Belle and SebastianFold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (Matador/FAB)
Unwound A Single History (Kill Rock Stars)
NOFX Pump Up the Valuum (Epitaph/Sonic Unyon)
Various Family Values Tour 1999 (Flawless/Universal) Well, here we have another Family Values Tour album, and guess who's headlining? It seems founders Korn have taken a back seat to the unbelievably annoying Fred Durst--I mean Limp Bizkit. Out of the 14 tracks on this disc they waste four, but the rest ain't half bad; Korn, Staind (who are pretty damn tight), Filter, the Crystal Method, Method Man & Redman (with only one track! What tha @#$%!) and the unparalleled Primus, who have influenced many in the new skool of metal. Unfortunately, this disc is so overproduced it sounds like a studio compilation made to sound like a live CD. It just ain't raw enough. As for the CD as a whole, I said it in my Family Values '98 review and I'll say it again: less Bizkit, more everybody else. 5/10 with Limp Bizkit, 8/10 without (Lateef Martin)
ja ne fon dorb Everybody Works for Milo (independent) I really don't want to get into an interpretive dance on the name or title here, just suffice by saying that these London, Ont. boys have probably made a good choice in Montreal as the base for their electrockic (and linguistic) experiments. I think these guys are still finding themselves amid these instrumental tracks of diffuse pastiche that mix--with abandon--guit bits, digital snaps and synth swashes into an ambient but oft abrasive whole. Already saying that they're more "rock" than this recording, ja ne fon dorb would do well to be on the road to refining their hybrid à la T.O.'s the New Deal. 7/10 (Chris Yurkiw)
St. Pearl Jam Binaural (Epic/Sony)
Earthlings? Self-titled (Man's Ruin) Pete Stahl (Scream/Wool/Goatsnake) is manning the controls, set for the heart of the sun on this psychedelic odyssey. Spacemen 3 and Pink Floyd pick up on the radar as engineer Stahl keeps things running smoothly with feedback loops, low-end drones and tales of other worlds. Guitars, vocals and percussion weave in and out through slow grooves peppered with rock moments. Along with guests like Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Victoria Williams, Scott Reeder (Kyuss/Unida) and Dave Catching (Queens of the Stone Age), Stahl takes the expressway directly to your skull. 8.5/10 (Johnson Cummins)
Trans Am You Can Always Get What You Want (Thrill Jockey)
Infesticons Gun Hill Road (Ninja Tune/Big Dada) Mike Ladd's new effort can most easily be described as a cerebral battle record. And no, I don't mean battle record in the scratch DJ sense, but I do mean war in every sense. Gun Hill Road tells the story of the Infesticons (the good guys, underground hip hop etc.) and the Majesticons (the bad guys, jiggified, commercialized hip pop etc.) and the ongoing struggle between the two. On this wicked and well-executed concept, Ladd is joined by El-P, Mr.Lif, the Anti-Pop Consortium, Saul Williams and the Sonic Sum Crew for a crazy lyrical assault, and a running commentary that is anything but a rant from a mad rapper. 7.5/10 (Scott C)
J-88 Best Kept Secret (Groove Attack/Superrappin) The J-88 (aka Slum Village) have had the good fortune of a snowballing buzz that contains almost too much acclaim for a group that hasn't officially released anything yet. After a dope single released ages ago on the German Groove Attack label, the crew returns with an EP, ripe with all kinds of treats for the SV fan. Take the original "Look of Love Pt.1," and you'll soon remember why you liked Tribe so much in the first place. This piece also includes a few Madlib (LootPack) remixes for a little variety. Easily my favourite record right now. 8.5/10 (Scott C)
Pole 3 (Matador/FAB) If anyone needs convincing that dub is indeed electronic music they should check its latter-day and somewhat literal manifestation in the spare electro-scrapes of Stefan Betke, aka Pole, a Duesseldorfian studiohead who numbers his releases like Chicago albums. The cornerstone of his sound is a malfunctioning analog sound filter, the namesake Waldorf 4-Pole, which spits out sharp digital crackles that Betke uses as rhythm tracks and which hot link to compatriot Oval's CD-skip trip. Muted synths then replace the "chink" of guitars or the melodies of melodica, and you're off to the Pole-ish races. Uh... slowly, quietly, indirectly. In a rub-a-dub style. 8/10 (Chris Yurkiw) At the MUTEK festival on Sun., June 11, at Petit Campus
Mary Mary Thankful (Sony)
Steve Amirault Rendezvous Point (Effendi/SRI)
Great playing and composing from a world-class pianist, heard here with his regular trio of Fraser Hollins, a vastly underappreciated bassist, and Dave Laing, a sparkplug of a drummer. The music ranges from the loping "Surrendering" to the driving title track to the beauty of "As I Watched You Leave." Like all great artists, Steve just gets better and better, and this trio really gets inside the music. 9.5/10 (Len Dobbin) At Chez Marco, 1175A Crescent, on Sat., June 10
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It's hard to believe that someone with such an extensive body of work is only just now putting out his first album. The U.K.'s LTJ Bukem owns and runs three successful labels (Good Looking, Looking Good, and the new Cookin') and has released two separate compilation series, Logical Progression and Earth, which have sold in excess of 25,000 copies. Since coming onto the scene back the early '90s, Bukem's single-handedly reshaped the sound of drum & bass, taking it from primitive breakbeats and toy-piano keys and transforming it into lush, rolling soundscapes that reverberate through the body. On Journey Inwards, his first solo full-length, Bukem reveals a deeply nurtured affinity for classical, jazz and rare groove, combining those elements to create a sweeping, soulful odyssey of downtempo and drum & bass grooves. 9.5/10 (Krista)
Could be that by now you've heard of cult cuties Belle and Sebastian, the Glasweigian region's gift to fussy, moody wusses worldwide, and the attendant adjectives: charming, sarcastic, elegant, pastoral, ambitious, reticent, Scottish ("faggy" seems to pop up as well). They fall flat when frontman Stuart Murdoch gets all singular and folksy, but when they follow the best steps of their last disc and orch up their bookish, 
incisive pop ("The Model," the High Llamas-ish "Nice Day for a Sulk," the final three tracks) they're damn near unbeatable. In other news, Fold Your Hands... sees the departure of bassist Stuart David for his loopy little Looper land. Call it krauty sci-fi cartoon constructs--basement busybodyrockin' to B&S' parlour games and verandah grandeur, if you like. Belle 8.5/10, Looper 8/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Seminal indie rockers Unwound collect all their rarities, comp tracks and out-of-print singles here, with not a clunker in the bunch. Unwound's true talent has always been delivering their crystalline guitar, free-form noise with just the right hint of punk angst. On the outside it seems that Mark E. Smith's the Fall, Drive Like Jehu and Rites of Spring are constant influences throughout, but when noise, angst and melody finally merge, Unwound's signature is undeniable. If you miss the '90s sonic noise you could still hum along to, then step right up. 8/10 (Johnson Cummins)
Song one: "And Now For Something Completely Similar." Yeah, and below the standard set by the brilliant Punk in Drublic and the pogo opus "The Decline." Still, there's plenty o' air-guitar har-dee-har tucked away in the latest from "the only So-Cal skatepunk band that matters" (I quote myself here), politicizing sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll without bleaching them dry. Besides, their stop-on-a-dime metallicisms are as jawdropping as ever. Yeah, go on, pump it up. 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Yes, this review is late. I couldn't bring myself to subject Yurkiw to this band again (what with his recent bout with scarlet fever and the dropsies--oh, my!), but Field Marshall Sutherland says someone's gotta do it. Stupid hierarchy! Anyway, I have nothing per say against classic FM rock and its hirsute, highway-star riffage. Pearl Jam just do it wrong: Binaural is ponderous, overwraught, directionless and plagued with PJ's usual delusions of "depth" and "substance." In short, thoroughly unpleasant in every way. I'll toss 'em a point for the cool jacket graphic, though. 1/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
If what you want is all sorts of rarities and live tracks from Washington, D.C.'s presidents of punchcard progpunk, then yes, you can get it. A new album should be ready for September, but in the meantime, as a dig at overpricin' import pimps, the band has scrounged up outtakes and supplemental tracks from various Japanese releases. Granted, in covering close to a decade of secondary material, this CD is unfocused, uneven and flat-out frustrating at points. But other than here, good luck locating gems like "llegal Ass," "Nazi/Hippie Empire" or "Am Rhein (Party Mix)." 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Some people have a problem with gospel music sounding too funky. Well, I say Hallelujah for combos like Mary Mary, who bring the noize into the House of God with musical integrity. Mary Mary (named after the Bible's two Marys) are sisters Erica and Trecina Atkins, whose heavenly voices are supported by the funkiest grooves to hit gospel since the powerhouse choir Sounds of Blackness. The infectious lead single "Shackles (Praise You)" is only the beginning of an album that boasts stellar tracks like the rocking "Wade in the Water" and the straight-up jam "I Sings." It doesn't get more joyful than this. 9/10 (Gerard Dee)