Last month the "Feather Float" LP was bought for WZBC. That was the second OOIOO record. I'll hand the reins to Forced Exposure to tell you about this new disc: "Third album from OOIOO (pronounced "oh-oh-eye-oh-oh"), the all-female outfit led by Yoshimi (Boredoms, UFO or Die, Free Kitten). It is a quartet and Yoshimi sings & plays guitar, trumpet, flute, synth 2000, Casiotone, body drums, mini drums, santoor, bar chime, energy chime, sjembe, triangle, surdu and vibratone. Kayano (guitar), Maki (bass) and Yoshico (drums, maracas) round out the group. Guests on this album include: Honda Yuka (of Cibo Matto, piano), Sean Lennon (mount, melody chorus), Yamamoto Seiichi (mount, book melody) & others. The music is a magical p-we blend of percussive space chant, ethereal whisper and some SY-informed crescendo action, their most sophisticated recording to date. This is a Shock City release, so the packaging must be mindblowing (hard board mini-gatefold jacket, with inserted booklet of fantasy-acid art)."
My faves: 3,7,11

Everything released up to now under his name (with the exception of the 'Quadrille' LP, which continues to be impossible to find) have been remixes of other people's cuts or the odd song on a compilation (one of the Source Records comps has a Bertrand Burgalat song). This disc came without too much expectations for me, as I thought the Bungalow Records compilation of his remixes was OK but not up to the hype. I still will not say that Bertrand Burgalat is one of my fave artists, but this disc is pretty solid. It has a lot of diversity too - there are 2 instrumentals that would sound great on any NCP show (NCP is WZBC's "no commercial potential" night time programming, where dance, electronic, experimental, and leftfield music gets played). The 2 NCP-ish songs are #5 ("Ile De Beton") and #6 ("Attention Amiante"). The other 'bonus' treat the disc has are the songs with french celeb Katerine singing. #4 ("Ma Recontre") is amazingly smooth and cool, and #13 ("L'Observatoire") is pretty great too. The last of my 5 favorite songs on this disc is the title song. It is very 'Melody Nelson' - era Serge Gainsbourg. This disc should appeal to anyone who likes stuff like Arling & Cameron, or who likes the old master himself, Serge Gainsbourg.
Faves: 2,4,5,6,13

Tim Love Lee is finally starting to get some records into the US (as imports). There was a long time that I would read about him buy could never find any of his stuff, including his 'Confessions Of A Selector' debut LP (still haven't found it). It's slightly strange, as he runs the label Tummy Touch, and plenty of stuff from that label is available over here as imports. I guess it's kind of like the situation with Bertrand Burgalat. He runs the label Tricatel Records, yet his own record on Tricatel ('Quadrille') is impossible to find, while many of the other Tricatel releases enjoy wide availablility. One even got a US release! (the Etienne Charry CD). Back to Tim Love Lee. Both sides of this 7" are instrumentals that are actually not that far from Bertrand Burgalat's stuff, although Bertrand is revered as a producer, Tim as a lady's man. The A-side reminds a bit of a song from Mansfield. It has a really prominent bass part and nice rhythm florishes. The B-side has really great latin percussion including a hand struck cowbell-like instrument I don't know the name of, and some voices saying "Bossa Nova" in the background. It sounds like Uwe Schmidt's band Los Sampler's without any electronics. I like all the stuff on the Tummy Touch label, and this single as well.

The Peeps are an all-girl trio from Tempe Arizona in the same arena as The Bobbyteens or The Donnas. The CD is produced by Jeff Dahl, who used to be in the (amazing) LA band The Angry Samoans. He has also put out many solo CDs of varying quality on TripleX Records. The Peeps have a musical sound kind of like early Kiss with bratty female vocals. Inside are sections on each one's fave things. Bands cited as faves by The Peeps inlcude Joan Jett, The Damned, The Ramones, The Misfits, Lunachicks, Buzzcocks, & Redd Kross. The second song ("Talk Of The Neighborhood") has music that is a direct descendent of The Undertones "Teenage Kicks". The songs I like best are "Talk Of The Neighborhood", "Wanna Go", "Our Boys", and "Ballad Of The Last American Rock Band".
Faves: 2,7,9,12

The White Stripes are a Detroit duo who have put out 2 records and a handful of singles on the Sympathy record label. The A-side is a cover of a Blind Willy McTell song and the B-side is a version of a song from their last record. It sounds pretty much the same as the album version except that it has a digital vocal vocoder-ish effect at the end of each set of lines. With The White Stripes coming to Boston in a WZBC sponsored show soon this 7" should enjoy the same kind of popularity and chart success that every other White Stripes release has had on WZBC so far.

I love Mike Always and his record label El Records. His label brought many great records that were 'out of time' with their bag 'o tricks influences - influences that were not cool at all (at least to me) when the records came out. Most of the El bands had an open love of 'easy', which brought them far out of fashion. When El records were coming out in the 80's I know that I wanted nothing to do with them. Now however, the catalog of El has lots of treasures with modern relevance. This double CD set collects many of the B-side songs that are impossible to find on vinyl. Some of the songs are on other compilations, but most will be new to you unless you collect El. I guarantee that you will find stuff you will love if you spend some time combing the tracks on these discs.

The Ruling Class collects the most well known and important El songs. You will probably know more than a handful of these tracks as they have ended up on Siesta or Cherry Red compilations, or have just worked their way into the whisper stream of pop consciousness. It is hard for me to cite favorites on either of these compilations as I tend to like best those new songs I'm only discovering, so what are probably the best songs would not be on my list. Even though this is a double CD, the second CD is really a throwaway, as it has an hour long rambling interview with Alan McGee and Mike Always talking about 'the good ole days'. EVERYONE has stories like the ones on the disc. I'd rather have a friend tell me a story that would give me some insight into them than listen to some strangers tales. Leaving disc 2 out of consideration this is still a robust compilation with oodles of great songs.

In 1995 Kevin Martin (Techno Animal) put together this compilation which has been viewed as the best electronic dub compilation ever by many. When a used copy show up at Other Music I had to get this out of print gem for WZBC. With dub derived sounds making such an impact on the electronic music scene today this compilation has taken on new importance. Artists like Sofa Surfers & Pole have been sure to talk about their love of dub in just about every printed article about them. Many others are just as indebted to the sound of strong bass, echo and reverb, and looped samples without acknowledging that they are just modern purveyors of the time honored Jamaican tradition of dub. Kevin Martin has just put out a new full length - Porter Ricks/Techno Animal SYMBIOTICS (Force Inc./Mille Plateaux) . Youi can read a review of it in the Boston Phoenix here (it is the 5th review on the page)

Rechenzentrum are quite a band. They emerged last year with a full length on Kitty-Yo. Then there was a 12" on the hotter-than-hell new label Shitkatapult. Shitkatapult is a division of Kompakt. This is their second release on that label. It is my favorite of this weeks adds. There are 6 songs on this 12". The first ("tod eines impressionisten") is my favorite.

Donna Regina have been around for a few years, but I think they are really entering their peak right now. This 12" is my favorite release from them. There are 5 mixes of a song from their last LP, but the mixes are very varied and entertaining. The mixers are Isolee (my fave track), M. Mayer, Donna herself (my second fave track), & Weschel Garland (who just put out a new CD on Morr Music). The original version of the song is here as well. Isolee's mix leaves the vocals prevalent (as all the mixers do) but makes the song sound somewhat eerie. Where the original "Star Ferry" seemed to be about daydreaming, Isolee's version seems to recall 'taking a weekend raft escape from life', in the way that the junkie girl in the famous 70's movie 'Fort Apache The Bronx' explained to Paul Newman why she would use drugs each weekend. It is masterfully wielded though, and IS my fave of the mixes. Donna Regina's own remix is much more bright. It really sounds nice - almost like the Iceland band Mum crossed with the Escalator Records artist Nicoletta.
Faves: A1, B1