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NEW RELEASES - NEW YEAR 2001 - SHEET 3 |
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GURUS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM – “2nd Album / Flux” (M&E 553 ☼☼☼½ 30 / CD 72:58 Independent, England) Following the preview cassette we released last issue, here’s the full length second album on CD from Kent’s finest. Even if you bought the tape, the extra 43 minutes on this makes it well worth adding it to your collection anyway. From the cool wall of tripped out progressive psyche that greets you, it’s onward and upward. Echoey guitars, flittery synths, free flowing and pure class. The quality of musicianship is quite superb, topped by a stylish vocal, somewhere between Crispian Mills and Justin Hayward. Imagine a mix of Kula Shaker, Hawkwind and The Moody Blues? Food for thought, huh? Then Kula Shaker meet Steve Hillage on housebeat, Indian psychedelia, The Teardrop Explodes and Duran Duran. The amount of talent in this band is extraordinarily high, how they’ve managed to avoid greater success to date is a complete mystery to me. Slip on your caftan and chill out…
IDIOM – “Fairytales For Those Who Never Came Down” (M&E 566 ☼☼ 52 / CDR 51:39 Independent, England) Och aye, to Bonnie Scotland we shall go… even though they come from Yorkshire really. But you know Idiom, rules are for wimps! So it’s in the Highlands we open with medieval hand drum and tales of Joch McGregor. Heather-laden synths build, psyche guitar and pure thistle-inspired mellowness. Track 2, different story altogether, as we’ve come to expect from this marvellously inventive band. A dubby-dance instrumental with psychoglide factor X further expands the Idiom formula of trance-induction music extraordinaire. I bet this would be great to get stoned to, but being a good boy, I guess I’ll never know. J Later on, we switch to folk, a male voice and acoustic guitar. Then a nice long instrumental piece reminiscent of Hawkwind’s “Wind Of Change” in some ways. Sort of offbeat psycheprog, rather than spacerock. Gentle sax and cosmic FX. Cool. Then you get a snip of Flanagan & Allen singing “We’re Going To Hang Out The Washing On The Siegfried Line” (which should go down well with our friends in Germany!), honest! Rachel sings about a poo-coloured planet, she does. Then ya gets synth-elektroid a-la Sabotage almost. Crunchy synth-processed guitar, beaty beaty, sexy femme vox a sprechen, dalek stylised male vocal. How many bands do you know could make a decent six minute track using only the words “as I move in”, huh? I rest my case. They improve with every album, watch this space! |
BLAINE JONES – “Diary Of A Manic Depressive”(M&E 564 ☼½ 90) A cheerful little selection from a former half of American electronic pioneers, Communication Union, but don’t expect anything even vaguely similar on here! This music is a very personal voyage from Blaine, who genuinely is a manic depressive and the pieces herein reflect that melancholy with incredible depth. As Blaine himself puts it; “this work is my soul that I am baring to others…”, which rather says it all, I think. For the main body, it is solo piano, a kind of neo-classic purism you very rarely hear in underground circles. The music is very emotive, you can feel the sadness he has poured into it, like a soundtrack to all your most heartfelt memories. Synths are used sparingly, strings and stuff, a little darkly Bach organ et al. By way of a bonus, we’ve added another half hour of material, just so you won’t be left on a low, coz it’s really not party music, trust me. There are three tracks Blaine has done in collaboration with fellow American muzo, Pete Hartney, an interesting piece with soprano vocals (originally released on “M&E Showcase Vol.2 – 1994) and “American Night” from the last Communication Union album, “Where Land Meets Water”. A fine collection, but invest in a box of Kleenex before listening, okay? L
LONELY WHISTLE MUSIC (various) – “Sampler 2000”(M&E 567 ☼½ 60) Decent little sampler this, and a fair tribute to the work of Mr. Lonely Whistle himself, Don Campau, stalwart of the international underground, songwriter, singer, musician, dj… AND married to Robin O’Brien! Some people really have it all, don’t they? Hmmph. Right, the first side is a sampler of some of the joys on Don’s label. It opens with a nice collaborative track between himself and Achim Treu, imagine Talking Heads on elektrofunk, it’s on the street, trust me. Then one from Robin O’Brien & David Mitros, minimalistic musical backing to “The Voice” as we call her, a satisfying mix of conventional vocals with avant-garde voice improvisation, a talented lady indeed. Timo is a kind of thinker type of singer-songwriter, mighty enjoyable to boot. Nicole Campau is Don’s… er… “little girl”. Ahem. Strange little piece, like Kim Wilde on acid, very sexy voice… and daddy lets her get away with using the F-word! Um, I’m telling! Kevyn Dymond gives us a solo rendition of Barking Dogma’s “Dumb Things”. Lord Litter throws in one from his latest (see elsewhere in this reviews section). Ruth Sherbourne is a bit good with a voice and guitar too. Good selection from a good label. The flipside gives you a half-hour extract from a recent edition of Don’s “No Pigeonholes” radioshow, the usual wild diversity of material on offer. Overall, a nice little collectible from California’s finest.
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