Every once in a while a record comes along that is so avant garde, sodifferent, so completely not like anything I've heard, that it almostdefies description. Starlight Mints almost do that. This music isobviously not aimed at radio, not aimed at any one test market, noteven classified by one genre that it's almost impossible to determinewho exactly would listen to it. I would recommend it to anyone wholikes the Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev (no brainer there - HellfireMarketing represents all three bands in different capacities), but doesit really sound like any of them? No, not really. In fact, if I wasgoing to describe this, the best I could come up with is Spiders FromMars-era Bowie fronting an art-rock guitar band with a small stringsection, occasionally intermingled with interesting noises for maximumconfusion and effect. Which is funny, since I read ther bio afterforming that opinion, and it name checks Bowie, as well. I mean, it's areally confusing listen. The music grabs you immediately, and it won'tlet go. But where some bands sound like they're confused by their ownmusic, not quite sure how to focus, harness, or direct it, StarlightMints aural confusion is completely MANUFACTURED. That's right:Starlight Mints WANT you to be confounded by this noise. And it isconfounding, but utterly listenable. I mean I CANNOT TAKE THIS CD OUTOF THE PLAYER, it calls to me so much. But I don't know why. Is thatstrange? Yes. But so be it. The only complaint I have is that as thealbum goes on, some songs use similar chord progressions or structuresand dynamics as earlier ones, so it almost sounds gimmicky compared toearlier tracks. But it is always fresh. The lyrics are equally as odd:"sir prize" features the line "Shaking hands with the cats in themirror." And I don't think he means "cats" in that "Hey, that guy's apretty hip cat" sense. He means cats. With four legs and tails. "sugarblaster" says "Follow me to the echo machine." Weird. Try it out, as itis the strangest release you'll hear all year. And that's a good thing,really.
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The signature sound of Tsyoshi Nakamaru's Tagomago project is astrangely clipped sample, looped against the beat as if the song andthe loop exist in two different pieces of music played simultaneously.This peculiar trait makes its appearance on nearly all of his albumsand gives his otherwise almost-innocuous techno-pop an edge that, atfirst, is difficult to place. A funky upright bass and a looped chunkof violins kicks off "On the Upper Level", the first tune on Tagomago'sseventh solo album, with the urgency implied by the album's title. Theenergetic pulse that drives the album's first half makes occasionalnods to mainstream drum n'bass or to lazily paced trip hop, though mosttracks keep to a slightly stuttering and repetitive groove which callsto mind the band whose magnus opus Nakamaru borrowed his moniker from.The latter half of the disc slides into drumless analogue synthesizerdrift, several tracks of low throb punctuated by sci-fi squeals andairy feedback. Previous Tagomago albums have featured lovelyinstrumental pop molded from looped sitars and other conspicuously"psychedelic" ingredients, but this latest CD draws mostly fromshimmering orchestral hits and instrumental flourishes (think: 1970stelevision themes). "ASAP" is a fine set of understated, upbeat tunesthat never gets too sweet, though it's closer in spirit to NobukazuTakemura and the Childisc crew than to Nakamaru's much strangerproject, the great Nerve Net Noise.
Tomahawkis Mike Patton's newest project on Ipecac, featuring Patton on vocals,Kevin Rutmanis (Melvins), John Stanier (ex-Helmet,) and Duane Denison(Jesus Lizard). It's Good Stuff. Stylistically, it reminds me of theother band-work Patton's done — specifically Faith No More — becausethe music does have a certain "rock" or "punk" vibe about it, mixedwith a certain eclecticness that keeps it from being just plain rock orpunk. There are no writing credits, lyrics or any extraneousinformation and all liner notes are kept to an absolute bare minimum(seven short lines, including the tracklisting.) The recording qualityis excellent and although the Patton's vocals are the center ofattention, the music does play it's part and balances out theforcefulness of the vocals. The music itself is part humor and partnoir (e.g. "POP 1" and it's screamed bridge of "This beat could win mea grammy!"). Patton's vocal abuses are a highlight of the record,especially the screams and nuances of infliction he does so well. Agreat release for fans of vocal gymnastics, and a pretty good album ingeneral.
Cavendish Sanguine is an ambient alias for one half of Fflint CentralRecordings, Barry Williams, who also records as Oleum and helpschanneling in productions from the mysterious Berkowitz, Lake &Dahmer. This is the sound of one man who went to mow Wotan's lawn. Myguess is that he used a big sharp scythe.
Hardly "Punk As Fuck" as the tongue-in-cheek title of the first trackoff their fourth album, the American Analog Set could actually be moreaccurately described as creating music in the vein of Neu!. 'Know ByHeart' unites the psychedelic jams of the Austin-based band's earliermaterial with a soothing pop sensibility. The warm sounds ofvibraphones and farfisa organs mesh with heavy bass lines and pungentpercussion on the tracks "Gone to Earth" and "Million Young," thelatter of which screams Stereolab circa "Revox" (if Laetitia's vocalshad been replaced by those of an American male with a honey-coatedvoice). Fortunately, the album is not overrun by kraut-rock musings.The balladry of "Slow Company" and the title track, plus the janglyrock of "The Only One" and "Aaron & Maria" allow for the band toexhibit not only their stylistic versatility, but their broadinstrumental capabilities as well. "The Postman", a sweetly rhythmic,yet melancholy tune about a mail carrier's crush on someone on hisroute is among the standout tracks. The American Analog Set fortunatelynever suffer from sounding overly self-conscious in their music, andretain a distinct sense of humor evident in both their song titles andlyrics. 'Know By Heart' is certainly a piece of ear candy, but at thesame time, it skillfully avoids falling into a saccharine trap.
Self-described as "a ghostly meditation on the aesthetics of late nighttrain travel", 'Overnight' is the third album by Chessie, a one-timesolo project of Stephen Gardner which has grown to a duo with theaddition of Ben Bailes. Perhaps it's the addition of a second set ofears that has reined in Gardner's tendency on previous releases to flitsomewhat disconcertingly between fragile ambience and restrainedaggression. The nine tracks on 'Overnight' flawlessly swirl and flowtogether, creating an engrossing and abstract sonic landscape ofabstract samples, ambient electronics, guitar, piano and more. Fans ofartists like Labradford and Stars Of The Lid will very likely find muchto appreciate here.
Following a successful US tour, Knoxville, Tennessee's Superdrag wentoff for Japan, one of those countries where people are capable of beingutterly more popular than they are here. Like Sweden. And while theywere there, they released this, a tour EP of new songs, old songs, anda few cover songs. The intention was to release it on their label's(Arena Rock Recording Co.) website so fans could order it. That tookawhile, due to dissatisfaction with the initial release. New mixing wasdone, the release was delayed, and now a limited number are availableon the website. And what do we have? Kind of a mixed bag, which you'dhave to expect from Superdrag. The new songs, like "Baby Goes ToEleven" and "Take Your Spectre Away" are good, but you get the feelingthat Superdrag is getting more emotional with age. Where is theballs-out shrikeing rock we've heard before. And I'm not really fond of"bass guy" Sam Power's lead vocals on stu. I've grown accustomed toJohn Davis' wail, thank you, so give me more of it. And two tracks,"Bloody Hell" and "Liquor," first on their independent release "TheFabulous 8-track Sound of Superdrag," are missing the power of thoseearly recordings. In fact, "Liquor" is even missing the first verse!The only thing that made this release worthwhile for me was the covers.Any chance to hear Superdrag cover The Replacements ("Bastards ofYoung," no less), and I'm there. But then, just to keep thosecomparisons ever-present, they cover the Kinks classic "You Really GotMe." Now here's the band that Superdrag most reminds people of, and forgood reason. At their best, Superdrag are just as hook-laden, just asrawking, and just as cohesive musically. "Greetings From Tennessee" isnot Superdrag at their best: it's for the diehard fan only. And forthose last two songs, it's worth it. Can't wait for LP4 in Spring 2002.
Ven Voisey, a Californian composer with a most dubious name (do youthink he was born with "v"s for initials? My bet's on "not likely"),has been quietly self-publishing some of the most stunning anddisarmingly unpretentious DIY computer music in America with little tono fanfare? so far. To correct that, here's a bunch of fanfare for hisnew 17-minute piece. "Things Collapse?" begins with a patiently growingcloud of soft hiss. A masterful moment occurs in which the hissmetamorphoses suddenly into a blurry acoustic guitar (in theelectronically-enhanced hands of Voisey, it takes on a lovelycello-like quality) and is finally overtaken by churning white noiseand room sound. But to simply describe the linear events of the pieceis to miss the assured, seemingly effortless meaningfulness somehowimbued into each sound element, a quality which involves the listenerright away and commands attention for the duration. I could comparev.v. to vaguely similar composers (Roel Meelkop and the THU20 folksspring to mind), but comparisons are a cop-out, so I won't bother.Certainly this EP is a fine piece of electronic music which I highlyrecommend tracking down.
Single Unit is a single man, Are Mokkelbost, and he is entirelyresponsible for the music and visuals of "Family of Forces". Theartwork features very curious black/white drawings of abstract shapesand human/animal characters framed in Macintosh styled screens. Andmuch like the music, it's difficult to make heads or tails of it all.The 16 oddly titled tracks, most less than 2 minutes apiece, arecleverly laid out in a grid on the back, each with it's own progressbar giving you a relative idea of how long the track is and how faralong you are into the near 33 minutes total that make up the disc.Mokkelbost's musical mission seems to include that of mergingmetal/hardcore with electronica, believe it or not. Appropriatedsnippets of guitar/bass/drum onslaughts are painstakingly re-assembledalongside electronic and organ-like melodies into new songs. ImagineSlayer playing carnival music, then having Kid 606 remix it, and you'llget a rough idea. It's mostly noisy and schizophrenic, but alsorefined, making for a confusingly natural fusion of playful andmenacing sounds and moods. Fun! 
As has become expected for Robot's CD reissue series of rare, out ofprint, and previously vinyl-only or cassette-only albums by DavidJackman (the only constant member of Organum), "Pulp" comes with nomore information than the song titles and the names of the artistsinvolved. Gone is the artwork that might have accompanied the originalreleases. Nowhere in this package do we find any information that wouldhint that "Pulp" is in fact a reissue (I happen to recognize the namesof the tracks). No further information is provided to tell the newlistener background about the recordings. The disc is also only 33minutes long. But I'll stop complaining because the music is quitegood, if not particularly surprising (does it need to be? Probablynot). Though the CD includes all of the music from the "Pulp", "Raze"and "Wrack" EPs and one otherwise unreleased piece, one might haveremoved the spaces between the tracks and called this a single piece ofmusic; there is not much change from track to track. The cyclicalscraping metal and piercing, high-pitched bowed cymbals (I'm guessing,but that's what it sounds like) are aggressive and unrelentingly noisy,more typical of New Blockaders' work than Organum's. The palpablepresence of actual humans manipulating actual metal objects brings"Pulp" a step closer to improvised instrumental music, and a step awayfrom Merzbow-like human-free screech? it's not a huge step, but it's animportant one which separates it from the derth of noise albums one canchoose from these days. It's really quite nice, if metallic shriek isyour thing; it happens to be mine, sometimes.
