- Alan Ezust and Dan Levin
- Albums and Singles
For me, most techno is just way too repetitive and irritating.Just because it has a really strong regular dance beat doesn't make itgood! Jean-Michel is an unfortunately confusing band name for this one-manmusical project by Thomas B?cker. It sounds very little likeJean-Michel Jarre, and people keep asking me what's the connection?French? New-age? Nope. Sometimes boppy and dancey, sometimesaggressive, and other times downbeat, blended in with some of the mostbeautiful acoustic guitar and restrained breakbeat you've ever heard.The build-up is long and gradual, but by the middles of the songs,you're drawn into it and there's no getting out. Some of the songs evenhave some jazzy improvisational interludes! 'Supernova,' one of themost brilliant pieces of trip-ambient-intelligent-techno I've everheard, is constantly changing and shifting, yet carrying through theentire piece a kind of energy, mood and melody that is quite appealing.Since the piece is so diverse, it is almost a crime to sample just oneminute of it, so I sampled two! I wish it was more widely available inNorth America; I'd tell everyone to buy it. Fortunately, a couple ofbig mailorder places do at least list it in their catalog now, althoughat very expensive import prices and with a "can backorder" status.
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
The thing I hate most iswhen a band comes out with a whole album where each song soundsbasically the same, or a bunch of rock guitars sounding gloomy. Give itup already, it's been done too many times before. What I really likeabout goth music, especially of the kind you find on Heavenly Voicescompilations or some of the recent stuff on World Serpent or MiddlePillar, is when it brings in another musical influence and blends itin, but then sinks a lot of energy into making it sound good. Eastmeets west, old meets new - Qntal and Love is Colder than Death popinto my head here. Twelfth of Never's debut CD, Blowing Bubbles ThroughBroken Windows, is an example of the kind of stuff that turns my crank.Beautiful vocal harmonies, very lush ethereal soundscapes, andoverflowing with brilliant ideas - each song has its own uniquecharacter and beauty to it. The creepy yet pretty song 'The Cycle'could easily score some of Tim Burton's next movie. Lots of crispacoustic sounds, shimmering bells, flute and dulcimers? Wow! Isincerely hope that Hyperium puts Theanna on Heavenly Voices Volume6,... And they're from Boston, no less. Oh, did I mention I liked theartwork too?samples:
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
This is the second full-lengther from the Duo andstretches about 40 minutes over 8 random length improvised numbers. Asthe ensemble gets smaller, the directions get considerably moreexperimental and electronic. 'Synesthesia' opens up with a multi-part12 minute long piece, "Blue Sparks,..." with a sound that could haveeasily been influenced by watching loads of 1960s sci-fi flicks. "TramTransfer Nine" closes the CD with a cut up experimental track worthy ofrecognition of any experimental brainwashed band fan. Having the albumengineered by John McEntire might have had a role in the more daringsound, but sources close to me say that McEntire merely strategicallybrings out what the band wants to really sound like and accomplish,...Another guest on the disc is the Sea and Cake's front man, Sam Prekoptwiddling with a Moog midway through the disc. When you see the Duo inconcert, the setup is simple Mazurek on trumpet and Chad Taylor on thedrums AND vibraphone. More than just a percussionist, Taylor beats outthe rhythms with his right hand while chiming in the melodies with theleft. Tortoise/Isotope member Jeff Parker often joins in to completemore of the sound.samples:
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- Administrator
- Albums and Singles
With vibrophone virtuoso Dylan Cristy and music enthusiast/drummer Adam Pierce at the production helm, this disc grooves more on a dub tip than anything else they've done—without compromising the intensity of the ever so prominent vibes.Bubble Core
A somewhat shocking pleasant surprise is the brilliantly executed cover of The Orb's "Towers of Dub." Hypnotizing and intoxicating, those into reverberated echoed dub a'la Twilight Circus and the swirling chiming melodies of vibes-heavy Reich-influenced Chicago bands will find something wonderful in this release. I truly adore it when a band can just jump into a laid back dub groove, and hold onto it as long as they please. Sadly enough, they will not hit Boston on their current US tour.
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- Thomas Olson
- Albums and Singles
- Thomas Olson
- Albums and Singles
And someof them were actually pretty good, and some of them, for reasons knownonly to the Muses, just never made it to CD. There are a handful of oldfavorite records that I regularly hunt CD shops for, hoping that somesmall Lithuanian press will rerelease them on CD-- stupid things likeFlying Lizards "Top Ten", Nina Hagen's "Angstlos", and everything byGang of Four, which only came out a few years ago after lots ofsquabbling. But at the top of my Most-Missed-Records list has been apair of legendary albums I haven't seen in a long, long time. 17 yearsin fact. The year I graduated from high school the greatest albums inhuman history were released: "Our Solar System" and "Sing No Evil" byHalf Japanese.
You might've picked up some of their albums and wondered afterwards whythis crappy band has such a following, and so many albums, and why hiprecord stores continue to keep a 1/2 jap section. You might've evenseen the documentary ("The Band That Would Be King") chronicling theirrise to international fame, glory and rock immortality and concludedthey're nothing more than a joke. But odds are you never heard theirgreatest moments, which have been locked up and/or lost in the dustyvaults of the now-defunct 18,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 VoltsRecords until this happy, happy, day.
These albums record the moment when the world's most electrifyingquartet collided with the world's most cacophanous 13-piece hornsection. The songs record the signature teenage-retard fantasies of JadFair, full of uneasy speculations about girls, girl athletes, girlswith ESP, girls who make him listen to classical music, girls whoseboyfriends were hit by trains, girls he secretly likes, girls who mightbe secretly in love with him. And from there he explores the enduringmysteries of UFO's, Voodoo and Acupuncture, and the immortal "ThingWith A Hook" that stalks lover's lane.Jad Fair never sounded better or more sincere than in these twobrilliant albums, which literally explode out of your speakers with analmost Rabelaisian frenzy of picked-on-nerd-anger and unrequitedhorniness. Music for sociopathic teens? Maybe. But these records areindescribably audacious and document a moment of unbounded, visceralcreativity that began with their mind-boggling first album, HalfGentlemen / Not Beasts, which was released, in consideraion of theiruniverse-conquering ambition, as a three album set. Lyrical andsincerely stupid, Half Japanese lay it all on the line in every song,recalling in their squealing half-assed obsessiveness The Shaggs, TheVelvet Underground and John Zorn... I can't say it's all worth buying,but I can unequivocally say that these two albums are musicalmilestones in their own geeky world. Come visit "Our Solar System" andrediscover your neglected inner retard.
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- Alan Ezust and Julie Geanakakis
- Albums and Singles
Eugenia Houston's voice has its moments of heaven and hell. Mineraliaand Moonburn grate against the nerves with a very sad, nasal voicewhich is mixed too loudly. On the other hand, she sounds absolutelybeautiful in Luna Begets Mercury. Winter Marriage has a very charmingwoodwind arrangement. Lapis Philosophorum is a hymn with a marchingrhythm, and male vocals full of pageantry. After a certain point,however, it became apparent that many of the songs are variations on atheme, and with few exceptions, most of them just blend in with eachother indistinctly.
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- Alan Ezust and Julie Geanakakis
- Albums and Singles
Sounding like Rush at times,Battery at other times, and occasionally dipping into the Middle Ages,The Machine In The Garden's latest offering, One Winter's Night,provides us with 52 minutes of enjoyment, but I suspect we won't belistening to it many more times in the future. The discordant vocals, crashing cymbals, raw and repetitive piano line(IO's Departure), nauseating rhythms and vocal effects (TheseIllusions) detract from the kick-ass bass line and danceable rhythms ofother songs, such as Control. Miserere Mei and Shakespeare-penned FearNo More are stunning with their classical harmonies, very tastefulvoice processing, clean snyths, sharp beats and pretty piano. WindowsOf Their Eyes and Everything Alone, are pretty in their folkishsimplicity.. A wildly inconsistent album - incongruous as a machine inthe garden!
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- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
"White Pepper"clocks in at less than 40 minutes with a dozen 2 to 4 minute songs. Themost shocking thing about this one is that it's not shocking at all. Ifyou're looking for "Push the Little Daisies" or "Piss Up a Rope" youcan forget it. The boys have either matured, made a conscious decisionto not be as goofy and experimental or maybe both. This is a singalongpop and power pop album for the most part with a heavy nod toward late60's Beatles. There's a few oddballs here and there: the light and airyCaribbean vibe of "Bananas and Blow" (only Ween would write a song witha chorus "stuck in my cabana, livin' on bananas and blow"), the speedmetal of "Stroker Ace" and the jazz rock ala Steely Dan (except itdoesn't suck) of "Pandy Fackler". The final three songs: "StayForever", "Falling Out" and "She's Your Baby" seem to be completelyirony free love songs, the former two with a country-esque flare."White Pepper" is definitely going to have some people scratching theirheads and likely bitching and moaning. Fuck 'em. This is a good album.Ween are currently on tour throughout the States.
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- Mark Weddle
- Albums and Singles
"Classical Atmospheres" is his 6th full length album in 9 years, the2nd of which is entirely self realized and released through his own website ($12 shipped from labreport.com). Lab Report's music delves intomenacing, soundtrack style industrial soundscapes and ambiance viaSchultz's "anti-tank guitar" invention, field recordings and samples.With "Classical Atmospheres", as one might assume from the title,Schultz explores classical themes in 5 of the 16 tracks while the restare more similar to past Lab Report work, as well as other strange newsounds. "Bombastic One" and "Bombastic Finale" are proud miniatureorchestras, the former augmented by the somewhat out of place electricguitar soloing of American Records' Johnny Polonsky. "Sad and SomewhatIntoxicated", "Soundtrack Standard" and "Horns and Strings" are briefbut beautiful classically minded piano, violin and string/horn pieces,respectively. "The Chase" is a surprising bit of uptempo, metallicrhythm fueled film noir soundtrack that might make Barry Adamson smile."Dun Dun" is a playful cartoon like loop that, as the insert itselfdescribes, 'becomes irritating' (each track is accompanied by a briefdescription and b/w photo). The remainder of the album are theambient/found sound pieces ... drones, washes, hums, thumps, bangingand clanging ... all of which are as good if not better than past work."Introduction" (with additional guitar by Dirty's Tom Slattery) isespecially eerie. These tracks are not simply random noises, they areintentional emotive environments. Altogether, "Classical Atmospheres"is Schultz's most successful and challenging (for both the artist andlistener) work to date. The balance between old and new sounds andstyles works very well and Schultz, as an artist, continues to remainunpredictable and independently push himself forward ...samples:
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- Daniel Barychko
- Albums and Singles
If I had togive "Loopstatic" a theme it would be political intrigue with theshortwave radio as a propaganda tool. From his last couple of releasesand The Wire interview its clear - Kirk seems to be in full assaultmode - using his synths more like machine guns and his samplers aspropaganda tools. A stark contrast to earlier works like DigitalLifeforms where everything is smooth and pleasing with minimalpolitical overtones. Today's stuff is much harsher - like going to ahockey game or a riot! A typical track starts with a strange, loopedshortwave sample, the mechanical, hihats and other bits start clickingaway. Resonant bursts shoot out of his synths like little laser guns asthe rhythm builds, and (only occasionally this time) ethnic percussionfinds itself enslaved to the 4/4 beat of Detroit house music. Beforeyou know it you are enveloped in a full-tilt sensurround house musicexperience. I guess you could call it mean and nasty,take-no-prisoners, subversive house music. I've never heard anythinglike it.
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