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[Love & Anger] [Gaffaweb]

USENET tape denizens in the critical dock!


Well, the new Sound Choice has finally straggled out, and there are not one
but FOUR weenies from the net tape in the hands of the critics, including
the work of slimeboy Hof, me, Bob Neumann, and John (Sly Garbage) Labovitz.
Ciaffardini said it was cool for me to excerpt these. I'm a fool to do this,
since the guy who reviewed me seems to think I'm a weenie, but hey....

Sly Garbage and the Cryptones-Rowis Towaris

File these guys under Art Rock! This is the second tape by two guys who go
by the names of "Xylo" and "Zakk." Basically sounds like these two are 
sitting around having fun with guitars, keyboards, a drum machine and vocals.
Music is well composed with fairly simple melodies throughout. A well done tape
if you like this kind of thing.

Neu Electro-Shake your Body 'Lectric

This cassette is extremely well recorded and packaged professionally.
Though much of this high-tech synthesizerdance-pop never reaches
past elevator disco, a number of tunes are developed to grooves
which prove to be originally funky. Maria Vaught's vocals on "Someone
new" deserve attention. Shake your body is fun and original. A lot of 
the sounds remind me of Vanity 6, or earlier Prince. However, the
attempts at sexiness are pretty lame. Some of the songs sound like
cliched disco music which had me turning down the volume in embarassment.
A good cassette, but I can't help laughing at times at lines that are
seriously sung like, "the bodies move to the beat of modern music,
muscles stretch as pulsating rhythms play...we love to stretch out
muscles oh so tight, we love to Sexercise." This is one cassette in
which you wonder whether this guy is spoofing, or is he really a nerd?

The New Creatures (Hofboy)-Exhume the Lord

Another dense, effect-filled excursion from someone trapped in 
their basement studio. You know-all sorts of instrumentation, 
everything in sight a possible source of percussion, radio excerpts,
wierd, incomprehensible vocals and moans, all to aimless result.
Normally, my response to this kind of thing is to recommend that
the indulgent party try to get some sun. And this tape, generally,
is just another catalog of someone's eccentricities (BOY, AM I
JEALOUS AT THIS, HOF. WHATTA COMPLEMENT!). I have to admit, though,
that a couple of numbers on the second side made me smile. One, 
called "Bruce is on Fire," features a slowed-down Springsteen
singing his hit, sounding-as a result-more than a little perverse
and a high Mr. Bill voice heaping on the compliments all through.
Another piece features a real nice calliope-sounding synth track. All of
which makes you think that a few sunny walks to friend's houses,
and some friendly outside criticism of this tape might produce some
consistently more interesting results.


Gregory Alan Taylor-Interregnum

It's ambient during the opening and closing third of the tape. It's
ambient-undaring but very listenable. It's deeply filtered (?),
I'ts in ping-pong stereo that's deftly mixed. All sounds are synthetic
except for the sound of ice dropping from the trees. There's one
Hawaiian guitar piece-sandwiched between two oriental kotos. This
pair sounds like Jade Warrior meets Eno. There's three gamelans
with horns ala Hassel and Eno. Then the atmosphere is threatening. The
blaring horns of the Middle East herald the Dissolute Consul. He's
sinister and daring. Microtonal and Minimal. But soon ambience
floods the room. The tape meanders to its end. And the ambience
of you own environment returns. All of my friends liked it.

SO there you are. We ain't perfect, but we are out there, trying to
reclaim the territory for the common [m,wom]an. You weenies should 
subscribe to this publication$12 for 6 issues that look like Maximun
R&R but are chock full of more reviews and wierdness than you can
stand (IED will *hate* this compendium of occasionally uncrafted and
rambunctious pluralism, I am guessing. Or at least find it dreadfully
uninteresting.) If you get the new issue and then subscribe, there's
this nifty list of CASSETTE releases you can get-2 with each subscription.
THAT is a tremendous bargain. Act now. the address is Audio Evolution
Network, PO box 1251, Ojai, CA 93023. They have a phone at (805) 646-6814
that they even answer. Tell them Greg Taylor sent you. Who knows what
THAT will do????????????????????????

Yours for Regional Zeal,
Greg




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