Music Reviews

This is Ovenguard, Volume 1 [coll] – [Ovenguard]

jack soil   3/6/2005   A Library, CD, Format

An Eclectronic (a new word?) Sampler. Behold the inaugural CD release from
Ovenguard Music. Whacked, spaced-out, tape loops, ambient situations, found
sounds, turntables, sound collage, great use of stereo effects, well thought out noise,
deeep basss and insanity all put together in this collection of avant oven guarde
music produced by an troupe of DIY scientists. Wobbly – provides the instantly
catchy insanity. Seattle based Bran Flakes inject humor into the collection by
providing looped beats with the humorous assistance of Charles Grodin, the Beatles
and Mr. Rogers. Known in Bakersfield – simple tryyped out electronic collages and
loops. Space Mesa – takes you on a paranoid tryp to their own world and back
(includes guide, Charleton Heston as Moses). Liar Ball ?’? Involution – an East Bay
outfit checks in with deep bass influenced noise. The Involution tracks were my
favorites. All are great. I believe this CD is one out of 200. It’ll Piss listeners off
because they’re gonna love it but they’ll never be able to find it.
Great for headphones. Experiment.

The Secret Museum of Mankind Vol. 5 [coll] – [Yazoo]

jack soil   3/6/2005   CD, International

24 ethnic musical masterpieces spanning the globe – stops include Peru, Italy, A
rmenia, Finland, USA, India and more. Artists range from small girls choirs, to
soloists to elaborate village orchestras. Instruments include: fiddles, porcelain
cups tuned with levels of water, voice, zither (boxed harp), and syrinx (pan
pipe). Each track was remastered from 78s (with a little work done to get rid of
surface noise – fortunately, some of the surface noise character remains. The
time frame is similar to the last installments 1925 – 1948. This is another
excellent collection and definitely deserves to be in the KFJC library. Nearly
extinct old world sounds for a not so new world order.

Metal Eater – “Virus” [Dephine Knormal Music]

jack soil   3/6/2005   A Library, CD, Format

So here’s the deal, two guys, Steve Buchanan and Ron Anderson, on multiple instr
uments with some heavy-duty percussionists (Moe! Staiano, Gino Robair, Thomas Sc
andura) sittin’ in to create infectious blasts of symptoms such as: blurred twitters,
contaminated feedback, inflamed scronks, severe rumbles, toxic general noodlings,
damaged scanned materials, dehydrated clicks, and other sonic spores. Definite
jazz roots here. The concept is disease. Black Death, Yellow Fever, Rabies, you get
the picture? I wouldn’t be surprised if the CDC wasn’t after these cats for posing
a serious health risk to the general public. An ounce of prevention ain’t worth
shit here. My suggestion, embrace the virus; vaccinations are futile. Otherwise,
boil for at least 12 minutes before ingestion.

Jazz Jamaica “Double Barrel” [Hannibal]

jack soil   3/6/2005   CD, Format, Reggae

Stretchin it wayyyy out, it’s Jazz Jamaica, the London, England based band, producing
fine jazz/ska renditions of both classic jazz/easy listening and ska tunes. Includes
a brilliant foot-tapping rendition of Burt Bacharach’s “Walk on By”. This band pays
serious tribute to artists of the likes of Don Drummond, Winston Riley, Charlie Parker
and more. Classics such as the unforgettable Monkey Man are amazing. Toy with
the theme from Exodus, possibly pass on “The Grapevine”. All songs are instrumental
(except for minor exclamations during the first track) and lengthy enough to bead
up a bit o’ perspiration. Re-sole those dancing shoes, Jazz Jamaica now has a home
high atop black mountain.

Gas Huffer – “Just Beautiful Music” [Epitaph]

jack soil   3/6/2005   A Library, CD, Format

Full length release number 5 from the industrious multi-talented quartet based in
Seattle (each release comes with a comic penned by the Huffers themselves – also
known as the Del Lagunas – surf band). This is their third and best release on
Epitaph, and, fortunately, they do not sound like an Epitaph band! This a more
mature Huffer, ranging from great quick little pop punk tunes to slower ballady
stuff to even a little du-wop work at the end. Produced by Phil Ek whose produced
some amazing stuff from bands such as Built to Spill. Live, the Huffer play fast
and loud; it’s easy to tell these songs are scorchers when played live.
This record is really good. These guys love to play and this release tells it
all. Fill your can and get a rag.

Earth Crisis “The Oath That Keeps Me Free”

jack soil   3/6/2005   A Library, CD, Format

Earth Crisis, the vegan straightedge band out of Syracuse NY, the epitome of sXe
bands, sets up 12 live massive hardcore tunes that spoil everything in their path.
Total sonic annhilation of anything in their path appears to be be the goal – and
they, without a doubt, exceed all objectives. Check out the first track, Cream’s
“Sunshine Of Your Love”. I’m guessing Eric Clapton never expected this. This is
their first live album; it is a benefit for the father of one of the guys in
the band. Pure, punishing power. Vox are practically indistinguishable; one
track, 11, has a somewhat noticible FUCK. Even if you’re not into their whole
politics/veganism/living drug, alcohol, smoke free, and everything else associated
with sXe, give it a spin. Oppressors beware.

Pauline Oliveros – “Alien Bog/Beautiful Soop” [pogus]

jack soil   3/6/2005   A Library, CD, Format

Oliveros completed these two compositions during her year as First Director of the
Tape Music Center at Mills College in 1966 & 1967 (seriously out there for the
time frame) utilizing the original Buchla Box 100 series and her tape delay system
(no accordions on this one). Alien Bog was inspired by a frog pond and its inhabitants located outside of Pauline’s office on the Mills College Campus. The pond is gone now,
but the sounds are here for you to enjoy. Beautiful Soop is a bizarre Alice in Wonderland
narrative accompanied by Ms. Oliveros. What a ride! The sounds are absolutely
beautiful and will put you at one with whatever it is you are near. 2 very long tracks
that are over way too soon.

The Vendettas “The Vendettas” [360Twist]

jack soil   3/6/2005   A Library, CD, Format

Slightly inebriated twangin’ garagy rock sounds from The Vendettas. They borrow
from whatever they can get their filthy mitts on – electric blues, RnB, crazed
rockabilly. Singer/rhythm guitarist, Buffi Aguero hails from the Subsonics (as
the drummer) along with Clay Reed, producing (also from the Subsonics). Sporting
two chix and two dudes, they sound like a Cramps-meets the-Makers-meets the-insert
some other trash rawk band effort. In fact, singer Johnny Vignault could probably
step in for the Makers any time ( given that he changes his hair doo and agrees to
tour in a hearse). Good stuff through and through, occasionally snotty, occasionally
crazed, occasionally demented and always rockin, guaranteed by a solid pedigree. In
other words, it’s a solid good time. Obviously shaken like they meant it to be.

Plaid “Not For Threes” [Warp Records]

Mac   3/5/2005   A Library, CD, Format

Electronica from the duo of Ed Handley and Andy Turner. Two-third’s of the trio making up the techno group The Black Dog, Handley and Turner’s association pre-dated Black Dog, and after the trio split up they returned as Plaid, where they offer a more approachable sound.
Lighter than your average club music, the beats are reminiscent of the emerging 80’s electro-techno but with a complexity stemming from modern house music. For a harder edge, try track 7. For a techno-pop sound of the more mainstream there are some guest vocal tracks (T6 Nicolette, T9 Mara and Benet T9 Bjork T12 Leila Arab). Yes, the Bjork, but I liked Nicolette’s offering more. My favourite tracks were the three shortest (T 5, 11, 13). They give you that danceable repetitive beat but by keeping it short don’t bore you.

Cambodian Rocks [coll] – [Parallel World]

Mac   3/5/2005   CD, Format, International

In the mid 60’s the American music scene was invaded by the British. By the late 60’s America was invading Cambodia. Surf, psych, pop, rock, and soul found their way into the country and out came the Cambodian flavored songs on this CD. Mad guitar riffs, catchy melodies, and weird vocals (all the singing is in Cambodian) go beyond mere imitation. Though inspired by the American greats, they manage to find their own sound, and it rivals the best garage bands America had to offer. The various rock sounds merge in ways no Americans explored, and the high pitched female vocals on half the tracks and occasional odd instruments add a truly Cambodian sound. None of the artists are named and no liner notes are given. The tracks were collected from old cassettes (see story on back). Highlights include the covers of Fleetwood Mac’s Black Magic Woman (T5) and Them’s Gloria (T13). Burned forever into my mind is the hilarious imitation of James Brown on T8. In a place with war just across the border and a political coup at home, these musicians found in rock music a way to escape and have some fun. The passion with which they play is reflected in their music, and it can blow you away. Sit back and have a rockin’ good time, courtesy of Cambodia.

John Zorn “The Circle Maker” [Tzadik]

Mac   3/5/2005   A Library, CD, Format

Disc 1 -Issachar
Disc 2 – Zevulun
The alter cockers (old Jewish folk) will be saying oy
gevalt! This Zorn fellow, what a fershtinkiner, he
thinks he can take sacred klezmer musical tradition
and turn it into ongepotchket shmutzik (dirt slapped
together without form). What do those schmucks know?
Gornisht (Nothing), that’s what. Zorn’s shtick is to
blend modern jazz with traditional Jewish melodies.
He went about composing over 200 of these Jewish
fusion tunes, calling them collectively the Masada
song book. What a mechaiyeh (joy) they are to listen
to.
Originally written for the Masada quartet (violin,
bass, cello, sax) the double CD in your hands switches
up the arrangements.
The Issachar side has some serious zetz (a stong blow
or punch). Featuring the Masada String Trio (the old
quartet sans Zorn’s sax), you find zwinging zets with
zimple melodies and that special Jewish flavour.
Zevulum has a more haimish (down-to-earth) quality.
Not overly schmaltzy, there’s some fine playing here
by the Bar Kokhba Sextet (the Masada Trio + guitar,
percussion, & drums). More laid back than disc 1, the
zound is shtill zeiseh (sweet).
That Zorn fellow, what a mensch he is.

Archiv 1.1 [coll] – [Raster-Nolten]

Mac   3/5/2005   A Library, CD, Format

Retrospective minimalist collection from German label Raster-Nolten from ’97 to ’04. Many years, many styles of minimalism. All tracks new or previously unreleased. Varied track times. Minimalist review for minimalist music: 1) intro 2) drone 3) ambient 4) clicks n? pops 5) drone w/ beat + vocal 6) drone 7) clicky drone w/ light beat 8) staticy beat 9) pain 10) zips n? pops 11) click drone 12) zips n? clicks 13) minimal pop 14) click drone 15) drone

Windmill “Every Last Windmill Shall Fall” [Big Spoon Records]

Mac   3/5/2005   A Library, CD, Format

Indie-pop/rock project out of Boston put together by Kent Randell. The album is more compilation than single band. Though all the songs were written by Randell, the styles vary greatly. The first four tracks are your standard pop/rock tracks, with #1 being more upbeat and the other three much moodier. Those are fine songs, but the real fun starts on track 5. It’s still a mopey pop song, but it begins with a chorus of barking dogs and later falls into a piano solo. #6 is a neat, quick instrumental piece featuring guitar. #7 goes back to the soft-rock, but instead of lead guitar there’s a lead harmonica. #8 really breaks the mold with some haunting female vocals. #9 is a fun tune that’s a little too silly sounding to be a serious tune, which is probably the point. It’s mostly guitar and lead singer with a guy clapping in sync with the intro. #10 features nothing you haven’t heard before, with hard playing college rock, though the end dissolves into white noise. Same things happens to an even more extreme degree on #11, but this time the noise craze happens in the middle. #12’s is a less polished and less focused song with vocals inspired by the movie Nostalghia by Tarkovsky. The liner notes for track 12 are: ‘Today in the mail I received a glockenspiel.’ An amazing track centered around the glockenspiel (a cousin of the xylophone), this instrumental piece (there’s a faint bit of human vocals, but not singing) is a truly beautiful and totally unexpected from a pop/rock album.
Fun note: God is in the liner notes, having contributed thunder and rain to track 11.

Yowie “Cryptooology” [Skin Graft Records]

Mac   3/5/2005   A Library, CD, Format

The band takes its name from the Australian version of Bigfoot. It might also be the sound one utters when first hearing the band play. Working in the math rock mold one finds two warbley guitars and a drum having seizures as they fly all over the place in fast paced and aggressive style that produced tuneless tunefulness. All the tracks are composed out of this sonic chaos, so if you’ve heard one Yowie track you’ve heard ’em all, but as an album running just under a half-hour it makes for a short sweet debut.

Afrirampo “First EP” [Gyuune Cassette]

Thurston Hunger   3/5/2005   A Library, CD, Format

The first time I heard Afrirampo was a live set on Brian
Turner’s show on WFMU. I felt like I had seen them… I’ve
been dying for another taste ever since. This is their first
album and it’s the first “free pop” I’ve come across so far.
With efforvescent vocals, and the GOOD sort of short attention
span, a drummer who kicks asteroids, and these rising surges
of vocals. From howler monkey screams to lunar crooning to
shrieky speak to orgasmic laughter. Effects are used once,
not milked to death. You could talk about male-dominated
Japanese culture and make a case for the welling up of some
female spirits, but this is just plain unbridled creativity
erupting like a day glo volcano. These wild women are
fingerpainting with their entire bodies. Self-obsessed?
Yep. Ninja rhythms? Uh-uh. Oni and Pikacyu are here to save
the world with naked energy. Domo Ariblotto!

Rewind! 4 [coll] – [Ubiquity Records]

Hunter Gatherer   2/27/2005   A Library, CD

This is the 4th in the excellent Rewind series put out by California label Ubiquity. The Rewind series has new artists and bands covering and updating (and sometimes completely changing the genres of) classic songs.

There are some amazing remakes covering a wide range of genres covered on this CD. There is soul/R&B (1,4,6,12), world/Afro/Latin-beat (2,5,6), spacey electronica (7,9), and folkish (3,11).

There are several tracks that simply must be heard:

(1)An impossibly funky cover of This Land Is Your Land by Sharon Jones & The Daptones, which I’ve reviewed on the 7″ release.

(2)The folky cover of Cameo’s Word Up!

(4)Alice Russell belting out her version of 7 Nation Army by The White Stripes. It sounds like this is the original and the White Stripes cover it, and the liner notes agree with me on this point.

The Joni Mitchell cover doesn’t really add anything to the original, though it is beautifully sung. Burt Bacharach’s Look Of Love gets slowed down and sung through a vocoder.
–Hunter Gatherer

Phonophani – “Oak or Rock ” – [Rune Grammafon]

Hunter Gatherer   2/27/2005   A Library, CD

Phonophani is Norwegian programmer/composer/studio engineer Espen Sommer Eide. He is also – of Alog and 1/5 of Boiling Fjords. This is his third release as Phonophani and his 2nd on Rune Grammofon. It was released 8/2004.

Mr. Eide writes his own computer software for manipulating sound samples, and helpfully includes a sample program that you can download from his website. The sounds on this CD are either entirely synthesized or high processed organic sounds. Rhythms and melodies are spare. The emphasis is squarely on the timbre of the sounds, which are somewhere in the space between natural and processed sounds (Oak or Rock?).

The songs have an icy and austere feel. The piano, organ, string, and vocal samples sound like they are refracted through ice.

All songs are instrumental, though 9 contains vocal samples that make it unsuitable for a bed.
–Hunter Gatherer

Transformer Lootbag s/t [Science of Sound]

Thurston Hunger   2/21/2005   A Library, CD, Format

ebut from Madison, Wisconsin trio on the guitarist’s
(Ricky Rheimer’s) label. Punchy guitarwork carmelizes
this sugar crunchy pop. I hear XTC, Bob Mould, Pixies,
Woozy Helmet, Kaito. Shouty vocals are very condensed,
(with effects) Rheimer and bassist Steven Riches trade
duties, often firing lyrics that overlap each other.
That helps give this music an insistent feel, along w/
Matt Abplanalp’s racy drums. Actually what Abplanalp
does well is to drop out a beat or two sometimes and
let Rheimer’s guitar whiplash a bit. That’s especially
vivid on the last track, which has some sort of nice
whammy on that guitar too…and then the faux runout
groove to boot. Shake your Lootbag.

Narrator, the “Youth City Fire” ep [Flameshovel]

Thurston Hunger   2/21/2005   A Library, CD, Format

Banks of klanking guitar and some nice whiplash drumming are
at the point where the needle strikes the heart of the manic
panic churned out by this Chicago fourpiece. Yeah, the vocals
at their best are exasperating, probably from years of trying
to sing over stacks of amps without a PA? But the rock here
is as real as a blood blister, and drummer Nate Heneghan just
slaps the skin around a lot. The guitars occasionally get into
some see-saw stereophonic slash versus slash work, and do a
good job of sharing the spotlight, playing off each other.
Flameshovel tends to bring out some of the crispier guitar
torched rock, trebly Fender-fried, finger-licking stuff. As
such it almost is important that the vocals be a little weak
as if to say, “oh yeah we gotta sing something.” Weird little
keyboard interlude on “Horse with Blinders” gets eaten alive.
This ep, is definitely an Emphatic Play and promising for
the hinterlands where rock is still spoken.

The Lab – 20 Year Anniversary [coll] – [self]

Thurston Hunger   2/21/2005   A Library, CD, Format

We are lucky to live in an area with such a high weirdo
percentage…indeed we help in our way to boost that number.
But these LAB rats make their own mazes and draw new, wilder,
weirder rats from all over the world. The Bay Area may lack
some of New York’s notoriety, but I think that pays off with
an atmosphere that really let’s anything go. Encourages it
to do so, which I imagine is what the Lab is all about. I’ll
have to talk to Beth Custer who is the chief cheese these
days…if she curated this CD, she gets extra kudos as the
pieces connect from one to another like a relay race from
outer space. Really well done…unabashed brainiac waves
emanate from each piece. A familiar rock ditty from Zmrzlina,
some spoken choked works (Robair’s opera!!), you got vampy
camp from Amy X, drone, jazz and plenty of what-the-hell
is that and why-the-hell-do-I-care-it’s amazing. Each time
through something different leaps out at me, as I write
this Toychestra and the Opera Califas and Jin Hi Kim’s
Korean avant-soul and…hell it really is all mind-bowling,
sticks three fingers in your head and tosses it down the
lane in style! Shoulda been a 10-CPU box set!