Iron MaidenBrave New World (EMI)
Sleater-Kinney All Hands on the Bad One (Kill Rock Stars)
I Am Spoonbender Teletwin EP (Mint/Outside) It's a good sign, right off the bat, when the first track on an EP, invariably repeated from the previous album, is the best song that disc offered. More goodness follows with these laser-guided left coasters--art school deconstruction and deadpan humour, mathpunk mechanics and machine head traumatics, pinned down in the centre by a variation on "The Metro," by almost-forgotten new wavers Berlin. It's all achieved with an intensity of focus to rival that of the original spoonbender Uri Geller himself. 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Calexico Hot Rail (Quarterstick) Calexico have a good shtick, so they stick with it: this is only Joey Burns' and John Convertino's third album, and there's a lotta space to be charted (horns, too) in the literal musical desert that is their inspiration. Mariachi in Mexicali. Surf in the sandy turf. Lounge-jazz in the open arid. Their Tucson songs are Old-West Americana so stylized that they reach out to Europe here (Morricone notwithstanding), with ostensible shout-outs to the Gainsbourgian duet ("Ballad of Cable Hogue"), Stereolab and Erik Satie. My only complaint is that Burns insists on singing. In this kind of space, too, no one should hear you scream--or even whisper. 7.5/10 (Chris Yurkiw) With Macha and Sackville at Cabaret this Mon., June 5, 9 p.m., $10
DJ John Kelley Highdesertsoundsystem2 (Moonshine/Koch) What was that about not judging a book by its cover? The sleeve art for Moonshine's latest offering makes it difficult to take the contents seriously. However, legendary So-Cal DJ John Kelley, dubbed the "DJ for the spiritual entity" that are L.A.'s Full Moon Gathering events, delivers a startlingly strong, raw mix of credible techno that will make you forget about the silver blow-up rave toys floating over a sand dune. Highdesertsoundsystem2, Kelley's fifth mix for Moonshine, contains killer tech-funk tracks from top artists like Timo Maas, Ben Sims, G Flame, Trancesetters and more. I wouldn't mind being out in the desert for this one. 7.5/10 (Krista)
St. Etienne Sound of Water (Mantra/Koch)
Kid Rock The History of Rock (Lava/Atlantic) Here's the recipe: take one part George Thorogood, two parts gangsta rap metal, one part Everlast blues hip hop, a casio, an acoustic guitar and a small man with a purple mohawk yelling "I'm no midget, bitch!" And there you have it: the trailer trash, fur-coat-wearin' "early mornin' stoned pimp" Kid Rock. All but two of these songs are revamped versions of his earlier forays into nasty, flippin' the bird and dissin' the ho's-style heavy rock and whitebread snotty hip hop stylings. Surprisingly better than that Limp Kornshit and destined to blare from every mall rat's Range Rover this summer. 5/10 (Genevieve Paiement)
Various Escalator Records, Tokyo (Bungalow/Fusion III)
Sound Track The Cooler (Caipirinha) Just in time for the MUTEK Festival taking place in Montreal starting this week, Capirinha records releases The Cooler from Greece's Savvas Ysatis, aka Sound Track. So, no, this is not the soundtrack to a film, but rather Ysatis' first solo project for Caipirinha, made up of simple, slow-building minimal techno/house tracks done in a style akin to artists like Thomas Brinkmann, Pole, G-Man and the Chain Reaction crew. Quintessential background music; subtle and smooth, each track bubbles along seemingly endlessly into its own echo. 8.5/10 (Krista) Live at MUTEK, Wed., June 7 at Ex-Centris
En Vogue Masterpiece Theatre (Warner) On their last release, '97's ill-fated EV3, this combo was a trio trying desperately to sound like a quartet (after the infamous departure of Dawn Robinson). This time around Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron and Maxine Jones have found their musical comfort zone, and the results are gratifying. Rejoining their original producers, Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy, the trio deliver a solid set of well-crafted material, including a quartet of songs that effectively incorporate samples of well-known classical pieces. It's proof positive that these funky divas were born to sing, and still can. 8/10 (Gerard Dee)
Geoffrey BurgonTerror of the Zygons (BBC/Koch) Bump, ba-dada-bump, ba-dada-bump... oo-EEEE-oooo! No question, that Dr. Who theme was boss. Here it is again, opening a spread of background traxx from the '76 season of this U.K. sci-fi klassick. Burgon's right on a cusp: stodgy, well-built traditional orchestration on one hand, weirdo avant-garderies and period electronics on the other. Hey, imagine hotboxing the Tardis! That would be excellent. 7/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Billy Bragg & Wilco Mermaid Avenue Vol. II (Elektra/Warner) Various 'Til We Outnumber 'Em: the Songs of Woody Guthrie (Righteous Babe/Festival) You'd think that the simple folk music of proto-politico dustbowl balladeer Woody Guthrie would be the most unfashionable thing imaginable in these electro days, but you'd be discounting the opposition, which was always where Guthrie stood. Billy Bragg and Wilco come out tag-team for a second round of writing tunes to Woody's latter-day lyrics, with Bragg injecting the "All You Fascists" with the odd "My Flying Saucer," and Wilco doing middling, jangly stuff. Nice variety--perhaps even more than in Ani DiFranco's release of a 1996 Guthrie tribute concert at Cleveland's Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, with takes from DiFranco, Bragg, Springsteen--and Tim Robbins, in one of the many spoken bridges that might've saved the concert, but not the predictable album. Mermaid 7/10, Outnumber 6.5/10 (Chris Yurkiw)
John Lewis Golden Striker/Jazz Abstractions (Collectables/Fonographe)
Two Atlantic reissues on one CD--the first, a brass outing, is less interesting than the second, a prime example of Third Stream writing, one composition by guitarist Jim Hall and three by Gunther Schuller which include marvelous variations on pieces by Monk and Lewis himself. The stunning array of musicians here includes Hall, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Eddie Costa, Scott LaFaro and Bill Evans. Well worth the price of admission for the second session alone. 9/10 (Len Dobbin)
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In the world of the quality compilation, there are the money grabbers, the copycats and BBE. Rounding out the fifth instalment of collections hand-picked from the playlists of some of our favourite DJs comes Stop and Listen Vol. 5, compiled by Masters at Work. I know you're probably thinking this is a house thing, but the selection runs from the smooth head-nodding beats of Slum Village to the sweet soul of Jill Scott, with everything from Joey Negro and Joe Claussel to Nina Simone filling in the four-record set. Despite the wide range of genres assembled here, Kenny and Louis have managed to maintain the same sweet vibe throughout, making for yet another outstanding release from BBE. 10/10 (Scott C)
After a string of releases that even the most die-hard Maiden fans would turn their noses up to, Maiden's mascot, Eddie, returns bloodied but unbowed. With Bruce "The Tattooed Millionaire" Dickinson and Adrian Smith back in the fold, the boys re-embrace a Powerslave-era sound. The three-guitar onslaught manages to steer clear of stepping on any toes, Steve Harris' galloping bass keeps everything grounded and Dickinson proves he is the only true voice for Maiden. With the recent resurgence of classic metal, this is sure to win over new fans as well as appeasing the old geezers. Up the hammers! 7.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
The fifth album by this all-grrrl threesome is nothing short of a call to arms for female musicians. Not only do songs like "#1 Must Have" and "Male Model" explicitly address misogyny and the lack of credible women in the business, but this brand of tight power-pop should give budding rock chicks something to aspire to. Girly vocals and madwoman warbling sit side by side in three-part harmonies, while clean hooks and serious riffage carry the tunes along with an easy urgency. The single "You're No Rock 'n' Roll Fun" is particularly catchy, with a nod to gender politics that doesn't headbutt you silly. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
A cursory listen would suggest that English ueber-popsters St. E, after the retro reductions of their last full-length Good Humour and the stylistic digressions of the Places to Visit EP, have elected to ease off ambitions of evolution. Digging deeper proves otherwise. Sound of Water, while familiar in sound and studded with unremarkable tracks, does offer a handful of what will be recognized as their best songs yet. "Heart Failed (in the Back of a Taxi)" is unshakable, "Boy Is Crying" puts a smacked-out Motown melody to a sparse Afro-cuban rhythm and "How We Used to Live" is a nine-minute triptych in all its sprawling glory. In other words, their sainthood remains intact. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
With their Sushi comps, the boys at Berlin's Bungalow label were the Marco Polos of the Shibuya indie-pop explosion--the first to land, the first to shake hands. They've maintained contact, and here give props to the resilient Escalator label, about the last refuge of Shibuya's creative kooks (Yukari Fresh, Neil & Iraiza, Cubismo Grafico). Gotcher steel drums and cell phones, francophonics and Atari-tronics, discount shimmer and seismic teen-beat bubblicia--a joyful noise unto the lord and all that shit, yo. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)