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Some will remember the Romans as a supergroup of sorts, comprised of members of LA's more aggressively strange bands Monitor, Human Hands, and the Los Angeles Free Music Society, among others. Whereas some of the members' previous bands were intellectual and confrontational art-punk, the Romans' music is much more straightforward and fun.
This CD reissues their 1983 LP, along with plenty of extra tracks from 1979 through 1984. Tunes like "Motu Tapu", "Footsteps" and "Nazarene" could be precursors of Shadowy Men from a Shadowy Planet's sideways surf-rock. Other tracks expose the band's roots nicely, as in the dark "Tuned Out" (whose bass-led, dramatic elegance suggests that maybe some folks outside of Boston were listening to Mission of Burma records back then) or the odd synthesizers and tape effects that pop up in unexpected places. The opening and closing tracks of heavy electronic drift are even more interesting when placed side-by-side with the surf tunes. But the mix of electronics and party-rock never feels forced or kitschy (as with recent Trans Am); it comes across as an honest extension of a single, multi-facted musical idea. The production is clearly the star of the show here, downplaying the jazz-guitar licks and bright horns with understated, dissonant keyboard lines that throw off the otherwise upbeat tunes just enough to keep things interesting.
 
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The second disc for this Finnish industrial/power-electronics act proves to be by far their strongest work yet. After a short stint of consuming as much power electronics/noise as I could, I sort of lost touch with it and have since not enjoyed it as much as I used to, save for some classic acts - one of whom is STROM.ec.Malignant
Recorded a while ago and finally released on Malignant sublabel Black Plagve (*THE* label for delays!), 'Neural Architect' is an intense, interesting, varied, and powerful journey through Finnish industrial. Starting off on a high note with the ultra-sub-death-bass of 'Peilikuva,' the album takes a refreshing varied journey through several types of sound - the aforementioned noisy malevolence of 'Peilikuva' or the rhythms of 'Herra' as well as some more subdued ambient pieces. This, my friends, is the way to keep power electronics interesting: variation. Just like Anenzephalia's live album released last year, 'Neural Architect' keeps your attention focused and your mouth watering by using - not abusing - distortion and noise. Slick and tasteful artwork by Salt (this guy has about ten thousand projects concurrently existing) rounds off the package and makes this a must-get for power electronics fans.
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Someone please take the vocoder away from Knodel. Like a joke that'skind of funny the first time and stops being funny soon after, Knodel'sTrans-Am-meets-They-Might-Be-Giants 80s-metal/synth-rock is cornywithout being very clever. Numerous references to "Knodel" - Knodellikes to rock, Knodel unchained, Don't fear for Knodel, It's a Knodelworld, etc - are probably hilarious to the members of the band, but inme they illicit the rolling of the eyes. The vocals don't help - whenthey're not vocoded (and they're vocoded a LOT) the two voices soundlike a duet between TMBG's John Linnell and the falsetto from "The LionSleeps Tonight." The choices in keyboard sounds leaves a lot to bedesired, too. Granted, there are a few moments on the disc that mightmake you think, "OK, Knodel's not THAT bad," but these moments are fewand far-between. The best moment on the entire album is the first 45seconds of the opening title track, and it's all downhill from there.It's not that I don't like music that has a sense of humor - I reallydo, and I even appreciate the cover of 80s cheese-metal group Manowar's"Kingdom Come" - but the music has got to be worthwhile at the sametime. I guess I should give Knodel credit for the fact that they'vebeen making retro synth rock for four years or so (since before it wasso dang hip), but do we really need another band ironically singing,"We wanna rock, we wanna rock you now"? Doesn't the joke ever get old?Apparently to Knodel, it doesn't.
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The first striking quality of Early Day Miners is the almostundisputable sense of unpretentious openness conveyed merely in theinstrumentation alone. The warm, inviting melodies are slow moving, butnever fragile or weak, often building to emotional climaxes as a numberof guitar layers each play unique roles, not entirely unlike some ofthe best Bedhead moments. Strings accent a number of crescendingmoments, but overall, a bigger presence would be much more appreciatedthroughout the record. The vocals, however, strike me much differently.Vocals are much more important than most bands realize. If a bandchooses to use vocals, then they need to clearly live and exist withthe amount of delicacy and care given to the other instruments. Two ofmy own biggest issues with vocals in general are painfully exhibited onthis album. First off, I cringe at double-tracked unharmonized vocals.There needs to be a strong reason when there's two singers or twotracks of voices going, and that reason should be harmony. My otherproblem is when vocalists are just too shy, timid, and the volumes justblend so deeply into the music that there's hardly a reason for them tobe there in the first place. For me, the second full-length album fromthis Bloomington-based group would as an excellent instrumental record,as their songwriting and playing talents are complimented by equallyimpressive production skills. My own personal favorite moment being theonly instrumental song, "Summer Wake," a gorgeous interplay betweenstrings, acoustic and electric guitar. In the end, it's the vocalswhich could either use a lot more TLC or just be scrapped.
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From the moment the slick snares and electro-tinged melodies on "Blind"sputtered from my stereo, I knew I was going to dig 'Iron City.' JeffMcIlwain, whose productions have appeared on labels like Isophlux andU-Cover, presents this fourth album of groovy IDM under the Lusine ICLmoniker, and makes me wonder why I've ignored him for so long. A sharedrelease between partners Hymen Records and Mad Monkey Records, "IronCity" ranges from funky post-electro workouts to Mille-Plateaux styledexperiments. Examples of the former include the video-game inspired"Tonic" and the aforementioned "Blind." "Bent" is a 4/4 head-nodderwith spacey dub effects that seem ripped off of an Force Inccompilation. This one would easily have fit on Force Lab's recentAlgorithm mix CD. I'd love to hear more of his work in this style. Themore abstract tracks like "Invisible" and the seemingly endless "TheFast Lane" are easily skipped over, but the hip-hop influenced"Perpetual" and "Scheming" redeem the CD and show McIlwain'sflexibility and range. While he's not about to be the next Timbaland orSwizz Beatz, that's pretty irrelevant to most IDM listeners who haven'tbought a commercial rap release since they were in junior high. Attimes, Lusine ICL can be a bit repetitive, but he manages to introduceenough new elements as tracks progress to stave off boredom. Unlessyou're some kind of improv fanatic, I doubt you'll have trouble findingsomething here to suit your listening needs.
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Sure it came out about a year and a half ago, but I just got my hands on it and felt like sharing. Tommy Guerrero was a full-time professional skateboarder, one who'd competed and skated with the best. He formed his own San Francisco-based skateboard company, Real Skateboards, several years back, and also gained notice as an talented musician in his own right with his debut release "Loose Grooves & Bastard Blues" in 1998.Function 8
Also from San Francisco, Gadget gained respect as a skilled DJ and beat composer, forming the Function 8 record and multimedia company/collective in 1995. Together, these two San Francisco natives pay homage to the city they love on "Hoy Yen Ass'n," a funky collection of songs featuring the guitar and bass stylings of Guerrero with the beat mastering and record scratching of Gadget. It's like Jet Black Crayon without live drums and with only one bass (both are also in JBC, who are STILL recording their much-anticipated debut album). It's funky, well-composed, and a kick in the pants. The record works best when it's just Gadget sampling vocals and composing beats with Guerrero making time on the bass. Guest vocalists John Gold. and Selavie aren't bad, but the songs before and after their appearances are far superior. These songs just get the body moving in all the right ways. 'RF Interference' is a soul-searching, organ and bass driven jazz influenced groove; 'Out the Village,' the following track, is shout-outs, hand claps, and funk bass. You can definitely sense the influences. It's a disparate work, but one that works on every plane it reaches for. Check it out.
 
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Whoa. I have to admit I've been extremely disappointed with Ant-Zen asof late, considering they've pretty much become a label completelydifferent from the one that released the first 75 or so releases. Somecertain recent successes have led me to simply drop my notion of theAnt-Zen that was and accept the Ant-Zen that is. Rob(u)rang's debut EPhelps me do this easily. My first impressions of this disc were a bunchof retarded and/or broken robots covering Muslimgauze - and no, that'snot an insult - at all! Since Rob(u)rang comes from the collectiveknown as Silk Saw (at least I think he does - maybe I'm wrong, but I'llmake that assumption anyway) this disc is imbued with a certainplayfulness throughout, never taking itself too seriously and havingfun in the process. It's also the first recorded material that OlivierMoreau (Imminent [Starvation]) has participated on since hiscollaboration with Synapscape - and that's a plus if you ask me. Thefirst track, 'Silly Dance,' sets the stage for what's to come: weird,poly-/arhythmic spurts of beats and melody that have an almost tribalfeel to them. More retarded-robot action follows and culminates in thelongest and noisiest track 'Banks.' A definite pleasant surprise for meand one that has more or less redeemed my faith in Stefan Alt and gang.Where's the new Imminent album, Mr. Moreau!?
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The Pastels, Kevin Shields, Appendix Out, sounds like a greatcompilation, right? As Sofandi warned us, don't get overexcited. Asidefrom one standout track from Japanese popsters Nagisa Ni Te, thiscompilation is at best, mediocre. Geographic is a Glaswegan sub-labelof Domino run by Stephen McRobbie of the Pastels. Together with theassistance of the Japanese label Trattoria, this compilation cametogether, aiming for the simpler, more pleasant side of indie pop,attempting to both pose as an aedequate introduction to each label andtoss in a number of friends in addition. The downfall of this attemptis that at 17 tracks, it's trying to be a bit too many things. Even bythe halfway point, (the terribly revolting track from former Jesus andMary Chain members under their new guise, Sister Vanilla, featuringWilliam Reid's wife on vocals) listening becomes incredibly laborious.Following that, a number of similarly half-assed attempts at song-likesketchwork almost blend in with each other. Songs like Pedro's "Amber"and Barbara Morgenstern's "Kleiner Ausschnitt" have pretty potential,but seem rather unfinished. Songs like the one from Empress are simplydull and too repetitious to even listen to entirely through. Thislethargic trend continues on nearly all of the songs until theanticlimactic finish of "Outro," by Kevin Shields, which could easilybe the reason he hasn't recorded a full-length record since 'Loveless'.If this disc was popping in the stores at the price of a Darla comp, Iwould probably recommend it more, but for even the biggest JAMC or MBVfans, save your pennies.
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- Nagisa Ni Te - Me, On the Beach
- Appendix Out - The Language in Things
- Kevin Shields - Outro
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Many of the original TG songs he has 'remixed' often had a paralysing sense of claustrophobia that could have been down to the 8-track media, but more likely to the result of 4 intent people trying to find their way through listener's ear. Now Carter has removed the elements of three of them, and gives his original programming and synth tracks—which could have often stood on their own from their density and richness of sound—huge spaces to breathe. Dub-like drones of subsonic bass appear occasionally, robotic 4/4 rhythms become ludicrously complex polyrhythms, the whole album constantly exhales where the original songs hold or hyperventilate. 'Indisciplined' is the best example; the pounding, staccato rhythm of the original is melted and re-shaped into an Aphex-esque pulse-ridden aria.
I half-suspected while I listened to this that maybe Carter thought that some TG fans wouldn't be so keen on the project, so he's re-titled the songs—possibly as a comment on people's attitude's to TG, or just to remind us that he has a sense of humor too.
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