Espen Horne of Bergen Norway is the fellow with the alias Bobby Hughes. Bobby Hughes Experience is an amazing band with a sound that just melts in your mouth if you like stuff on the labels Tummy Touch, Pork, or Compost. The sound is instrumental Hammond heavy jazzy/easy/latin with a modern breakbeat edge. There are touches of wordless vocal, bongo and flute that are never overused or out of place. This stuff is the best of the genre, so you have GOT to buy this disc or at least hear it to know if it is for you. This record came out in 1999, so we may just find a new record from them to enjoy soon, though it will be hard pressed to top this one.

Faves: 1,2,6,10

Her debut record from 1966 with arrangements by Alain Goraguer. This is the period before she met Serge Gainsbourg when she was just little girl singing French pop in her distinctive voice. My favorite song on the disc is "Oh! Quelle Famille" (#3). Her multi-tracked vocals sound like (to quote gullbuy reviewer Patrick Rands) "singing campfire songs". I also like the song "L'Echo" (#8) and "La Guerre Des Chansons" (#10). This record has one of her better known songs "Les Sucettes", though it is not one of my faves on this disc. France Gall may be my fave of the French pop vocalists. Her voice is like no one else, and this is the earliest/girliest of her little girl voice. She sounds very innocent. If 'The Sound Of Music' took place in a remote part of France, the oldest girl of the children may have sung songs like these.

Faves: 3,8,10,11

"Daydream In Blue" was originally released as a 7" on Cercle Records, the label started by Barry Smith of Add N To X. The label released three great singles at once and has not been heard from since. Released late last year, the other two bands with singles on the label are The Fat Truckers and National Bandit. All three 7"s are pretty darn crucial. The newly released Instant Karma version of this single adds two extra tracks to the original, both remixes. 'Bashment and KL' provide one remix of "Daydream In Blue" and Medicine provide the other. I have never heard of either of the people who did the remixes (it is not Brad Laner's pre-Electric Company band Medicine). "Daydream In Blue" met instant fame when originally released by using the same sample that The Beta Band used on "Squares", the opening cut from 'Hot Shots II', which they released around the same time as this single. "Daydream" was a great easy listening vocal song performed by Claude Francois. The version sampled here was recorded by Gunter Kallmann Choir. I Monster have left "Daydream" almost intact when it appears in the new song, giving "Daydream In Blue" appeal to lounge fans as well as electropop fans. It is a masterful melding of old and new. "Resistance Is Futile" is a good cut, but does not compare to the A-side. The two new remixes are OK but not really necessary in my view. They each increase the techno aspect and reduce the lounge appeal. I Monster have an LP and some history as 'All Seeing I'.

Fave: 1

Recorded in 1970, this album was recorded long after Love had passed their peak. Basically it is an Arthur Lee record. It was recorded in London at The Record Factory. Jimi Hendrix makes a guest appearance on the first cut "The Everlasting First". Bryan MacLean's replacement Gary Rowles plays Hendrix styled guitar but did not have the writing talent of MacLean. Likewise, Arthur Lee's talent as a producer is brought into question by the sound of the tracks. Noony Ricket (harmony vocals and rhythm guitar) played on this record and is pictured on the sleeve, though he is not listed as a member in the credits. There is a live cut recorded Feb. 27, 1970 at the Waltham Forest Tech College. The song ("Stand Out") is pretty energetic. The sound on this LP is very different than the pop sound Love are most famous for on 'Love, 'Forever Changes', or 'Da Capo'. It is a lot heavier here. My favorite cuts are "Anytime (#6), "Slick Dick" (#7), "Love Is Coming" (#8), and "Ride That Vibration" (#10). On "Anytime" Arthur Lee's vocals remind me of Steve Marriot in Humble Pie. This song was not one of my immediate favorites but became one later. "Slick Dick" was the first song that hooked me on this disc, with it's fast tempo and pop melody like something The Who would have recorded around 'The Who Sell Out'. "Love Is Coming" is a funky track that has a touch of the California harmonies that Love were famous for a few years earlier. "Ride That Vibration" is my favorite song on the disc. It has great harmony vocals and the fun/carefree tone of a New Riders Of The Purple Sage track based in acid rock instead of country rock. This record was not at all what I expected. It is not a second rate 'lets re-release everything they ever recorded' disc: it is a quality look at how much Love changed. It will be very interesting to hear if you are already a Love fan.

Faves: 6,7,8,10

Simian are a band whose sound cannot be gleaned by their record covers. They have branded themselves with the images created by the artist Thomas Grunfeld. He is a Cologne artist who makes animal composite images. Simian's music is somewhat of a composite itself. They are a pop band from England who have absorbed the back catalogue of High Llamas and Air and put their own spin on the result. I had read about them as "the British Air" along with Zero 7. They sound nothing like Zero 7, and little like Air. The vocals have a John Lennon lilt to them on many songs. My favorite song "Mr. Crow" (#9) has vocals that sound amazingly like Marc Bolan singing in early T Rex. "Doba" (#3), "You Set Off My Brain" (#4), and "One Dimension" (#6) are pop filtered through the post-everything age. Simian have a good thing going here. If more people heard them they could score many fans. I'll bet Beta Band fans would love them en masse.

Faves: 3,4,6,9

The label with the sound. Shitkatapult has specialized in dry sounding tekhouse that attracted me flypaper. Apparat have a 7 song mini-LP with more of what you seek. While not as bold as other releases on the label, the tracks on this LP still wipe the sleepers from the eyes of the competition. Named after the dreaded error message when a page cannot be located at it's specified address on the web, "Error 404" (A3) is my fave cut. It's hard to describe the sound I'm talking about when I say 'dry'. I mean that the electronics seem to sit each in their own plane like objects in a virtual reality program - touchable from any angle, existing as individual unique entities. It is a radical departure from the usual practice of electronically helping sounds to blend with each other using filters and other production techniques. "Aspirin" (B2) takes this approach to an electronica setting in a similar way to the duo Cathode. "Distance" (B3) calmly lurks with ticks like the clock eating crocodile in the Peter Pan story.

Faves: A3,B2,B3

Whereupon Patrick Pulsinger and Gerhard Potuznik (of many Cheap Records guises, G.D. Luxxe, and Chicks On Speed collaboration) cover the Bauhaus classic with fantastic results. The 2 songs on the B-side continue the 80's vocal 'goth-electro' theme, but pale next to the almighty "Bela Lugosi's Dead". Instead of sampling the original, Church Of Carbon do a full blown cover, adding the dirty electronics they are so good at creating as new bonus features in the song. Maybe the 2 songs on the flip ARE better than I've pegged them to be - it is hard to listen to anything after the jolt of the revised Bauhaus song.

Fave: A

Dear Lord, I've died and gone to heaven!! Here's a record that I never thought would see release on CD, and since I've sworn off paying high prices for LPs I figgered I'd never get to hear a pristine recording of this album. Thanks to the fine folks at the Dutch label Basta, my dreams are now a reality. (Besides a high-priced mastered-from-noisy-vinyl bootleg CD, only two tracks have previously been readily available -- on the first Incredibly Strange Music comp (also from taken from vinyl) and on Volume One of Rhino's Cocktail Mix series.) Originally released in 1963, this record combines really great, truly swinging arrangements of songs (including standards like "The Lonesome Road" and "Baubles, Bangles and Beads") -- that would be entertaining (and fairly zany) on their own -- and weaves a wide variety of sounds and sound effects into every track. The sound effects aren't just THERE, they're vital to the music as a whole. Sometimes playing a melody line (drops of water in "Rain") and sometimes serving as percussion (a ping pong ball in "All of You"). Most rock DJs should be able to work cuts from this into their shows with little effort. Very cartoony (you WILL laugh out loud), yet eminently musical. God bless you, Basta Audio/Visuals, GOD BLESS YOU!!!

The programming master behind many of J-Pop's finest moments gets a platform of his own on this 4 song EP. Yukihiro Fukutomi provided the shining mix of "Coffee Talk" on Jazzanova's 'Reworks From Japan' 12". On this EP he gives up 4 songs totaling 25 minutes. "I Am" (A1) has the awesome programming of beats that he is so famous for with a male vocal skipping on top of the peaks of the beats. "Music Is the Healer" (A2) has a female disco-ish vocal on top of the sharp cut beats. "Speak" (B1) sounds a lot like the new Louie Austen single in pace and vocal. It has a male spoken/sung vocal and a funky/jazzlounge beat. "Drifting" (B2) is an instrumental that has the latin sound that moved your hips on Mansfield's EPs (that percussion!). If you don't mind soulful vocals with your beats (like a hyper Zero 7) you will love this 12". Otherwise just stick to the instrumental "Drifting" and enjoy his skills.

Faves: A1,B1,B2

An awesome album which fell into my hands with no expectations attached. He appeared on The 'Moshi Moshi Allo La France' compilation which Katerine put together for Japanese release, and on the 3" CD compilation 'The Stations Of Abandoned Days' which came out on the US label Radio Khartoum. The sleeve looks like a Jimi Tenor record, and the only indication of the music within is a treated photo of Julien playing a piano. Yet the disc sounds nothing like Jimi Tenor, and if there is piano it is simply one of many instruments in the rich pudding. What made me buy the record at all was a plug by Jill Mingo (DJ Jill Mingo-Go) in the Popnouveau list, where she said she was loving this disc, and that it was "warped Bacharach pop". When I played the disc for myself I couldn't believe how good it was. I think this disc is better than those Katerine puts out. Julien Ribot's sound is close to Katerine at times. "Hotel Bocchi" surprised me with it's riff sampled right out of David Bowie's "Sweet Thing" from the 'Diamond Dogs' LP. The minute long "Tu Nous Enerves" (#6) reprises the riff with scattered dialog in back. There are female vocals answering Julien's vocals at times, and many great musical moments. This CD is a jewel that you will buy if you hear, and may consider buying sight unseen. It has my recommendation.

Faves: 2,3,6,10,12

French d.i.y. compilation of instrumental and vocal electropop with a very modern feel. Yes, there are ghosts of the 80's in the sounds, but the bands on this 9 song comp have their hands in the 'right now', not in any revivalist game. One of the bands have a full length CD I've seen and have wondered about (Kitbuilders). Their track "Don't Touch Me" (A4) is good but not as good as I had hoped. I love both tracks by Le Sydicat Electronique. They are the only band to have 2 cuts on the comp. "Blood & Flesh" (A3) has catchy zombie/robotic vocals and "Survivance" (B1) is an instrumental. I will buy anything else they release on the spot! Porn.Darstellar's "The Trap" (B3) is a good cut too. There are words buried deep in the mix - so deep I will call the track an instrumental. It has the cool percussion sounds I loved so much on the Le Syndicat Electronique cuts. Ottomas "Crossbones" (B4) has sharp programmed synth that skits on top of the metallic 4/4 beat. A great miniLP for the price of a 12".

Faves: A3,A4,B1,B3,B4