00I00
- title
Feather Float
- label
Polystar Records
- format
- LP
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.