 |
 |
 |
Check out
what’s going on
around Winnipeg tonight! |
 |
|
 |
|
Check out
this week’s
online CD reviews by our
music staff |
|
|
|
 |
J. Boogie's Dubtronic Science
Live! In the mix
(Om Records)
A
Website: www.omrecords.com
|
It’s 20 C in laid-back
Jamaica where King Tubby revolutionized the dub vibe in the 1960s.
Forty-five years later the King is still influencing generations
of turntablists, instrumentalists and music lovers. After relocating
to soul central, San Francisco, J. Boogie founded the Dubtronic
Science Collective. In this live full-length, tracks are remixed
and enhanced with echoey vocals, sitars, horns and smooth special
guests. Some tracks would do well on a crime-scene feature, including
J. Boogie’s own You’re the Murdera and Thunderball’s
Pop the Trunk. Others, such as Rob Symeonn’s Chosen Dub
and Mark Farina’s Dream Machine, are for late nights and
early mornings. The fusion of chilled afro-beat, hip hop and dub
styles makes this disc a first-class choice for fans of the Om
Records and Naked Music labels.
Shannon Ander |
|
|
Jakalope
it dreams
(Orange/Universal)
B+
Website: www.jakalope.net
|
Stick some antlers on
a rabbit, then make some kick-ass music — that seems to
be the philosophy of the David Ogilvie-led collective of artists
responsible for it dreams. Whatever the species of the little
beast on the disc’s cover, this 12-track offering of layered
industrial rock and electronica is a success. Nine Inch Nail-er
Trent Reznor checks in on a few tracks and twists a some knobs
next to Ogilvie and Anthony Valcic, but it is young vocalist Katie
B. who really carries this disc. Her coy, delicate but clear voice
is the perfect counter to the thick sonic waves that wash over
tracks such as Screecher. Want a hair-raising experience? Play
Don’t Cry and wait for the sparse electronica to build into
layered dreamscapes before being obliterated by a gigantic wall
of sound that hits like a skidding semi-trailer. What’s
the limit on these Jakalope things?
Mike Warkentin |
|
|
The
Delgados
Universal Audio
(Chemikal Undergound Records)
B+
Website: www.delgados.co.uk |
Fans of Scotland’s
moody-pop titans The Delgados often cite the quartet’s 2000
album The Great Eastern as the high-water mark. With Universal
Audio there is no question that band has the magic touch. There’s
a near-palpable rush that comes from hearing this kind of lofty,
well-composed and sonically complete opulent pop. Everybody Come
Down and Sink or Swim feature (among others) the iridescent vocals
of Emma Pollock. Her voice evokes a kind of breathy innocence
that doesn’t deny it’s strength. She just tears up
the songs she sings. The band adds a wistful tension that can
be traced back to its Scottish indie-rock roots. By stepping just
a few degrees away from the glum, uninteresting work of some contemporaries
in the genre, The Delgados skilfully grind your heart into mush
with a bouncy melody.
Jeff Monk |
|
|
Hexstatic
Master View
(Ninja Tune)
B
Website: www.ninjatune.net
|
There are a few things
I miss from my childhood: My watermelon lip gloss, my flower eraser
and my View-Master viewfinder. You know, the huge, red binocular-esque
camera into which you could insert cheap paper slide reels. The
kitschy reels make a comeback on Ninja Tune’s latest release,
which includes a full-length CD and 11 music videos on the DVD.
You could watch the videos with plain old eyes — but why
not see them in 3-D with the complimentary glasses? And, unlike
Disneyland, you don’t have to give them back at the end
of the ride. So awesome. You’ll get the usual Ninja Tune
electro-kookiness and that dude with the robotic voice who seems
to be everywhere these days. Favorites include the left field
Telemetron and Distorted Minds featuring U.K. rapper Juice Aleem.
The 3-D glasses are ace too. Just don’t make the mistake
of wearing them outside your home.
Shannon Ander |
|
|
The
Grip Weeds
Giant on the Beach
(Rainbow Quartz)
B
Website: www.gripweeds.com
|
The Grip Weeds rank as
one of the more eclectic members of the mind-bogglingly cool Rainbow
Quartz stable of artists. The band’s specific brand of charging,
cosmic roots-rock doesn’t stray from the neo-psychedelic
RQ norm. What gives the paisley-lovin’ quartet a step up
is its sure... er... grip on the subtle nuances of the style.
The band is led by the über-talented Reil brothers, who wrote
or co-wrote all of the album’s 13 tracks. I Believe tips
it’s wool hat to Mike Nesmith, and there are more than enough
Byrdsian harmonies to keep the longhairs rolling doobies all night
long. Kurt Reil’s up-front drumming raises the energy level
to dizzying heights on songs that would probably even sound great
as simple acid-folk tunes. Wah-wah wonderful.
Jeff Monk |
|
|
And You Will Know Us by the Trail of the Dead
Worlds Apart
(Interscope)
A
Website: www.trailofdead.com
|
“Random lost souls
have asked me/ ‘What’s the future of rock ’n’
roll?’/ I say, ‘I don’t know, does it matter?’”
So begins the title track of Trail of Dead’s latest prog-rock
offering, alerting all and sundry that these arcane dudes are
heading deep into The Weird. With nods to The Beatles, Pink Floyd,
Rush, David Bowie and others, the Texas-based trio goes beyond
these forerunners and constructs an epic and adventurous art rock
masterpiece that is all at once strange as hell, wildly unpredictable
and instantly accessible. Trail of Dead shows an uncanny ability
to move from majestic and melodic stoner rock to clever compositions
incorporating strings or piano. Start with The Rest Will Follow,
Caterwaul and Let it Dive, three tracks which put the sword to
the notion that innovation in rock is dead.
Mike Warkentin
|
|
|
Various
Artists
XXX: Music From Thinking XXX
(emperor Norton)
B-
Website: www.thinkingxxx.com
|
Most reviews of this
sexy electronic disc aren’t reviews but polemics which
get lost in the fact that Jenna Jameson is on the cover. Yes,
this is a soundtrack to a documentary on the making of a photo
book of porn stars, and yes, there are naughty bits in the liner.
Get over it and listen to the music. Some soundtracks are as
well-executed as the average porno but this electronic offering
comes together pretty well — and it doesn’t include
Closer by Nine Inch Nails. There are moments of gratuitous smut
— on Heather Hunter’s Freak Like Me — but
there are other moments of solid grooving, even if the Velvet
Underground track Here She Comes is out of place. Say what you
want about the accompanying book and film, the disc is certainly
full of tittilating techno.
Mike Warkentin |
|
|
Vampire Beach Babes
Beach Blanket Bedlam
(VBB/Red Distribution)
C+
Website: www.vampirebeachbabes.com
|
Vampires and babes remain
equally mysterious to most, and nobody in this province has seen
a beach in some time. To cure these ills Toronto’s Vampire
Beach Babes are releasing their second full-length of surf music
tinged with goth and rockabilly. Think of Brian Setzer doing the
soundtrack for The Lost Boys. Beach Blanket Bedlam is an undead
good time, mostly because of the laid-back approach of corsetted
frontman Baron Marcus. The arrangements here are fairly sparse,
incorporating the classic heavy reverb guitars as well as some
far-out keyboards and drums. Sunshine on Me captures a Simple
Minds vibe and Devilman is straight-up psychobilly, but much of
this disc would fit nicely on a Tarantino soundtrack or, to be
more precise, in a Russ Myers jug-fest.
Mike Warkentin
|
|
|
The
Futureheads
The Futureheads
(Sire)
A
Website: www.thefutureheads.com
|
Yet another 2004 release
which showed up on year-end lists while having fallen through
the cracks here, the debut album from this studious Sunderland
quartet is a wonderful exercise in highbrow pop, a la XTC or
the Gang of Four’s Entertainment! album. It’s no
surprise then that the latter’s Andy Gill produced the
14 songs here. Featuring four singers and collaborative songwriting,
The Futureheads really are greater than the sum of their parts,
bringing together melodic pop, angular rock and dramatic flourish
with an energy and zeal that is the sound of a band truly in
love with the noise it makes. Franz Ferdinand may have more
hooks but over the long haul The Futureheads may have more substance.
John Kendle |
|
|
Uptown
Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News