Diggin' the New Breed

various artists
label:: Enlightenment Records

This Beat disc features some spoken word works from Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg, along with reminiscences about the Beat scene from a variety of other personalities.

Sadly, what was a great idea is ruined by a laughable narrative which takes up more than half of the entire disc which is augmented by a cheesey soundtrack.

Gravel Volume 2

various artists
label:: Kumquat May Recording Inc.

Gravel Volume 2 continues in the series of rare and ultra obscure garage rock from the 1960s .

This volume contains more unreleased acetates, more hard to find sides and more regional garage rock (from locales like Florida and New York) that have been compiled on other garage rock comps that have since no doubt gone out of print.

David Sylvian

title:: The Good Son vs. The Only Daughter - the Blemish remixes
label:: Samadhi Sound

This disc is quite amazing in that it is a full work. It is able to stand on its own as a new album, despite the fact that it is actually a collection of remixes of David Sylvian's prior solo album Blemish.

This disc works so well because it does not wholly rework the original compositions, instead it sharpens them without deviating from their parameters.

Talking Heads

various speaches
label:: Enlightenment Records

The first thing that you are going to realize is that this is not a new/re-issue of The Talking Heads music.

It is the original meaning of "the talking head". It is head and shoulder speeches of great people at pivot points of world history. Moments of tension and downfall. Moments of technological and military turning points. Moments of debate and resolution.