NEW RELEASES
Spektrum
DNA (Retrospective)
Arto Lindsay
Milton Nascimento (Reissue)
Klimek
Claro Intelecto.
Jimmy Martin (Reissue)
The Photo Sticker Machine
AboutPop2

Acid Mothers Temple
Terry Allen (Reissue)
The Skygreen Leopards
Pete Rock
Peloquin Sauvageau (Reissue)
hollAnd
Thee Silver Mountain Reveries
Les Georges Leningrad (Reissue)

"Breaker (Broken Album Edit)"

"Lychee Juice"

Amidst the disgorge and exploitation of the era formerly known as the '80s, for the discriminatory music fan probably only one in every 5,186,485 records will have you do a double take and be like, wha? This is no tenth rate punk-funk revivification, no art-damaged 'lipstick and cigarettes' Willy-Burg trash, no frigid-fashioned posing or appropriations championed by the 'umth disco-punk compilation that came out last week -- dude I've been listening to this stuff for YEARS -- yea right. Spektrum are way too cool to hang out with you. In fact, they don't even care what you think. They're just four cats with dope taste for things sexy, soulful, pop, and funky with a hint of disco-sleaze.

Not quite the perfectionists, fittingly aligned with the above "don't give a **** attitude" as they take the antiquated formulas (slightly akin to Ze Records) and color outside the lines a bit, making for something a little lax. It's like the argument of originality vs. authenticity all over again -- the former doesn't matter much, as Spektrum aren't trying to be the radical reformers. They're the ill-beatmakers of the sounds they love, and that shows. This debut is so sexy it hurts. Lola Olafisoye's spunky, naughty and bold vox carry the infectious rhythms + beats, having the band sound like the futuristic soul sister of ESG, Kelis, A Certain Ratio, Poly Styrene, Derrick Carter, and Betty Davis -- with enough sick bass-isms to make your chest cave in… you sweating yet? Check the moderna-house-banger "Brand New," the electro-housey single that put them on the map, "Frrrrrrrrrrreakbox!" and "Music Alchemy"… this track is my personal favorite, with the evil bass and hex-inducing disco vocals. Get your freak on with this deliciously sick pop-dance package… no pretense, please! [MT]

"Blonde Red Head"

"You and You"

Seemingly conducted by epi-genesis at the time, the mousetraps-on-tabletop aural stratagems of DNA, who are pretty much seen as the most genial of the No Wave set anyway, could be said now to resemble just those familiarized comports of artful, enterprising un-likeliness which we've come to almost expect from documents of that scene/time/space.

In other words, this comprehensive compilation comes then at maybe the perfect time, when the familiarity of its arcane-ness slips away for more and more people into outright everyday viability (well, almost). Any linkage to Sonic Youth, Swans, Pussy Galore, or Rob Zombie is acceptable, but perhaps hollowly germane.

More jaunty than Throbbing Gristle (due to a difference in their relative incorporation of "world musics"?), and less inclined to rock in even as availably a direct, Velvet Underground style than just about anyone, such distinctive traits as this, among others, surely mark DNA's oeuvre as still retaining a whole bunch of encoded information which has yet to have been fully answered for. [DHo]

(The definitive 32-track retrospective includes all of DNA's studio recordings, previously unreleased songs and early live versions.)

"Personagem"

"Salt"

The timing couldn't be any more perfect: the long, long overdue DNA compilation and a new album from one of its founding members, all in the same week. Beginning with no wave's short lived prime movers, Arto Lindsay has been a vital presence in New York's downtown music scene and beyond for three decades by way of the Lounge Lizards, Ambitious Lovers, Golden Palominos, and of course his solo outings and collaborations. Early on, the Brazilian born singer/songwriter began incorporating hints of his homeland's music into his songs, and by mid-'90s these influences had taken precedence over his atonal guitar skronk-ing.

Salt, his third album for the Righteous Babe label, perfectly picks up where 2002's Invoke left us. Evenly split between Portuguese and English sung lyrics, Lindsay's melodies are the real standout. Richly textured, his songs mimic the nighttime landscape of this great city -- soft sophistication rubs amongst the odd rustling beauty of the strange and sometimes dark, unsettling sounds. At surface value, the sensual "Kamo (Dark Stripe)" is a nice jazz influenced pop song, but electronic gurgles unknowingly wrench up the surreal, seductive tension.

Lindsay, who is assisted by a small bunch of contributors including Melvin Gibbs who returns to handle a bulk of the programming, seamlessly blends samba and bossa nova songcraft with modern styling. The traditional melody and music arrangement of "Personagem" is teased by some ever-so-subtle hip hop production tricks.

Lindsay's warm, velvet smooth melodies seem perfect for that intimate encounter at some smoky, downtown jazz club, but angular electronic percussion and the disjointed, abstract sounds bubbling in the back of the mix makes Salt engagingly surreal and tropical. The Portuguese spoken "De Lama Lamina" moves against jerky programmed beats with the recognizable metallic scrapes of his guitar while the title track, which closes the album, is a real highlight. Lindsay's distinctive voice is filtered against a dissonant music box melody and a Richard D. James sounding pulse -- it's disorienting, like waking up in the middle of a dream, but still strangely comforting. Very few artists are able and/or capable to move traditional music into the fresh territories where Arto Lindsay consistently takes us. [GH]

"Os Escravos de Jo' l Jo's Slave"

"A Lua Girou"

The first ever release of these two beautiful ballet scores composed by Brazilian icon Milton Nascimento. Maria Maria (1976), and Ultimo Trem (1980) are, for me at least, the best work by Nascimento I've heard outside of his groundbreaking masterpiece Clube da Esquina. Featuring some of the finest Brazilian musicians and singers (Nana Vasconcelos, Wagner Tiso, Nana Caymmi, Fafa de Belem, Nelson Angelo, Novelli, Danilo Caymmi, and Jacques Morelenbaum amongst many others), the ballet format seems to have suited Nascimentos's greatest strengths. Namely his ability to craft onto some of the most hauntingly gorgeous melodies in all of Brazilian music, a restless sense of experimentation that is positively avant-garde and wonderfully atmospheric.

Maria Maria in particular expertly juxtaposes incongruous elements like taped rainforest sounds and angelic choral arrangements into baroque patterns that seem to mirror the finely balanced harmony that is to be found in the canopies of the Amazon. Ultimo Trem, though recorded in 1980, doesn't suffer from any of the over production that marred a number of his late-'70s albums, in fact some tracks from this period show up here in superior arrangements and recordings. I should not fail to mention the political aspect that is the focus of these scores, both Maria Maria and Ultimo Trem deal with various aspects of race and social justice, with superb liner notes and annotated songs putting this information into proper context. If you needed further proof that Nascimento is an artist of towering stature, here it is. [MK]

"Home"

"(Sun)Fall"

Frankfurt's Sebastian Meissner, composer and conceptual artist, has been working under different aliases and recording for labels like Mille Plateaux, Ritornell, Force Inc., and subRosa, among others for some time now. He was one half of Autopoieses with laptop wunderkind Ekkehard Ehlers, solo projects include Bizz-Circuits, the politically conscious Random Inc., and his latest alter-ego, the fantastic Klimek. And like his Random, Inc. moniker, the Klimek project takes inspiration from the city of Jerusalem, a place that has made a profound impact on his life and in his music. Jerusalem IS the land of milk and honey, isn't it?

Klimek uses the guitar as his source, and processes it via laptop. He has undoubtedly achieved a truly unique style...in his own special way, he is able to literally suspend the guitar in time, and let it hover delicately through your cosmos. Milk & Honey is quite captivating in its dramatic, flickering, spacious beauty. Klimek lets the acoustics of the guitar show in great detail -- occasionally you can hear the up-close buzzing of a string, harmonics, a pick touching strings, and hands muting strings. The sublime, veeeeery sloooow movements, crystalline strums, cavernous silences and drawn-out echoes are unbelievably suspenseful and gorgeous. Pristine hisses and hums, and waves of deep, warm bass tones perfectly compliment every sound culled from his guitar.

There is a definite spaghetti western vibe here, albeit in a very fractured, slow motion -- like watching dusty, grainy homemade films of vast landscapes at quarter-speed. Milk & Honey is a concept album; every track is a variation on a similar motif, with each subtlety being very distinct and moving. The listener's patience will most certainly be rewarded here, in great amounts. A pop ambient gem. Listen. [DD]

"Peace of Mind"

"Tria"

Tech-house is basically a dead term. Once I heard Ricardo Villalobos say, "There is no such thing as 'tech-howwsse' (spoken with obvious distaste)." But, IF 'tech house' meant something these days, the new Claro Intelecto. album would be the ideal example of what the term tries to convey.

Synthesized house comes in many shapes and sizes. Derrick Carter, John Tejada, Matthew Herbert, Metro Area...etc. Claro Intelecto. doesn't sound straight-up like any of these artists. However, producer Mark Stewart (not of the art/postpunk band Pop Group) does come across like Metro Area, minus the disco, crossed with John Tejada, with a heaping tablespoonful of Juan Atkins' Cybetron/Model 500 project thrown in. Like Tejada, the stuff sounds simultaneously synthetic and genuine at the same time, with a personality and feel that draws you in. (That's a good thing.)

It's all in the actually tech-soulful basslines, the moody Detroit/Chicago atmosphere wavering in the background, the well-trimmed chords percolating against the beat, and the 'bum-bum...-slap!' of the beat that gives it its funk. There are downtempo moments injected with a bit of emotion to break up the album, and nice deep tracks at the end that all work well.

This is one of those albums that s-e-e-m-s too easy and basic, but is actually solid enough to grab your lazy ears and make you pay attention. All in all a solid, up-to-date album that's worthwhile for the listeners as well as the DJs. Recommended. [SM]

"Free Born Man"

"Don't Cry to Me"

In a genre more often noted for staid behavior and churchly harmony, bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin presents us with a striking dichotomy. And while the temptation may exist to solely approach the legacy of the man through the many years worth of anecdotes that his outrageous behavior has inspired, we must not lose sight of the fact that his musicality has deftly shaped a lasting legacy that any folk and country music enthusiast will undoubtedly have to come to terms with. Don't Cry to Me is a career spanning retrospective of the man's music (If you want to get to know where his reputation as the original rebel of bluegrass music comes from, I heartily recommend you pick up the recent DVD documentary The King of Bluegrass: The Life and Times of Jimmy Martin), and features all of the virtuosity, grit, and grace that the best bluegrass music never fails to exhibit. Martin began playing guitar at the age of five; by the time he was in his early-twenties he was Bill Monroe's lead rhythm guitarist. Maybe even more importantly, once his strong voice was paired in tandem with Monroe's, bluegrass music's golden era was immediately ushered in. The songs here span nearly 50-years worth of recordings with his solo act The Sunny Mountain Boys, and the cuts from 2000 are every bit as good as those from 1954. Brilliant. [MK]

"Saturday Night"

"Rainy Day"

ABOUTPOP2
AboutPop2
(Hualampong-Riddim/Here)

"Track One"

"Track Four"

Last year, Bangkok Record label Hualampong-Riddim's three volume CD sampler was a sleeper hit at Other Music. Featuring an interesting roster of Thai artists, The Photo Sticker Machine contributed several tracks to the series, giving first time listeners a pretty good idea that the duo was extremely diverse in their electro-lounge sounds. This is a point made very clear in this new 3-CD box set that features their complete works recorded between 1999 and 2002. Comprised of DJ Speaker Head and Vichaya Vatansapt, the duo work with a rotating group of remixers and musicians, and all of the songs here are extremely well produced.

CD-1 seems a little more playful, with tracks that range from bossa nova influenced electronica which could be Thailand's answer to Shibuya-Kei (a la Fantastic Plastic Machine or Cubismo Grafico) to more retro-sounding instrumentals which move along mid-tempo breakbeats and lush samples of flutes and organs. It seems perfectly in tune with late-'90s exotica obsessions and would play perfectly well next to Dimitri From Paris' Sacrebleu. But over these three discs, you follow the duo's evolution as they move through disco-house, jazz, drum 'n' bass and leave us in a nice chilled-out state of mind. Exotic samples shape the music into a cool hybrid of Eastern-Western music; it's literally a trip around the world. (The CDs also feature several video tracks.)

Sans the electronic samples, Photo Sticker Machine labelmates AboutPop2 are more organic in their breezy sounds. The first track reminds me a little of the Cardigans with its bouncy beat and sugar sweet chorus. Throughout the self-titled album, the band shares lead singer duties between soothing male and female voices. Some of the songs have a light Brazilian feel while others are more Eastern sounding and playful. Not being able to read song titles or liner notes lends a mysterious element to this band but doesn't distract from AboutPop2's intriguing an absolutely delightful music. [GH]

"La Le lo"

I've always resisted buying studio albums from bands that have blown me away live. It's just not the same -- the sheer volume, the energy, the crowds' reaction, jet-black hair flailing, guitars swung, beer and cigarettes aplenty -- it's rare that it can be recreated on an album.

With Mantra of Love, Acid Mothers Temple doesn't try to capture the much-reputed sonic freak-outs of their live show. Instead, otherworldly bleeps and drones float through Cotton Casino's eerie vocals followed by moments of blasting psychedelic rock on both songs on this album. The first, a traditional Occitan cover song harkens back to the mellower 2001 release, La Novia. Driven by Cotton's melodies, "La Le Lo" meanders through layers of hippy drones, until about six minutes into the song, where guitarist Kawabata Makoto cranks it up. Rhythms become faster, the bass steps in and out of the swarm, spacey tones and synth washes transform the Occitan piece into an Acid Mother's Temple psychedelic swirl. The last slurps of song, varying in gulps of chaos, are long sips - slowed into drones and back into the original melody and Casino's vocals - then fading out with a lighter variation on the Occitan tune.

"L'Ambition dans le Miroir" evokes the spacey tones once more, but this time with more familiar, tangible guitar lines - the stuff that bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor! And others borrowed from and the classic sounds that make AMT the ones to study in Psychedelia 101. This is definitely one to have in the prolific catalogue of these Japanese psych-rockers. [LG]

"Cortez Sail"

"What of Alicia"

Sheeit…Terry Allen's 1975 concept album Juarez just may be one of the finest artistic statements ever put down about America's mythic West. Wichita, KS born and Lubbock, TX raised, Allen grew up around the Flatlanders crowd, but split for California as soon as he got a drivers license. He's probably as well known as an artist than he is as a songwriter, with his sculptures in many museums and prestigious collections all over the world. Typifying the diversity of his talents, he's collaborated with both Bruce Nauman and David Byrne.

Juarez was Allen's first record. The songs were written between 1967 and 1975, and ultimately cobbled together to accompany a series of prints he'd been working on. Self-released in an edition of 1000, this is really the first time this work has been widely available.

Concerning a willfully obscure narrative involving the chance meeting of Sailor (Texas boy), Spanish Alice (Mexican prostitute), Jabo (Juarez pachuco), and most perhaps most mystifyingly, Chic Blundie (Jabo's girlfriend, but who is occasionally actually Jabo himself, see what I mean?), and the passion and violence that inevitably ensue. There are a couple of brief spoken segments where Allen somewhat hilariously attempts to fill in the gaps, but he's such a master songwriter that the gist always comes across. The recording is wonderfully spare, just Allen on the piano with a little steel guitar and mandolin from time to time to accentuate these songs of exposed nerves.

Like the greatest songwriters, Allen is both equally adept at the tough ("There Oughtta Be a Law Against Sunny California", where he spits out "Fuck with me, boy if you want to fuck. Yeah fuck with me if you want to fuck" with so much invective that I know I'd rather not) and the tender ("What Of Alicia", which couldn't be any more achingly beautiful). Juarez is destined to be a connoisseur's choice for one of the best records of the '70s. [MK]

"Hello to All Your Rain"

"Walk with the Golden Cross"

The members of San Francisco's prolific Jewelled Antler collective are typically associated with the genre that was recently dubbed "New Weird America" by Wire magazine. The group's myriad incarnations have released countless CD-Rs on their own in addition to proper albums for Emperor Jones, Family Vineyard, and other more established labels. Our West Coast friends at Aquarius Records have long touted them as one of America's most innovative and interesting musical institutions, but while I've enjoyed and respected most of what I've heard from them, I never fully connected with their work until I heard the new album by the Skygreen Leopards.

Together, Glenn Donaldson (Thuja/Blithe Sons/Franciscan Hobbies) and Donovan Quinn (Verdure) are San Francisco's closest equivalent to Avey Tare and Panda Bear. Comparisons between One Thousand Bird Ceremony and Animal Collective's Campfire Songs and the forthcoming Sung Tongs are inevitable. The Skygreen Leopards masterfully combine the Jewelled Antler collective's sprawling and serene acoustic experimentation with an incredibly solid pop songwriting prowess.

Their folky psychedelia is infectiously joyful but still subdued. I've never before heard a record that was this subtle and also this catchy. There are echoes of the Incredible String Band and Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles along with a healthy dose of jangly early-'80s New Zealand pop a la the Clean. After enduring so many years of over-the-top indie pop throwback acts, it's totally refreshing to finally hear so many young artists tastefully revisiting '60s music and actually doing exciting new things with the genre.

2004 has already seen a proliferation of great records by similarly inclined artists, and while the Skygreen Leopards aren't yet as widely known as Devendra Banhart or Joanna Newsom, their music is sure to be a welcome and pleasant surprise to fans of both. One Thousand Bird Ceremony is a gorgeous soundtrack for the summertime, and it's bound to turn a hell of a lot more people on to what the Jewelled Antler collective are doing. [RH]

"An Empire, a Sit-Com Set"

"Perfect Lineage Saved"

After more than three years with no releases, hollAnd is back with a two-disc CD/DVD that is beautiful in both the simplistic yet dynamic way that he approaches both music and video. The DVD, with scenes shot in Iceland, England, and the USA is part music video and part art film. Consisting mostly of shots like a face, horses fighting (or courting?), highway traffic, a single tree, or the ocean with ever so slight digital manipulation, it brings to mind some of the shots from the movie Lost In Translation in the way you feel disconnected but intimately involved in each shot. The music on the other hand is as warm and personal as anything he's ever done. Using simple tones and with a finely tuned sense of melody, hollAnd creates music that bridges the gap between pop and electronica not unlike the artists on the Morr music roster. Although the album mostly uses synth tones, an occasional guitar or voice slips through (except on "Softcore War" where the guitar and voice are prominent). Recommended for fans of Manual, Isan, or even Mark Robinson's solo work. [RS]

"Microphones in the Trees"

Starting with a giddily shrieked call to action, Godspeed You Black Emperor!'s Efrim and his ensemble (which features members of both GYBE! and Mt. Zion) transforms opening track "More Action! Less Tears!" from anthemic lo-fi guitar rock to soaring post-rock grandeur. Like in This is Our Punk Rock… vocals continue to take more precedence in the Mt. Zion camp as Efrim's warbling voice is eerily juxtaposed against the band's long, sweeping instrumental stretches. His melody in "Microphones in the Trees" reminds me of Brooklyn (by way of Florida) prog-rockers Home, only the slow build here is more tense and restrained, finally lifting into an orchestrated, feedback filled stratospheric climax. The chorus of vocals in the title track plays well with the ensemble's epic chamber rock while "There's a River in the Valley Made of Melting Snow" is the EP's most affected moment. Though Efrim's vocal melody barely shifts, the music beneath drifts from guitar hiss to circular bell tones and turns simple repetition into something quite beautiful and longing. [GH]

"Lollipop Lady"

"Didi Extra"

Finally available to the masses via Alien8. Last spring, the Les George Leningrad CD accidentally landed at Other Music during the week of their live performances around the city. The band name, the crazy title, the misshapen, hand-drawn figures on either side of the cover, one male, one female looking psychotic and brandishing knives... how could we resist checking this CD out?? We were happy to find out we COULD judge this book by its cover. The music was a refreshingly uncalculated take on the whole post-punk/art-rock thing with a healthy, yet deranged dose of Dadaist cabaret. Not just "post-punk" either, but more in the spirit of post-punk, in that anything goes, no rules, so it works, way. Overblown, lo-fi, self-taught guitar, drums and whatever else thrown through shamble-y, then frenetic arrangements. Great, immediate, shrieking vocals, male and female, claw through the mess. Primitive, unstoppable grooves that a drum-machine couldn't invent. Reference points? The Fall, I guess. The spirit of the Slits. The playful psychedelia of Sun City Girls or Caroliner. The home-recorded kid-tape quality of Blectum from Blechdom. Without sounding like any of those bands. Chaotic, naive, raw and fun. Recommended. [SM]