Everything on this record screams of biological energy; the music casts a shadow over the room the second it begins and, as it continues, strange flora begins to bloom from it left and right. Lee Norris' work in Metamatics has little to do with this more abstract moniker and it's of little surprise that the Lampse label has decided to make Septs Vents its inaugural release.

They wear silly costumes onstage, are unabashedly sweet and sugary,utilize an arsenal of childish instruments (recorders, xylophones,possibly a Flintstone Phone), and basically make any of their fuzz popforebears look like Mayhem.

Recorded way back in 1999, Gruntsplatter's Pest Maiden7" and cassette release may not have made much of an impact on thenoise-loving public (perhaps due the limited nature of its release),but it is a fine album deserving of attention. Thus, Troniks/PACrec hasmade the split-up release one monstrous album and Scott E. Candey hasremixed the material especially for the occasion.

The first time I put on this CD I turned it off shortly after. Ibelieve I grumbled something along the lines of "Radiohead tributeband." Listening back to it over the last few days I realise I wassorely mistaken, Second Storeyis a lovely piece of work.

One of a recent clutch of new(er) releases by Earth, Living in the Gleam of an Unsheathed Swordcontains two live tracks, both recorded in 2002 as Dylan Carlson andAdrienne Davis reunited in for a series of live shows in the US andEurope. Earth's music has become something of an obsession for thosetuning into the current wave of imitators — Sunn O))), Black BonedAngel, Boris, etc. — but for those who were listening to Earth backduring early 1990s Sub Pop years, recordings like this seemanachronistic and retrograde.

Haino's own homage to the blues begs the question of whether he hasalways burdened himself with a bluesman's ax to grind. Starkprimitivism is ubiquitous, even as the artist introduces new strategyor restraint in a work. In recent years, Haino has taken classicalguitar through the black-on-black, slow-utterance machine that is hisstyle, and this year also marked his first solo electronic album,instruments pushed not to their own limits, but to Haino's redefinedlimits of his own art.

This unassuming CDEP was made available at the recent Toronto shows,but the people working the merchandise table were mysteriouslytight-lipped about its contents. The packaging contains no informationother than arcane Coptic Greek text printed in gold on a blackbackground: "PSHOUO NMEHPSAITSHOMTE: NTNAU NH�TP MPR� AHENJ�U EUK�MOUEM TPE."

Echo Poeme: Sequence No. 2 is quite a surprise, even for anartist like Steven Stapleton, who has spent the past 25 yearsconfounding expectations. It is the second part of a series begun witha limited, Vienna show-only CD-R entitled The Little Dipper Minus Two: Echo Poeme Sequence No. 1.

Currrent 93 live albums have always been a bit of a tricky proposition.There have been at least a dozen or so live albums released throughoutCurrent 93's long career, and they range from almost completelyunlistenable (Loony Runes and Hitler as Kalki), to pleasant but unremarkable (Halo and Live at St. Olave's Church).

Perhaps as a little addendum to his full-length, Simon Finnsimultaneously released this five-song CDEP, for sale at the recentToronto shows. It's very much in the same vein as Magic Moments,just Finn and his guitar, more musings about the frustrations attendantto love, human communication, sadness and joy, longing for life anddeath.

This three-track CDEP follows closely on the tails of Baby Dee's recent A Book of Songs for Anne-Marie, which was her first full-length since the double-disc masterpiece Love's Small Song.

This CDEP contains three tracks, all featuring the skillful playing ofJohn Contreras, the handsome young cellist and recent Current 93 andCyclobe collaborator. The first and third tracks on the disc areadaptations of Nico's beautiful song "Afraid" (from her classic 1970album Desertshore,one of several collaborations with John Cale), with the singular RoseMcDowall lending her sweet, lilting vocals to the song.

Magic Moments is the new album from Simon Finn. If someone wereto have asked me six years ago, when I first heard Simon Finn'slegendary 1970 album Pass the Distance, to assess the chancesthat such a thing would ever come to pass, I'd have rated theprobability a big fat zero. Simon Finn was one of the many late-60spsychedelic folk and progressive artists that released one obscurealbum and then seemingly disappeared into the aethyr, never to be heardfrom again.

Michael Gira's work under the Body Lovers and Body Haters names hasbeen reissued as a double CD with a few changes. Gone are the albums'original titles and the artwork from the original Body Haters releaseis absent. In their place is an extra ten minutes of music on the BodyHaters disc.

This is the second album in a series of three in which McKenziecollaborates with Jónsi Birgisson of Sigur Rós. The double CD comes inthe same style of package as the other Hafler Trio voice series, eachrelease consists of music made entirely from the voice of oneindividual (Blixa Bargeld and David Tibet being the othercollaborations).

CD reissue of Diana Rogerson's second record comes close to being accurately restored.

Seasons, lost loves, catch phrases and catchy melodies always seems to converge pleasantly on any given Lucksmiths' album. Warmer Cornersreliably exhibits all of these things and more, featuring an additional member, thus augmenting the trio to a quartet for the better part of the album.

Shadow Huntaz,"Valley of the Shadow"

http://www.skam.co.uk" target="new">Skam

Skam's hip hop ambassadors the Shadow Huntaz are back with another full length of trans-atlantic collaborations with their brothers-in-arms the Funckarma production crew.  Shadow Huntaz Skam debut was a breath of fresh air that fused classic American hip hop with contemporary European electronica in a way that others had flirted with, but not quite achieved.  The follow up <i>Vampire EP</i> was more of the same, but showed that when the Huntaz put their minds to it, they could create a truly brilliant track.  With <i>Valley of the Shadow</i>, the team is once again mining the same basic well of sounds and lyrical topics that were covered in the previous two records, which makes <i>Valley</i> seem more like a continuation of <i>Corrupt Data</i> than a next-step in the group's evolution.  The beats are all synthesized, featuring heavy kick drums and noise-pong snare and high hat patterns that mimic the rhythm of classic hip hop but interpret it in the mode of minimal techno.  Samples are few and far between (at least samples that haven't been processed into blurry washes of filter noise) and that's what keeps Shadow Huntaz from sounding like other contemporary hip hop artists who are being sold to the Warp/Planet Mu buying public.  While hip hop has always been a mash up of sampled grooves and synthetic ones--a world of producers and MCs-- the hip hop aesthetic itself has been diluted so much in recent years that collaborations such as this one tend to sound at times like a production team and a vocal team playing together, but not exactly on the same page.  There's the hint of an all-too-convenient pairing of styles that smacks at times of a record executive's idea of capitalizing on the laptop generation's love of all things hip hop.  I have no doubt that Shadow Huntaz are the real deal, and that they take this work seriously, but with a back catalog of excellent releases, this one just doesn't seem as exploratory as it should.  Occassionally as on "Radically," Shadow Huntaz amaze with fluid, intelligent rhymes over simple beats that don't get in the way of themselves, and give the words room to breath.  "Radically" is the reason to buy a record like this because it's a near-perfect synthesis of styles that doesn't step on any one sensibility, but focuses different ideas together to be something greater.  The brilliant tracks like this though, have to be weighed against the filler tracks full of typical rap bravado and stories of sexual conquest, or the tracks that out-spaz themselves in mindless worship of the twitch.  These tracks aren't risk-taking when one considers the success of other indie hip hop records that are pitched to the same audience.  Shadow Huntaz as MCs have formidible skills on the mic, and Funckarma are studio wizards capable of slick, bouncing production, but by the end of "Valley of the Shadow," I get the sense that the two sets of minds have done all that they can do together.  Hip hop is naturally progressive music, much like the digital cut up techno from across the pond, but we've heard all of this before, and while some of it is still great and will make it into many DJ sets, it just isn't pushing down walls the way it could be.
- <a href="/brain/contributors.html">Matthew Jeanes</a>

As much as I love the Hammond organ, there are few contexts in which Ican enjoy it. The instrument is so singular, its timbre so unique andpowerful, that I find it only works in positions of dominance, wherethe music's other parts are either entirely supplemental in nature orbarely there at all. Eric Malmberg's first group, the late Sagor &Swing, featured his Hammond as a foundation instrument in theirpop-length pastoral motifs, but I could never gain the access to theband's music that I wanted.

I've been a fan of David Grubbs' work for a long time. There'ssomething undeniably unique and appealing about anything with hisinvolvement, perhaps because his involvement always seems so total, notin the sense of out-shadowing his collaborators, but in the wayeverything he's done feels a concise and essential part in adistinctive language of expression.