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24 June 2003

Amber Asylum, Frozen in Amber (Neurot)
Conjuring images of stricken women posing in ornate high-ceilinged rooms, the music of Amber Asylum could at first glance be written off as elevated gothic pretension. Certainly, there's a preciousness to this neo-classical ambient (post) rock, but a refreshing emphasis on sonic discovery and unpredictability militates against such temptingly shallow dismissals. Before the music, however, the facts: Amber Asylum are a San Francisco-based collective revolving around composer, multi-instrumentalist and soprano singer Kris Force and regular collaborator (since 1997) Jackie Perez-Gratz, and Frozen in Amber is a reissue of a 1996 record, with the addition of three bonus tracks. Dark and compelling, the music flirts with so many styles (impressionistic, romantic, cinematic, electronic, post-rock) that it manages to (safely) avoid swooning pre-Raphaelite clichés while (dangerously) skirting the other extreme of avant-garde self-indulgence. Ranging from the passionate dark chamber sounds of "Volcano Suite" (moody, labyrinthine, fraught) through the slightly imbalanced gothic waltz of (what else?) "Black Waltz" to the truly inspired full-blown sonic psychosis of "Heckle and Jeckle" (a twisted rope of muted calliope-like organ, ominous electronic bassline, discordant clarinet yelps and brays, processed fuzz, distortion), Frozen in Amber is a madcap über feminine dance through the ages. Nothing illustrates this better than the astonishing rendition of "Ave Maria" found here. The barely whispered vocal is more phantom than traditional soprano. Until close to the end, that is, when "chilling banshee" would better describe it. A relentless backdrop (Bach drop?) of crackles and hisses leaves the impression of an overplayed record being given one last unearthly spin by its own hopeless ghosts.
      — David Antrobus

Boy George, A Night in With Boy George: A Chillout Mix (Moonshine/Trust the DJ)
Here's my problem with chillout mixes: Any idiot can do one. It's not like a club mix where you.re actually expected to match beats, layer tracks and add your own sonic effects to tease maximum impact out of every build-up and breakdown. All you're doing is selecting and sequencing tracks -- easier said than done, granted, but still a far cry from brain surgery. So if you're going to put out a chillout mix CD, every single track had damn well better blow my socks off. Such is not the case on this scattershot collection from Boy George, who has lately been riding his retro-hip cachet to DJ superstardom on the scantest evidence of talent. I count four pieces of genuine, worthwhile downtempo/chillout music here, and two of them -- "So Easy" from Norway's electronica darlings Royksopp and "Burning Up" from the Manchester duo Alpinestars -- are probably already familiar to most fans of the genre. The other two are paired up nicely toward the mix's end -- Benchplayer's "We Can Walk It Out" and Bonobo's gorgeously sitar-soaked "Terrapin" -- but they don't redeem an album that's mostly made up not of chillout, but of overproduced, highbrow pop like Marden Hill's torchy "Bardot" or El Hula's "Augustine", which sounds like Bowie in one his more embarrassing art-rock moments. Maybe the former lead singer of Culture Club finds this kind of stuff relaxing, but I find it grating, no matter how slow the tempo is.
      — Andy Hermann

Anne Harris, Open Your Doors (Rugged Road Music)
This Chicago area musician and singer has created another eclectic mix of pop, acoustic soul, funk, gospel and generally upbeat, uplifting music. From the handclaps and backing harmonies of "In My Dream" to the tribal meets Celtic "Vauban", Harris isn't constrained by any one idea, taking the best of what each style has to offer and fusing them rather easily a la Paul Simon. Showing her classical side with "Prelude" and the rousing "Searching", Harris finds a fine balance between the highbrow and the toe-tapper. "Love Song" tends to move into the funky acoustic coffeehouse folk but has some fine fiddling in its background. Throughout the album though, Harris never misses a moment to tell the listener the cup is more than half-full if not brimming over. And it never sounds forced, which only adds to its luster. "Never The Same" is probably the only down-tempo track, but has a lovely melody and narrative. And if there was ever something that could be termed "flamenco hillbilly", then the opening of "Falling Off The Page" might come close to it. Perhaps the high point comes on "Love Is the Light", a song which could draw comparisons to Dave Matthews in some respects. "I Believe" and its relaxing reggae groove is another breath of fresh air which winds a pleasing road. "I know Oprah well enough to know she wouldn't lie/And I've been doing random acts of kindness," she sings. The album may not be an easy finder, but it's certainly a keeper!
      — Jason MacNeil

High or Hellwater, Living the Good Lie (Cooked in Greasor)
Add Los Angeles musos High or Hellwater to the growing list of alt.country bands deserved of far more than the relative obscurity they currently exist in. With a positively gorgeous leading man (Dan Coakley) whose colorful vocals drench this album in a rare kind of beauty -- at once careful (on "Ghostly Stories" and the excellent "Stone Line, Stone Hook"), judgmental and caustic (on "The Good Lie" and "Downer Days") and deeply sympathetic (on "John Cale" and "Puddle Love"), this, along with recent releases from Big Silver and the X-Rated Cowboys, is roots rock at its finest, melding rock, country, blues and pop to create simple and honest songs. There's rarely a dull moment on Living the Good Lie with some of Nashville's finest adding their talents to what is essentially a well-written, expertly (but not overly) produced album.
      — Nikki Tranter

Low Technicians, Remembrance (Diffusion)
With music as hyper-categorized as it is today, it's refreshing to see bands attempt to rough up some of the boundaries which stifle the way we hear records. Though they might not achieve the status of bona fide revolutionaries, Low Technicians do manage to mix things up somewhat, combining keyboardist/knob twiddler Brad MacAllister's industrial leanings with guitarist/bassist/keyboardist Brian Pearson's Britpop grounding. It's an intriguing premise, and any attempt to integrate technological advances into more humanistic music should be saluted, but Low Technicians wind up sounding more retroactive than futuristic. Coming across like an updated Flock of Seagulls album, Remembrance suffers primarily from the fact that electro-Brit-pop was already done in similar fashion with New Wave, and no one except the most execrable nostalgists want to see that come back. Hearkening back to Remembrance's embarrassing predecessors might not be entirely fair to Low Technicians, and some of their songs ("A Dream" and "Lifetime," for instance) transcend regrettable comparisons, but the ones that don't offer hefty reminders why pop music saw fit to move on from this stuff the first time.
      — Brian James

Mars Arizona, Love Songs from the Apocalypse (Big Barn)
Mars Arizona falls somewhere between that "alt.country" moniker that means little today and roots rock groups like Jayhawks and Wilco. Led primarily by singer Nicole Storto, songs such as "Promise Me Nothing" and the soulful yet winding "Voyeur" seem to fly off the disc, bringing Natalie Merchant and Liz Phair immediately to mind. What is most interesting is how they straddle the line between contemporary rock and an Americana sound. Paul Knowles adds a different and welcoming vocal on "Railroad Song", a delightful track that never works on all cylinders. "Widows Dream" is another beer-soaked Gram Parsons-like gem that is the album's shining moment. "How Did I Get Sane?" is a relatively average moody Sheryl Crow but with a decent chorus. Thankfully the Petty-esque "Old Hotel" picks things up a notch or six, instantly infectious and lovable. The cover of "Alabama Song/Whiskey Bar" seems a bit spacey and weak at times. Storto gives a credible effort on "All Heaven" despite the structure being not as tight as it could be. The traditional "Farther Along" has a "O Brother Where Art Thou" quality to it, making it a lovely conclusion to a rather lovely album.
      — Jason MacNeil

James Talley, Touchstones (Cimarron)
Sounding like a dead-ringer for Willie Nelson, James Talley was a real contender in country music during the 1970s -- he recorded several albums for Atlantic and Capitol Records and performed with the legendary B.B. King, yet Nelson and Talley could not have taken different paths. After label politics convinced him to prematurely leave his deal with Capitol Records, Talley became one of the forgotten men of country and western and drifted into selling real estate. Touchstones is a re-recorded collection of the songs which gave him his fleeting moment in the Nashville sun, and although Talley certainly looks more like a real estate agent than a country cowboy on the album cover, it's easy to see why his music is still respected in country circles. As "Forty Hours" suggests, his songs lament the troubles of working class country folk and the 16 tracks on offer make for an honest and affecting collection of traditional Americana. Unless you're a Talley fan, most of the material here will be alien, but songs like "Tryin' Like the Devil" have stood the test of the time with surprising endurance and on "W. Lee O'Daniel and the Light Crust Dough Boys", Talley performs with all the gusto and passion of a man playing as if an escape from selling real estate depended on it. To Talley's fans unable to buy his long-since-deleted albums, Touchstones will be a welcome treat although a Phoenix-like return to the mainstream probably won't happen anytime soon.
      — Andrew Ellis

Fields of the Nephilim, Fields of the Nephilim [DVD] (Beggars Banquet)
This is going to make gothic types the world over smile with glee. Fields Of The Nephilim is a DVD collection of their old and out of print VHS releases from yesteryear. Featured here are the long lost, complete films Revelations, Forever Remain, and Visionary Heads. Also included are a couple of extra goodies, clocking this baby in at 190 minutes of glory! To be frankly honest, though, to watch these video clips now is kind of amusing, more than anything else. I used to think these guys were pretty dark and spooky back in my teenage years of the early '90s; the sad fact is that their music, for the most part, comes off very dated and not too intimidating. I must admit that I was disappointed while watching this. I was hoping to remember how weird and mysterious their early stuff was, but listening to it, against the backdrop of some really corny cinematography just made me bored. The highlight of this set is probably the live set from 1990, Visionary Heads. On this, the band is much tighter (as compared to the other live set, Forever Remain, recorded in 1988), and there's much more aggression in their performance. The audio and visual quality is far better in Visionary Heads, the audio being helped not only by better recording equipment, but the addition of an extra keyboard player. This set, too, marks the gruffest and spookiest utterances to come from the lead singer's mouth on the entire disc. The Forever Remain is pretty decent, too, for it has a large selection of early Nephilim stuff that fans will have rarely seen played live. Overall, this DVD is a must for fans without the original videos; it's very convenient to have them all in one place. In addition to the F.O.T.N. stuff, there are a few songs from various side projects, and there's a weird press kit thing. I thought the videos were pretty silly and dated, but I'm sure fans of the band will disagree and proclaim them "lo-fi art". Nevertheless, fans of F.O.T.N. should not pass this one up. Goths who have never heard them might be interested in this as a small history lesson of the early '90s gothic culture.
      — Daniel Mitchell

.: posted by Editor 8:36 AM