March 18, 2003

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  The BellRays

  title:: Raw Collection
  label:: Upper Cut

  The BellRays may hail from Southern California but their spiritual home is Deeetroit. Their brand of soulful hard rock/proto-punk owes more to Motor City soul and bands like the MC5 than anything the Southland could muster.

  'Raw Collection' gathers together tracks from out-of-print vinyl singles and compilation albums, giving you an odds-and-ends overview of the band's output from 1995 'til now.

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  James Chance

  title:: Irresistible Impulse
  label:: Tiger Style Records

  The Contortions were so singular and focused. The sound they made was radical. It had tidal waves of dissonance, but it also had precision, and the sound was never masked by distortion. It was clean and dry.

  Irresistible Impulse is a 4 CD set which contains 49 prime songs from various periods of his career. The songs he did on Eno's 'No New York' compilation do not appear on this set.

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  Give Peas A Chance

  various artists
  label:: Crippled Dick Hot Wax!

  This compilation moves along at such a fine clip, that it'll make you dizzy. Library music was originally intended to blend into the background and enhance the scene as it progressed - so what better type of music to un-earth, in order to enhance our modern day listening experience?

  Brash, big band scores, fuzz guitars, funky blaxploitation inspired rhythms - this combines it all under one umbrella.

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  LCD Soundsystem

  title:: Give It Up b-w Tired
  label:: DFA

  Give It Up is an immediate track that is very likable. It has a rock solid bass line which lights up the grooves like a Playgroup record, and the kind of 80's punk/funk groove that A Certain Ratio used on Shack Up.

  The drum is go-go tight, the guitar chugga chuggas with a muted strum, and the energy level is high.