REVIEWS

plagueCompilations are rarely this conceptual and complete. Based around the 10 plagues from Exodus, this is ten songs by well-known names played with local people from Margate. What is amazing about this compilation is how well-conceived each song is. Often times compilations end up getting tossed b-sides, rejects or otherwise inferior songs, but this one seems to have received great care from each of its collaborators. The Scott Walker song Darkness is excellent and fresh sounding. The Tiger Lilies, who I haven't heard before, were assigned "Hail", which they deliver upon with a strange and fragile ballad. The Stephen Merritt song is upbeat and about the plague of lice. The Rufus Wainwright song is about the death of the firstborn, a loungy, brooding number, the kind I somewhat guiltily enjoy. The Eno/Wyatt song comes in like soundtrack music, atmospheric and sonically powerful. Basically, if you like the artists I've listed you'll be glad to know that they've recorded another good song. I like the concept of the packaging and notes a lot, but I wish the imagery was more fitting to the theme. The cover looks like a graphic design student put off their homework until the last minute and didn't have any ideas. :: Various Artists: Plague Songs- 4AD/Beggars/Artangel 

marcus schmicklerThis CD contains three tracks, the first from a play, the second a shorter excerpt from a live piece and the third a twenty-three minute building cyclone of noise and dissonance based on Nietzsche's Zarathustra. As the title implies, they all feature a choir as their centerpoint, with the electronic music generally adding texture. The first track "0" is quite impressive, a slow and magical layering of voices and breaths in almost one overlapping gradually shifting note reminiscent of a Werner Herzog soundtrack in its sense of space. It makes me picture fog blowing quickly over a wooded mountain. The second piece is shorter and more traditional with beautiful hymn-like harmonies. The third piece, the titular track, is moving and impressive, aside from the talking.The connection with Zarathustra seems to have potential, but rather than successfully illustrating or elaborating on themes of eternal recurrence or language as music, Schmickler has chosen to include in his otherwise thoughtful epic people reciting, in unison, what I assume to be Nietzsche quotations. Though my Deutsch is very bad, I strongly prefer the vocals sung in German and other languages to those in English which sound like the obnoxious girl in your Intro to Philosophy class trying to forcefully explain something profound without really understanding it. Perhaps my preference of languages I can't understand in this case successfully proves some sort of point Nietzsche or Schmickler was trying to make. Still, some of the talking borders on corny, though not quite slam poetry. My limited knowledge of contemporary composers and composed music in general puts me at a disadvantage in reviewing this album, though it doesn't limit my ability to understand and enjoy it. The closest comparisons I could draw would be to liken it to the sprawling, building orchestral arrangements by American composer Earle Brown, a tamer version of Diamanda Galas' darkness and frantic vocal style, and the slower-paced Madgrigals of Carlo Gesualdo. The electronic elements of the album, while effective, are fairly commonplace-sounding noise and ambiance which seem familiar and easily blend into the fabric of the entire piece. I'd like to hear more of Schmickler's works. :: Marcus Schmickler: Demos (for choir, chamber quintet and electronic music) - A-Musik 

sonic youthIm Wesentlichen hat sich am Sound von Sonic Youth in den 25 Jahren seit dem Debut Kill Your Idols nicht viel verändert. Konstante Qualität liefert auch die abwechslungsreiche B-Seiten und Rarities Sammlung The Destroyed Room. Sie beweist, dass sich deren dubbige Bass- und Gitarrenreflexe auf Songs wie Blink, Fire Engine Dream oder dem aus Feldaufnahmen und blubbernden Electronics gebauten Campfire auf der Höhe der Zeit befinden. Loop Cat erinnert stark an die hyperästhetisch nachtsediert wirkenden Gitarrentupfer eines Loren Mazzacane Connors. Bei den meisten Stücken hier war übrigens noch Jim O`Rourke mit dabei. :: Sonic Youth: The Destroyed Room - Geffen/Universal

devastationsCoal sounds like Nick Cave at his adult contemporary worst, only without the mystique, the amazing storytelling, boiling emotion and genuine macabre which haunts even his worst work.The result is strange. It seems as though it would be unlikely, even difficult, for a band who attempts to emulate a sort of post-gothic sentimental sexiness to end up sounding like Barenaked Ladies, but that is just what has happened. The album is derivative in all the wrong ways, melodramatic without tact, fashioned without style, and lacks any kind of grace or redeeming creativity. Most embarrassingly, Devastations' attempt to be dark and provocative falls harrowingly flat, making this, for fans of Scott Walker, Nick Cave, Angels of Light, Swans, or even Leonard Cohen's later material, an unbearably mediocre listen. :: Devastations: Coal - Beggars Banquet/Indigo 

diskaThis record seems to be a documentation of moment of Mats Gustafsson, Jim O`Rourke and Thurston Moore playing together. You can almost hear each individual adding to each moment, as if baking a cake. Combined, baking at times, harmonious washes of sounds. Other times, weird waves of desperation and pattern driven improvisation... which lead back to the harmonious washes of sound: very abstract and interesting. Some movements resemble Wolf Eyes, and the cover`s hott. The uncles of noise....done it again! (I just realised this is a live record, it sounds like being recorded in studio. Can`t wait for Vol 2!) :: The Diskaholics: Live In Japan Vol 1 Load/A-Musik 

hersDie ehemalige Frontfrau der Throwing Muses sowie von 50 Foot Wave veröffentlicht nun mit Learn To Sing Like A Star ihr siebentes Solo-Album. Es ist ein ziemlich straightes Pop-Album geworden, mit rauchig-zarter Stimme erzählt Hersh von persönlichen und schmerzhaften Lebenseinschnitten und Ereignissen, und wie bei den Alben ihrer Kollegin Chan Marshall/Catpower bringt auch hier die sinnliche Stimmung den entscheidenden Vorteil. Wenig überraschend, aber ein Song wie Winter ist immer gut zu hören am heimeligen Lagerfeuer. :: Kristin Hersh: Learn To Sing Like A Star - 4AD/Beggarsgroup/Indigo 

The Bummer RoadNach den leicht ausufernden Folkmyriaden bei Mother Of Thousands folgt nun der konzentriete Green Blues. Uralte Rhythm & Blues-Riffs werden durch die bewusstseinserweiternde Räucherkammer gejagt: Canned Heat, Boredoms, Velvets und 13th Floor Elevator treffen aufeinander bei Canned Happiness. Pechschwarzer Blues transformiert sich kaleidoskopartig durch das von J Mascis gespielte Mellotron, verstärkt durch Tanbura und Space Echo in Songs wie Big Deal und Solar Hill. Green Blues ist ein direkter, konzentrierter Trip aus hypnotischen, fuzzinfizierten Gitarren-Mantras geworden. Die MV & EE ATP/Nightmare-Show mit Chris Corsano an den Drums war aufregend und ein echtes Highlight im letzten Dezember. Wir können nur schwer hoffen, dass jemand diese Show für MV & EE mitgeschnitten hat. :: MV & EE with The Bummer Road: Green Blues - Ecstatic Peace!

Five O'Clock HeroesReminds me of Huey Lewis and the News meets later Clash/Rolling Stones, though it's far from being as infectious. The recording itself fails to give the album any kind of personality, which helps this amount to sounding like the best bar rock band in a minor metropolitan area that everyone there has heard of, but that never makes it beyond the surrounding suburbs. It's the band the nice but annoying girl you work with's boyfriend is in and that she wears the t-shirt of on casual Fridays. I wish they had foregone all pretense and just made over-the-top super-catchy pop music like the best Replacements hits, but instead I'll probably never remember any of these songs and probably never hear them again either.  :: The Five O'Clock Heroes: Bend to the Breaks- Glaze Records/Pias 

ratatatA refreshing new blend of hip hop and metal says the sheet. Usually this brings to mind the textbook success of Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park, but Ratatat's Classics is a little swankier - it's hip-hop metal ohne dreadlocks and ohne vocals. We got some indie-rocker-approved booty shaking beats over here and some layered, synth-treated blazing guitar melodies over there, all helmed by the electronic savvy of programmer Evan Mast. At times Mike Shroud's guitar work sounds like that fateful night my 8th grade math teacher played a dueling guitar solo against legendary Dio shredder Vivian Campbell. And this is where Ratatat excel, synthesizing let's-get-stupid party beats, M83-esque electronic mastery with 80's guitar god layered meandering solos. The album loses some steam after the hits 'Lex' and 'Wildcat'. It's major weaknesses come in the form of an unwillingness to divorce the music from Ratatat's indie-rock influences. Who cares about Interpol, I want my Yngwie J. Malmsteen! Do it for the nookie Ratatat. Ratatat: :: Classics - XL/Beggars/Indigo