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07 December 2005

Chris Pierce, Static Trampoline (Prana Entertainment) Rating: 7
Chris Pierce is a singer-songwriter with soul. Of course, such a trait is bound to be lost when it's his most vanilla piece of guitar-and-a-backbeat bliss turns into his signature song. "Are You Beautiful" has been tapped for the film Crash and a Banana Republic ad, the latter of which has likely garnered even more buzz for Pierce than Seal's appreciation for and recruitment of Pierce as the opening act for his recent tour. Granted, "Are You Beautiful" is very, very pretty in a Jack Johnson sort of way, but there's so much more to the artist than laid back beach jams. "She's Trying to Kill Me" is a funky, funny reggae romp with a coda that features some athletic jazz scat work. "Wishbone" is an affecting piece of sludge-rock. The title track is slow blues with some fantastic intermittent guitar soloing and spine-tingling shrieks of raw emotion from the mouth of Pierce himself. Indeed, the complete picture of Chris Pierce is one of a guitarist who wants desperately to conquer as many genres as possible -- at least, as many as one man can with a guitar and a laid-back demeanor. Occasionally, Pierce stretches too far, as on the obnoxious "Witchy Yeah Yeah" or the sluggish, meandering "The Slow Life", but for the most part, Static Trampoline is a quiet, soulful success.
      — Mike Schiller

Kepler, Attic Salt (Troubleman Unlimited) Rating: 6
Kepler open their album with a song that includes dissonant piano chords thundering over a desolate sonic landscape. It sounds uncannily like the songs Wilco have been releasing in the past half decade. Even though the reference is easy to spot, it's still an excellent opener and a complex joy. But the CD never explodes from there. Instead it flounders in goodness instead of reaching for perfection. If anything, the CD suffers from a lack of hooky melodies and its lazy pacing. In fact, the lack of attention-getting melodies is precisely what's missing here. Even when the instrumentation is interesting and beautiful (which it often is), the vocals do not push the song into the territory of excellence. The most engaging songs, "Thoroughbred Gin" and "Rented Limousine", also have the best vocal lines. Go figure.
      — David Bernard

Various Artists, Light the Fuse (Out of the Loop) Rating: 4
With the larger aim of celebrating the history of Western Australian rock and roll, Light the Fuse highlights the work of three contemporary Perth-based bands: the Volcanics, the M-16's, and Fourstroke. Each group's EP-length contribution consists of four songs -- three originals and one cover of a local classic -- that provide an effective overview of the state of music on the continent's left coast. In both the original songs and their version of the Bamboos' "Snuff", the Volcanics offer a solid reminder of AC/DC's Australian origins: raw, unpretentious garage rock played with honesty and energy. The M-16's cover of the Victims' "Television Addict" similarly bristles, but the band's original material emphasizes an overall sound at the expense of strong songwriting. Fourstroke, on the other hand, plays tuned-down grungy rock in the Kyuss mold, except with maybe a tenth of the confidence -- and their rendition of "No Dying in the Dark" by obscure early 70s rockers the Bakery doesn't even justify listening beyond the first two bands.
      — Scott Hreha

Various Artists, Femmes Fatales - The 12 Leading Ladies of Electronica (Toucan Cove) Rating: 4
From self-proclaimed mastermind producer Mike Burns comes Femmes Fatales - The 12 Leading Ladies of Electronica. The collection includes everything from progressive trance to drum-n-bass and beyond. The body-moving propulsive beat and Mea's pseudo-mechanical delivery make the opener, "Red Light Go", the album's strongest track. Burns' sister Andrea, a Broadway veteran, also provides one of the best moments here, performing the longing tale of "100 Stories" that was written by her sibling. In a neat trick of self-promotion, Burns presents the next single from his group Interstate here as the work of his vocalist, Colleen Kelly. The collection has a slick and sleazy feel, though, that undercuts the idea behind the concept. To appropriate the words of author Jean Shepherd, this album is the audio equivalent of the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window.
      — Adam Besenyodi

.: posted by Editor 7:39 AM