The first song is the Groove Armada remix of 'Chicarrons n Boogaloo' by Los Chicarrons. It is an instrumental with a distorted bass, constant bongos and percussion, and a dancefloor feel. Next is 'Electric Blue' by the Swedish band Mains Ignition. Mains Ignition previously released a 12" called 'Feeling Freaky', have cuts on Kindercore's 'Just Another Taste of Electronic Watusi Boogaloo' compilation, and were on 'Dope On Plastic Vol. 6' with the song 'Testify'. 'Electric Blue' has a bouncy feel, uses the classic blues progression riff as the root for it's bass part, and has a slight vocal sample it works off of. The B-side starts off with Organic Audio's 'Organic School 7". It sounds a bit like another Tummy Touch artist, Tutto Matto. Both bands owe a lot to 'Chic' styled disco and use great production and strong beats. This song also has a nice wood block percussion part. I have wanted to hear Organic Audio's latest CD but have only found it on vinyl at an expensive price. The final song is 'Zilla' by Tim Love Lee. It samples a female vocal funky/soul song that I can't identity, and collages a lot of other stuff into a pretty interesting yarn. As he subtitles the mix 'couldn't get away with it in America un-edit', I doubt the main sample he uses is used by permission. Faves: A1,A2

Fizzarum are Dmitry and Vlad from St. Petersburg in Russia. Along with EU they represent the new wave of Russian electronic music. Signed by England's Domino Records, they have the widest exposure of any Russian band right now. This CD follows up a 12" they released on Domino and a 12" on City Centre Offices. 'Phut of Plex' (#1) and 'Ursa-Majoris' (#4) originally were on the City Centre 12". Their sound layers squelchy crackly sounds on top of sweeping electronic strokes. It is hard to describe music like this in ways not used before. All I know is that I like this disc just as I like EU's recent CD. Faves: 1,2,4,7

This record has a sound that reminds me of a more sophisticated Divine Comedy without the vocals, High Llamas without as much gloss, Durutti Column with the nylon string guitar sound (#'s 4 & 14), and Roy Budd's 'Get Carter' soundtrack (#11). 'Eighteenth Century Quiz Show' (#11) was originally a 7" on Acetone records. There are harpsichords, piano, baroque touches, and lots of cinematic feel in the cuts, which are all instrumentals. The sleeve reminds of the package that The Jam's 'Town Called Malice' 12" originally came in, with the purple and white stripes. From the Gnac website: 'The Gnac project began in 1996 with the track 'barman / horse' which remains unreleased, having been recorded at home and placed in a shoe box under the bed. Mark Tranmer continued to record music at home as Gnac and this music first appeared on the compilation 'An evening in the company of the vespertine' in november 1997. Since then, 7" singles were released on labels such as Earworm and Liquefaction. The debut Gnac album 'Friend Sleeping' followed, released by the Vespertine record label (june 1999). Gnac's debut album on Vespertine was preceded by an album, on the same label, by the Montgolfier Brothers, called 'Seventeen Stars', which has recently re-appeared on Poptones (Mark is also one half of The Montgolfier Brothers: he writes the music, leaving the words and vocals to the infamous Roger Quigley.) The compilation CD 'sevens' by Gnac gathered together the songs from the early 7"s, alongside seven new tracks. Gnac has played live in Holland, Spain and France and will play in the UK later this year. Gnac has been commissioned to write music arts projects, including music for the wedding of artist Vanessa Beecroft. Gnac has also contributed music to the BBC and channel 4. 'Biscuit Barrel Fashion' is the third Gnac album. Mark plays a yamaha 49 pound keyboard which he links up to an expensive set of peripherals, and he tends to play a yamaha guitar, with nylon strings.' Faves: 2,5,9,11

Franz Reisecker from Vienna is Lichtenberg, named after Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799) known as one of the most important nature scholars and at the same time funniest writers of his time. Tucholsky said: ' a chap..., who had an understanding like a sharply polished razor, a heart like a flower garden, a muzzle factory like a Dreschflegel, a spirit like a florett...'. This CD is playful as well. It is on the same label as Sofa Surfers, Seelenluft, and the Austrian Mum. Is is split between songs sung in his accented English, and instrumentals. On several tracks he uses the same electronic voice device that Baxendale use on 'Neato' and 'Hanging out with her'. My favorite song on the disc is 'Virus' (#8) which is an instrumental that is packed with layers of interesting ideas and sounds, including the aforementioned Baxendale device. It is not electronica: the sound on this disc borders on 80's revival like Sonovac. 'Resist' (#5) is another instrumental that catches my ear. I think it is named 'resist' because it is about trying to get a cat to come to you. In the background you can hear him making the sound that all of us know means 'hear kitty kitty'. It's a neat idea and he works it well. 'Pilot Glasses' (#9) starts with astronaut samples and moves into a sparse funk not too unlike The Sofa Surfers - again, done very well. The only one of the vocal songs I really like is 'By The Way'. It has a monotone distorted vocal which mentions Brooklyn (?) several times. It is a song that would sound fine is a set with Flesh For Lulu, Elephant, or Sylvester Boy. Faves: 5,6,8,9

Joshua Kit Clayton, or 'Kit Clayton' as he calls himself, is an electronic artist from San Francisco that has been putting out stuff for several years on many different labels. Our first exposure to him at WZBC was through a CD that Dropbeat serviced us with a few years ago. This 12" is on Kit's own label. It has Stefan Betke production. I really like the second song on the A-side ('Tongue Under Lip'). It has a very mysterious sound brought on by Matthew Lee's sax work. I usually don't like sax but the way he uses it in the beginning of the song is more like an oboe, and it is dead on effective.
Fave: A2

Split 12" between London's Toby Reynolds (DJ Scud) and NYC's C. Willingham (I-Sound) for those who enjoyed the Pleasurehorse 12" added in the February 20th gullbuy or the Shizuo 7" from January 23. The six songs on this split 12" are broken beat extravaganzas. I like the DJ Scud side better because it has some vocal samples mixed in, where the I-Sound side is just ultra intense noise and beats. Either way you will be blown out by the sounds on this platter. Fave: A1

Red vinyl single by this popular electronica band from England. You can play a flash movie of my favorite song from this 7" ('Sunburn') in the 'sounds' section of their website. The obvious reference point for their sound is ISAN. E*vax write good songs though, and none of the three on this single are bothersome or unpleasant. The asterix that E*vax use in their name reminds me of the sparkle in the sound they make. Fave: B2

The Vogue Years is a double CD set with 50 songs from this French artist in her earliest years - the period known as her 'Vogue Years'. There are liner notes written by Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley to bring you up to speed on the importance of her work. You would need someone else to write about her, as Francoise herself was the major critic of her own work: 'When I started singing at the age of 17,18, I had no idea of my potential, and realized pretty quickly that I was very limited in terms of my voice. And that was enough for the sixties, to sing 'Tous Le Garcons Et Les Filles' which is a totally linear song, the same note from start to finish. But when you attempt something more ambitious on stage it's a totally different kettle of fish. I'm not really a natural at singing on stage. On top of this I'm very emotional and could never control this emotion. And I am sedentary to a unbelievable degree. I found myself set in motion at the age of 18 and it was very difficult to not get caught up in it all. The life of filming, traveling, continual departures, made me very, very unhappy. No, I wasn't made for that.' Her sound was basically her voice and the acoustic guitar she played. Producers embellished the songs with strings and chorus's on many of the tracks. There are 13 songs spread between the 2 discs that I now like a lot. I had never really listened to her stuff, and only knew her biggest songs, none of which are my faves on this disc. I like the songs that have the 'girl group' sound, or Buddy Holly-like hop to their step. Faves: disc1: 2,7,8,14,19,21,22,25 disc2: 3,5,9,12,24

Felix Kubin is an artist from Hamburg who seems to be working the same territory Der Plan did years ago. He has a strong visual identity in the artwork, the name of the disc is even 'film music', and he states ' Long Live Psycho Sci-Fi Pop!' in the CD art. Their are 26 songs on this disc. Many of them are short skits with German speaking in them. Spread between this landscape though are 9 songs I really like a lot. Felix Kubin runs a record label called Gagarin (in tribute to Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin). Felix Kubin's songs are not that unlike The Residents. He uses electronics and structure in odd ways, and makes really foreign sounding pieces that rock with an alien kick. Faves: 2,7,13,18,20,22,23,25,26

One of the oddest peculiarities that some Germans indulge is the conglomeration of words into clusters which cannot be understood even by native speakers. Not only do Schlammpeitziger have such a construct as their name, but every one of the 14 songs on this CD has such a word as the title. As well as indulging in this playful manipulation of the German language, Schlammpeitziger pay tribute to their German heritage in songs like 'Contrablabastel' (#4), which has sounds you will recognize as having been lifted directly from Kraftwerk's 'Autobahn'. Schlammpeitziger are a playful lot. Their sound is seldom too serious, and has blips galore in a stew that could recall Der Plan as well as Kraftwerk. I like many of the songs on this disc, though my faves are: Faves: 2,4,8,9

Cathode Ray Tube is Charles Terhune (initials CRT). He is single handedly putting Somerville MA on the IDM map through his label (C-FOM = Chock Full Of Mercenaries) and his music. He is no stranger to electronic music, and knows that it is harder than ever to get noticed in the glutted electronica market. 'Subzero Sensei' floats above most electronic discs like Chow Yun Fat floated in the bamboo in Crouching Tiger. What I like about this CRT disc is how it brings you into the artist's life. There is water dripping in 'Kap Dwa' (#8) and a little girl being put to sleep and later crying in 'Infant, S Mos' (#15). I can picture these little things leaking into his subconscious as he worked in his home studio, eventually finding them almost unconsciously reflected in the completed work. I also love the track 'XA 2' (#10), which was my favorite track in his recent show at the Gallery Bershad. 'Old Organics' (#12) is somewhat of a headphone track with the movement of sounds between the speakers. The cement synth (the part that holds it all together) reminds me of the instrumental track which comes before 'Time' on 'Dark side Of The Moon'. Whoa! Last of my four faves is the obvious choice: 'All Day Sucker' (#2). It is 'immediate' and sucks you into the rest of the disc after the short intro that precedes it. Faves: 2,8,10,12