Quebec City's Katerine. This CD is worthy of much wider exposure than it has had. Didier Boutin sings in French and has really quirky arrangements and great production, all combined with an off pop sense. You can almost hear Gonzales in these songs (if he emulated Serge Gainsbourg instead of DJ Assault). Didier Boutin has a playful side like Gonzales, and has a quick tongue in his phrasing, like Gonzales. As for the lyrical content- I can't tell you, for all the lyrics are in French. There is one short minute and a half instrumental called 'solo' that is a pretty intense electronic build. There are adult Katerine-ish piano pieces like the title song. My favorite songs are the throw-everything-in songs that have clever lyric phrasings, cool structures and changes, sharp production, and different ideas. Of those my favorites are 'Que foetus?', 'Changes tes ch'vuex', 'Vive les productions independantes', 'Con', 'J'ai des pensees pour toi', & 'Roquet jeremy'. These 6 songs make this disc worth hearing for anyone who likes the stuff I write about in the gullbuy.

CD / /

The first full length by this young London band who share both label and sound with The Beta Band. I have not heard their earlier singles, but I'm sure that several songs from them are here. One of the songs ('Journey Song') is remixed by the Twisted Nerve artist Sirconical. another song ('Sleep again') is remixed by Wauvenfold, who I do not know anything about. Both these remixes are good techno-ish instrumentals, though I do prefer the Wauvenfold one. There are 9 vocal songs and 5 instrumentals on this disc. The vocal songs remind me a bit of The French band Mellow. I don't really know The Beta Band so I can't say how similiar to them Brothers In sound are, but I do know that this disc has 5 songs I like a lot. They are the Wauvenfold remix and 4 of the vocal songs ('Shady mia', 'Brothers go down', Hey You!', & 'Breathing').

Three song single by the Welsh band who have got a cool sound, a bunch of strong singles, but no full length yet. Like the last single this was produced (quite capably) by Don Fleming. MoHoBishOPi's sound reminds me a lot of the Los Angeles band The Leaving Trains. That is a strong recomendation as I liked The Leaving Trains a lot. They had the amazing frontman Falling James who wrote killer songs and delivered them in wild fashion as well. The second song here "Switch To Positive" could be a Leaving Trains song, there is such a resemblence. The main song "Drop Jaw" has a bit of early Pavement added to the sound, and jewel like riffs that pull you right in.

My fave of the week. I have loved this Norwegian trio since their "Lost Kid" 7" on the Myke Droner label. This is their debut full length and it is the record released by SHADO directly after that labels high profile Harpsichord 2000 compilation, which has Remington Super 60 songs not on this CD on it. What Remington Super 60 do that makes them so great is to write pop songs in their bedroon studio using Casiotone, Yamaha, and Hammond keyboards, devices, acoustic guitar, bass, rhythm devices (like Trio's "Da Da Da") and lots of male and female vocals, with an almost lazy Beach Boys type feel. And they do it incredibly well. Picking the best songs from this disc I chose "A song my best friend", Please don't go", "Be my valentine tinight", and "Spain in space", but listening to this CD any song could be my fave if it was isolated from the others. I am recommending that you buy this CD if you like stuff on Elefant Records, Siesta, and El. I know you will love the music and songs.

As I listened to this at home she said "what's this? It's at the wrong speed". I said, "No it's not, It's good." "It's nothing to be proud of", she remarked. V/VM have taken a series of Love Sick songs and destroyed them by treatment, keeping them basically intact, but with 'bad trip' type changes to them. They have just released a 21 song CD gathering many of these, plus their website has many more not on the disc that you can download. They have said that the purpose of this project was to capture the down side of Love, when the joy is over and that favorite song you shared now brings remembrences better left unremembered. Having listened to the CD to decide if I should buy it for us, I know that the true essence of the project is right here in these 2 songs. Their treatment of Lionel Richies "All Night Long" is not on the CD, and it is the best of any of the tracks I've heard in this series. It is actually very listenable, whereas the version of Chris DeBurgh's "Lady In Red" on the B-side is a torture to listen to, though a joy to hear at least once.