Adds for March 13, 2001

7" / THE CLIENTELE "(I Can't Seem) To Make You Mine" / THE RELICT "Held In Glass" / Johnny Kane Records / The Relict is ex-Clientele member Innes Phillips recording with The Clientele backing him. Both bands have a Galaxie 500 styled sound that isn't a world away from the 60's band Gandalf reviewed in this week's gullbuy. About this 7" the Johnny Kane website says "Quite simply, the imagined beauty of this idea has got everybody talkin'... a split 7" single with a female singer guesting on exclusive songs for both bands, all we know for sure right now is that this record's sound lies somewhere within: the shadows on the sleeve of "Otis Blue" the leaves spiraling across the sculpture garden in Burghley Park the moment that Dylan realized"I'll keep it with mine" truly did belong to Nico... just keep believing!"(TOP)

CD5 / DAKOTA OAK / How Danny's Friends Became A Force For Good" / Twisted Nerve / 5 songs in 11 minutes by David Tyack, alias Dakota Oak. This EP is on the label run by Damon Gough and Andy Votel, and has the acoustic sound that characterizes the 'Badly Drawn Boy' styled bands such as Kings Of Convenience or Turin Brakes. Dakota Oak's slant on the sound includes piano, harmonica, and instrumentals. In fact all the songs but the Neil young cover are instrumentals. "How Danny's Friends Became A Force For Good" (#1) is my favorite song on the disc. Second favorite would be "How Danny's Sorrowing Friends Defied Convention" (#2). It's piano riff in the beginning reminds me of Burt Bacharach's "Close To You". It then grows into a harmonica part that works in the context. There are touches of timpani in the background, but overall it is a very mellow song that reminds me of a rainy day in the morning. The Neil Young cover of "Helpless" (#3) is OK but doesn't really do much for me. Nothing is really changed or added upon from the (superior) original. Shame - I expected the cover to be my fave track on the disc. It's two minute length
doesn't really allow for anything but the somewhat minimal reading it receives. "Coffee Dreams" (#4) is a 1:16 instrumental that sounds like it is based remotely on the melody from The Doors "Love Street". The EP closes with "Summer In Rhode Island" (#5), which is a two minute piece sounding a bit too 'new age' for me with it's glistening acoustic guitar and sparkling piano notes. A brushed drum that comes in halfway through is the only part I like in it. This EP is not really as good as I expected it
to be. I doubt that I will pursue the just released full length. Faves: 1,2 (TOP)

CD / various / DUB PLATES FROM THE LAMP / Pork Recordings / A genre which still interests me despite the glut of sub-par releases is the jazzy downtempo sound. Hull's Pork Recordings have put out some really great releases in the last couple of years. Their biggest artist would be Fila Brazilia. They also have Baby Mammoth on their label and even the UK release of the ex-Pavement guy who records as Marble Valley. The guy who runs the label DJ's on Radio 1 and at clubs as 'Porky'. This disc has cuts unsigned artists gave him while he was DJing at his "Fidel's Cigar Bar" night at The Lamp. This disc is my single favorite Pork release. I like 5 of the 12 songs a lot. Kennedy's "Woman and Money" (#1) is kind of haunting. Free Drink's "Sound Of The Camel" (#2) has a really neat picked nylon stringed acoustic guitar part over the strong bass/beat driven back. Unforscene's "Sunbear and the Orange Light" (#3) has the sound of crackling old jazz records, marimbas, and wordless vocal backgrounds. The Anthorne Project's "Pie oh Pie" reminds me a lot of Kid Loco's "Sister Curare" with the criminal giving a monologue about their crimes in the beginning of the track. Zka4t's "Quaterhead" is a dub-like echoey track with trumpet on it. It is really fine! This comp will be good for you if you like Kid Loco or The Thievery Corporation, both of who most of the tracks recall without completely imitating. Faves: 1,2,3,4,6 (TOP)

CD / THE ELECTRIC PRUNES / Lost Dreams / Birdman Records / Lost Dreams is meant to be the definitive compilation album by The Electric Prunes, put together by the band and re-mastered to their specifications. It has 23 songs on it and even has 3 songs that were never released before. You can read about this disc here . Everybody knows their song "Too Much To Dream Last Night", which was on the Nugget's compilation and was even covered by NYC's Wayne County on his 'Storm The Gates Of Heaven" LP in 1978. But few people's knowledge of The Prunes goes further than that. Fact is that they had some really great tunes and put out lots of great records. Bands like The Chesterfield Kings based their whole look and sound on the cool of The Electric Prunes. The Electric Prunes came out of LA's San Fernanado Valley in the 60's and were signed to Reprise records while still between 16 and 22 years old. They put out a self titled debut, then the 'Underground' LP. You can find out more about the old days here . As far as the tunes go, my absolute favorite here is "Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less)" (#8). Rhythm guitarist Weasel sings "Big City" (#18) which is more pop than psyche. It sounds very different than the other cuts but is very good too, though much 'squarer' than the other tracks. Right after it is "Wind-Up Toys" (#19), probably my second favorite. "Shadows" (#1), "Ain't It Hard" (#2), and "The Great Banana Hoax" (#11) are my other faves. This disc is really super fine. Faves: 1,2,8,11,19 (TOP)

CD / JAN JELINEK / Loop-finding-jazz-records / ~scape / Jan Jelinek also records as 'Gramm' and 'Farben'. On this CD he has used exclusively as his source material Jazz records. But beware, this record has NOTHING to do with any form of jazz. He merely uses one second samples to form the palette that he builds into Pole-like pieces of dub. From the press release quoted on FE's site "Specific ideas require specific labels. Jan Jelinek releases a new album on the Stefan Betke/Pole-label ~Scape and we welcome a new concept: 'loop-finding-jazz-records'. Jan Jelinek? You know, the production link no 1 between SND and Blaze, the human sound poetry
generator any computer, be it Amiga or the Mac Cube, would be honoured to work with. With the aid of his sampler Jelinek has developed an exclusive music discovery approach, building on three central themes: jazz, the loop finding modulation wheel
and moiré. Jazz sequences from the '60s and '70s are cut up into second-long loops, shifted by the wheel of the sampler and combined into spatial arrangements with maximum depth of field, re-creating the notorious moiré-effect, this ground-breaking
painting technique of creating three dimensional space in a plane without the classic tools of perspective. When Vasarély slightly tilted a few lines in a square grid it seems to flicker three-dimensionally. Similarly, when Jelinek uses his modulation wheel to
twist linear loops, sounds dance into zero gravity. It´s just a little twist for Jelinek´s index finger and a large step for the grammar of crackle poetry. Should anyone inquire after the lyrical scope of clicks and cuts and glitches, 'loop-finding-jazz-records' will
overwhelm them like Jerichos trumpets. The more gentle, the more insistent. And the initial concept will be forgotten amongst excited listening surprise." Faves: 2,7 (TOP)

magazine & CD / various / BEWARE THE CAT #11 / My favorite songs on this 17 song compilation are The Melvins "Let It All Be" (#6). I have never listened to The Melvins before and this track is nothing like I had thought them to be. On this track they sound more like the Sofa Surfers, who remix Eardrum's "Low Order" (#5), another one of my faves. I've always liked Sonovac, and their "Breaths, Deaths, & Puppies" (#8) track is no exception. It reminds me of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" in the music. Unlike "Tainted Love" it only has a little bit of vocals in it. The last of my faves is the cut by Gilad Atzman & DJ Face (#2). It almost sounds like it could be on the New Orleans Funk compilation, though it might be jazzier than it is funk. The following is directly quoted from the January 30th update by Surefire Distribution "Beware The Cat is based in North London and they have just released their eleventh issue. As with the previous issues it covers the usual mixture of articles, reviews, and quite a bit of music. Each issue comes with a CD companion attached to the cover, and each track on the CD reflects a corresponding piece in the zine. This time around Beware The Cat CD features: Hermann & Klein - Kickboard Girl (Morr Music), Gilad Atzman & DJ Face - Listen To Joe (Fruitbeard), Trinity - Tradition (Blood & Fire), Lexi Love - This Feelings Gone (Second Skin), Eardrum - Low Order: Sofa Surfers mix (Leaf), The Melvins - Let It All Be (Ipecac), Blue States - Diamente (Memphis Industries), Sonovac - Breaths, Deaths & Puppies (Output), Papa M - Up North Kids (Domino), Madeline Bell & Alan Parker - That's What Friends Are Fore (Strut), DJ Bombtrack featuring Mr Thing - Brothers Grim (Apeman), King Biscuit Time - Niggling Discrepancy (Regal), Bogdan Raczynski - You As An Out Of Control Extension Of Me (Rephlex), SK Radicals - Reachin 4 Da Farside (People), The Creators - Hard Margin (Bad Magic/Wall Of Sound), Evolution Control Committee - By The Time I Get To Arizona (Pickled Egg), Lee Taylor & Soul Twister Ltd - 151 Rome Proof (Wah Wah). All the tracks are then complimented with a feature in the magazine and the articles are as follows (and corresponding with how the tracks appear on the CD for easy reference)". My Faves: 2,6,8 (TOP)

CD / BETTY DAVIS / Nasty Gal / MPC Ltd. / The third of 3 records she released between 1972 and 1975. The first 2 of her records were added in the February 20, 2001 gullbuy . Please read those reviews for more info on Betty Davis. I was afraid when I bought this CD. I thought that this disc might have been really watered down or just had weak writing, and that maybe this CD was why her career didn't last longer. I further figured that if this CD was crucial then the label who re-released these discs would have put it out at the same time it put out the first two. No need for worry though: this disc has the same amount of great songs as the other two had. I love the opening song, "Nasty Gal". "Talkin' Trash" (#2) has her trading lines with a male vocalist a la Sly Stone. "The Lone Ranger" (#10) is 6:18 of smoky slink. It is a really cool song. The one song that catches me most is "F.U.N.K." (#6). In the cut she cites three groups of four influences. First up Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Al Green. Then next verse Barry White, Larry Graham, Isaac Hayes, The O'Jays. Last verse has Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, The Funkadelics. I could say lots more about this disc, but I think her list said it better. All three of these re-issued discs are pretty darned crucial. Faves: 1,2,6,10 (TOP)

CD / HIDELI KAJI / You Will Love Me / Trattoria / My favorite of
Hideki Kaji's many records. To me he has always been like Game Theory's Scott Miller. He writes great pop and surrounds himself with wonderful musicians as well. Yoshie (drummer/percussionist for Cornelius who also put out a great CDEP on
Trattoria last year) plays on 8 songs (#'s2,3,5,6,8,10,11,12), Yukari Fresh sings 'chorus' on 2 songs (#'s3,8), Helana Josefsson sings background vocals on 3 songs (#'s1,4,6), and Hiroshi Horie, who Kideki Kaji collaborated with as 'Dots and Borders', plays on 6 songs (#'s2,3,6,8,11,12). My favorite song is caught in a tie between "Ebony" (#4) which keeps reminding me of the Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson duet, though it is totally unrelated. Hideki Kaji sings about "Ebony, Ivory" which just can't help but bring up the comparison. The song has a bossa feel with acoustic guitar and an electronic percussion. The melody and structure are ace. The other tie in my 'faves' selection is "Water-Blue-Tempo" (#6) which has the smooth backing vocals of Helana Josefsson ("Ebony" does as well). The melody in this song almost sounds like The Beatles song "Here Comes The Sun" in the opening guitar riff, though like most of Hideki Kaji's idea that phrase never outstays it's welcome. In fact there are a bunch of different changes in the song including a totally different riff and feel for the last minute. The other 2 songs I like a lot on this 12 song disc are the opening track "This Is Still OK" and "Ivy Ivory Ivy". Hideki Kaji is a Jpop artist who writes more of a guitar oriented pop than the cut n' paste electronic/sampler collage pop that his peers excel at. (#3). Faves: 1,3,4,6 (TOP)

CD / various / NEW ORLEANS FUNK / Soul Jazz / This comp came
to me with high recommendations from unlikely sources. The first person to tell me about it was Sandra Barrett of WZBC (Tuesdays 3-5 PM). She simply said that she had bought it for herself (she works at Other Music) and we HAD to get it for the station. Next I heard about it from Ryan who works at the Harvard Square location of Newbury Comics. He said a friend of his had bought and that when he listened to it he thought it was great. I was already sold at this point. After reading the extensive book that comes inside the paper outer box of this CD, the one thing I could distill 40 pages into without feeling too guilty (of omission) is 'The Second Line'. (From the booklet) "Parade Bands, Mardi Gras Indians, Jazz Funeral Bands, Saturday Night Fish Frys - these are all unique New Orleans traditions that have one thing in common: whenever they're going on you will find a mass of drummers/singers/dancers/percussionists accompanying them. In parades this became known as The Second Line. The Second Line play and dance in a syncopated time that is not 'on' the beat and not on the 'off' beat. They play between the 'on' and 'off' beat! The Parade rhythm has a backbeat that makes you clap your hands, move your feet. In short, it is the sound of Funk. The sound of New Orleans African-American music, be it Jazz, R'n'B or Funk is, in turn, a reflection of the sound of the original African-American music that emanated from Congo Square since the birth of New Orleans". Every one of the 24 songs is pretty good, but the ones I especially like are The Meters "Handclapping Song" (#1), The Explosions "Hip Drop" (#2), Huey 'Piano smith & His Clowns "Free, Single, and Disengaged" (#7), Chuck Carbo "Can I Be Your Squeeze" (#8), Ernie & The top Notes "Dap Walk" (#17), and Dr. John "Mama Roux" (#20). Each of those songs get my highest recommendation, as does this comp in general. Faves: 1,2,7,8,17 (TOP)