Starbean Refuting the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (Derivative/Cargo)
Local band Starbean has finally packaged their quirky brand of compact pop and the result is simply stellar. Starbean's sound remains a comfortable cross between New Order gone slumming and a stripped-down Stereolab.
Prodigy The Fat of the Land (XL/Beggar's Banquet) If you like "Firestarter," you'll love this: the distorted 303s and cluttered breakage on "Smack My Bitch Up" sound just like "Firestarter." The dirty production on the newest cranker "Breath" or on "Funky Shit" sound like it too. Liam Howlett has been using the same banged-up Funky Drummer since the whistle-posse rave years. Noisier now, more death-ish, more "punky," if you will, but in the end, this is as formulaic as Experience--but full of cockroaches instead of tweedlybugs. Good. Not great. 7/10 (Mireille Silcott) Hovercraft akathisia (Blast First/Mute) On the surface, Hovercraft are a bass, drums & guitar trio from Seattle. But once you see their names (Campbell 2000, Karl 3-30 and Sadie 7, who moonlights as Eddie Vedder's wife) and that a 65-minute album is divided into just five songs, you know something weird is up. Problem is, Hovercraft aren't nearly as weird as they think: the guitar screeches are recycled Lee Ranaldo, and space rock is just no good if it can't get off the ground. 5.5/10 (Chris Yurkiw) At Café Campus Thursday, July 10 Various Random: File Under Gary Numan (Beggar's Banquet)
Seen Gary Numan lately? He voted Tory. He "enjoys going down to the pub for chips." But someone at Beggar's Banquet clearly remembers the old Gary--the compu-pop alien--and has gotten all sorts of people to do covers: from Damon Albarn (doing a Parklife-ish "We Have a Technical") to cheeky popsters Sukia (a geeky blip version of "Me! I Disconnect from You"). Relish the delicate keys on An Pierle's "Are Friends Electric," the return of other 80's relics EMF and Jesus Jones, and don't stop until Dave Clarke's coup remix of "Cars." Wow! 9.5/10 (Mireille Silcott)
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Analog synthesizers and cheap drum machines saddle lush melodies and launch themselves easily to the area between your ears. Definitive Starbean songs like "No Earthly Means of Transportation" and the sublime "Starbeam" prove that this musical UFO isn't just another off-course weather balloon. And also, perhaps most heartening, that there is life on planet Montreal. 9/10 (Johnson Cummins)