A double LP compilation which attempts to track the progression of Japanese Electronic music from 1975 to 1998. This is a task as impossible to cover as was that of the film Modulations last year. This compilation has many things on it that we don't have, so I'd say that it is a success, though not the "definitive collection" it claims to be.
The first 2 volumes of this series (Vol.1= Tower Of Winds, as seen by Ysatis & Deupree, Vol.2= Waterloo Terminal, as seen by Tetsu Inoue) were really great, and were free to WZBC, as they were serviced to us through Triage. They found many friendly ears at WZBC in our No Commercial Potentail (NCP) programming. Now "success" has found Caipirinha (they were picked up as a Sire subsidiary) and Triage is out of the picture, as was Architettura Volume 3 until now, as Sire never serviced us with it. This volume of the series honors the Museum Of Fruit in Yamanshi Japan. this incredible cluster of three domes within sight of Mt. Fuji was designed by Itsuko Hasegawa. David Toop has put his impressions of it to his hands, ears, and machinery, and given us another incredible addition to this series, which has become the creative highmark of Caipirinha, perfectly distilling the ideas of Caipirinha's goals as a label.
The compilation disc that comes with this fanzine is top-notch. I cut up its thin sleeve and made it into an easy to see jewel cases disc, so look for a handwritten spine that says "Various - The Bee's Knees". There are 15 songs, 5 of which I find to be great. those would be the songs by Kingsauce, Of Montreal, Masters Of Hemisphere, Minders, and (my fave of the disc) The Kiss-Offs. When The Kiss-Off's song "Red Underwear" was playing I had to look to see what was playing, it sounded so good. It's also a bit differert in sound than any of the other songs, a male/female punk rock that sounds as influenced by The Waitresses as the The Saints
The guy's (Pedro Duque) voice sounds like a spanish version of Germany's Andreas Dorau, and the A-side has the music to match. The first song on the B-side is a Francoise Hardy cover (El Telefono Corte), and the second B-side continues in the Andreas Dorau sound. Cyber Ye-Ye sound like they would make a great opening act for Bungalow's Dauerfisch next time they play in Madrid.
Sprightly instrumentals with sharp reverb guitar, vibraphone, and a tight rhythm make up the firstsong on each side, while mellower songs with slight female background vocals and vibraphonereel in the close.
The debut release from this label based in Albequerque NM. Their idea is to release split singles pairing well known bands with lesser known ones. Both songs on this split are instrumentals. Soi-Disant sounds vaguely Stereolab-ish on their side, while Stereolab sound like something that might appear on an Amon Tobin record, right up until the electronicy, techno-ish end.
2 new songs are on this latest single. Beachbuggy should be the houseband for Gearhead magazine, with their Hot Rod lyrical obsessions. I like the B-side of this single best. It has dialog between a driver and the guy that gives him bucks, and they talk about the kind of car a Chaffuer should have, over a typically Beachbuggy Fall-ish groove.
77 style punk rock from Salt Lake City Utah. Fairly strong reference points to The Ramones and The Lurkers. The vocalist in this band is not up to either of his heroes, but they sound sincere and the 7" is a fun listen, not hopelessy derivative drivel. Last song on the B-side shows Crimes influence (Hot wire my heart) even in 1999.
This is the debut single from the band whose second single we added on June 15, 1999. I found this single in the sale bin at Newbury Comics for only $2.99, whereas the second single came to us mailorder via Rough Trade. It's really quite a cracker. I must find a copy for myself, as I did with the second single. In fact this is my favorite item in this week's adds. Anyone who likes Ordinary Psycho, or who likes Julian Cope, MUST hear this single and this band.