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With the release of their second full-length album, 2001's Scary World Theory, Lali Puna have not only secured their place as not just another Notwist "side project," but have become one of my favorite groups. It's tough to arrange a schedule when your time is divided amongst a number of other bands, as Marcus Acher (1/2 of the core duo) knows very well. In the time between releases, the group has taken the opportunity to leak out an unsurfaced song and its apparent dub counterpart.
"Left Handed" might not have fit in with the languid sounds of Scary World Theory with its punchy rhythms and distorted tonally aggressive guitars, but it is strong enough to stand as a fantastic single track. For the "dub" version, the group took a route that I whole-heartedly support: making something that sounds almost completely different. It's entirely instrumental, a completely different speed, with dub-inspired rhythms, effects, and only a minute few elements carried over from the original. The three-tracker is rounded out with a song -not- originally by the Human League, but ended up on a Human League covers record back in 2000. "Together In Electric Dreams" was the theme to the forgettable '80s film Electric Dreams (originally by Phil Oakey and Giorgio Moroder) and Lali Puna's reinterpretation strays a healthy amount from the original, omitting a wealth of vocals and utilizing the band's almost signature sound of gliding synths, electronic beats, and clean guitar work. While it's always nice to get two new songs from a fave band, I'm actually rather disappointed in the fact that this would have been a great opportunity to include some old 7" tracks, namely the two remixes from the Nin-Com-Pop single and the two songs from the The Safe Side single which has eluded me for years. 
This is one of the finer noise albums and one that challenges other noise performers to up the ante. While the method in which this record was created is interesting, the actual sounds and rhythms that compose the album are its most attractive elements by far. Yasunao Tone was created by taking various Chinese poems and converting the characters into wave forms via a character recognition program.
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- The Album Leaf - Lamplight
- On Air Library - Ex's and Oh's
- On Air Library - Faux Fromm
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Richard H. Kirk is angry at the state of the world, the various worldleaders and their wars and such. I think. This could be deduced byreading the writing on the packaging, song titles, or the press blurbson the web sites. However, listening to the music, it's hardly clear.
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samples:
Bush Doctrine is Kirk's first release as BioChemical Dread, andis anxiously described as "an incendiary sonic polemic against oilygreed mongering and cultural ignorance," and looking at titles like"False King of the Earth," "King of Baghdad," "Where Is Mr. Sam?,""Zero Democracy Dub," and "I Got Weapons," that would make sense.Musically, this is probably one of the most challenging releases ofKirk's in a long time, threadding non-Western rhythms, wiry radiosamples, voices, wind instruments, and cutting things up into a heftybeat soup with tasty, buzzing noise elements. Kirk flip-flops aroundstyles from intense, high energy tunes to abrasive guitar-ish rockingtunes and slowed down dub numbers, delicately matching hypnotic, classybeats with strong melodies with ample noises. Listening to the tunesand -not- hearing vicious anti-war anti-government samples to match hisapparent sentiments is a let down, however, as I feel that thepackaging (with the song titles and a G. W. Bush cut up on the front)raises the levels of anticipation. I want attitude, I want guts, I wantto watch an accompanying set of visuals with things that will make mystomach turn. Perhaps I'll just have to play this album while watchingsomething awful like Fox News or listening to Democracy Now.
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