Surprisingly, the band responsible the massive Z-Rock hit, 'We Don't Have a Machine' (7" still available from the band, see their website for details), has only released two albums and a handful of singles. They've certainly shown a fair amount of progress since their '98 debut album 'Unsafe...at Any Speed! Gone are the cliche sound bites starting each track -- even Man...Or Astro-Man? got tired of doing that -- and there's a marked improvement in the recording quality, due at least in part to the skills of Steve Albini. And while Jack Straker's vocals still show him to be a graduate of the Mark E. Smith Singing Academy, this record sees him lose the distorto vocal effects; his British accent is also less pronounced. I think they've been listening to a lot of Pixies records (and the Sonic Youth songs with talking in them).
My favorite tracks: 'Science Fiction,' 'Touch My Stuff (You Can Die),' 'Bad Guys Wear Black' and 'It Might Be the Jets.'

Peter Ledebur, June 26, 2001

While we don't have much of their stuff at the Z (one full-length and a single or two, I think) this is the band's 6th album since their 1991 inception. The album was originally released in Japan in March '00, but this is the newly available French import, which also includes all three songs from a single that came out last fall. Elements of rockabilly and sixties rock and roll are fused with Detroit-style pummel-rock and P-U-N-K punk. Lead vocalist, Yusuke, reminds me of shrapnel-voiced Dan McCafferty, singer of the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth (think 'Hair of the Dog,' not 'Love Hurts'). Way more musically interesting than easy-point-of-reference Guitar Wolf; however, they don't let their competence stand in the way of rocking the f*ck out.
'Pinhead Cramberry Dance' starts out like The Sweet's 'Ballroom Blitz' with none of that song's candy-ass swagger, and when the fuzz bass kicks in, you know someone's gonna get hurt. 'She thinks she's the passionate one' indeed. The song takes it's time, coming on all menacing-like before REALLY blowing it's top. My favorite track on the CD. 'Bogie's Dawn' is a minimal, noir-ish instrumental with spoken vocal. And the almost-ballad 'GT 400' (the lead-off single) shows that even tough guys can have their tender moments. The object of desire? A motorcycle. It doesn't hurt that the song is based around the same two great chords as the Dave Clark Five's 'Any Way You Want It.' I only mention these few specific songs to keep this review short, the whole thing is friggin great. PS In case you were wondering, the band's name comes from a mangling of the title of the Damned's wonderful second album, 'Machine Gun Etiquette.

Peter Ledebur, June 26, 2001

This is 3 disc set which contains all of the recordings of Curt Boettcher's group the Ballroom also contains the classic Millennium album Begin. The other collections that Carl added in December were simply the icing and this here is the cake. Disc 1 starts us out with the original recordings of Curt's first studio group named The Ballroom. The Ballroom contain a concoction of equal doses easy pop and psychedelia reminiscent of such acts as Mamas and Papas and Beach Boys. When it gets psychedelic, it's never overkill - held in tow by the easy pop sound. Favorites on disc one include 'Would You Like to Go', 'It's a Sad World' and a mind-bending version of 'Baby, Please Don't Go' - this song so impressed Gary Usher that he then asked Curt to help him out with his group Sagittarius. Be sure and check out the instrumental version of 'Would You Like to Go' to see how bizarre a tune it really is. Also note the vocal on 'It's A Sad World' by Michele who later recorded a much sought after album Saturn Rings on ABC. Disc two contains Ballroom versions of songs that were later re-recorded by The Millennium and included on the album 'Begin.' Other odds and ends make up this second disc including a 1965 single by Summer's Children, a duet between Curt and Dottie Homberg (doing Sea of Tears my favorite song on Disc 2 - reminscent of Margo Guryan) and one song by Sagittarius. This disc easily shows the segue from The Ballroom to The Millennium and shows how the lines blur between the two. Disc 3 contains The Millennium album 'Begin', the unreleased 'Blight'/'Just About the Same' single, and the single versions of 'It's You,' 'I Just Want to Be Your Friend,' '5 A.M.,' 'Prelude,' 'To Claudia on Thursday,' and 'There Is Nothing More to Say.' The Begin album right off the bat will strike you as a group project, a culmination of all that Boettcher had been aiming for. There is so much talent on this album its breathtaking. And while sometimes the lighter than air songs - most of which are the epitome of psych sunshine pop - will blend into a breeze of lusciousness, the incredible production and harmonies raise this album into the realms of lost classics. Favorites on disc 3 include '5 A.M.', 'The Island', 'Sing To Me', 'Prelude', and 'To Claudia On Thursday'. Overall I would recommend this collection to anyone who digs 60s light psych, easy listening pop (think early-Carpenters), Saint Etienne, Margo Guryan, Cass Elliot, Mamas and Papas, Association, Beach Boys, Byrds, or Beatles. Monday Sinclair covers 'Would You Like To Go' on the Siesta 'Simultaneous Ice Cream' CD.

Patrick Rands, June 26, 2001

WMF is an electronic music club in Berlin. They have begun to release mix records by some of their most prominent DJs. The first one was the 'komfort.labor' CD mixed by Stefan Betke (Pole). This new entry is the second in the series. 'Audio.video.disco' earns its name by focusing on beat driven music - some with vocals, some without. It was mixed by resident DJs Dixon andf Mitja Prinz. If you listened to this comp with an aversion to modern disco you might have a hard time with it. If you allow the tracks to reach you based on their strength you might find yourself really liking 'Audio.video.disco'. The one song that ANYONE will love is 'Metro Area 2' (#6) by Art Of Hot. It is an instrumental that has hand held percussion and many interesting flourishes, including a touch of fiddle. I had read about the song 'Greatest Hit' for ages in Jockey Slut, but I had never actually heard it until this compilation. Annie is an artist from Sweden and the song is a blast. It has the same type of propulsive synth that Giorgio Moroder pioneered, without actually sounding like a Moroder ripoff. Her vocal does not come in until mid-song, and stays just long enough for you to get a taste to hear it again. The 2 tracks that follow 'Greatest Hit' (#9) are tops as well. 'Turning Orange 2 Please U' (#10) by Freaks has an urgent vocal and cool beats, and DJ HMC's 'Polarize' (#11) reminded me a bit of Luomo, which is definetely a good thing. The last of my faves is Borneo & Sporenburg's 'This Is Music, Added To My Day' (#7). It has a chilled vocal and is probably the easiest track to absorb for someone coming into this comp from a Kruder & Dorfmeister angle. All in all I think this is a very interesting comp. I put in many hours listening to this comp (as it is not built in a genre I usually inhabit) and found myself glad that I spent the time and heard all these new artists. Life is rich!
Faves: 6,7,9,10,11

---Carl, June 26, 2001

I usually don't enjoy tribute or remix albums of older artists but was quite happy to find that the Morricone RMX project is excellant. Perhaps because he did 'background' soundtrack music for westerns and thrillers, his influence has fit so seamlessly into modern music. We've grown up with his sound ingrained in us, so much so that it has become part of the vocabulary of modern music. With that in mind, most of the cuts on this disc take that sense of atmosphere and drama we associate with a Morricone sound and add a modern beat in many cases dub or drum n bass. What's great is that where most tributes or remix albums might end up sounding cheesier than its parts, the Morricone Remix album is a diverse set of imaginitive remixes including my favorite tracks: 5. Clan of the Sicilians mixed by Bigga Bush, 7. Il Grande Silencio mixed by Thievery Corporation, 11. La Bambola/Come Maddalena mixed by Sofa Surfers, 12. La Lucertola mixed by De-Phazz, and 13. Clan of the Sicilians mixed by Dj Dick. Other mixes worth mentioning are by Nightmares On Wax, Rockers Hi-Fi, Terranova and Fantastic Plastic Machine who puts in an excellant multi-lingual cover of 'Belinda May.'.

Patrick Rands, June 26, 2001

Gerhard Potuznik from Austria records dangerous sounding pop electro under lots of different names. In the April 3rd gullbuy I reviewed a CD by G.D. Luxxe, one of his guises. Many of the identities he uses appear on stuff which comes out on Cheap Records. This CD is the first disc we have on Cheap. I have become very interested in stuff on Cheap. I have heard the two Japanese only compilations ('Have A Cigar, My Friend' and 'Five Years In Satan's Ass'), the Louie Austen 'Consequences' disc, and Slut's N' Strings & 909's 'Carrera remixed'. All of them are pretty great. Louie Austen was just signed to Kitty Yo, who will release his upcoming record. For this CD ('Concorde') he split the tracks between spoken pieces narrated by Max Goldt, and music tracks. Around half of the music tracks have vocals by Gerhard. The art for the cover consists of a series of CD sized color panels (one for each song) designed by Chicks On Speed, featuring Tina Frank. The spoken pieces (#'s 1,4,6,8,11,13,15) have slight music touches in them. They are pretty entertaining stories. My fave is the last, #15. As for the music, it is sharp sounding - a mixture of electronics and rock not miles aways from what Ed DMX does on his Breakin' Records compilations. At times (#9) it sounds a bit like the NYC band Suicide using technology from the 90's. Faves: 5,7,10,14,15,16

---Carl, June 26, 2001

Storm Bugs are an anomaly. How could such sounds, radically challenging the accepted texture of electronic music, have been recorded over 20 years ago? And how come nobody has ever heard of them? The tracks on Let's Go Outside and Get It Over, originally released by Snatch Tapes on cassettes and vinyl between 1978 and 1981, exhibit Storm Bugs' spacious, reverberating grittiness. Howled vocals shift from front to background in the midst of industrial pounding percussion loops, urgent echoing monotones and an array of tinny sound effects. The quiet moments on these songs are underlayed by disturbing mechanical creeks and muted primal thuds that evoke the cynical futurism of Fritz Lang or George Orwell. As complex and foreign as much of these recordings sound, the hand-made, DIY ethic of the group's production is distinctly present. Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball, who made up Storm Bugs, must have taken immense pleasure in screwing around with the recording process. From scalpelling vinyl to messing with short wave radio signals from the Soviet Union, these guys hardly ever did anything twice, yet still managed to create a defining and genuine aesthetic in their music. Their relatively recent appearance on the compilation I Hate the Pop Group probably accounts for some newfound appreciation of Storm Bugs and the consequential release of this CD only, digitally remastered work. Limited to 300 copies, this is not a record you want to wait for the last minute to pick up. For Pete's sake, don't sleep on: 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 10

Sandra Barrett, June 26, 2001