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LP / 00I00 / Feather Float / Polystar Records 00I00 ("Oh-oh-eye-oh-oh") is Yoshimi's new project. She has been
one of the drummers in The Boredoms and has also played in Free Kitten.
This Japanese LP has super fancy and fine packaging. It has a full
color fold out poster sleeve and a beautifully colored robins egg
blue clear vinyl wax for the LP. The music within is what I guess
you would call dissonant pop. It is not by any means noise, but it
is not melodic or meant to soothe. The whole package is quality,
from the production to her (occasional) vocals to the music to the
sleeve. You might really like this! I'm pretty confident that anyone
who loves Out Hud or !!! will really like this LP. My favorite songs
are the last 2 songs on the B-side, "Sun In A House" and the Slits-like "Ring
Ring Lee". I also like "Ah Yeah!" on the A-side. ---Carl |
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7" / CECILIA ET SES ENNUIS / "On M'appelle 'Pussycat' " b-w ""C'est Une Question De Feeling" & "J'aime Penser Qu'un Jour" / Dionysus Records 3 song single of French vocaled Dutronc styled pop that sounds a
bit like early April March mixed with The Pandoras or The Brood.
Their name translates to "Cecilia and her troubles". I've noticed
another great looking single in the stores, so it looks like we may
hear more from this band. All the songs are pretty good, though I
like the A-side best myself as it is slower and less garage, more
Holly Golightly than The Chesterfield Kings. It has neat organ too
and a killer guitar break near the end. ---Carl |
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CD5 / CHIX 52 / Chicksonspeed Records The lates Chicks On Speed release is a 4 song EP in collaboration
with Gerard Potuzuik, Ramon Bauer, and the three bandmembers: Melissa,
Kiki, and Alex. There are 3 B-52 covers and a new original. Two of
the covers "Give Me Back My Man" & "Song For A Future Generation" were
on 'the un-releases' CD. "Give Me Back My Man" was on the 'Will Save
Us All' LP as well. "Strobelight" is unique to this EP. "The Chixmachine" is
the new original, and it is the highlight of this EP to me. It is
a five and a half minute song which takes full advantage of everyone
involved. ---Carl |
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CD / COSMIC ROUGH RIDERS / Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine / Poptones Records I remember reading a review that came out when Poptomes released
their first round of 3 CDs a short time ago. Those were El Vez, The
Montgolfier Brothers, and Selofane Seventy Four. The reviewer (I
believe this was in the London version of Time Out) said that the
El Vex CD was great, but that the master stroke of Poptones would
be the upcoming Cosmic Rough Riders CD. Cosmic Rough Riders are a
band from Glasgow that have been around for some time, putting out
records on a small label. This CD is really just a compilation of
the best songs from those albums. Cosmic Rough Riders sound a lot
like Beachwood Sparks. They have a heavy debt to California bands
of the 70's like Poco. This is not really my sound, I've got to admit.
However, there are 2 songs I like very much. "Madeleine" sounds a
lot like The dBs when Peter Holsapple was fronting them (and that
is a VERY good thing!), and "Sometime" reminds me of the aforementioned
Beachwood Sparks. "Emily Darling" is a pretty good song as well,
but I don't really care for any of the other tunes. It is funny to
hear a Scottish band so obsessed with a patently American music,
American accents and everything.. ---Carl |
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CD / various / INTELLECTOS MANIFESTO / Intellectos Records Very decent compilation out of Philadelphia. There are 8 songs out
of the 21 that I rather like. The Youth Untold do a Bartlebees-like
song "The Kids Are All Gay" which borrows a bit from The Who. Steward
does "FFWD" which is another nice song with vocals from this WZBC
favorite artist. Atom and His Package borrow a bit from The Velvet
Underground for "Stephanie Says". The Remote Viewer have one of the
longer songs of this comp (at 4:49) with the instrumental "Untitled
#17". Transistor Six play "Always Mock Tutor" sounding a bit like
Pop Off Tuesday. Bug Bite have The Parcels-like "Bugs Bite" (slightly
like early Bis). The Kiss Offs, who have the great song "Red Underwear" on
a single we have at WZBC play "Do The Zoo" on this comp. Persons
have a song called "Idealists Dead" which reminds me of early Joe
Jackson or the Steward copeland band Klark Kent. It is very new wave
pop with a kick. These eight songs all are very much worth a listen
in my opinion. |
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CD5 / CUBISMO GRAFICO / St. Nicolas / Escalator Records 6 song EP with a Christmas/New Years theme. Cubismo Grafico is Matsuda
Gakuji aka 'Chabe'. There are "2 Tahiti 80 Remixes, 2 new songs,
and 2 small jingles". Tahiti 80 is a band from France that have a
very similar sound to Colin Blumstone singing in The Zombies on their
own stuff. They did a standout remix of Cubismo Grafico's "Mississippi
One" on The Escalator Collection compilation. That mix and a remix "Fairytale
Of Escape", which makes it a much faster guitar based song, are here.
The 2 new songs are "Story Ends" and "Jamaica Song", which features
Sayaka Kushibiki on vocals. ---Carl |
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CD / various / FRESH FRUIT / Lo Recordings Extremely inexpensive import compilation with 21 tracks. The very
informative link at http://www.hub100.com/freshfruit/ gives info
on all the artists. My two faves on this disc were the twisted pop "Never
Been Seen" by Cursor Miner and the stop and start electonic spazz
out of "Sunshine Coach Episode 1" by They Came From The Stars Vs
The London Toy Orchestra. I also like the Max Tundra track "Runaround",
though it was a bit out of place sounding on this comp, with it's
female vocal house sound amidst the majority of very NCP-ish minimal
electronic acts offering pieces here. Boston's own Hrvatski has a
song on here ("Short With Guitar"), though it is not a song I like
from him. I'll bet it was recorded a long time ago, as his sound
has recently become much more interesting than his drill n'bass beginnings. ---Carl |
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CD / various / LA GENERATION READYMADE 2000 / Readymade Records My pick of the week, with the Cubismo Grafico EP as second fave.
This CD has 9 songs spead over 38 minutes. 5 of these 8 songs are
fantastic songs that we don't have. In reality all songs are very
good. We have one of the songs already. that would be Mansfield's "Mansfield
Theme". For some reason an old Fantastic Plastic Machine song is
here as well. The FPM song is called "L'aventure Fantastique," which
is on the self-titled debut album. It features vocals from Honeymink & Laurie
Le Mans from the Gentle People. Other than those 2 all songs are
new and are great. My 5 faves are Punch The Monkey (Pizzicato Five's
Konishi Yasuharu), ComoEstas (Comesta Yaegashi's Mambo styled band
he formed after ending his earlier P5 styled band Fifth Garden),
Manabu Iwamura (who has a forthcoming record on Readymade that should
be great if this cut is any judge), Rocketman (who have a song with
a looped female laugh that could be either fun or maddening depending
on the listener), and J. Girls (a 60's band). Their song is taken
from the excellent 'Good Night Tokyo' compilation. Each of these
songs are great J Pop that I can recommend to you without any second
thoughts. ---Carl |
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CD / BARBARA MORGENSTERN / Fjorden / Monika Enterprises Barbara Morgenstern first came to my attention through the cover
she did with Chicks On Speed of the German all girl new wavwe band
Malaria's song "KaltesKlaresWasser". Next time I heard her stuff
was on the Die Welttraumforscher "...remixen" compilation on Gargarin
Records. Barbara Morgenstern is from Germany and plays somewhat lo-fi
electronic avantpop mixed between instrumentals and vocals, like
a less produced Goldfrapp. On this CD she has great production by
Stefan Betke (Pole) and guest appearances which include Robert and
Ronald Lippok of To Rococo Rot. ---Carl |
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12" / RECHENZENTRUM / Landschaft Nach Der Schlacht / Shitkatapult Records The followup to the self-titled full length they put out recently on Kitty-Yo. Rechenzentrum are from Berlin and play minimal techno rather well. The label that this 12" is on seems to be on a strong run of quality releases. The double LP vinyl Shitkatapult compilation "Verschiedene Kunstler: Cozmick Suckers Volume Silver" is still one of my faves several months after I first bought it. The first song from the Kitty-Yo full length is their contribution to that comp. This 12" has 6 new songs. Quoting from Forced Exposure: "Followup to the rather excellent
self-titled Rechenzentrum album that was released by Kitty Yo. That
seemed like a somewhat strange label choice, but with this new one
on the effervescent Shitkatapult, well, now we're talking. Described
as "6 very crispy relaxed groovers. Modern soundscapes, Farben-related," this
explores a further angle of contemporary German sonic reduction."Marc
Weiser (the man behind the music) and Lillevaen (the man behind the
visuals) provide deep aquatic techno and raspy electronic hip hop
under the name Rechenzentrum. They construct an elaborate and highly
complex collage of deep hypnotic techno house sounds and intricate
well-defined visuals... intelligent and deep without being overtly
chin stroking. Like Markus Nikolai, Dimbiman, and Ricardos Villalobos
from Perlon, Rechenzentrum are putting the funk back into deep minimal
techno." ---Carl |
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