Music Reviews

by Dave Heaton, Anna Battista, Jonathan Dirksen

Click on a musicians's name to go directly to the review, or scroll down and proceed through them all.

Mary Lou Lord, The Lucksmiths, Dale Maxfield, Midnight Oil, Mùm, The New Pornographers, The New Year's Resolutions, Paco DJ, Phoebe Quest, Postal Blue, Monica Queen, Radiogram, The Reputation, Saloon, Sportique, Teenage Fanclub and Jad Fair, Teenbeat Sampler 2002, The Tennessee Twin, Things In Herds, T-Minus Band, Tosca, Uncletoe's Portasound, Måns Wieslander, The Windmills

Mary Lou Lord, Live City Sounds (Rubric Records)

Is the art of interpretation lost in rock/pop music? Sure, most bands cover a song here or there, but anyway who bases a career on interpretation will no doubt be cast as talent-less or at least less worthy of attention. Yet in other genres, particularly jazz, legends have been built on song interpretation. Folksy pop singer Mary Lou Lord's Live City Sounds album is a record of her singing live in a Boston subway station, practicing that art of interpreting great songs. Her versions are generally quite straightforward--she's relaying songs to listeners, not deconstructing or reconstructing them. Yet in her versions her own musical personality--gentle, sincere, heartfelt--colors the songs, giving them new angles without ruining them. The resulting album should be a delight for any pop music fan who hasn't shut out the idea that singing someone else's song can be as valuable an endeavor as writing one yourself. Lord's 15 covers here (she also sings one of her own songs) run the musical gamut from Shawn Colvin to Heatmiser, and (as these things tend to go) a few strike me as less successful than others, yet all display an honest attempt to give these songs life outside of their original versions. Some of the songs even take on different meanings when sung in Lord's style. For example, the Magnetic Fields' "I Don't Want to Get Over You" sounds a lot more like a sincere expression of love than it did with Stephin Merritt's irony-tinged delivery. Similarly, her cover of the Bevis Frond's "She Had You" sounds especially melancholy, more so than the Frond's original or the previous studio versions that Lord has recorded. There's also superb covers of songs by Big Star, Billy Bragg, Richard Thompson, the Pogues and more, including a great version of Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" which has less of the Boss's reckless energy but conveys a haunting emotional tone. It's a performance which may not satisfy Springsteen purists, who think no note in any of his songs should be touched, but it nonetheless captures the sprit behind the song in a fresh way. And that's exactly what interpreting songs is about; Lord's success at it is why Live City Sounds is so enjoyable.--dave heaton

The Lucksmiths, Where Were We? (Matinee)

The Lucksmiths are truly special, one of those bands that makes you feel good to be alive to witness them. Their sharp, trim sound--one drum, one bass, one guitar and vocals, with an occasional organ or horn--puts their superb melodies, hooks and lyrics right in front. Their lyrics rely on clever wordplay and heart-on-sleeve emotion to convey day-to-day life, places and situations in a humorous, humane way. They sing songs about friends, holidays, boredom, sunshine, attraction, loneliness, heartbreak and so much more on Where Were We?, a collection of non-album-tracks recorded between 1999 and 2001. It's a scrapbook of what they've been up to and where they've been, recorded all over: in six different places in their native Australia, plus London, Brooklyn and College Park, Maryland. Where the songs come from is a story of the busy musicians' lives they lead. There's songs from: a 7" commemorating their 2001 North American Summer tour, a sampler CD from a tour of Japan, a 7" celebrating New Year's Eve 2000, compilations for an assortment of indie labels (Candle, Red Square, Drive-In, Red Roses For Me) and some of their own EPs and 7"s. And there's lots of great songs, from upbeat numbers like "Myopic Friends," "Welcome Home" and the fan-favorite "T-Shirt Weather" to slower, sadder ballads like "A Downside to the Upstairs" and "Friendless Summer." There's also a spunky collaboration with the Ladybug Transistor ("Even Stevens"), a demo of a song from last year's Why That Doesn't Surprise Me album ("The Great Dividing Range") and the atypically spacey "Mars," which has vocals that sound like they were phoned in from the Red Planet itself (lead vocalist/drummer Tali White actually phoned them in from London, the liner notes tell us). All said, Where Were We? is enough to make pop music fans starry-eyed, whether they already know about the wondrous Lucksmiths or they're about to discover them.--dave heaton

Dale Maxfield, Midnight Street (self-released)

Kansas City-based singer/songwriter Dale Maxfield specializes in ballads…some feature guitar, some piano, some a fuller band sound, but they all have a mellow sound that would fit well on "adult alternative" radio stations (if that's still what they're calling them). He's more talented than much of what fits on such stations today. The songs are mellow, but not in the emotionally drained, bland way that much mellow music goes. With a sense for melody and a certain dramatic flair, his music (as shown on his 2001 album Midnight Street) mixes classic-rock guitar with a certain 80s new-waveish melodic sound to good effect. The lyrics generally deal with people, with the search for happiness, for a feeling of home, for love, etc. It can get a little austere at times, which is why the surprises here are good, whether they're nice little sonic touches (like the jazzy, old LP section of "Where the Crows Go Home") or songs that mix the mood up a bit, like "Good Advice" a more un-reined burst of energy. If those portions of the album have a freedom that adds some excitement to the overall aura, the rest Midnight Street still is worthy of attention, and includes both catchy melodies and a memorably reflective mood.--dave heaton

Midnight Oil, Capricornia (Liquid Records)

If the Byrds-like guitar line that opens Midnight Oil's newest album might make listeners flunk a blindfold test, by the 30-second mark of the first track Peter Garrett's voice would give them away. He has one of the more distinct voices in rock, fronting a group with an equally distinct perspective, one fighting the powerful and greedy, working for social equity and environmental justice, in their native Australia and on a global scale. Though to your average person on the street (at least in the US), Midnight Oil are probably just a blip on the musical radar, with an appearance here and there, mostly in the 1980s, they've been around for 26 years and have been a pretty consistent presence. Today's Oils might experiment with styles here and there, but overall their gifts are the same: power hooks and incisive lyrics that dissect power structures, point fingers at who and what keep people down, and dream/work for a better day. The latter is important; they don't just criticize, they push for change. Take this album's "Tone Poem," for example. While the lyrics are a portrait in environmental crisis (with the persistent question being "where will you live" when our natural world is all used up), they also hope for change: "Everybody doesn't have to beg or borrow/we're gonna move into a new tomorrow." On Capricornia, their messages shine through yet again, and their sound is as polished and strong as ever. While some of their attempts to throw different styles of rock don't work as smoothly as others (for example, the rock-and-roll car song opening of "too much sunshine" might fithe environmental themes, it doesn't feel quite right musically). But overall there's plenty of well-crafted songs here, songs that stand well with the best in their catalog.--dave heaton

Mùm, Finally We Are No One (Fat Cat Records)

The first time I listened to Mùm's second album Finally We Are No One, the numbers on my digital clock floated around, doing an odd little dance. I don't know what that meant, but it seemed appropriate. I don't know if it's the dreamy mood or just the sheer beauty of the music, but there's an air of the unreal around Mùm, suggesting ghosts and other, more worldly things that seem like magic, like oceans, stars, sunsets. The sense of mystery is not just in their evocative song titles--"I can't feel my hand any more, it's allright, sleep still," for example--but in the music, in the way they mix ambient compositions, mid-tempo electronic grooves, string-laden soundtrack music and low-key dream-pop. It's all melodic and atmospheric, filled with surprising sounds and textures. It's also proof that Sigur Ròs aren't the only Icelanders eternally reaching for the sublime…and finding it.--dave heaton

The New Pornographers, Mass Romantic (Matador Records Ltd./Mint)

Literary pornographer Maurice Girodias, director of Parisian '60s publishing house Olympia Press, would have been proud of this band just for their name. Who knows, he might have even published their lyrics in the form of a poem if only they had stuck to the true and fundamental meaning of their name and polluted their tracks with some porno stuff. John Collins, Carl Newman, Neko Case, Kurt Dahle, Dan Bejar and Blaine Thurier, AKA The New Pornographer, have finally released a second album after a long period of silence. Actually it seems like the quiet silence they went through has caused them to record almost excessively energetic and frenetic songs, as "Mass Romantic" the first track on the album proves. "Mystery Hours" is sheer madness, "Letter from an Occupant" is pure raw rock and "Centre for Holy Wars" is a tangle of speedy guitars. Perhaps with such frantic music blasting from their instrument, proper pornography can wait.--anna battista

The New Year's Resolutions (Hup!)

New Year's Resolutions are useless: too many promises and no will to keep them. And yet, there are those who try their best at keeping promises, the Hup! label, for example, releasing this weird semi-anonymous compilation. "The New Year's Resolutions" is actually what should be a cool anthology, but ends up being a mish-mash of tracks that don't have anything to do one with the other: Jad Fair's "A New Year's Song", mixes up with lounge L'Ensemble Rayé's "Fini De Rire"; the latter melts into the beautiful jazzy soundscape courtesy of Future Pilot aka remixing The Pastel's "Rough Riders" which is followed by harpsichord and Theremin obsessed band Pram. The comp even closes with Tele:funken. Singularly taken the tracks are really good, but the way they're squashed together is simply indecorous. Another unkept promise then.--anna battista

Paco DJ, …Any Doubt Funk? (Kutmusic)

Let's face it: 99% (if not 100%) of DJs are egocentric suckers who go around boasting of being the idols of thousands of girls and get the odd blowjob by a woman hid under their mixing desk and other average bullshits. Is it the case with this guy, Paco DJ? …Any Doubt Funk? is his second album and in the 13 tracks squashed here, he seems to have summarised all his influences: "I Don't Care" makes you think of the best Prince you've ever heard; "Shadow of Love" would be greater if it didn't sound like Sade meets George Michael every now and then; "…In Jungle" is an attempt at sounding like Roni Size's Breakbeat Era and "An Evans Thing" is practically infested by the saxophones that often haunt St. Germaine's tracks. The string-swept majesty of the "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence" sampling (with the unpronounceable title of) "Storciume" makes you think of the typically triumphantly claustrophobic Third Eye Foundation's looped symphonies and the piano in "Old Vinyl" is an attempt at classical music. Best track is undoubtedly "Xilum on the Moon" which contains samples of TV shows and documentaries about the landing on the moon in Italian and American. So is Paco DJ necessary evil? No, not really. The guy has got good intuitions, that's for sure, though in all his tracks it is possible to distinguish a particular influence that, superficially thinking, might lead you to think that the guy's actually paying a tribute too all the records he's been lately remixing. T.S. Eliot used to say that "the inferior writer borrows, the good writer steals", and to paraphrase his words, "the inferior DJ borrows, the good DJ steals": perhaps Paco DJ is borrowing, perhaps he's stealing. That said, Paco DJ's "Any Doubt? Funk" has got one flaw (which might also be a virtue), that of being too eclectic, but that's another problem with DJs: they always want to have it large.--anna battista

Phoebe Quest, Presents the Windward Sound (Shelflife)

Phoebe Quest sound like California. There's a laidback coolness about their approach o pop-rock which reminds me of their home state. Their sound is melodic, bright yet low-key, like the Elephant 6 crowd if they spent more time hanging out at the beach. They have a lush sound, too, with all sorts of instruments, the majority of them played by Zachary Stanley: guitars, mandolin, bass, drums, piano, synths, tambourine, glockenspiel, etc. They also have a starry-eyed concern with the universe, with things beyond the material and with forces of nature like gravity and time (the latter interest demonstrated on songs like "Minutes and Seconds" and "The First Phase at High Noon"). That sense of wonder fits the jazzy, melodic pop sound in a comfortable way, making you feel at home, like you could slip into the music and take your seat next to Phoebe Quest on the beach.--dave heaton

Postal Blue, Weather Sensitive EP (Shelflife)

On their 5-song EP Weather Sensitive Brazilian-based group Postal Blue showcase a seamless, beautiful pop sound that has the certain something it takes to warm your heart and make you feel. Their music is all bright motion and pretty, sensitive-guy vocals, with a fresh sound based around a synth groove, a slightly jazzy bounce, melodic guitar, harmonies and, occasionally, just the right embellishments, like horns or strings. "It's another sunny morning, I want your body next to mine/it's so dry here that I'm dying/please don't let things get much worse," goes the lyric to the first track, part of the album's general feeling, that of someone reaching out for affection and attachment, looking for connection. That sort of connection is also what Postal Blue makes with listeners; they reach into our hearts.--dave heaton

Monica Queen, Ten Sorrowful Mysteries (Creeping Bent)

Desperately sorry for those of you who think that angels can sing but we'll never manage to hear their voices since we are simply debauched examples of the worst human beings around and will never meet an angel. For the sceptics among you all, here's an angel fallen off from the sky, ex-Thrum's Monica Queen. Monica has finally released her first solo album, Ten Sorrowful Mysteries, with a little help from another member of Thrum, Johnny Smillie, who plays guitar on the album and has co-written the tracks with Monica. So if you want to hear Monica's sweet voice just tune in on tracks such as "I'm Sorry Darling", "260" or the first single taken from Ten Sorrowful Mysteries, "77X". Chances are that when you get to the last song, "Where Do You Sleep" (that seems to be endless…), you'll think you're having a religious experience. On Sun Ra's When Angels Speak of Love record jacket, Sun Ra himself wrote a poem, it went like this: "When Angels speak, They speak of cosmic waves of sound, wavelength infinity, always touching planets, in opposition outward bound": Ten Sorrowful Mysteries is an experience the listener must go through, sang by the voice of an angel speaking of infinity. Black might be the colour of her heart as Monica proclaims in "Do Something Pretty", but her voice has got no colour, it's crystal clear and ethereal so that it can reach the heavenly spheres more easily and come back on earth in all its splendour. { www.monicaqueen.co.uk}--anna battista

Radiogram, All the Way Home (Endearing)

Any one who has ever visited an art museum for any substantial period of time knows the feeling to sink your eyes into a painting and feel lost…to look so closely that the pain wraps around you and you feel like you're floating. The paintings on the cover of Radiogram's album All the Way Home look like they could have that effect if you saw them full-sized. More importantly, Radiogram's music does have that effect of making you feel immersed. The Vancouver-based group's 7 members and batch of guests play layered, dreamy folk-pop, using guitars, piano, harmonica, accordion, pedal steel, violin and how knows what else. Lead singer Kevin Beattie's songs are wrapped up in sounds that carry them to another level, taking listeners right up with them. The lyrics, too, deal with finding a home, feeling isolated, the act of dreaming…all topics that are apropos to such musical rapture. Radiogram excels at moody ballads but also throws in some direct pop singles ("Gone to Stay" and "Summer Song Summer" are especially catchy) and a fine cover of New Order's classic "Love Vigilantes." "My idea of a perfect day would be to lie in bed and just melt away," Beattie sings during one track. All the Way Home brings that feeling straight to you--showing you what it feels like to be submerged in the sublime.--dave heaton

The Reputation, The Reputation (Initial Records)

There's something really comforting about songwriters who consistently write songs with similar themes. It's nice to know that when you pick up a Wedding Present album, at least half the songs will be about a woman the singer wants to sleep with…or that most Stephen Merritt albums will have at least one song about the moon. Elizabeth Elmore's like that, too. Whether with her previous band Sarge or her new band The Reputation, she writes and sings songs about matters of the heart (and body)…about lust, jealousy, loneliness and confusion. About hooking up with someone you shouldn't, or finding out that your lover's hooking up with someone on the side, or trying to forget about an ex. They're songs about people and situations, about what people do to, with and for each other. What takes them way past superficiality is Elmore's gift with putting feelings into words, her way of vividly setting the scene and filling it with raw emotion. Take "For the Win," the last track besides a lovely piano-ballad cover of Elvis Costello's "Almost Blue." It melds a melancholy mood to blunt-as-hell lyrics about realizing an affair needs to end. "She Turned Your Head" does the same with a fierce noir portrait of a woman waiting outside her cheating lover's home, watching the window while drinking whiskey. That track--with tight guitar-rock in the foreground, a trumpet solo from an imagined after-hours jazz club in the background--is also a great example of the musical success that The Reputation's self-titled debut is. The Reputation give the sense that they can play any way that they'd like to. Some songs knock you out with sheer force, others are gentle and subtle. Elmore's melodies shine throughout, as do her vocals, which easily switch between rock rage and forlorn quietude. All in all, The Reputation's a force to be reckoned with in more way than one--their debut has musical force and depth that's upstaged only by the songs' piercing emotional force.--dave heaton

Saloon, (This Is) What We Call Progress (Darla)

Right from the start of their debut full-length (This is) What We Call Progress, Saloon take off into their own created future with a Krautrock/Stereloab-ish groove, loads of synth and the delicate, pretty singing of lead vocalist Alison Cotton. The group make occasional allusions to the moon, the universe, etc.; their plan to get listeners to such otherworldly places seems based on putting us into a dream-like trance, through ballads and more upbeat jams, and carrying us away. "Make It Soft," one track is called…and indeed, the songs have lovely, relaxed soft textures, whether they're bouncy jaunts ("Plastic Surgery," "Across the Great Divide") or love ballads ("Bicycle Theives," "2500 Walden Ave")/ They have a full sound--there's 5 members, plus some assistance from Mahogany's Andrew Prinz, who co-produced the album)--that's brimming with confident creativity. For all their interest in the future, there's also smart commentary on that dream, evidenced by lyrics like this (from the cleverly titled "Girls Are the New Boys"): "So this is the new world, just like the other world." The space jam which that songs end with suggests a search to transcend that infuses everything they do, giving life to their hints at blowing away from the past, into a new tomorrow.--dave heaton

Sportique, Modern Museums (Matinee)

Sportique take the British post-punk sound of the 70s and play their hearts out with it, with relentless energy, crisp guitar riffs, a tight rhythm section and raw power. Modern Museums, a mini-album on CD or 10" vinyl, is a quick power blow, with 9 songs in 20 minutes. Lead singer/songwriter Grefory Webster sneers and croons his way through songs that deal with creativity, with art's place in the commercialized world, and with the timeless themes of people and how they relate with each other. Songs like "Icestorm" display that classic perspective of the hardened romantic, still starry-eyed but a bit cynical too. "Her eyes sparkle like the stars at night/like an icestorm in July/I catch my breath and wonder how," he sings in one of those heart-catching moments of honesty, before admitting that he's singing to someone he hasn't met and never will meet. They also have a pop sense, an ear for tunefulness, as shown on spirited melodic tunes like the relationship song "Art and Shopping" which gives their style another dimension. This is rock-out, hyped-up energetic music but it isn't shallow either. It's sharp, snappy music with heart and depth as well.--dave heaton

Teenage Fanclub & Jad Fair, Words of Wisdom & Hope (Geographic)

Imagine a comic book with a weird character as main protagonist: let's say he's skinny, he's got curly black hair and wears enormous glasses with round lenses. Now imagine you have a magic powder that, once poured over the pages of your comic book, can bring to life the weird character that will become from now on your best friend. Now, just give a name to that weird little man, call it Jad Fair. Ex-Half-Japanese guy has always been a sort of icon for his fans: part artist, part singer, part songwriter, Jad seems too funny and genial to be real. "There's a sparkle in your eyes." chants Jad Fair at some point of "I Feel Fine," and undoubtedly there's a sparkle in this record. There's a sparkle of originality, the originality that put together Jad Fair and Scottish lead guitary band, Teenage Fanclub to record this album. Jad, master of the spoken word has always verged between madness and mental insanity and Einstein like geniality; the Fannies have always been the kings of the best pop in town and if that's not enough for you, well, the album was put together with a little help from The Pastels (whose influence can also be detected on the track "Vampire's Claw"): Words Of Wisdom & Hope is released on Stephen Pastels' label, while Katrina can be indeed be heard in the background, providing vocals for a few tracks. So here's Jad going crazy on "Crush on You" in which you don't know if he just loves the person he's got a crush on or if he wants to rape that same person; and here's the Fannies providing the guitars for the sugary "Near To You", the first single taken from this album. Jad Fair's disconnected voice and The Fannies music just weld and blend together perfectly. Grace blesses Words of Wisdom & Hope, which is also gifted by Jad's minimal drawings. Love for simplicity has never been so fun. {www.jadfair.com, www.teenagefanclub.com}--anna battista

Teenbeat Sampler 2002 (Teenbeat Records)

Every new year brings its own pleasures…one you can rely on is a new $6 sampler from Teenbeat Records, filled with unreleased, new and rare songs from everyone on the fine DC-based pop label. This year's is as good as any, with names old and new and an emphasis on fresh, melodic pop-rock tunes. It opens and closes with Versus covering an old pop-jazz standard, Jimmy McHugh's "Blue Again," once with each of the band's two vocalists. There's also a pair of songs from bands featuring Versus members, The Pacific Ocean and +- (the latter's "Pencil Me In" is a nice Latin-tinged number), and a ton of songs from other bands whose members have been associated with Teenbeat as long as Versus has: Mark Robinson (Teenbeat head), Phil Krauth, Bells Of, Aden (a countryish ditty called "River's Rising"), Flin Flon, Sisterhood of Convoluted Thinkers, Hot Pursuit (a bouncy pop come-on about "Basketball") and True Love Always, whose mellow pop number "Waves," with a pretty acapella break, is one of the CD's highlights. There's also some new faces, like Que Verde, The Long Goodbye and Currituck Co., all of whom fit right in talent-wise. All of this for less than $10 is hard to beat; just try to find a major label that cares about music fans enough to offer that good of a deal.--dave heaton

The Tennessee Twin, Free to Do What? (Mint Records)

As The Tennessee Twin, Cindy Wolfe and her band take hyper-traditional country, delivered with skill and panache, and mix it with subversive lyrics that alternate social critique with portraits of interpersonal relationships. It's an interesting fit; there's something appropriate about an American who cites Dubya as one of the reasons she's staying in Canada playing music that is American by definition…and not just American, but of the heartland, of the most, um, "traditional' parts of the country. With a title song that takes on corporate influence on democracy ("free to do what? to buy this thing or that?") and a drawing on the disc that turns the American flag into a shopping bag, Free to Do What? has a nice, critical edge to it. Yet there's also humor at work, as evidenced by the line that the music walks between reverence and parody. There's the exact balance between the two--this is genuine country music, written and played superbly. Great melodic hooks are supported by country ballads and dance-hall shuffles. There's steel guitar, accordion, the whole works. There's even a fine cover of a Dolly Parton song, "Wildflowers." Yet as authentic as this all is--it is clear that Wolfe and the others love country music--there's also something playfully rebellious about the way that such authenticity blends with the lyrical critiques. When Wolfe's singing about domestic violence or critiquing the "everything's for sale" capitalist mentality, the lyrics jibe with the chosen musical style in an interesting, layered way. Free to Do What? also works, though, because there's such a jubilant sense of fun behind it, a quality that lifts you up to dancing while also adding an optimism to the social critiques.--dave heaton

Things in Herds, I Can Dancing and Walking. (G-Folk)

At times on I Can Dancing and Walking, Things in Herds sounds like a one-man band version of The Bends-era Radiohead if they listened to more Nick Drake. But the music's also reminiscent in places of Snailhouse and Unbelievable Truth, and the publicity materials mentions Smog, Will Oldham and Sparklehorse, all of whom seem pertinent as well. What all of those touchpoints add up to is nothing conclusive--no easy comparisons are fair--yet they do help indicate what Things in Herds, aka Pete Lush, is: a talented, idiosyncratic writer of unique, melodic pop-rock songs. The songs are in the stripped-down style of introspective singer-songwriters (with guitar and vocals as the focus), but with the mood of more atmospheric bands, with spacey sounds and touches lurking around throughout. Take the second track, "Please Don't Put Out the Light," for example: it uses solitary acoustic guitar and Lush's pretty voice throughout, but then near the end builds a spooky, haunting mood through various sound effects and background embellishments. The album, Things in Herds' second, is filled with beautiful songs that hit emotional peaks which project strong feelings right into listeners' essences. "Come In" is one of my favorites, a gently sweeping anthem that's also a melancholy love song. Whether the subject is unrequited love, tensions between people or the search for something (for resolution, compromise, comfort, understanding), these are very human songs that really strike the right emotional chord.--dave heaton

T-Minus Band, Technostalgia (self-released)

This open, anything-goes new millennium cries out for anything-goes, jack-of-all-trade rock bands like T-Minus Band. All over the place yet in touch with rock history, T Minus Band (really mostly one person, Troy T) takes an otherworldly approach to classic, pump-your-fist rock grooves. The first proper track, "Take the Ride," has the guitars and rock-anthem melody of genuine 70s rock radio but also a certain haziness hinting at the stylistic changes to come later in the album. T Minus Band plays straight-on rock on one level, but tempers it with beats, vocal effects and other weird but fascinating touches. The band name sounds like it indicates a countdown of some sort, but is it a countdown to destruction? No, it feels more like the start of some kind of reverse apocalypse, a rebirth of rock history, but this around everything's been warped somehow, made weirder. All sorts of points in rock's life span are touched on here. There's a glam-rock feel here, dirty-punk touches there, plus 1960s-ish harmonies and some doses of psychedelia and blues-rock. But it all has a spacey atmosphere to it, an unreality that makes it feel like the work of an explorer and experimenter more than a revisionist. "I look for you almost every day/you are elusive in every way," Troy T sings over atmospheric synth on the lovely trip "Elusive." Technostalgia is equally elusive, but that's what's so delightful about it. Everything seems familiar but also new. As a listener you feel both anchored and floating, and it's a wonderful feeling.--dave heaton

Tosca, Different Tastes of Honey, Suzuki in Dub (K7)

Usually I hate CDs where every song is really just one song…you know, those CD singles that have one great B-side but then 7 different versions of the hit single. Plus each version never sounds too different from the others, making it excruciating to listen to. Well, Tosca's Different Tastes of Honey is an animal of a different sort. Though all 9 tracks are dub remixes of the same song--"Honey," off the duo's last album Suzuki--they do not all sound the same. Each is a variation on a theme; there's some similar elements but they're cast in a different style. Each track sounds different enough to make you forget that they're all versions of the same song, yet they all share a similar mood, that of sleek, sexy mid-tempo spy music. The first version, "Markus Kienzi dub," sets a stealthy bassline and a few spare keyboard notes to a mellow funk rhythm. There's also the occasional sultry female voice saying "I want honey," as there is on every track. As the album proceeds, each album throws something new in the mix. "Mossi dub" brightens and funks it up a bit more, while "Faze action dub" ups the tempo with more of a live-percussion groove. Some are more hip-hop sounding, some have a slightly darker feel, some have more of a standard dub reggae aura, some have an electro-dunk sound, some a placid sort of coolness, and so on. Richard Dorfmeister (of the more famous Kruder & Dorfmeister) and Rupert Huber, the two DJs behind Tosca, make it all so cohesive and smooth that it feels like one continuous laidback journey that takes you through various moods and styles without stumbling. Tosca's other new album, Suzuki in Dub is a slightly less cohesive but nonetheless captivating collection that matches different guest remixers to songs from Tca's Suzuki album. This album is even more mellow, with a relaxed chill-out vibe, and also in a way more varied, as the guests throw many different musical personalities into the mix. Burnt Friedman/Nonplace lend the title track a haunting, low-key sparseness, while Dubphonic sends the funky soul instrumental "Orozco" off into space. Two songs--"Busenfreund" and "Annanos"--appear three times each, yet sound different each time. For example, Philippe Lusson picks the beat up on his version of "Busenfreund" but then levels that effect with gentle, soothing piano, while Baby Mammoth's version blisses the same song out with hazy waves of synth. Suzuki in Dub feels like a collection of experiments compared to Different Tastes of Honey's seamless style-switching, yet both are rewarding in their own way. Whether creating on their own or letting others play around with their creations, Tosca presents to us music which is stylish, soothing and pleasurable.--dave heaton

Uncletoe's Portasound, Covered (Best Kept Secret)

As the title indicates, the cassette-only Covered is a grab-bag of pop-rock covers. Seemingly done mostly for fun, the collection is a lot of fun. The song-list is heavy on the 80s but also dips into the oeuvres of favorite artists of the past and present. The songs are played pretty straightforward, with just a few becoming excuses for rocking out. That directness works splendidly to get at the core of the songs--to highlight the melodies, words and sentiments that make them appeal to people. That bare-bones approach (where most songs are essentially vocals, keyboards and drums, or vocals, a guitar and drums) and the fact that the female singer who sings on most songs has a gorgeous voice are what makes this work, even when they're taking on songs that I normally wouldn't care about. It's easy to win my heart with a straightforward cover of The Magnetic Fields' "Candy" or the Velvets' "Femme Fatale"--they're already songs I love…but to make me enjoy an REO Speedwagon cover? That's really something. Their heartfelt version of "Keep On Loving You" makes me realize that there might have been some decent songs hiding behind the big hair and slick production. In other places, Uncletoe's Portasound take classic songs and play with them a bit, making a rock song quieter or rocking up a quieter song. Their version of The Who's "The Kids Are Alright" is especially pretty--it's one of the highlights for me, along with great versions of a few 80s songs I rarely think about: Marty Wilson-Piper's "She's King," The Jazz Butcher's "Big Saturday" and Lightning Seeds' "Pure." That last song contains the line, "Perhaps someone you know could sparkle and shine." It seems relevant to this release as a whole; it has the tone of everyday people, people who could live next door, making songs shine.--dave heaton

Måns Wieslander, Crawlspace (Best Kept Secret)

(Rating: 7 out of 10). Please don't ask me how to say Måns Wieslander's name. I have no idea how. All I know is that his hypnotic, acoustical Crawlspace flows like a stream and mellows like a blunt. The album, recorded between 1994 and 1997, is straight forward acoustic with a few songs pitting him with keyboardist Johan Weitner, bass guitarist Anders Wieslander (I have no idea of their relation), an ill-fated drum machine and the secret humming of Badman Adam. What surprised me most about Crawlspace is how it carries itself. Wieslander's voice may not be the most prolific I've ever heard, but the balance between it and the guitar is very, very well done. You can hear that he does the best with what he's got which, it turns out, proves to be more than you would have expected. That delicate balance fills the entire album, sometimes giving his voice a rawer feel and sometimes allowing the strings to do the talking. While combing through his minimal scales, Wieslander draws upon up-tempo beats and lilac moods to post a winning combination of tunes. With undauntering talent, Crawlspace captures Måns Wieslander's equation for a one-man band: sing well + playing the guitar better = harmonic chemistry for campfires, coffeehouses and everything in between.--jonathan dirksen

The Windmills, Sunlight (Matinee)

"I don't want to hurt you, I don't want to make you sad/I just want to hurt you/I just want to make you sad," sings Roy Thirlwall during "Cloud Five," a song on the UK quartet The Windmills' second album Sunlight. Beauty and sadness are at the heart of their songs, which are melodic pop songs that articulate the complexity of human relations. Their lyrics capture that in poetic ways; take this line (from the first track "Unkiss"), for example: "I feel as though the sky is falling on my head/I don't know, perhaps it's something that you said." The people in the Windmills' songs are constantly reaching out to each other and cutting each other off. Their songs portray the ways feelings change, the way people inevitably sting each other if they mean to or not, but also hint towards moments of connection, understanding and hope. It's a truism that the saddest music is usually the prettiest, and Sunlight is another example--these songs are gorgeous. Yet they're not sad for the sake of being so; they're real, showing people for the lovable messes that they are.--dave heaton

Issue 9, April 2002 | next article