This full length follows 2 singles by them which did very well at WZBC and made them many DJ's favorites. They sounded exactly like the Fall on thier second single "Firebird Special" (also on this CD). Their first single "Machine" was played by every WZBC Rock DJ. This CD sounds like Yummy Fur and Nectarine No. 9 with the guitars doubling on the bass riffs (like Lungleg also do). The vocals have the Mark E. Smith (The Fall) fixation many of the Scottish bands (like Male Nurse) seem to affect.

This was originally released as a one-sided 12" on the Blackbean & Placenta Tape Club label. This CD has "excellent pop-songs like 4-A-D meets Stereolab, same recordings as on the Blackbean vinyl release but with better artwork, better sound (mastering), even the CD itself looks great", to quote Jorg Winzer, of Mind The Gap mailorder. Melody Bar calls their sound "Slowdive meets Young Marble Giants pop". This Miami FL band had a 7inch on the Scottish label Tinseltones (the label who put out Autocollants, KG, and Toulouse 7inchs) called "Luminous Constructions"

I've seen his releases touted in the Japanese fanzine Beikoku Ongaku, but my first exposure to his music is this EP, which is the latest of Twee Kitten's subscription series of CDEP's. For $15.00 a year (in the US) they will send you 6 CDEP's, which is a pretty great deal if they're all as good as this one, which I'll bet they are. Scott Brookman is from Richmond VA, and plays pop,with lots of sophistication and humor. Check out the last song "Emma Peel" written for Diana Riggs of the Avengers, and the title song, a song about being visited at work by the "Man From Operations", who changes everything. A good hate-your-boss song. This EP is a pretty good sign that subscribing to Twee Kitten would be a solid investment in good music if you like pop. The Twee Kitten site has many songs you can hear on Real Audio by bands on the label, including Scott Brookman.

Mina is a young band out of Berlin that have a record coming out on Bungalow. They are doing more of a high energy post-rock than the usual sound of Bungalow acts. The bass is really going, and all the instruments sound right. This 12inch has 4 songs.

Buck is Lisa Marr (vocals & Bass), and Lisa G (drums) of Cub. Cub were from Vancouver BC. Buck is centered in Los Angeles. Since the release of this record they have changed drummers, so only Lisa Marr remains from the original Cub lineup. Their music is fast punkpop with female vocals, not far removed from bands like Longstocking and Joan Jett.

"Transistor Six Lo-fi space age pop. made with anologue synths, a home computer, loops, slide guitars, and heavenly choirs, all wedged on to a Tascam 07inch (From their own site). They are from Japan. They remind me of a less professional Yoshinori Sunahara, or of the band Sam & Valley, who had the great "My Favorite Clinic" LP out late '97 on Rephlex.

Short Cut Freak is like a less professional Japanese Andreas Dorau. There are the rapid fire vocals and the elecktro-ish dance keys & beat. There's 5 songs here, but I like the second one "Love and Slight Fever" best and the first one "Bike-Girl" second best.

Here's what Jorg says "cute and nicely jazzy indie-pop from Japan b/w that might be the Japanese answer to Sukpatch’s indie/hip-hop crossover - girl vocals, limited to 300". Here's what Blackbean says "Wonderful Japanese space pop with an emphasis on enchanted beats, twee vocals, and sunny melodies. Swank like Stereolab and coy like Aikagi."

Fallen Angel is like a rough Velvet Underground song, or like something Twinkeyz or early Dream Syndicate might have done. It's routed in pop, somewhat noisy, and filled with attitiude, with all rough edges intact. The song is really good completely on its own.

You can see the sleeve, hear 14 seconds of the song, and find out more about their label here. This is their second single. We also have the first one ("My Favorite Trashcan") on the same label. They're from Scotland. They don't play typical songs, they use snippets of dialog from movies over their music to create their pieces.