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Blitzkrieg Pop (the single) is a classic verse/chorus/verse kind of tune layered with ditzy power chord guitar and straight-ahead heavy metal drumming. If I didn't know better, I would swear this was one of the myriad Nine Inch Nails imposters from the mid nineties, and not a bit more interesting. T.Raumschmiere's punk approach to laptop dance music has been genuinely catchy up to this point, but in an attempt to broaden his sound, he's churned out one of the most regrettable lead singles I can remember. It's all macho chants and riff rock nonsense that rekindles a flame that I thought had died with KMFDM. What's unfortunate is that he's unable to capture the punk energy of his instrumental work, thanks to an over-produced and glossy mix that will please kids reared on a steady diet of Industrial Pop music playing at the mall. Thankfully, the remixes on this single make up somewhat for the lackluster, by-the-numbers original. That's not to say that the remixes are going to set heads on fire by any means, but somehow they neuter the arena pop vibe from the source material while techno-ing everything up a few notches. Considering the pedigree on display here, the remixes are no surprise, but they are all that's worth remembering from this disc. The 7" version of the single comes with an Ellen Alien fronted B-Side, but the 12" and CD releases are stuck trying to make sense out of T.Raumschmeire's turn at the mic. The single does however make me nostalgic for the days when labels released singles with club remixes as supplements to full length albums, so it's not a total loss.
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Welcome to approximately ten years ago, when guitars and drums sounded great together and when emo meant that punk had a heart, too. With so many shitty bands drooling over TheSmiths, The Cure, or Gang of Four right now, Art and Gus (last namesnot provided) are taking the guitar in a direction that many bandsseemed to have dropped some time ago. Their music is fast, destructive,melodic, and almost always on the edge of blowing up. The guitar can destroy and cando so in the context of classic rock and punk dynamics, it doesn't haveto be shot off the deep end of music and into the realm of"progressive" noise rock, extremely fast metal, or other such paths.The drums are lighting fast, sloppy, and drenched in a hazy rhythmicstyle that doesn't keep time so much as it amplifies the melodies andcacophony of the guitar. Switching back and forth between harmonicnoise, delicate tapping, and melodic, heavy stroking, the whole of thealbum stays fresh in its brevity, allowing songs to stop when they needto and not get carried beyond the edge of their appeal. It's notdifficult to listen an EP like this (originally released as a one-sided12", I believe) when it tumbles as hypnotically as this disc does,fluctuating between a scream-driven noise and a melodic honesty thatfucking blows my socks off and induces mass amounts of head banging anda desire to beat my body against other people. The music all flowstogether simply and beautifully, often leaving no room for thought.Even better, however, are some of the lyrics. While emo seems to havestretched into the realm of whining boys who can't ever seem to keep agirlfriend, Tiny Hawks throw their poetics all over the place and intointeresting mini-topics. A song like "Daniel's Striped Tiger" begins asa story about fear and ends in a political confrontation that finishesitself off with the words, "vote, assassinate, impeach." Topics changefrom song to song: from fear to the loss of a friend to the weightlessfeeling of accomplishing something great, the feeling of recovering theself, Tiny Hawks keep their heads together and give some credence tothe idea that emotional music can be powerful, not just the product ofsome jerk off reading out of his journal. Did I mention that the CDpackaging and lyrics book are simple, gorgeous, and add to the overallexcellence of the music? Maybe all this sounds a bit weighty andoverwrought, but Tiny Hawks pull it off in style, sounding strong andconfident through every second.
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Guitars and drums (both real and programmed) are backed up by a varietyof other instruments like harmonica, accordion and xylophone. Thelyrics sometimes feel clumsy, especially on the track “Empathy forPeople Unknown.” Once the song gets going the vocals do start to fitin, Matz’s thin, soft voice sits comfortably in the mix. Matz andMcNeely have always done repetition well and on Giving up the Ghostthey build up beautiful trance-like moods, despite the songs being muchshorter than usual. This more economic approach to songwritinggreatly improves the listening experience. On earlier albums the longersongswould end up making me reach for the skip button once they hadoutstayed their welcome. Instead of leaving me gagging for more, theyallowthe songs to breathe properly here. “The Front” is a goodexample of how the shorter length makes the song sound sweeter. Itis an instrumental track that builds up gently with acoustic guitar andfades out with half a minute or so of tinkering on a delay unit. Alonger length would have killed the song but as it stands it isterrific. Following straight afterwards is the album’s longest andweakest track: “Giving Up” is just boring, sounding like a jam that ismore entertaining for theperformer then the listener. At times Windsor for the Derby are likea multitude of bands at once: this album touches base with JoyDivision, My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. Windsor never pushespast what these bands have done but most of the time they do not bringdisgrace to those who went before. “Praise” could havebeen accidentally discarded by Kevin Shields while “Gathering” could besomething from Joy Division’s demo days but with better lyrics.The faster-paced songs on Giving up the Ghost are what make itworth listening to. “The Light is on” along with the aforementioned“Praise” are possibly the two of the best bits of the album, both stompalong (well as much as Windsor for the Derby can ever be said to stomp)and show the band at their best. The female backing vocals at the endof “The Light is on” are blissful. The album closes with “Every WordYou Ever Said,” a delicate and moving song that finishes off the discperfectly. It reminds me of Dan Matz at his prime (the stunning CD hedid with Michael Gira). Giving up the Ghost may not be the bestalbum this year but it does provide 35 minutes of examples of whatmainstream rock should sound like if there was any justice.
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As Vertonen,Edwards produces lengthy pieces in which the subtle harmonics andsonorities of slowly shifting drones are of utmost primacy. Orchid Collidercontains six tracks in which drones overlap and communicate, discovertheir innate harmonious natures and then dissolve as throbbing machinerhythms and deafening walls of noise gradually encroach. At times,individual tracks sound like a series of complementary solos by variousassemblages of electronic devices, each given their spotlight tocommunicate their own unique voice. At other times, the sound evokesthe hypnotic interstices of the non-local quantum experience: theendless clinical white hallways of Ketamine space. It's a lonely,plasticated atmosphere haunted by the abandonment of identity and thedim echoes of something artificially resembling nature, such as theuncannily unreal crickets of "Our Sterile Years, Resumed," a trackwhich runs off its own spool and fades away in a clamor of junk metalnoises. There doesn't seem to be a concept linking the pieces on Orchid Collider,instead each track seems to exist on its own terms, each a separate andhermetic narrative formed out of various strands of hypnotic machinedrone. Standout tracks include the all-too-brief "ForgivenessPrecipice," which locates some of the most intensely renderedmind-cleansing frequencies I've enjoyed this side of a headphonehearing test. "Failure (Graywater Terminal)" begins with some very AlanSplet-ish atmospheres, lonely haunted drones bubbling up from thebottom of the rusty pipeworks and abandoned smokestacks of some futureindustrial wasteland. Somewhere in the distance a lonely, miserablecreature wails in utter darkness and solitude, providing a chillingmoment of Lustmord-ian horror that stayed with me long after the trackhad veered into more benign territory. According to the liner notes, Orchid Colliderwas made with the support of a Community Arts Assistance Program grantby the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, which I can'timagine is a situation in which most purveyors of abstract electronicdrone music find themselves. It's a credit to whoever in Chicago ishanding out the arts grants, however, as the album is an exemplarywork, a satisfying drone album that goes beyond the usual elegiachypnosis to locate some truly spine-tingling moments of abstract,haunting loveliness.
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The album was not successful, and though today amint-condition original pressing can run into the thousands of dollarsat auction, at the time its failure meant that there would be no secondalbum for Sand, and the group disbanded. Johannes and Ludwig remainedfriends, however, and in 1980, they formed the cold-wave electro groupAlu, who in their four-year lifespan released a single, a pair of LPsand a few cassettes. Autismenschen represents an additionalalbum that was recorded in 1981 but was never released until now. I'vestruggled to find the right words to describe Alu, as I have very mixedfeelings about the project. I am a great fan of Vester and Papenburg'swork as Sand, which I first discovered (as I suspect many others did)when it was expanded and reissued on CD by Steven Stapleton and DavidTibet, who released the handsomely packaged Ultrasonic Seraphimon their United Durtro label in 1996. It should be noted that asidefrom some very labored comparisons that David Tibet attempts to drawbetween Sand and Alu in his liner notes for Autismenschen,there is absolutely no similarity between these two projects. Sand'sGolem is spacious and surreal, a visionary folk album which carved outa unique hallucinatory space that has never been repeated before orsince. Alu is very typical of the cold-wave electro sound, typified bymetronomic rhythms, jagged synths, chugging sequencers and barkedvocals awash with paranoia, claustrophobia and technological angst.It's not that Alu are in any way incompetent, but whereas their work asSand was notable for its uniqueness in the Krautrock canon, the work ofAlu is all but indistinguishable from its German new-wave and post-punkcontemporaries. The whole project reeks of a very deliberate bandwagonjump, as evidenced by comparing band photos in the booklet for the Sandand Alu reissues. When they were in Sand, Vester and Papenburg sportedbeards and long hair, and photographed themselves looking wide-eyed andbeatific, heads full of hash and acid, on park benches and inplaygrounds. When they made the transition to Alu, suddenly the beardsand manes were gone, and instead they are photographed in the typicalTuxedomoon uniform of suit and black tie, surrounded by banks ofelectronic gadgets, making tense, worried facial expressions. The lookseems contrived, and so does the music, unfortunately. This is not tosay that there is not much about Alu that will please those who adorethis period of music, but there is nothing about Alu specifically thattakes the music beyond the level of a mildly interesting footnote inthe history of this period. The overlapping chirps, squelches andstaccato rhythms do create a fair amount of intrigue on a track like"Sie Kriegt Alles Was Sie Will," but I can't help but feel but feelthat Alu represents a rather cynical attempt by two talented musiciansto appeal to a younger generation, and it rubs me the wrong way. In thewords of James Murphy of LCD Soundsytem: "I hear you're buying asynthesizer and an arpeggiator and throwing your computer out thewindow because you want to make something real/I hear that you and yourband have sold your guitars and bought turntables/I hear that you andyour band have sold your turntables and bought guitars."
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Here Baker is tripped up by all of the pitfalls that come from makingsad, psych-tinged guitar tunes. The vocals throughout are the kind ofmonotonous abstract poetry droning that might seem deep in a highschool-notebook kind of way, but fail to be as evocative as they shouldbe. Words like these just blur into the background and make the wholeact of singing superfluous to the music the words are riding on.Unfortunately, even the instrumental passages here don't spark withmuch imagination. Arrangements of drums, bass, and guitar get muddyquickly. While the lo-fi aesthetic can be charming, here it just feelslike some of the instruments are poorly recorded and mixed. When themix includes string tembres, the arrangement just seems too predictableand maudlin to maintain any interest. Baker has infused the tracks witha pervasive backdrop of fuzz and noise and loops that might soundinteresting on their own, but just tend to muck up the relatively cleanand straight-forward melodies. Drums are occassionally sloppy, the bassseems oversaturated, and Baker's slippery post-something guitar playingwanders off a little closer to Pink Floyd territory than Spacemen 3territory for my liking. The trouble here is that I know Baker can dosomething better and richer than this because I've heard it, so witheach successive listen I try to find the moments that I like and I keepcoming up short. By the end of "Flowerskin," a joyless dirge ofnoodling with lines like "I trample flowers into the pores of yourskin / and you slowly change colour and I love you," I'm crossing myfingers for next time.
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This is how to do it. First make sure you've registered for an account and contacted us to volunteer. This is important! Your account statuts has to be upgraded by the administration so you can submit news/reviews/links/etc.
Here are the gaps we're missing still:
- January-October 2004 (minus the contributions by Matthew Jeanes)
- ALL of 2003 (minus a couple contributions by Matthew Jeanes)
- April-December 2002 (once again minus Matthew's contributions)
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PLEASE contact us to claim a chunk of time
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We want:
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We don't want:
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This is how to do it. First make sure you've registered for an account and contacted us to volunteer. This is important! Your account statuts has to be upgraded by the administration so you can submit news/reviews/links/etc.
Here are the gaps we're missing still:
- January-October 2004 (minus the contributions by Matthew Jeanes)
- ALL of 2003 (minus a couple contributions by Matthew Jeanes)
- April-December 2002 (once again minus Matthew's contributions)
- March 18-December 2001
- All of 1999 (not necessary, cos the writing was absolutely sucky)
- All of 1998 (ditto)
PLEASE contact us to claim a chunk of time
How to do it:
Use FIREFOX and open the issue from http://brainwashed.com/brain/past.html
We want:
- timeless news (new albums, people dying but NOT tour dates/concerts)
- all reviews (records, movies, books)
- new releases ("01/01/2005 - 01/08/2005" format for the title thanks!)
- links of the week (submit weblink on the new brainwashed page)
We don't want:
- The Eye (they're all done)
- what's in your CD player
- feedback
- polls
- events calendar
Please:
- paste the ENTIRE review in the "intro text" (make sure the image got copied and pasted too - this will really only work in Firefox)
- delete the author hyperlink at the end of the review
- use
the PUBLISHING tab at the bottom of the screen to input the Author name
(it should say "author alias") and START PUBLISHING date (which should
be the brainwashed brain issue date)
- hit the diskette icon to "save"
Thanks a ton!
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Please contact us with your name, your location and your experience/introduction to bootlegs or the story of a bootleg LP you own. (ie: "I was 13 when I bought a Joy Division record that just didn't look right, the sound quality sucked,...." or something like that) Somebody will contact you requesting a scan of the cover too (so please try to find the record in your collection!)
This is not limited to Brainwashed.com-hosted bands/labels and can be of ANY genre.
Experts are encouraged to talk about a bootleg LP they think should be an essential part of a collection!
Have fun with it.
And thanks!
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Please contact us with your name, your location and your experience/introduction to bootlegs or the story of a bootleg LP you own. (ie: "I was 13 when I bought a Joy Division record that just didn't look right, the sound quality sucked,...." or something like that) Somebody will contact you requesting a scan of the cover too (so please try to find the record in your collection!)
This is not limited to Brainwashed.com-hosted bands/labels and can be of ANY genre.
Experts are encouraged to talk about a bootleg LP they think should be an essential part of a collection!
Have fun with it.
And thanks!
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This is the new site for Brainwashed.com. There's a lot of new things here. Now, people can submit news, reviews, links, and other things. We've got a forum and a photo gallery for people to contribute to. Reviews will be posted when they're available as well as site news and offsite news. Sign up for an account if you want to contribute to the site. Registration is quick and painless. If you're interested in volunteering, we REALLY need the help. Read more for that!
Volunteers are needed to copy and paste old content from The Brain into the new system.
If you dig through the reviews here (Brain Menu) you'll see what years and blocks are missing.
Using Firefox, please go to the past issues of The Brain to copy content by individual article.
Click "Submit News" to submit a news item, "Submit Event" for release dates, "Submit Review" for music reviews and The Eye, "Submit Editorial" for the occasional blathering rant, and "Submit Link" for Link of the Week. Choose the appropriate cagegory when submitting (ie: Reviews / Albums, Reviews / Movies, and for The Eye, just choosed Concert Report or something).
Make sure you copy and paste all images and links to sound samples. They should show up fine in the display window.
Type the author's name in the appropriate field in the Publishing tab below, and make sure you specify the correct publishing date (the date is on each issue of The Brain at the top) .
Click SAVE when done (it's the diskette) and go on to the next one. There's so much content to do that it'll be very helpful to have as many volunteers doing this.
Thanks for your help! If you have questions, contact us, and the hard working volunteers will get to choose music from the Brainwashed Recordings catalogue to get for free!
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