Download – Effector (Nettwerk): cEvin Key’s work with Download is usually very ambitious. His past efforts have been highly experimental soundscapes of industrial noise, or short bursts of wonderful static. This album finds him moving into more ambient territories. The album does an admirable job, but fails to break much new ground. I mean, what can you say about Key’s work that hasn’t already been said? The man is a prolific artist, maybe he is running out ideas. This album is good, if a bit unfocused. More attention to the feel of the work as a whole would make Download’s output a bit less schizophrenic, unless that was what Key’s was trying for…
Final Grade: B-
Matmos – A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure (Matador): Matmos prove that experimental electronic music doesn’t have to be unlistenable. This disk uses a lot of strange and disturbing samples from one band member’s father’s plastic surgery to create some lush sounds capable of moving yr butt around a bit. The standout track here is the wonderfully playful “Spondee”, which uses a school teacher’s demonstration of spondees (ask your English prof) as a backdrop for some truly strange funk. The disk does tend to drag on near the end. The last few tracks dip into ambient a bit too much and kill the motion set up the early tracks. None the less, check it out.
Final Grade: A-
Mount Florida – Arrived Phoenix (Matador): It’s always nice to see what other countries can do with the always fresh sound of electronic rock. Mount Florida hail from Glasgow, Scotland and they take the sound of krautrock to some neat new places. Combining the traditional minimalist electronic sounds of German electronic pop with deep funk and groove, some Killing Joke style guitar work and some oblique spoken word pieces, DJs M. P. Lancaster and Twitch coax some intriguing sounds out of their synths. Experimental to the max, Mount Florida are a welcome addition to any electronic geek’s CD collection
Final Grade: B
Gary Numan – Pure (Spitfire/EMI): Gary Numan’s career has been dead for such a long time, it was actually a shock when he first started recording again several years ago. Renewed and enjoying a resurgence in popularity in electronic musicians, Numan has been putting out some interesting industrial-tinged techno for a while now. “Pure” is his major label debut for EMI. Gone is the asexual new-human complex he cultivated in the early 80s. In it’s place is a brooding, almost gothic, industrial artist. The music is still distinctly Numan: spooky in its execution and silky in the intertwined electronic backgrounds. The content is more industrial in quality, with lots of sexual and religious tones to the lyrics. Numan is back, and he ain’t coming back quietly. Bowie he ain’t, but he is making a joyful noise.
Final Grade: B-
OhGr – Welt (EMI): Time out of the spotlight has done some good for former Skinny Puppy vocalist Nivek Ogre. After some faulty starts (changing band names from Welt to Ritalin, finally to Rx), Ogre, now going by the name of ohGr, has finally released a true solo record. While ohGr retains the trademark deadpan and minimalist vocals that he cultivated in Skinny Puppy, the music has little to do with with the SP of old. Instead, ohGr borrows some wigged out funk ala Meat Beat Manifesto and some chunky guitars ala Rammstein and reinvents himself. This is as fresh an industrial album I have heard in years. Recommended!
Final Grade: A
Tear Garden – Crystal Mass (Nettwerk): I always love it when a new Tear Garden album comes out because you never know what to expect. Pairing two geniuses like cEvin Key (Skinny Puppy, Download) with Edward Ka-Spel (Legendary Pink Dots) always guarantees some interesting music. “Crystal Mass” is no different, mixing Key’s dark approach to electronics with Ka-Spel’s odd take on electronic pop. This time around, they play a lot with folk and Celtic rhythms, adding funk and random bursts of static to Ka-Spel’s haunting (if a bit whiny) voice. The end result is music that sounds like it should belong to some ancient culture in some obscure corner of the Earth. One complaint though, the album is too damn short! More, more, more!
Final Grade: A
Couch – Profane (Matador): Most electronic music influenced by the kraut rock movement tends to become mired in the trappings of modern techno. Such is the nature of today’s electronic music: a tendency for over-production and layer upon boring layer of sounds that no one can pick out of the mess. Couch take the opposite route, using the template for kraut rock for what it was originally intended: minimalism. Couch’s work on this disk harkens back to the haunting yet synthetic romanticism of Kraftwerk, creating soundscapes not by another layer of sound, but by using just one. After all, it was good enough in the 70s, it should be good enough today. Sure enough it is. “Profane” is a wonderful breath of fresh air in a world too in love with computers.
Final Grade: A-
Rhume – Snack of Choice (Kelp): Odd music from Ottawa, sounds like it should be coming from Moncton. Rhume, the head band for Ottawa’s Kelp Records, sounds a whole heck of a lot like Eric’s Trip. Strange lo-fi guitar pop is the standard here, though Rhume delve into some droning, almost ambient sounds along the way. Think Beck without the turntables. Not bad, but it didn’t really grab me.
Final Grade: B-
Stephen Malkmus – S/T (Matador): Admittedly, I was never a big fan of Pavement. They always seemed a bit too over the top for me. Stephen Malkmus is the former lead singer for Pavement and his solo debut is a good one. Discarding some of the overproduction of late era Pavement, Malkmus makes a fine lo-fi rock sound not unlike Beck. The execution is a bit on the goofy side, and some strange instruments like a steel drum shows that Malkmus is at least having some fun making music. Given some time and some distance from the critical fame brought from his old band, Malkmus could carve himself out a niche as the next goof-folk rocker, not unlike Beck. Pretty good album.
Final Grade: B
Arling and Cameron – Sound Shopping (Basta): No one on Earth can get close to where Amsterdam-based electronic duo Arling and Cameron are. They create wonderfully goofy but very enjoyable cartoon-techno about cars, clowns and having fun. They could be a children’s group if they weren’t so precise and dead-on satirical. This album, previously only available in Europe, features only 7 songs and 3 substandard remixes. On the strength of the 7 originals (especially the DEVO-esque country/electronic “Cowboy Ska” and the slightly paranoid but cutesy “Tokyo Taxi Robot”), this album is another creative triumph for Arling and Cameron.
Final Grade: B+
Tar Baby – Some Day I’ll Marry a Human (Tar Media): Tar Baby is a solo project from the wilds of New Brunswick. This albums mixes up some interesting sounds, including funk, jazz and hip-hop, all revolving around some minimalist and heavily-programmed machines. The final product goes to some strange places, but doesn’t seem to gel in the end. The album is all over the place and feels very disjointed. I, for one, was confused and frustrated by listening to a few tracks. Shows promise but needs more focus.
Final Grade: C+