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[Love & Anger]
[Gaffaweb]
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