You may recall the English male/female duo Ruby from a minor radio hitabout five years ago with "Tiny Meat." The duo consists of LesleyRankine, former singer for Silverfish, and Mark Walk of Pigface, andRuby is the name of each of their grandmother. The duo's latest fulllength is out now through Thirsty Ear with guest production on spotsfrom Christian Vogel, William Rieflin and Mira Calix. The disc isaccompanied by a separate release, 'Altered & Proud', withtweakings from Dot Allison, Kid 606, Schneider TM, Console, Max Tundraand others. While Ruby was a viable venture for Sony Music five yearsback, no major label thinks they can risk it with something that won'teven break commercial alternative radio any more. Their sound is hardlystale however, and would be warmly welcomed by similar aggressiveattitude-heavy beat-oriented female-sung outfits like Lamb, Curve,Laika, classic Scala or even Moloko. The sounds are great, theproduction's wonderful with a healthy dose of guitars, organic andelectronic percussion, trumpets and various synthetic lead equipment,but the writing could use a little more originality and lessrepetition. The remixes on the other hand would please people notnecessarily looking for a pop record, but some great sounds put throughthe wringer and dragged back again, kicking and screaming.
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