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A Perfect Circle

Lyrically, Keenan still seems to be on top of his game, encrypting his forceful libidinous notions with several unspoken revelations. Surprisingly, it's nice to hear the "Waterboy" try his talents in a different arena than with his normal band. My main worrisome preconception while hitting the play button on this album was that it would sound too much like Tool. "Judith," the scathing bass-heavy first radio single, did nothing to dissuade that notion. But Mer de Noms, while not completely unfamiliar (and not completely void of Adam Jones' influence), comes off as a flowing, fresh platter of hard rock garnished by some light string orchestration and is not nearly as suffocating or menacing as Tool. Mr. Keenan spent a great deal of time (about 77 minutes) trying to reconnect with his feminine archetype on Ænima. Perhaps in A Perfect Circle he finally has an apt outlet for her.

-Al Cordray
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Links:
Ambre
Mark Spybey

Shit, that's a lot to keep track of. Anyway, as I was saying, Sfumato isn't nearly the sandpaper-to-the-lips-experience that I had been gearing myself for. Surprisingly ambient, Sfumato explores the dread that lingers in the water drain and under the lip of the steam pipe. A resonant groaning of distant steel factories and water-laden towers permeates the disc and there is crawling uncertainty that wells up throughout. You expect something to come leaping out of your speakers and it isn't a disappointment that something doesn't--rather, the unease left in the passage of this disc is that something may yet, something may have been left--virus-like--in your system by the passage of this phantom beast that has slouched through your environment.

Hushush has left a greasy black mark high on the wall with this release, an unsettling reminder of the impact of the first third of the Threesome series. I'm looking forward to finding equally black marks left behind by the others.

-Mark Teppo
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Links:
Destruction

-Jason Haines
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Links:
Devo

It is now the time to spend some time and appreciate our roots of electronic and video music. Devo were pioneers in both of these areas. Yeah, you can argue who was the first, i.e. Kraftwerk and others, but what twisted minds would meld together Devo-lutionary warped lyrics and catchy-as-hell pop songs into the masterpieces that Devo recorded! Who else could get you to dance for guys dressed in vinyl and stocking masks? What would make you get up off your fat ass and scream and shout for guys dressed in flaming yellow jumpsuits with perfect hair? Come on, Devo were the real deal. Nobody was bent in the worst way to combine all this looneyness into a package and spoon-feed it to the indigenous species of Ohio and come out alive. Well, Devo came and should have conquered and destroyed the system!

I remember getting my first Devo album in high school--Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo--and thinking, "Holy shit who are these guys?" I was tweaked on them from their first album. So, I started collecting everything I could find: singles, colored vinyl, different sleeves and much more. Literally, the Freedom of Choice album did not leave my turntable for the first month after I bought it! I had this turntable that would spin the same album up to six times before it would turn off. I would get up in the morning and play the album before school. When I got home from school it would still be on the turntable and I would play only it the rest of the night. At bedtime I would push the replay button up to number six and fall asleep. Boy was I ever geeked on them. I was pissed off at my mom for not letting me travel to Seattle to see the New Traditionalist tour, but I was even greener with envy that my locker partner got to see the men and their conveyor belt performance! My only consolation was that my good buddy picked me up a tour program from the show.

How many bands can you choose that have as many great songs as Devo? Check out their albums and there is nary a bad song on any of the first six albums. I can only think of maybe the mighty Ramones, Killing Joke or the UK Subs. Who can compare to this staggering amount of great song after great song over a six album span!

Well anyway, with Pioneers Who Got Scalped we are treated to 60 songs of Devomania. Songs covering their entire soundtrack; cuts like "Theme from Doctor Detroit," "Let's Talk"--from the movie "Fright Night"--and many more. We get some B-sides: "Nu-Tra Speaks" and "Soo-Bawlz" and a few of Devo's famous covers like "Head Like a Hole," "Secret Agent Man," "Working in a Coal Mine," "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Are You Experienced." From the CD-ROM game Interstate '82 we get the rare track called "One Dumb Thing." Come on you industrial freaks, get out and pay homage to the men in flowerpots that kick-started the form of music that you can love and enjoy today! Sure, the true blue freaks will say that bands like Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire were the "true" industrial bands that started it all. Well, think again because Devo was also incorporating elements of cutting-edge music that nobody else was thinking of at that time. Just think of any electronic band nowadays and they should thank the mighty Devo for paving the way.

For all you Devo freaks and anybody who hasn't been introduced to the Ohio boys, go out and pick this up. This little package also comes with a 50-page booklet telling the history and Devo-lutionary power of Devo. The booklet is worth the pics alone!

-Steve Weatherholt
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After getting high, the Euro Boys attend a few parties this evening out on the town. They get down and funky; phone home while being seduced under a smoky disco haze; then mellow out over some fine art and no doubt enjoy sumptuous wine and semi-coherent conversation and pick up a few hot airy babes; the Euro Boys take them to their steamy "Sex Kabin" of pleasure. After boarding the 2 a.m. train, they journey to the next destination--Jim Morrison's party pad--followed up by a quick morning confession (in a real church no less). Refreshed, they venture out for the "Rock 'n' Roll Farmacia" for some panacea. The post-breakfast bash begins in another hopping psychedelic bar, somewhere in a dead-hazed Latin part of this new town; they leave, a little tired though inspired, and go to the local circus, and fly (and somewhere along the line watch I Dream of Jeannie on the big screen). After coming down, they have to piss (if you gotta go...) and then saunter over to the "99 Degree" lounge. The post-lounge walk is a mellow meandering and wandering around town to find Mediterranean or Indian food. After eating, the wind picks up a little and they are feeling good--their flight is going well and their "Ambulance Cruiser" is born to be wild and lands in a smoky jazz haze (complete with wailing saxophone). The long day's flight ends in nature and tranquility--the freshness of the new day or the winding down of the old one, but nevertheless a relaxing reminiscent journey home. This CD is very ambient and interpretive, and well worth the journey.

-Jennifer Johnson
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I'm young enough (read was way too busy banging my head to Black Sabbath as a kid) that Fontanelle's influences read like the answer to "What if God put together an improv rock band in heaven?" Which detracts from my ability to honestly say whether or not Fontanelle holds up with those comparisons. I will say this--as a child of the generation following--this is good shit. If this is the manner in which the past is carried across the horizon, then Fontanelle's debut album is a fantastic carriage to the future.

-Mark Teppo
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Impaled Nazarene is probably better live than in the studio. They are wild, out-of-control dangerous black metallers that have been proudly "Protected by Satan since 1990." Nihil is the exception to this rule; perhaps in addition to the razor-sharp, blistering fast guitar work, Laiiho has also brought a sense of discipline (slightly) to Impaled Nazarene. Mika's vocal pyrotechnics are as hot as ever. He belts out screaming lyrics like a Banshee with his nuts in a grinder. Jarno Antilla and Jani Lehtosarri have also elevated their guitar and bass work, respectively, to a hellish pitch that is only accentuated by the out-of-control drumming by Reima Kelloski. The best tracks are "Human-Proof," the oddly titled "Angel Rectums Still Bleed--The Sequel," "Assault the Monk," "Nihil" and the utterly awesome "Zero Tolerance." It's good to see that even the drunkest black metal bands can elevate their music to a superlative level when challenged. Perhaps they were sober in the studio. Naah. Never in a million years.

-Sabrina Haines
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Links:
Killah Priest

The production work by John Blaze on this album is hot (no pun intended), joints like the title track and "Hard Times" are certain crowd pleasers. But it's the inconsistency of his message on songs like "Gotta Eat" that detract from the overall effect of this sophomore project. Killah Priest's sudden transformation from ghetto messiah to street thug is contradictory and confusing to say the least. Apparently he lacks enough faith in his own beliefs and talents to stay true to what sets him apart from his peers: his ability to provoke thought and spiritually enlighten others through poetic verse.

View from Masada lacks the consistency of his first release, Heavy Metal--an album whose lyrical content alone would be worthy of study as a college course. But it's good enough to take home; even junk food for the brain is a good thing once in a while.

-Cecil Beatty-Yasutake
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Links:
Kiss the Clown

-Al Cordray
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Links:
Looper

And it's the very repetitive melodies which work so well on other tracks. The recycled synth line and hopscotch vocal sample of "Mondo '77" give the track a certain endearing nature. Yet the same elements in "Uncle Ray" make me dive across the room for the track advance button. (And we won't even talk about how much "PuddleMonkey" makes me wish for a way to selectively scratch a track out of a CD.) The phoned-in vocals to "On the Flipside" give the track an even greater wistfulness than is already inherent in the lyrics. The use of the squealing tricycle wheel in "Bug Rain" lends the track an innocence strongly reminiscent of being trapped inside by the rain when you were six.

Looper is a project of Stuart David (one-time bassist for Belle and Sebastian) that came about as accompaniment to an outlet for strange films, odd video projections, and surreal slide shows. The music has adopted a life of its own since then and The Geometrid finds Looper expanding their quirky electronic lo-fi repertoire.

-Mark Teppo
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Showing his Warp and Reflex influence, de Rocher leaves off some of the filters from his mics, letting us hear some of the snarl and growl of the cogs and wheels of the machines he uses to create his music--leaving us with echoes of static and fused electrical connections beneath his glimmering melodies. In "Glass and Spiders" he concocts a chattering underbelly to the song that has an eerie temperament--the sense that there are spiders just under the glass and you are safe...for the moment. The self-proclaimed robots of Suction fame have a primary programming goal of crafting exceptionally human and organic sounding songs from strictly mechanical sources; yet, with Eliminator, Lowfish has elected to reveal the worn and rusting parts of the machines. Even a robot can be touched by the passage of the organic, steel and wire worn by exposure. Eliminator is a robot song tinged with melancholy--an even more human experience than you could ever hope to expect.

-Mark Teppo
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Links:
One Against Five

-Al Cordray
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Links:
Pandemia

The only kind of flaw to Spreading the Message is that they used three intros and one outro on the disc. I think they were using them to break up the disc but it just interrupted the pummeling. Their music is so solid and the rhythms are varied enough that they don't need breaks. Michael's vocals are definitive death--lovely growling and snarling just tearing up the territory. Standout tracks are "Stiffness," "Free Strokes," "Slavemind," "Spreading the Message" and "Created Again." This may not be the most original style to perform, but Pandemia does it with panache and guts. Few bands will be able to hold up to this onslaught of metal, so they are probably afraid to ask them to support on gigs. Although they have toured with strong bands that aren't afraid of quality like Vader, Kreator, Krabathor (fellow Czechs), Dimmu Borgir, Six Feet Under, Sinister and Krisiun.

I believe that Pandemia is throwing down the gauntlet to all the other "death metal" bands floundering out there: If they can be so strong and get their message out all the way from Czechoslvakia, why can't other death metal bands play with this power and ingenuity? Beats the heck out of me, but I hope this isn't the last we hear of Pandemia. This isn't radio friendly (thankfully), but if your tastes are like mine, you will love it. I hope that they embark on a U.S. tour real soon to spread the message, but it is more likely that they would tour Europe first (those darn Europeans get everything).

-Sabrina Haines
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