life at 45, including some of the bizarre attempts at cheating pop music and scoring well with the masses, comments on self-righteous and somewhat worthless musician pop stars. It's an entertaining and light read, with dimensions that would fit perfectly with other 45rpm 7" records. Worth tracking down even if you have to order it from the UK. - Jon Whitney

AM I REALLY GOTH OR NOT?
A growing popularity of websites take a brutal stab at people, getting readers and web serfs to vote people on various scales. It may have started with www.amihotornot.com or the reactive site www.uglypeople.com. Taking an even more humorous approach is www.amigothornot.com, where we find this entry, who some people are claiming is Boyd Rice. What I want to know is how can a person representing the Church of Satan get such a low score on the goth scale!!!

Thanks for the helpful thought, but we do put links up usually if it's terribly obscure. Most of the best stores we list in our stores list do in fact carry many of these releases. If they don't, then they suck.