Bunny are a new band from Doncaster in England. Tugboat's website touts "Bunny are the bastard off-spring of Clinic and The Fall". Listening to this debut 7" I'd say they are close enough. I also hear The Male Nurse and The Yummy Fur on the B-side. This single could really feature either side as the A-side. Both songs are good. Along with bands like Pale Man Made (the 3 song 'Inchberry Sweet Rocket' CDEP on Pinch Records) it is now becoming clear that even though Clinic's LP was (to some) a poorly recorded mess they have seeded a sound which is growing out nicely. Both sides are very energetic and the 4 boys camp it up on the photos on the sleeve so you know that this is about fun, not fitting in.

24 song compilation of Brian Wilson songs, the plan being to highlight lesser known songs. Some of the songs are from 70's records that never came out, some were recorded by Brian's wife (Marilyn) bands Spring and The Honeys. In some ways I don't really like this compilation much. If we are hearing lesser know Brian Wilson songs, I'd much rather have a nicely packaged compilation (as this one is) of those songs themselves. I feel that many of the versions here are somewhat flawed readings of his glorious songs. I like 5 of the versions presented here a lot. Those are June & The Exit Wound's "All I Wanna Do" from 1970's 'Sunflower', The High Llamas "Anna, The Healer" from the late 60's 'Friends' LP, The Free Design's "Endless Harmony" from 1980's "Keepin' The Summer Alive", Saint Etienne's "Stevie" (Brian's tribute to Stevie Nicks) an unreleased song, Kle's "Rainbow Eyes" from the never-released-thanks-to Dr. Eugene Landy 'Sweet Insanity' LP, and Jad Fair's "Do Ya" originally recorded by The Honeys in 1977. The Free Design song is their first recording in 30 years. Liner notes in this disc say that a brand new Free Design CD will come out on Marina soon. Many of the other songs have moments I like a lot but then something ruins it in them. Of those songs I like Camping's version of "Busy Doin' Nothin". It is electronic and reminds a bit of Bridge and Tunnel's "Borough of Kings" in sounds. The lyrics to "Busy Doin' Nothin" were said to describe driving directions back to Brian's Bel Air home, a notion he squashes in the April 20, 2000 interview printed in the liner book. Maybe what I really would have liked would have been a double CD set with one disc being the originals and one the covers. This CD was not very expensive though, so I guess it has it's value as is, especially as all the versions are unique to this disc.

In a multiple choice test if you held up all of Kid 606's releases and asked "which item does not fit in this set" the correct answer would be 'The Soccergirl EP'. The reason it does not fit is that it contains the six mellowest pieces Kid 606 has ever recorded (that I'm aware of). Instead of the full-on digital barrage which has come to characterize his sound you will hear pastoral electronica on this disc. The sound has much in common with bands like Isan or The Remote Viewer. For this reason 'The Soccergirl EP' is the most currently overlooked item in Kid 606's extensive catalog. In fact just this weekend I saw a copy for sale used at Twisted Village in Cambridge MA. You might want to buy that copy, because this disc is already out of print. The copies sitting ignored in stores now are the last you'll see. I predict that as Kid 606 gets even more popular this EP will be a sought after item. The packaging is very cool. Inside of a clear jewel case is a 5" square patch of pool table-like felt screened with the song titles and a soccerfield graphic in white. The disc itself is one of those 3" CD's embedded in a 5" clear ring, with a soccerball screened over the disc part. My favorite song on it is the unwieldy titled "If my heart ever ran away it would be looking for the day when right beside you it could forever stay".

A 12inch with 5 mixes of the most immediate song from the "Yesterday was dramatic, today is OK" CD. "Ballad Of A Broken Birdie" was also the only song on that disc to have vocals. Iceland seems to be a happening place with Mum, Sigur Ros, Bellatrix, and others putting out high quality releases. Side A has 2 mixes. The first is the album version. The second slices the song, accenting it's organic/electronic sounds. Side B has 3 mixes. The first spreads the song in sweeping strokes, with beats intact. The second is like Land Of The Loops or the Flowchart song "Flutter by Butterfly", and is my fave of the 5 mixes. The final mix is a bass heavy dub type mix. Curious fact : the twin girls from Múm appear on the cover of the new Belle & Sebastian album.

Sofa Surfers are a 4 man band from Vienna who I first heard about when 'Cargo' got comparisons to a dubbed-out trip-hop "Pole with instruments". The 'Cargo' CD eluded me until I recently found it in Cambridge's HMV, where a second copy sits waiting for one of you to buy it. I like that record better than this one, but Newbury Comics does not stock 'Cargo'. 9 of the 14 songs here are remixes of songs on Sofa Surfer's 'Cargo' full length on Klein Records . 4 are from their debut LP 'Transit' and 1 is adapted from music on their website. 'Constructions -Sofa Surfers remixed and dubbed' features contributions by Howie B. , Tom Tyler (DC Recordings), Richard Dorfmeister (K+D) , Ian Simmonds , Wordsound´s Spectre , Viennese beatheadz Enduro, the Leaf label´s Eardrum, Klein Records labelmates UKO and Mum, Sons of Silence and Mad Professor. Half of the songs have vocals (male vocals in English) and half are instrumentals. Klein Records has made a strong name for itself lately with Sofa Surfers, the Austrian Mum (as opposed to the Icelandic one whose 12" is reviewed above), and Seelenluft's "The rise and fall of Silvercity" LP. This CD was co-released by Motor Music, the label which puts out all those great Andreas Dorau records. This is the newest Sofa Surfers release and there is nothing wrong with it per se - it is just the same argument I used on the Brian Wilson tribute disc above: I'd rather hear the originals. Despite my gripes, I'm glad to be adding this Sofa Surfer's disc and am sure that many DJ's will really enjoy their sound

From the itinerary for the Safe As Milk Festival 2000, based on content of the Fat Cat website "Team Doyobi are Chris Gladwin and Alex Peverett, two young producers based in Hull and Leeds respectively. The Team Doyobi aesthetic is based around a merging of both old and new electronic/digital technologies. Largely eschewing the use of samples, they work instead via hand drawn soundwaves and waveform editing, generating loops through (often random) Amiga sequencing. Melodies are formed from gritty FX' shifting and densed layered. A stunning, chaotic space of shifting, glitch- riddled electronics, machine chatter, foggy FX and juddering jerk- beats". My interest in Team Doyobi stemmed from their track on the tigerbeat6 3" CD compilation 'Attitude', where Team Doyobi covered NWA's "Fuck The Police". This 8 song 12" more than fills the bill of meeting my initial curiosity with interesting cuts that make me want to hear more from them. All they have had out beside this so far (that I know of) is a split 12" with REQ on Fatcat Records.