Pop Artificielle is electronic wizard 'Uwe Schmidt' aka 'Lassigue Bendthaus'. On this CD he does Electro versions w/vocals of 10 songs that you will know: James Brown 'Superbad', ABC 'Be Near Me', Donavan 'Sunshine Superman', Prince (from the Batman soundtrack) 'The Future', John Lennon 'Jealous Guy', The System 'You Are In My System', David Bowie 'Ashes To Ashes', Yellow Magic Orchestra (Ryuichi Sakamoto) 'Thatness and Thereness', Rolling Stones 'Angie', and Tremoloes/ 4 Seasons 'Silence Is Golden'. Not cliche sounding, and kind of neat! He has several other records out and is no newcomer to the scene.

Jake Shillingford is back with the It Records debut of My Life Story. There are 3 new songs on this CDEP. The title song is the standout, very catchy pop, a great return. The second song (Emerald Green) sounds kind of like Squeeze with strings, and the third song ('Florence's Theme', an instrumental) sounds like a sweeping film soundtrack song.

3 of the members (Baz, Stan, and Mark) were in the 80's Scottish band The Farmer's Boys, who had a sound very much like Orange Juice. This is the debut single of their brand new band. The A-side reminds me of something Marshall Crenshaw might have recorded. The B-side has a touch of Wah! (Pete Wylie's early 80's Liverpool band) to it.

Eccentric english pop - the first english band signed to (German label) City Slang. Includes Le Hammond Inferno (of Bungalow Records) remix. Somewhat of a novelty song, but catchy and fun. A-side is also on their new full length, which also is put out by City Slang. The main riff is like the signature riff of Iron Butterfly's 'In-a-gadda-da-vida' played on modern electronic gear.

Debut single. They recall Velvet Underground / Tindersticks and Go-Betweens. The B-side (Icarus) really builds into a giant climax.

Only 500 copies have been pressed, and the songs are exclusive. Rothko have released lots of records in the last year on Fierce Panda, Foundry, Lo, etc. They are 3 bass players, period. They perform an instrumental which takes advantage of the different sounds of the three basses and the stereo mix. Elephant have been compared to Joy Division and Suicide, and have done very well at WZBC with their CD and their singles. The song here is definitely one of their good ones.

Benno is a Swedish Magazine (in Swedish), which is now trying to spread the knowledge that there are good unknown bands in Sweden by releasing records as well. This 4 band EP has a song each by Chocolate Barry (who sound like prime era Babybird) covering a Jonathan King song (writer of such classics as 'Hooked on a Feeling' and the Rocky Horror song '(Let's Do) The Time Warp'), Nixon (who didn't leave much of an impression on me), Cat Skills (a side project of Girlfrendo), and NY Akustik (who have a singer that sounds like Ringo). I bought this single for us for the Cat Skills song ('Something In The Milk'), but the Chocolate Barry song is very good as well.

The third single they have on Fortuna Pop. They are from Leicester (same as Prolapse, The Freed Unit, John Sims, etc.), and don't have an LP out yet. I've not heard their earlier singles, though I had read that they sounded like New Order. This single reminds me more of the sound of the Beatglider (also a Leicester band) song 'Premonition Dragon' (which I like a lot) with vocals which sound like Peter Perrett (of The Only Ones). Airport Girl, who also have out a single on Fortuna Pop! which we have ('Between Delta & Delaware') also have an Only Ones thing going with their vocal.

I first learned about them from a review of a Mac Meda single in the Boa Fanzine where Mac Meda are credited with the creation of sample-happy miniature electrosymphonies along with Cinema and the Famous Boyfriend. As I already loved Mac Meda's two singles, and the singles and LP of Famous Boyfriend (side project of Hood), I had to hear Cinema. This is their second single for Domino. I've not seen the first. The A-side is based on what sounds like the piano signature from the Alice Cooper song 'Stephen' from his 'Welcome To My Nightmare' LP, or a section of Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells'. The B-side has a series of locked groove breaks that you can mix into other songs seamlessly and easily. Neat idea, and fun for those who want to play with records instead of just play them.

The Poconos are Tami Heaton and Mike Appelstein from NYC. This 7' was recorded by Jon Chaikin of Coloring Book. Mike and Tami also put out the great fanzine 'Caught In Flux', which we have a few copies of at the station. There are 6 songs of prime era indiepop on this EP. Tami's voice reminds me of Jodi Buonanno (local star) of the Runways and The Secret Stars.

This is a band from Columbus OH who put out somewhat shambling dissonant pop on this 4 song EP. The first song on the A-side ('Gabrielle') is driven by chugging acoustic guitar, vocals, and drums, and has loud (in the mix) sparse electric guitar accents that would do Arto Lindsay proud. The first song on the B-side ('Stockton, N Cal.') sounds like an indiepop version of 'Schizophrenia' (Sonic Youth) with male vocals.