Maxime de la
Rochefoucauld Atomic Kitten
Snowdogs Animal
Farm (Victory/Koch) Cracker Forever
The Czars The
Ugly People vs. the Stina Nordenstam
This Is Stina Nordenstam (Independiente/Sony)
Grandmaster
Flash The Official DJ Shadow &
Cut Chemist Steve Bug The
Flow (Cocoon/Fusion III) Sinewave/dB
Sade Lovers
Live (Sony) Issa Bagayogo
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Maxime’s
“band,” les Automates Ki, is in fact a horde of primitive,
handmade little noise-bots, trashcan percussion devices controlled by
sub-bass pulses (supplemented by some “real” instruments here
and there). His deft command has them dancing delicately on the edge
of chaos, clickety-clacking up a racket of rare beauty. The setting
slides from micro to macro—one moment, the listener is a circus
flea and the whole world is a watchmaker’s workbench; the next
sees sprawling palaces materialize out of mountain mists. Excuse the
grandiose similes, but that’s how effective this stuff is. Now
that mech-master Max is back from a stay in NYC, maybe he’ll do
a show for us, because his creations and the glorious din they generate
really have to be experienced in person. 9/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
Sounds
like three girls who grew up on Wham! are being coordinated by one ghost
talent who grew up on Donna Summer, another who studies trendy hip hop
and R&B production, and yet another who loves that pre-fab sheen.
For a post-Spice U.K. girl band, this could be a lot worse. A few funky
guitar lines and dramatic strings fill out the hyper disco tracks, the
R&B beats by numbers are enjoyable at times and one of these broads
can actually sing! But, in case you hadn’t guessed, the disc is
also infested with wretched ballads and banal plasticity. 6.5/10
(Lorraine Carpenter)
It’s
funny sometimes how the U.K. can every now and again beat the States
at their own game (Bush). In this case U.K.’s Snowdogs take a stab
at it by playing infectious power pop that will definitely stick out
on their label which is mainly known for testosterone fuelled hardcore.
Right from the get-go, Snowdogs let you know what they’re after:
Offspring, Green Day and Blink 182 moolah. I guess there’s nothing
wrong with that as they don’t hide behind teenage cheekiness and
are pretty up front. Unfortunately, there is nothing here that can even
tread water next to the punk arena rock radio stars. 5/10 (Johnson
Cummins)
This
ain’t no cowboys on acid like the old days of Camper Van Beethoven,
but Dave Lowery and crew, with a bunch of guests playing all sorts of
instruments, make this one of Cracker’s more experimental releases.
There are still those slow ballads that explode into country rawk waltzes
and the straight-ahead rock, but some of the tracks are more poppy,
with a lot of electronic synth thrown into the mix. If you are a diehard
Cracker and CVB fan, this one is definitely worth a listen. 8/10
(Amazin’ Jason Felker)
Discovered
and produced by Simon Raymonde of the Cocteau Twins, Denver’s Czars
have a lush but pained tone, their morose trumpet, piano and gently
picked guitar lines forming a soundtrack for last call at a decaying
bar. The occasional rocking track follows suit with cracking guitars
but equally bitter, lovelorn lyrics from a protagonist who’s learned
to live with that chip on his shoulder (or thorn in his side). Despite
this emotional weight, the sound remains graceful and light due to John
Grant’s beautiful, effortless crooning, a slight, trudging country
twang and the atmospheric Cocteau touch. 8/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
The
daughter of Swedish commies tortured by middle class guilt, a depressed
teenage Stina Nordenstam decided to escape her loveless home and excise
her demons through music. Her subtly ethereal vocals are like a sad,
twisted little girl’s secret audio diary, accompanied by a rich
music box of veiled beats, guitar and keyboards. Allegedly the most
upbeat of Nordenstam’s five albums, this disc is never a chore,
aided by a bossa nova rhythm here, a near-pop tempo there, and vocals
by Suede singer Brett Anderson on two of these 11 exquisite tracks.
8.5/10 (Lorraine Carpenter)
Big
Juss in effect. Real fans of the original incarnation of Company Flow
will already have this, but for the rest of you—approach with caution.
Right off the bat, Juss hits you with a earful, appropriately titled
“Tongue Sandwich,” that will either have you intrigued enough
to listen further, or running in the other direction. This is nowhere
near the sonic level of polished, overproduced product that we’re
used to hearing, and yet it’s that muddled, grimy chaos that probably
attracts most people to listen to Big Juss creations. This is real hip
hop after all, if you have the courage to listen closely. 7/10 (Scott
C)
Alongside
Afrika Bambaataa (in town this week) and Kool Herc, Flash was a founding
father of hip hop, the original turntable tech-head with a message—“The
Message,” precisely. The Bronx block parties he lorded over in
the mid-’70s are now the stuff of legends, all the more for the
absence of documentation. To fill that void, he’s hooked up with
Strut, no slouch of a label, to recreate that vibe—sort of. This
is no mere mix CD, but rather a scrapbook of live, lo-fi deck-wreckage,
interview clips, nods to the incongruous tunes that fuelled hip hop
(Babe Ruth, Kraftwerk, YMO) and Flash as remixed by Flash. Worth the
price tag for the fat, informative booklet alone. 8.5/10 (Rupert
Bottenberg)
The
common factor between Sinewave (Winnipegger Mark Wiebe) and Montreal’s
own D&B duo dB is eeriness. In Sinewave’s case, it’s a
gradual, expansive kind of creep-out—“Hot Clamps” catches
the cosmic drift of Tangerine Dream, while “Classical Scare Tactics”
suggests a slow, nocturnal crawl through a tough, sexy, unfamiliar city.
Solid, patient stuff. The energy that drives the low-key drum &
bass of dB is far more edgy and nervous. Deep-sea bass rumbles and synth
textures, thick like glue, are laced with sharp, raw beats fashioned
out of crisp and largely untreated drum kit demonology. The atmosphere
across this double deuce, the first (but not last) such outing for 2Top,
is worrisome, but never too overtly so. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)
CD launch at Casa del Popolo, Sat. Feb. 16, 10pm
Just
in time for Valentine’s Day comes the ultimate sensual encounter
of the musical kind: British vocalist Sade Adu and her band captured
live in concert. Back in the ’80s, when Sade debuted with Diamond
Life, Adu’s vocals were seen as less than stellar. But as this
live set proves, she’s gotten better with time, effortlessly carrying
the band through classics like “Is It a Crime” and “Smooth
Operator,” and more recent material, including “By Your Side”
and “Slave Song.” As musical aphrodisiacs go, this is the
sweetest taboo. 8/10 (Gerard Dee)
This
Malian cat’s tearing up the Euro world beat charts, and with good
reason. Bagayogo’s “Afro-electro” dodges the trap of
self-conscious first/third-world fusion, which so often only polarizes
the tech and the trad, accentuating flaws on either end. Acoustic drums,
n’goni and balafon, as well as the man’s own rich voice, lock
in so smoothly with the tasteful studio smithery of Yves Wernert that
the contrast vanishes. A dash of samba or Arabic pop here and there
doesn’t hurt either, nor do thoughtful lyrics and female choruses.
The whole thing has a lively but unobtrusive energy, announcing a major
new player in 21st century African pop. 8.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)