 |
 |
 |
Check out
what’s going on
around Winnipeg tonight! |
 |
|
 |
|
Check out
this week’s
online CD reviews by our
music staff |
|
|
|
 |
Cradle of Filth
Nymphetamine
(Roadrunner Records)
B+
Website: www.cradleoffilth.com
|
Listening to Nymphetamine
won’t win you any points with God but will probably get
you a prime poker next to the beer fridge in hell. As a bonus,
this disc is far more listenable than Midian and Damnation and
a Day, previous offerings from this British black metal band.
The corpses in Cradle seem more focused this time out, creating
orchestral, gothic metal that is both livid and engaging. As theatrical
and grandiose as these tracks get, there is a solid foundation
of Metallica thrash running throughout, particularly on tracks
such as Gilded Cunt (you’re going to hell). COF is certainly
far more aggressive, hoarse and croaking than bands such as HIM
and Marilyn Manson, but a connection exists — even if Ville
Valo looks like a Catholic schoolgirl next to Dani Filth. Pick
this up if you dare — from the Cradle to the brave.
Mike Warkentin |
|
|
Erick Sermon (The Green Eyed Bandit)
Chilltown, New York
(Universal/ Motown Records)
B-
Website: www.defsquadrecords.com
|
Erick Sermon’s got
funk 4 days — and this latest release proves it. The Green
Eyed Bandit has built his rep on supplying fans with the very
best in hip hop music and, similar to Depeche Mode, Sermon has
created his own music and never failed to please. Keeping this
in mind, you can rest assured that his latest effort is some more
of that explosive Brooklyn bomb shit. Chilltown, New York is filled
to the brim with loads of neck-snapping production and set-your-ass-on-fire
lyrics. If you are true and not some buster wannabe, you better
pick this disc on up and then prepare to drop it like it’s
hot. With tracks such as Wit Ee’s and the gully Future Thug,
this fiery CD requires asbestos mittens for handling.
Horace Carrington |
|
|
Exodus
Utada
(Island Records)
D
Website: www.utada.com |
How do you say crap in
Japanese? With shabby lyrics such as “You’re easy
breezy and I’m Japanesy,” Hikaru Utada’s latest
disc could cause an exodus at your next party. The beats are mismatched
with her voice, and her voice is mismatched with my ears. Born
in Manhattan, Utada travelled from the U.S. to Tokyo frequently
with her parents, both of whom are in the music business. At 11
Utada wrote and produced her first single, and by 13 she had released
her first album. Since then the bilingual artist has continued
to pump out discs in both English and Japanese. I can’t
help but feel something has been lost in translation on tracks
such as You Make Me Want to be a Man. Rap producer Timbaland remixes
two tracks but the screechy voice remains. Exodus Utada’s
North American debut and, if we’re lucky, her finale too.
Shannon Ander |
|
|
Involver
Sasha
(Global Underground)
C-
Website: www.globalunderground.co.uk
|
Involver? Try revolver.
Listening to this disc makes me want to shoot myself. I don’t
care if Sasha is one of the biggest deejays in the world. Involver
sucks. Apparently this disc didn’t make enough money the
first time around so a re-release six months later was in order.
Usually known for progressive house, the 35-year-old star slows
things down… way down… almost to a crawl for this
boring compilation. There are tracks from Spooky, Unkle and Ulrich
Shnauss, but the only tune that doesn’t make me want to
scratch my eyes out is Felix da Housecat’s Watching Cars
Go By. On the flip side, the mixing is excellent. If you must
play this CD, I suggest using it at the end of a party —
it’s a great way to get people out of the house or into
a coma.
Shannon Ander |
|
|
MC
Mario
Party Mix 2004
(Sony Music)
B
Website:
www.mcmario.com
|
You don’t need to
be a wine enthusiast to figure out cheese and wine pairings. Brie
goes well with Champagne, and cheddar is a good match for a Cabernet.
MC Mario’s cheesy dance mix will go with almost any alcoholic
beverage, including my favorite: The 4L box of wine. Sure, my
friends have already made fun of me for even giving this CD a
chance, but hey, it’s fun and you don’t need to try
and find out the meaning behind each song. Most of the tracks
feature credible dance artists, but MC Mario always manages to
sneak in a few tunes from artists that nobody’s heard of
before. Play this disc while getting ready to go out, just don’t
let your friends find out that you own it — they might steal
it while you’re not looking.
Shannon Ander |
|
|
Stéphane
Pompougnac
Living on the Edge
(Isla del Sol)
B+
|
To most, living on the
edge constitutes such activities as skydiving and bungee jumping.
In France this must mean releasing a solo CD. Born in southwest
France, Pompougnac made a name for himself in 1997 while spinning
at the Hotel Costes café. The deejay’s sets were
successful and eventually led to the release of the famous Hotel
Costes lounge compilations. This disc, however, has both good
and bad moments. Clumsy features R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe
and sounds like a bad Postal Service track. Petit Pompoupou has
a nice beat but is immediately skip-worthy when a giggling baby
takes over the entire track. Yuck. Otherwise the disc is enjoyable,
with PNC Aux Portes and One Soul Rising being likely candidates
for future chill compilations. Including everything from classic
jazz sounds to French rap, Pompougnac covers a range of styles
that will have you dancing in your seat and enjoying another martini.
Shannon Ander
|
|
|
Rammstein
Reise, Reise
(Universal)
B-
Website: www.rammstein.com
|
Even if you don’t
speak German, you can tell that most of the lyrics on Reise, Reise
are crap (listen to Amerika for a prime example). All that aside,
Rammstein’s words have never really done anything but add
a creepy vibe and a lot of hard consonants that set the table
so wicked industrial metal riffs can snap the legs off. And sometimes
that happens here, but this disc also tends to plod at times,
losing momentum on tracks such as Stein um Stein. Then there’s
Morgenstern, which contains pretty solid bits of Du Hast —
“Du, du bist...” All that aside, tracks such as the
title cut and Mein Teil will satisfy with thrusting, detuned guitar
grinding and massive choruses straight out an East German steel
factory. Man, somebody really should tell these guys about German
reunification — it’s OK to be a happy German now.
Mike Warkentin |
|
|
Robyn Hitchcock
Spooked
(Yep Roc)
B+
Website: www.YepRoc.com
|
Fiftysomething Cambridge,
England, folk-rocker extraordinaire Robyn Hitchcock is the kind
of artist who has built his career by way of making the unexpected
expected. His latest release is, at first listen, a seemingly
under-whelming set of morose ballads. The trick to ‘getting’
Hitchcock’s specialness is to listen closely. The 12 understated
tracks that make up Spooked were created only at the hands of
Hitchcock, producer/player David Rawlings and Gillian Welch on
guitars, vocals, bass and drums. Opening track Television sets
the quirky and romantic tone of this record with its fairly overt
portrayal of the boob tube as lover. We’re Gonna Live In
The Trees is a curious, cutesy-pie tale of a couple of birds that
are excited about their future above the fray. Thankfully, we
still have folks such as Hitchcock around to remind us all that
it really just doesn’t have to make sense to make sense.
Jeff Monk |
|
|
The
Hellacopters
Cream of the Crap! Collected Non-Album Works Volume Two
(Sweet Nothing/Psychout)
A
Website: www.hellacopters.com
|
Hellacopters fans are
the luckiest in the world. Not only do they enjoy release after
wonderful new release from the Swede Gawds of New Rawk but they
get collections of almost all of the band’s rather unobtainable
various-label rarities. If obscure B-sides and non-album tracks
calm your nerdy collector side, then this new volume will be
just what you need — the band’s entire career is
overviewed in 22 hot tracks. It’s a given that any of
the late-’90s tracks featuring original guitarist Dregen
smoke with a touch more fury, and the connection to the band’s
Swedish black metal past is fairly evident in his harsh six-string
attack. Later-career tracks show the band moving forward and
really getting on top of their current flavour.
Jeff Monk |
|
|
Uptown
Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News