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our brief reviews of new releases
20 November 2006
 Yeah, I’ll admit: I only knew Zombie Nation, pre-Black Toys, from “Kernkraft 4000”. Who knew, John Starlight (Splank!) had already released two albums before this? Well, no matter: Black Toys jumps right into the most current of commercial dance sounds, electro. This isn’t the coke-hyped crunchiness of Justice, or the other Ed Banger artists, something more mainstream, the kind of electro that could find its way onto a Ministry of Sound or Ultra compilation. What’s impressive, and doesn’t necessarily come through on Zombie Nation’s sound, is that all the sounds are specifically engineered for the sake of the track (rather than just sampled). It’s the sound of a squeaking door or the multiple, squiggly effects of “Squid”. And “Slomo” utilizes a heavy dubstep beat with an agitated electro accompaniment to create a deeply banging dancefloor track. But too many of these tracks back away from really embracing electro’s juicy sleaze. The Orange Mix of “Black Toys” (otherwise the best song on the album) wastes the raw material, flittering around with city sounds for two minutes before establishing a tinny beat, and taking way too long to get to the gorgeously sleazy electro bass for a series of outer-space pings and echoes. There’s a nice niche to be carved here, between the indie-oriented heavy metal disco and slickly commercial dance, but on Black Toys Zombie Nation skirts around this niche and never quite nails it. With the pace that dance music evolves, he may have lost his chance.
[Amazon ]
—Dan Raper 1:00 am
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19 November 2006
Hotspur, Beta (self-released)Back in the ‘60s, pop songs were shorter than they are today. It was a time when a song would show up, say its piece, and leave without driving said piece into the ground for an extra minute or two of guitar solos, chorus repetitions, or whatnot. For whatever reason, in this age of diminished attention spans and market-driven programming, pop songs have actually become longer, with the prototypical pop song now lasting three-and-a-half to five(!) minutes. DC-area band Hotspur takes a cue from those pop songs of an earlier era, its members keeping their power-pop crisp, concise, and never long enough to overstay its welcome. On their debut album Beta, they sound like they’re having fun, and they toss things in like dance beats, pianos, and the occasional string instrument / synth without batting an eye, all while keeping the requisite ballad (in this case, the lovely “Have You Seen This Girl") from slowing them down too much. Other highlights include “Goodbye, Goodbye”, which is darker but no less catchy than anything else on the album, and the incredible, not-even-three-minute “5th of July”, which grabs some seriously ‘80s synth noises and pastes them on to a triumphant, infectious chorus, adding up to Beta‘s strongest track. This is a debut? It’s self-assured and confident enough to be a third or fourth album, at least despite its self-effacing title. Seriously, somebody sign these guys already.
[Amazon]
—Mike Schiller 11:00 pm
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19 November 2006
Rarely does an album with as little sound as Weird Feelings by the Weird Weeds require so much effort from listeners. Actually, few albums have as little sound as Weird Feelings in the first place. Vocals, if they are present at all, are high-pitched and distant. The guitars are strummed, scraped, and bowed while the percussion is beaten, rolled, and shaken, but the instrumental sound is usually quiet and spare. For the most part, the tracks are not songs as much as they are evocations of atmosphere. Throughout the album, the music moves slowly and often feels more random than structured. Patient listeners will find Weird Feelings to be quirky, unsettling, and occasionally beautiful. Everyone else will probably switch it off some time during the first few tracks, and in so doing, will miss a unique musical experience.
[Amazon]
—Neal Hayes 9:00 pm
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19 November 2006
 Natalie caused a minor stir on the pop scene in 2005 when her first single, “Goin’ Crazy”, hit the #13 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles chart, while her self-titled debut peaked at 16 on the Billboard 200. One year later, her sophomore album comes slumping out. Oh, it’s not bad; nor is Everything New much to get excited about. Natalie is a little more blonde, but, otherwise, little had changed. Lead single “What You Gonna Do?” kicks off with an appropriately tame rap from Bun B. A would-be smoldering ballad, it just doesn’t have the draw of the breezy “Goin’ Crazy”. I get the feeling the album’s producers knew they didn’t have another big hit on their hands, too, because they tagged “Goin’ Crazy” onto the end of Everything New as a bonus track. Still, the new record has its good points. The bouncy dance-pop track “My Candy” is silly, sexy, and quite catchy. Natalie has a versatile voice that’s sweet on the ballads and sassy on the up-tempo cuts. And, given the genre, it’s impressive that she at least co-writes her material. Then again, this writing rests too often on cliché, with rhymes that match “he hit me with a potion” and “his love is a commotion”. What, no “locomotion”? The music, too, is the standard R&B-influenced, Top 40-aiming pop. I happen to have a soft spot for this style, though, so that’s fine with me. For 54 minutes, Natalie’s Everything New will satisfy your sweet tooth. But then you’ll most likely have had your fill. As you exit the listening experience, please remember to dispose of your pop music in the specified waste receptacles. Thank you.
[Amazon]
—Michael Keefe 7:00 pm
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17 November 2006
Songs of Green Pheasant, Aerial Days (Fat Cat)Duncan Sumpner, a teacher by day, composer by night from Sheffield in England, is Songs of Green Pheasant. His self-titled debut of last year won some praise for occasional gorgeousness and an all-enveloping low-fi glaze. Sumpner’s follow-up, an in-between release anticipating a full-length next year, is a collection of seven older tracks, home recordings and radio sessions from the period 2002-2005. The songs on Aerial Days are presented chronologically, so you know this is a fans-only release; little effort has been made to create a unified whole. However, the general tenor of the release is less Simon and Garfunkel and more Animal Collective, with a strong psychedelic shimmer. The upbeat, experimental moments are most successful, and find a new kind of static beauty in swirling guitars, multi-tracked vocals and gently-shaken tambourines. Beatles cover “Dear Prudence”, recorded for a BBC Radio One tribute show, is all calm, washed-out beauty; the famous hook the only recognizable remnant from the original, as ach ramp of melody repeats, and new hazy guitars spell bewitching layers of sound. It’s harder for the artist to make an impression when, as on “Remembering and Forgetting”, he’s tackling standard static singer-songwriter fare and doesn’t have the electronics of Syd Matters or Sebastien Schuller to make things a little more interesting. You can’t fault Songs of Green Pheasant for mood-creating; at the same time, you’re not going to slip on Aerial Days unless you’re in this particularly contemplative, serene mood.
[Amazon]
—Dan Raper 3:00 am
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17 November 2006
Earl Greyhound’s first full-length, a vast improvement on this NYC band’s self-titled EP, starts with a monster cut, all Page-ish strut in its slow-boogie guitar riff, all Plant-like abandon in the “Immigrant Song” wail that cuts across it. That’s “S.O.S.”, one of the most uncompromising straight-up rock songs you’ll hear this year, and it’s just one of several—“Like a Doggy”, “Monkey” and the particularly evil “Fashion”—that raises the ghost of 1970s heaviness, not just Zeppelin, but glam-rockers like Slade, Queen and Mott the Hoople. That’s where the band gets the pop tease that balances its slash and burn riffs, the pop sensibility in “All Better Now“‘s rollercoaster chorus of “All Better Now” or the nearly new wave-y bounce of “It’s Over.” This very photogenic band—long-haired guitar hero Matt Whyte, afro’d beauty Camara Thomas and powerhouse drummer Ricc Sheridan—has already been caricatured in The New Yorker… can a Fashions of the Times spread be far behind?
[Amazon]
—Jennifer Kelly 1:00 am
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16 November 2006
 There is a photograph of a ship on the cover of Eglantine Gouzy’s debut album but the music inside has more in common with a submarine. It doesn’t have the pointed thrust of a ship’s prow; instead it drifts with the kelp and fishes, far, far underwater. She sings in French and English with the whispering edge of a lisp, a pretty sound, while processed effects smudge the air around her voice. She coaxes—“Come with me, come with me”—and yet when she adds, “Let’s have a good time”, it sounds too plainspoken to be entirely sexual. To this English speaker Boamaster feels like an enticing pre-sexual tease, centred on cocoons, secrecy, and a dark, faintly threatening, aura of childishness. “A Gnome” uses tapping effects and a keyboard to suggest a tiny human toddling through the garden, but notes are left hanging in a way that makes the tune seem mysterious rather than simply cute. The next song, “Santé”, brings in a noise that sounds like a hospital patient flatlining while jungle drums stomp along underneath. There are drifting hoots and little gleams of melody. It’s a bit Björkish and a bit Camilleish without quite reaching the innovative heights of either. Still, as far as first albums go, this one is a winner.
[Amazon]
—Deanne Sole 11:00 pm
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16 November 2006
I:Cube, Live at the Planetarium (Versatile)French producer I:Cube (Nicolas Chaix) offers this set recorded live at the Planetarium de La Villette in Paris during the StarBall festival last year. The songs on this set are only indicated by indices, but there are some recognizable elements to this seemingly seamless wash of ambient electronica; Philip Glass, KLF’s “Space”, and a track or two by Maurizio contribute to the mix. But we have no idea where these (or other) tracks cut in, since I:Cube has slathered this all in whooshing synth sound and launched us straight into outer space. This is certainly a cerebral, deep set: the first track opens with an extended period of bell chimes, and it’s five minutes before a recognizable electro theme enters. These minimal, hiccupping space sounds well up like waterfalls on ambient soundtracks, pulsing out macro time—the sound like a fish slithering around in water ("Index 3") is not unexpected in this sparse, atmospheric soundscape. It’s not really cutting-edge, but the music is still gorgeously layered, and certainly achieves a goal of transporting the listener far away. But on “Index 4” that’s not to space: the track comes off a cross between an avant-garde concert and a nature tour, a sort of more artsy, less overt Deep Forest with bird-call electronics and a lush, tropical feel. The most expansive of the cuts, “Index 6”, stutters to ecstasy like a hyperactive Royksopp, all round edges of the deepest house imaginable.
[Amazon]
—Dan Raper 9:00 pm
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