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A very moody music landscape, slow tempo with
clear musical references to Mazzy Star and
This Mortal Coil to name but a few names.
It's without doubt one of the best groups to
come out of Norway in a long long time, they have a
flavour to them that makes it hard to label them
norwegian.
It's timeless music that never dies.
Your head keeps repeating the tunes over and
over again.
Picture yourself a roadmovie, a car is driving
through the outback of a deserted area, around you as long as your eyes
reaches you could only see the same flat landscape with a lot of sand,
a few trees and you feel the heat is killing you...
You are exhausted from the long drive and want
to express yourself...
A few minutes becomes more than 46 minutes and
......
Willie Alexander (and the Persistence of Memory Orchestra) :The East Main Street Suite.
A highly unique mix of styles. Willie Alexander's
voice is walking along with the instruments.
It's no point in placing the music into any genre,
it doesn't do this cd justice.
Long live the originality and approach to things
being done on this cd.
Willie Alexander is like a king in his own kingdom.
Herb Pomeroy's trumpet sometimes
gives this cd a very jazzy feel, a very pleasant
and good hearted feel, but then again it all
of a sudden explore new territory. Just listen
to the last track it's electronic beats, some free jazz
together with Alexander's "talking" voice.
And that's what this cd is all about, exploring
new territory, never getting boring, because
you never knows what to expect around the next corner.
A very recommandable cd!
contact:
email:info@accuraterecords.com
http://www.accuraterecords.com
Denny Almonde: Something, Samething
Minus Habens Records
The sound bits are being thrown towards you in
the opening track, fragments of noise
sequences and quiet bits as interludes.
The music is being built around some repetitative
elements that makes up the basis of the tracks
and layered on top with some strange sounds,
scratching noises, voices and other sudden unexpected
breaks. I recognize a bit of Jimi Tenors
exotica landscapes, some break beats rhytms
is accompanying the basic repetitative back beat.
For me the whole middle section of the album
is very relaxed and sadly enough not spicy enough
to avoid boredom, the beginning until track three
and from track 8 towards the end the album
is more interesting but as a whole the album
is too metallic, sterile and free of open improvisations.
Not a bad album, but not so varied as I would
have liked.
mail:info@minushabens.com
http://www.minushabens.com
Anthemon: Talvi
A night with heavy rainfall, footsteps and wolfs
crying is setting the mood in the intro.
Then very sudden comes track number 2 with Nathalie,
the lead vocal. It's a pity that her
voice is so "unfinished", it doesn't fit
together with Marc's dark and doomish voice, it drowns to quick in delightful
guitar play.
With two guitars, bass and drums it's hard to
sing against the music, Nathalie should have tried to sing along and use
her voice like any other instrument.
The best parts on this cd is without doubt the
instrumental parts, when the guitars builds
up a inferno of harsh guitars from small intro
beginnings.
"Der Todesking", is the last track on this cd,
a wonderful instrumental piece that gives a very clear indication of their
true potential.
Email: anthemon@free.fr
Http://anthemon.free.fr/
Antonela: Gypsy fortune teller
The lovely charismatic Antonela is really opening
up the free world of the Gypsies. The cd contains a lot of wonderful dance
tunes that makes you feel in a good mood, but at the same time in the back
of your brain the tunes makes you think of the gypsy history and how they
have been treated around the world.
Always when I listen to gypsy music it's with
mixed feeling, it's sorrow and laughter at the same time.
[more info at amazon.com]
Asscancer: S/T
Wall of noise is being accompanied by a shouting
voice. Not very structured
the first four songs. It's not before track 5
that it begins to get interesting, some
nice structured synth rhytms and a voice that
we are able to hear. It has a bit of Killdozer
in it, but it's more punk oriented. Track 7 is
a true metamorphose, it's raping!
It's angry dudes no doubt about that, just listen
to the lyrics and look on the titles
of the songs, "Fuck New York", "Evil against
Evil" and "Dear Uncle Cunt"
to name some of the titles. I couldn't figure
out their goal for this album.
Shouting "Mother Fucker" could be rebellious
if you have a idea behind it,
but this just sounds childish and very unstructured.
Not very recommandable if you would like some
good music!
Aubwamah:"Shadowswalk-cd
A improvisational landscape with tribal sounds,
samplers, cello, different effects and a
short piece of a howling trumpet is making the
opening track a very interesting piece that
gives a lust for more. The background sounding
mood reminds me a bit of good old Tones on
Tail. The beats goes on in track two..
This is really dark and deep material, track
three is sounding like something going on inside a tunnel.
Maybe a bit of construction work? The music is
hollow sounding, almost like an echo. In the
distance all of a sudden a voice is being heard....
The surface mood is very dramatic and sad, not
a joyride.
The cd's final track is a Syd Barrett sounding
alike vocal with a clean cello, and some twisted "disharmonic"
effects layered on top.
Another interesting projects by Sean Hopp (see
also the review of Membrane Conspiracy).
http://nervouscenter.com
http://mathbat.com/bfgweb
Taken from Giljotin issue #27 (Norwegian text):
Patricia Barber: Companion
And the beats goes on..Barber's voice accompanied
by bass,guitar,
drums ,piano and Hammond orgel. A bar feeling
is being created, heavy smoke is in the air and
the place is crowded.
The public is very enthusiastic... Jazz on it's
most pleasant, never getting boring.
A very good piece of work!
contact:
http://www.patriciabarber.com
label contact:http://www.premonitionandmusic.com
Taken from Giljotin issue #27 (Norwegian text):
Taken from Giljotin issue #27 (Norwegian text):
Bella Morte: Where shadows lie
A lot of what you may call goth has just been
nurishing up under old cliches, but this is real stuff. Catchy synths,
sharp guitars and strong direct vocals with a metallic edge.
These guys are cyberpunks on a mission to destroy
all old prejudices and serve you heart warming, sincere and very strong
melodies that a lot of todays goths could learn something from.
The vocals is very special, hard and saying "please
listen to what I have to say". It's impossible not to get moved by Bella
Morte's directness, freshness and raw unpolished honest message.
A lovely album that you have to play again and
again. The kick ass like few other!
contact:
email:bellamorte@bellamorte.com
http://www.bellamorte.com
Birdman Girl: Autumn
The cd starts off with a cover of The Cure's "Close
to me". The rest of the songs is credited David
Sanchez. The cd creates very catchy atmosperical
sound landscapes, it's New Wave instrumentality
per excellence, layered on top with some popish
bitter sweet harmonies. Some of the tracks find the
way to your heart and makes you go all soft and
emotional. It's no experimentation, it's just about bringing
up and reveal the essence of most mankind, we
are all potential emotionally vulnerable creatures.
Some of the songs could nicely have been
film music.
The last track on the cd is my favourite, I just
had to play it over and over again. It hited some of my
essential emotional strings and crawled all the
way back up to my brain and clouded the pure objective
reasoning, it made me all rise up from my chair
and towards the loudspeakers to take the most out
of the track, every last bit had to be sucked
up and chewed on.
This cd from Spain really makes a difference,
we like to think we are strong human beings in control of
our emotions, but sometimes this ideal view is
being challenged and reason is floating it's own way,
like a independent piece of existence.
Ella Blame: Dance with me! Listen to me!El
Birdman Girl: Autu
Blame
Birdman Girl: Autumn: Dance with me! Listen to me!
Her voice moves in mysterious ways. The vocal
range is quit extraordinary.
The mixture of styles always make room for new
surprises, the album is never
predictable. She has a unique freshness and taste
for the catchy feeling, you could
easily picture a Ella Blame enjoying what she
is doing, and of course you easily
feel that she is true and honest to what she
is doing through the vibe she is sending out
to her listening audience.
Some of the songs made me want to hit myself
in order to see if I had lost my grip of
reality, or if I was just dreaming.
Floating away to a imaginary scenario, beyond
the human travel boundaries ,
dictated by to slow spacecrafts.
Ella Blame has the sensibility and delicate balance
in her voice that bear resemblance
(using a metaphor) to what people in Tanzania
is doing when fetching honey from the
nest of killer bees, without doing it carefully
it's their certain death, they have to do it
at night with their bear hands. They live together
with the nature, not feeling that the treat
of the killer bees is an overwhelming obstical.
In the same way Ella Blame don't see the boundaries
of her voice, there is no visable
obsticals.
She is like a queen in a ivory tower, unreachable
for most human beings, but we once in a while
we get a glimse of her qualities when she reveals
her true feelings through a voice with angelic
proportions.
Thanks for having had the chance to experience
something that words alone never would
be able to describe. Reach out for the cd and
you too would see the meaning of the
famous quote "to be or not to be".
email: hirschmann@ella-blame.com
http://www.ella-blame.com
Eddie Bluma: Mule against the world- 4 track
CDR
Bad Mule Management
Very few musical "effects".
Harmonica, some simple guitar play and a nice
voice. The three first tracks are very laidback and
not particularly fresh, but the last track "Lost
dream of the hippies" is quite a different story, more
swinging and with some nice musical gimmicks
that gives it all a very delightful and ironical view
on life...."stoned again my friend..".
A whole album with some of the same freshness
as track 4 would really haven been something to look
forward to.
It's a pity that most of the listening audience
probably would have dropped off after listening at the
first songs, and finally comes the real "killer"
at the end.
Taken from Giljotin issue #26 (Norwegian text):
