Barcelona

Robot speak 'n'spell Stephen Hawkings cutesy pop muzik. Barcelona have a single / EP out called "Robot Trouble" which features a real pared-down casio demo-mode sound to it with some jangly guitars, easy-going lyrics about futuristic type stuff and a whole lot of cute. The lead-off track, "Robot Trouble" has a grungy sound to it and talks about how this guy is having trouble with his robot, Paul. "My parents think my robot's trouble. Motherboard and CPU control the way Paul thinks. My program was written fast and might not be bug-free. He's 4 ft. tall. My parents think my robot's trouble." Sounds benign enough, but it's kind of sad, too. "I only wanted a best friend. I only wanted someone that I could trust, yeah." Sort of emo-synth robo-sugar sweet pop. I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't used an actual speech synthesis program like Radiohead have and like Kraftwerk pioneered back in the late 70s, early 80s. There's a great obscure cover on this CD, too, of Men Without Hats' ("Safety Dance") song "Pop Goes The World". Pretty nifty little cd. I'd like to hear a full release.(Check out the Barcelona website) or (Check out the March Records website)

Duran Duran

The Duran-ies refuse to die. The new cd features the band whittled down to three lone pop stars: Nick Rhodes, Simon LeBon and Warren Cuccurullo. The veterans of the group (Nick & Simon) look relatively the same plus or minus (definitely PLUS) ten years, but Warren looks a bit out of place, sort of a chimp-like neanderthal amongst artsy throwbacks. Call me a bit harsh if you like, but these guys have been around long enough to take it. They're almost pop-rock Rolling Stone equivalents. THAT'S a compliment. The new cd features way-upped production lwork and some great London Suede-esque fame-gone-wrong type lyrics/stories. For thirteen songs, though, this release feels a bit light, or maybe it's just that it leaves you wishing there was MORE of it. The first single, "Someone Else Not Me" appears twice, once at the beginning and at the end (in Spanish, the much better of the two versions), but my candidate for best song on this disk would be the title track "Pop Trash Movie" for being more of an admission or anthem for the would-be pseudo-famous of us all. Other great songs: "Playing With Uranium", "Hallucinating Elvis" and "Mars Meets Venus", but I might have left off "Kiss Goodbye" and "Last Day On Earth" in favor of some more high energy sugar pop which Duran is known for and is damn good at when they really try to focus. If you see it around, definitely pick up the overpriced import collection of theirs called "Strange Behavior"! It ollects together remixes AND alot of more obscure more recent Duran Duran tracks like "Meet El Presidente" and "American Science". (Check out the Duran Duran website)

Richard Ashcroft

I never really thought good or bad one way or another about Richard Ashcroft or his recently dissolved band Verve, but with this new debut CD (on Virgin Records), I see him rocketing in popularity toward superstardom in the music world. Some might say he's there already, but the new CD "Alone With Everybody" is an amazing and immediately accessible collection of well-penned songs. The singles that were chosen ("A Song For The Lovers" and "Money To Burn", I wouldn't agree with as being the best songs on the CD (no surprise there), but you can save yourself from having to blow $20 on two import singles and listen to the CD as one piece. racks two through four are simply amazing: "I Get My Beat", "Brave New World", "New York" (haunting, powerful, violent and longing all at the same time) and "You On My Mind In My Sleep". There is a real hopeful feeling with this debut from Ashcroft that there still are soulful charismatic lead singers out there that aren't candy-colored boy-band throwaway marketing strategy flash-in-the-pans. This guy is gonna be big. (Check out the news bit of Ashcroft from CDNow.com)

James

"I Know What I'm Here For" is a GREAT single. And from one of the most under-recognized great English pop groups going. Too bad that their latest album Millionaires is following in a bad tradition: the tradition of LONG waits for expensive import-only albums to become domestic releases, if in fact they ever do. As of this writing, it has been about a year since it came out in the UK and I have decided not to spend $30 on the import. But this 2-part CD single pairing will have to tide me over. The main song rocks. The third tracks on Part 1 and Part 2 (stupid tradition of import singles coming in pairs or even three parts) are equally strong, but the middle tracks seem lacking something. No bother, I'll just sit tight and wait for the full-length-er.

Tranceport 3 - Sandra Collins

Okay, okay... you know what? I was somehow under the impression that this whole Tranceport thing was NOT going to be some ongoing series showcasing different DJs. The first one with Paul Oakenfold was great. I thought it was another Paul Oakenfold CD. Then Tranceport 2 came out as a double CD thing by Dave Ralph. It was good, too, not as stylized as Oakenfold's, but I dug it just the same. Now Tranceport 3 is out and features Sandra Collins and the sticker on the CD says: "ALL THE BIG TUNES MIXED BY AMERICA'S TOP TRANCE DJ". The CD is okay, but I really wish that there was a monthly voting thing on who are the supposed top DJs. Hell, I heard the same title attributed to Christopher Lawrence not to long ago. And god only knows how long everyone has kept Paul Oakenfold on the top of the heap. Sandra Collins has an okay trance CD here, but please spare us the hype. (Kinetic Records).

Culture Club

Don't write Culture Club and Boy George off quite yet... While the 80's may be long over, Culture Club (much like the Pet Shop Boys) continue to create memorable & meaningful singles. "Cold Shoulder" is a sad piece that fits perfectly into the Culture Club repetoire of love-lost / love-gone-terribly-wrong type songs. "Starman" is a cover of the David Bowie classic. I don't really feel that this song really needed re-interpretation, but at least Culture Club don't do it an IN-justice. The real big hit here is the pairing of Boy George and Dolly Parton on "Kisses are Charity". Very pop-py hit here, but I doubt that America will ever again allow Culture Club back into their realm of popular music. I, myself, know that CC & Boy George are alot more than a shock-value / cross-dressing / flamboyantly gay act... they are great creators of songs, too...

Space Baby Blast Off

This Emperor Norton Records sampler CD is a fun romp through the world of nouveau lounge-funk electropop music. It's '60s lounge meets '70s funk meets '80s & '90s electronics. THE big name on this collection has to be Fantastic Plastic Machine (Tomoyuki Tanaka). The guy is a genius at piecing together all kinds of oddball seemingly disparate sounds and creating a coherently weird final result. The Dutch duo of Arling & Cameron, whose album "All In" I'd picked up in Boston months ago sheerly based on the cover (I hated it at the time, after listening to it, but now I like aspects of it) , have a couple speak-n-spell-esque ditties on this comp: "We Love to Rock " (pairing heavy guitars, cheesy synths, a monotonous repitition of a speak & spell "We Love to Rock" and children cheering) and "How About the Boys?" (sounding like a cross between Beastie Boys camp and a Gap Kids ad). There are 11 tracks in all and if you can find it, I'd definitely make the purchase... (www.emperornorton.com)

What the Funk You Waitin For?

I saw this gem at the last second, just as I was about to make a purchase at Newbury Comics. For $3.99, this sampler of V2, Junior Boys Own, Gee Street and Solid seemed to be worth it, so... I got what I paid for. It's okay, but pretty damned generic and not really a good representation of what any of these labels do best, despite the fact that there are some great names on the CD: Underworld, Moby, Cevin Fisher, Phats and Small, etc. But don't go rushing for this collection...

Pet Shop Boys

To tell you the truth, I hated this song when I first heard it on the "Nightlife" CD. I thought it was overly sappy, too long a title and not my idea of what a PSB song should be, and definitely not single material. All of this changed after having seen Neil Tennant all in white, strumming an acoustic guitar performing the song "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" live in Montreal. Released as a 3-CD single set, CD-1 has the title track, a Chris Lowe song called "Lies" and a solo Neil Tennant song called "Sail Away" which appears on the Noel Coward tribute CD that Neil produced. (Now I don't need to buy it... hahaha) CD-2 has some okay remixes of "Drunk", but I like the enhanced single version of "Drunk" on CD-1 more... (much like how the single version of "Red Letter Day" was a mind-blower compared to the already great album version.) CD-3 has live versions of "Drunk", "Always on my Mind" and "Being Boring" recorded in Texas on the "Nightlife" tour this past year. The 3-CD concept is interesting, albeit expensive ($10 each, thank you), but as a big fan of the Pet Shop Boys, I was compelled to buy them all. Most people will only need CD-1, but the live versions on CD-3 are phenomenal, too, especially if you heard them perform live, like I did.

Push - Universal Nation '99

Halcyon and I head this at Manray one Friday night a la DJ Brad and I thought it was incredible. I immediately asked Brad what it was and he said it was Push's "Universal Nation". Well, I tried ordering it through Boston DJ record stores with no luck. I finally found the vinyl at Newbury Comics and bought it immediately, even though I don't own a turntable. My friend Scott Q. at Newbury recorded the vinyl and the Pet Shop Boys' new CD AND some William Orbit tracks for me and then I finally got to hear the song again... Well, the remixes were by Ferry Corsten and Oliver Lieb and both sounded alot slower than the original, but they both grew on me. Halcyon and I were REALLY rockin' out to the tracks after a late night Newbury Comics Christmas party... Well, I found the CD version of the vinyl on CDNow, ordered it, got it, listened to it and realized that I had fallen head over heels for the Push song recorded at the WRONG SPEED!!!! I immediately called Halcyon, had a good laugh, etc etc. But y'know, I still like the 33 rpm MORE than the 45 rpm. Oh well... Regardless of this silly story, this is a GREAT trance track... good at ANY speed...

Eiffel 65

I first heard of this europop group from a snippet on Total Request International on MTV. The snippet stated that this trio was big all over the world and were just about to release this CD in the States. Well, the CD Europop is here and the hit song "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" is super huge, sorta. They combine all kinds of 80's meets 90's pop elements: shorter songs (3:30-4:30 minute songs) with lots of pep and TONS of vocoder effects, like Cher used on "Believe". They kinda overdo it on vocoder, but they make up for this with some really catchy pop songs. I like "Blue", but I think I like "Dub in Life" more... I thought that "Dub..." would be the next single, but as it turns out, "Move Your Body" is the next import single I've seen listed on CDNow. I also like the videogame name dropping on "My Console" and the dark 80's sounding "Your Clown" as well... Some big name DJ's NEED to remix "Dub" and "Too Much of Heaven" into longer, trancier anthems, they're so ripe for it.

Beck

Beck is a cut & splice nut. The new CD Midnight Vultures is what would happen if you threw James Brown, Rick James, Prince and P-Funk into a blender with Beck jumping in last with his spacey arcade game noises, totally unusual arrangements and that sickly sweet falsetto. The whole CD is funky funky funky. My personal favorites on this (without having the CD sleeve in front of me to remind me) are the first single "Sexx Laws" (with its cheeseball tv gameshow theme to it), "Get Real Paid" (with transmogrified vocals and P-Funk'd up style 70s electronics and the closing track "Debra" which is way to kinky for its own good. I think this cd falls in line perfectly with Beck's other incarnations, country, grunge, miscellaneous... Great CD.

White Island e.p. - Salt Tank

Salt Tank's biggest hit in my book, and probably almost everybody else's is "Eugenia", which I first heard on "Platinum On Black 3" and numerous times out at Axis and Manray in Boston and Cambridge, respectively. I picked this e.p. up at work knowing nothing about it, and it has a good mix of smooth trance and floor-pounding dance tracks. "Jeanie" starts off smooth, worldly and hypnotic, "both mixes of "Rezmorize" are floor-pounding dance tracks that could very easily be heard on a Friday night at Axis with Tym Ryan spinning. The last track is another airy, electronic epic called "Ocean"... I really wish Salt Tank would put out a full-cd, but until then, I guess we'll hafta buy their vinyl singles... Hooj Choons is the label this e.p. was released on.

Tranceport 2 - Dave Ralph

Tranceport 1 - Paul Oakenfold

The first Oakenfold cd I ever bought was last year's phenomenal mix cd called "Tranceport". In fact, someone shopping at the Newbury Comics I work at must have stolen it, thus we haven't had a copy to sell for quite a while. It was a blindingly smooth collection of incredible trance tracks including Gus Gus' "Purple" which flows elegantly into Ascension's "Someone"... I just recently (Nov. 3, 1999) picked up the unexpected follow-up to "Tranceport" called "Tranceport 2", mixed by Dave Ralph who I've never heard of... Unlike "1", it's a 2-CD set (same price as "1", though) and even though I'm not all the way through it, I can tell you that CD2 a.k.a. "Arrivals" has three incredible tracks starting it off... Overall, I get the feeling that it's gonna be a nice collection of slammin' trance techno stuff... I was actually surprised to hear alot of tracks from Oakenfold's CD played at the New England Beauty Expo this year...

Pet Shop Boys

This is probably the MOST long-awaited CD in my list... The Pet Shop Boys have returned with another stellar collection of disco-y pop music that soars. The day it came out, I just happened to be in Boston and I tried desperately to find a parking space near the Newbury Street branch of Newbury Comics and Tower Records so I could try to find a collector's edition / import special version of "Nightlife", but I had to settle for buying two copies of the regular domesic version at the Newbury Comics I work at in Shrewsbury. Even still, the CD is incredible... as good, if not BETTER than "Bilingual". It features the two singles "I don't know what you want but I can't give it any more" and "New York City Boy", but among the other tracks, I'd definitely single out "In denial" (featuring a Neil Tennant / Kylie Minogue duet) and "Radiophonic" as being two incredible tracks worthy of being singles in their own right. From what Synthpop Network tells me, "You only tell me you love me when you're drunk" will be the next single, due out in December '99. I can't say enough about how beautiful and well conceived this new release is... If you've been under the misconception that the Pet Shop Boys were just an 80's pop band with one big hit ("West End Girls"), this would be a great place to reacquaint yourself with this phenomenal pop duo. Check out the Pet Shop Boys web page. Also, check out the Geekspeak pilgrimage to Montreal to see the "Nightlife" tour. For another great review, check out CDNow's review.

Maurizio

The first time I ever heard this CD, Mike Halcyon, my friend Cheryl and myself were heading up to Hampton Beach in New Hampshire and we gor stuck in gridlock thanks to a horrific accident on Rt. 495. Anyway, the self-titled CD is completely unidentifiable from the packaging except for the fact that Mike knew it was this Italian DJ, Maurizio. It comes in a plain metal box, with a sticker on it, that barely tells you anything about the tracks, and to the untrained ear, the tracks may all sound the same. As my long lost friend Matt once said (about who specifically, I forget), "it sounds like the programmed the machines and left the room". Super smooth, dark, dubby house music... seemingly soul-less, but in reality, brimming with style & spirit... I found my own copy of this disk as an import at an HMV, but supposedly, it's orderable from amazon.com, too. (Maurizio also goes under the aliases of Basic Channel and Chain Reaction, both of which are sold in almost anonymous metal boxes.)

(This is BIO info I got off of cdnow.com that I was afraid
might be deleted for being so obscure.)

Basic Channel has become synonymous with a brand of stripped-down,
ultra-minimal techno almost devoid of musical substance or intent. Both artist
and label, Basic Channel was established by Berlin-based producers
Mark Ernestus and Moritz Von Oswald (aka Maurizio) in 1993, and the pair have
unhurriedly developed a slim but adored catalog of releases under such names as
Cyrus, Phylyps, q1.1, Quadrant, Octagon, and Radiance -- working a single-minded
concept of nearly featureless machine music ("nearly," of course, being the key
to the music's success). Like many German techno artists and labels (Tresor, Studio 1,
Mike Ink), Basic Channel harbors a reverence for early Chicago acid and house and
first-wave Detroit techno, the latter of which in particular is manifested in Mark
and Moritz's ultraconservatism with respect to rhythm and composition. Releasing
under a dozen 12-inches since their inception (a few of them, however, nearing
album length), Basic Channel issued their first CD-release in 1996 (the group
otherwise remain staunch vinyl addicts -- they even assembled their own pressing
facility) in 1996. Titled simply Basic Channel, the disc was a continuously mixed
taster of their 12-inch releases, which continue to trickle out at a rate of only a
few per year. Basic Channel is one in a network of artists and labels also including
Thomas Koner/Porter Ricks, the Chain Reaction label (more avant experimental techno),
M (Moritz's personal label and home to his Maurizio releases), the
Main Street label (pop house), and Imbalance (a CD-only experimental music label).
~ Sean Cooper, All Music Guide

The Butthole Surfers

"Locust Abortion Technician" is an album I bought years ago on vinyl when there was a Strawberries record store on Front Street in Worcester. I bought it on vinyl along with a vinyl copy of Enya's "Watermark" album. Two completely different projects to be sure... The Butthole Surfers are an incredibly derranged band from Texas that just go nuts when in the recording studio, and even moreso when on stage (I saw them twice years ago at a now-closed Boston club called The Channel). This album is arguably their best and most focused studio project ever. They have an unbelieveably messed-up cover of Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" that the Surfers rename "Sweat Loaf". My personal favorite is the last track called "22 Going on 23" where it's a grinding, psychotic dirge, ending with a repeated, looped sample of cows moo-ing. This album was just recently re-issued as a compact disc on Touch & Go.