Adult. are a duo from Detroit who sound a bit like a snappier Ladytron. They would be right at home playing gigs with Mum & Dad or Chicks On Speed as well. Adam Lee Miller of Adult is the founder of the label Ersatz Audio as well. Nicola Kuperus is the deadened vocalist who gives them the Ladytron edge and Adam Lee Miller (calling himself Adam Equation) does the music, which is programmed keyboards and drums, again recalling the Ladytron sound. There are 5 tracks on this 12". With US bands like Pineal Ventana, (Boston's own) Freezepop, and Adult, I'm getting a warmer feeling about US music these days. Faves: A1,B3

"Your Charms" is one of the songs from the recent 'Disco Violante' LP. In addition this CD5 has 2 new David Gedge originals with Steve Albini production. "Reel 2, Dialog 2" is a somewhat mellow song about infidelity with male and female vocals and lots of production embellishments including a harpsichord, violin, and a backing vocal which sounds like David Bowie's "The Supermen" from 'The Man Who Sold The World' mixed low in the background. "Girl On A Motorcycle" (has nothing to do with the film of the same name) is an upbeat song with David Gedge vocals and female backgrounds. Fave: 1

Fonda 500 are friends of the band Salako. Both bands are from Hull in the UK, and Fonda 500 are on the label run by Salako, The Village. The 2 bands sound somewhat similar as well. To break down the three songs on this EP, "Super Chimpanzee" sounds like a proper cross of Super Furry Animals, Ooberman, and MoHoBishOPi. You have the attention to melody that SFA have, the male/female voacls of Ooberman, and the occasional breaks into noisiness that MoHoBishOPi takes. "Super Chimpanzee" is a great song. It is my fave of the 3. "Roller Disco" mixes the sounds of OMD, L'Augmentation, and Electralane. It is an instrumental that has a single notes melody that reminds me of OMD's song "Electricity". There is also the organ sound that recalls L'Augmentation, and the general sound and structure of an electralane song. It is my second fave song. "Gemini" is very Ooberman. It is a mellow acoustic guitar driven song with male and female vocals. It sounds like it could have been on Ooberman's 'Magic Treehouse' LP. Japan's Escalator Records are going to release a version of this EP with 2 bonus tracks on it. Escalator's interest in Fonda 500 is about the best reference I could give you to the quality of this band. Faves: 1,2

Two members of Ladytron are designers, and the other two are a model and a genticist. Their favorite current artist is Peaches. They have their own studio and record into ProTools, though they try to keep the programming at a minimum. Most of the keyboard parts are played live. They all play keyboards – Helena [Marnie] is classically trained. Mira [Aroyo] plays guitar as well. Ladytron started off right by naming themselves after a Roxy Music song. I remember chasing down their first 12" based on the bands name alone. "He took her to a movie" was an incredible burst into the music world. They've gotten a lot of mileage out of that song. It initially came out as a 12" on Invicta Hi-Fi, then as a cut on the Bambini 'Miss Black and Her Friends" CD, then on a compilation or 2. This 12" has 2 songs from the Bambini CD plus 2 new songs. "Paco" is my fave song on the 12". It epitimizes everything I love about Ladytron. It has the deadpan voice like Adult use. Its lyrics are from a girl working in a department store, checking out one of the customers, flirting with him from within the anesthetized point of view she takes when clocked in at her boring job. "USA vs. White Noise" is an instrumental that has a slightly menacing tone and a sound like a toy being wound up in the background. "Playgirl (Snap Ant Version)" is a guitar-y, really downbeat, almost 'easy' instrumental version of a song from the Bambini CD. It sounds like it could be played in the background while the girl singing "Paco" works. Snap Ant are another band on Invicta Hi-Fi. Fave: A2

Pilote is Stuart Cullen from Brighton in the UK. This 12" follows up his LP 'Antenna'. It has 4 tracks. 'Fairplay' is a really strong cut. It is the immediate standout track based on the percussive clicks like a rhythmic geiger counter, processed drum sound, great production, and lack of clutter without being a minimal track - very clean sounding. 'Getting Down' has vocal samples from a radio station dj playing a request with a dedication. It also has a big sound with cool beats and sharp music. 'Trying to get hold of the Sheriff' is mellower than the songs on the A-side but sounds really fine with what sounds like a metronome, a sound like water through a hose nozzle cleaning off a car or something, and an old fashioned telephone ring. This song was not one of my immediate favorites but now has me loving it most of all. 'Simple' is my least fave. It just sounds like garden variety electronica to me. The other 3 songs easily cover this shortcoming though. Faves: A1, A2, B1

All I knew was that the A-side of this 12" is my favorite Pole song. Forced Exposure helped me unravel the mystery of this release: Repress of the first Pole release from 1998; both tracks are exclusive to this release. "Pole is Stefan Betke with this excellent release on Din (a division of Basic Channel). 'Raum' is his debut release for DIN, another hidden mysterious. Pulsating loops which develop from stomping club-beats to absolute unique minimalistic tunes and back- cords using small melodic range with tight grooves and bright sound -- are entering the brain and body." Fave: A

The first record by Vienna Austria's Sofa Surfers. Sofa Surfers remind me of The Ex if art, electronics and dub were the stock in trade instead of The Ex's politics, guitars and dissonance. From the 'Surfers website "The last two years have been a confusing period in the life of the Sofa Surfers, busy negotiating the creative chaos of their Monoscope studio housed in a disused factory re-named Kunstwerk, progressing from one involuntarily cathartic computer breakdown to the next, in-between nipping down to the nearby petrol station to stock up on Rizlas and refuel their life-saving little gas heater while occasionally interrupting the proceedings in order to supply the soundtrack for the numerous parties held in the building". Dub, to them, is about preserving rawness and the patient enjoyment of narcosis. Break-beats played live, programmed improvisations, polyphonic noises, and the sort of nearly stumbling grooves that catch you by letting you drop are what you will hear on 'Transit'. Faves: 5,6,10,12,14,15

The third self-released CD by London's reigning queen of pop, Lorraine Bowen. She has a look like the star in the English sitcom 'Keeping Up Appearances' (like a camp version of a stodgy overdressed suburban housewife) and an ear for a melody that keeps her songs fun and catchy. She will forever be immortalized for her song "Crumble" which has appeared (in different versions) on each of her 3 records. The version on 'Bossy Nova' is called the "Bombay mix" and it has a Bollywood sound that is a kick, complete with a male guest vocalist singing it. Her skill is to write about everyday things in a way that you may not have thought of them, and to make you smile. Faves: 2,4,10,16

A compilation of many of the songs from his series of 12"s which had 2 songs named after the same girl on each side. There are no titles on this CD and I do not have the original 12"s to get explorative to find them out, but I know (from Forced Exposure) that Olga Zwei, Ulla Eins, Xenia Eins & Zwei, Erika Zwei, Inge Eins, Nicola Eins are 7 of the 12 songs on this disc. There is at least one new track as well. Here is some info on him: "Thomas Brinkmann is a former artist of the famous art school in Düsseldorf, but got kicked out because of his radical arguments and modern thinking in terms of art. He started doing scratch loops in the beginning of the 80s because he liked the idea of a step sequencer. Mathematically thought out, he developed a precise art of scratching the the grooves with a sharp knife-like instrument into the vinyl. Complex grooves were the result, but were not used by him until 17 years later when he won back his enthusiasm for music through Mike Ink's Studio 1 series. It all made sense for him again, and he started to do variations with the Studio 1 records, by using his special designed record player with two systems. He turned down the speed and came up with a dopplereffect which sounded like dub...he then created his own label called Ernst, which means 'serious' in English. The first 3 records show his interest in repetitive minimal music and put him very close to the likes of Panasonic. His music can be described as machine music with just a little bit of funk enough to make you dance. Each bass drum, each hi hat is detectable. Ernst goes from very abstract minimal music to more Krautrock electronic approach." --Riley Reinhold Check here for a neat graphical representration of the 12" in this series . This CD might be on a label whose name translates to 'serious', but I assure you that listening to the songs here is simply 'fun' Faves: 2,4,8,10,11

Yukari's third and newest full length. She has collaborated with artists she likes or just plain had the artist do a cover version of one of her songs. There are 15 songs here, with many styles. Yukari Fresh was there right at the start of Escalator Records, one of the best labels for J-pop. Her first record was Esc002 (the second release ever on Escalator). Her sound is the sound of all my current faves: Losfeld, Mansfield, Cubismo Grafico, and ComoEstas. It is a really bright and sparkly everything-but-the-kitchen-sink feel that bounces and has parts which are taken from or inspired by Easy music. It uses lots of electronics but has a really warm organic feel and lots of vocals. I really love all three of her records and would advise anyone liking the bands I named above to pick them up. I hope to get the earlier Yukari Fresh LPs for WZBC as they are my faves over this one. Both 'Yukari's Perfect' and 'New Years Fresh' (the titles of those 2 earlier records) are only Yukari, and that alone makes them better to me. Most of the songs covered on this disc are culled from those 2 records as well. One of my faves is a version of a song from her first 'Yukari's Perfect' record. It is a collaboration with Erobique called "Raymond". It is like observing someones letters to a lover. It sounds like Erobique (Raymond?) and Yukari were once together and that he is inviting her to come visit him in Europe. The collaboration she does with the Schoniff Singers (from NY!) has them doing the "Mr. Sandman" vocals which she uses very well in a cool weave. Faves: 2,4,5,6,9,12,13,14

Hmm is an album of international hymns and anthems and other investigations of childhood influences featuring David Toop, Kreidler, Kit Clayton, Vladislav Delay, Antye Greie-Fuchs (of Laub), Freeform, Wang Inc, Shenton Engine [of Add N to (x)], Benge, Opiate (current Björk collaborator ), Wiggle (Ken Ishii collaborators), Farben, Matrix, Carl Stone, Kaffe Matthews and a few others. The standout cut for me (and reason I bought this for WZBC) is the Shenton Engine cut. Shenton Engine is Ann Sheldon recording for the firast time outside of Add N To X. Her song is one of the longer ones (running at 3:12). It has a really dirty synth sound and a funky bass part. It is an instrumental which travels over the top in parts. The other hidden appearance by an artist you may know is Antye Greie-Fuchs. She is in Laub, who have out a new record (their third) on Kitty-Yo. Her vocal song (though short, at 1:45) is my second fave on the disc. Faves: 2,5,8,10,15,17,18,19

Hrvatski is Kieth Whitman from right here in Cambridge MA. He is known far and wide for the reviews he writes for Forced Exposure as well as for his electronic music as Hrvatski. This is his first proper release since his Oiseaux 96-98 CD. It is his first release for the German label Tonschacht. He composed each of these songs based on sounds he found in three different rooms in his recording space, which he calls The Reckankomplex. This is what Hrvatski himself has to say about this 7" "A collection of field recordings of the reckankomplex itself, sequenced into microrhythmic etudes. No breaks. A departure, sure, but not a permanent one". Faves: all 3