earpollution album reviews [page 1] - issue 2.Ø3, march 2ØØØ

Angie Stone - Black Diamond
Bal-Sagoth - The Power Cosmic
Botch - We are the Romans
Cenotaph - Puked Genital Purulency
Chipsett - Chipsett
Corporation 187 - Subliminal Fear
D'Angelo - Voodoo
Enigma - The Screen Behind the Mirror
Guy - Guy III
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Helikopter-quartett

Karma to Burn - Wild Wonderful Purgatory
Libertine - See You in the Next Life
Red Giant - Ultra-Magnetic Glowing Sound
Rick Rizzo and Tara Key - Dark Edson Tiger
Seely - Winter Birds
Storm and Stress - Under Thunder and Fluorescent Light
Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out

Angie Stone Black Diamond Arista		Imagine the smell of cherry incense burning, blacklight poster glowing in the dark and the sounds of sweet soul music streaming from an old record player. Angie Stone's debut, Black Diamond, is like the past basement parties--full of cool grooves ranging from soulful to sultry and funky like incense that seeps deeply within you. This record immediately sold (or should I say soul-ed) me with its forty second intro "Freedom" with Stone's strong but sweet voice that rides in conjunction with the harmonious layers. Not that Stone's sound is pure retrograde. "No More Rain (In this Cloud)" with its catchy "the sunshine is gone and I'm all dried up and there's no more rain in this cloud" lyric samples just the right amount of material from Gladys Knight's "Neither One of Us Wants to Say Goodbye." Though one might consider it sacrilegious, her version of Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" comes off unique as she sings from a female perspective. If you want funky, you got "Green Grass Vapors" and "Man Loves His Money" with its liquidy Larry Graham bass. "Everyday" (co-written by D'Angelo) has a jazzy groove with Stone's perfect scat phrasing. Angie Stone is one of the newer artists out today bringing soul back to R&B. If this is a trend, I'm not one to resist it. *-Hope Lopez* [ top of page ]
Bal-Sagoth The Power Cosmic Nuclear Blast America Links: Bal-Sagoth		Kings of true Britannic war metal. Killer, yet another new metal style. Britannic war metal will be defined for the time being as an amalgamation of space metal à la Hawkwind and Voivod with symphonic metal à la Therion and melodic death metal. Chris Maudling is awesome on guitar propelling the apocalyptic, psychedelic power war machine's spiral through space with only six strings. Byron's vocals can begin at a traditional pop crooner's level and end up growling and sneering every bit as mean as Peter Tagtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain, Lock Up). Jonny Maudling exhibits superior imaginative skills with proper placement of soundbites and keyboard frills that add to the psychedelic and melodic character of Bal-Sagoth. Mark Greenwall (bass) and David Mackintosh (drums) form a powerful union as the engine that drives and boosts this energetic slice of symphonic space metal opera. The Power Cosmic is masterful storytelling taken beyond the bounds of this mortal world by some extreme metal to the immortal worlds of The Power Cosmic. This is the fourth installment in the Bal-Sagoth musical odyssey. The band lyrically is exploring alternate universes inhabited by warriors, wizards, monsters, cosmic beings, dragons and demi-gods. Tracks are titled "The Awakening of the Stars," "The Voyagers Beneath the Mare Imbrium," "The Empyreal Lexicon," "Of Carnage and a Gathering of the Wolves," "Callisto Rising," "The Scourge of the Fourth Celestial Host," "Behold, the Armies of War Descend Screaming from the Heavens" and "The Thirteen Cryptical Prophecies of Mu." From track one, "The Awakening of the Stars," to finale "The Thirteen Cryptical Prophecies of Mu," Bal-Sagoth will transport you into their alternate galaxy. You may find that you'll prefer their world to yours--so bring plenty of clean undies for the journey. *-Sabrina Wade-Haines* [ top of page ]
Botch We are the Romans Hydra Head Records		Botch--hailing from the city of Tacoma--put dissonance and discontent to the forefront of this new release. The band have created a chaos and turbulence of grating avant-metal powerful enough to scrape the rust off of a used meth blade. These guys are not afraid to put some fucking noise into the mix, either. This makes for a listen that takes you from the edge of a tall building to looking at the ground with a light microscope, ensuring that you get all the details while still remaining open to the immensity of the edge. Botch has the effect of pulling you in many different directions all at once, yet leaving you dazed and intact. Their sweeping and luring underlying melodies are crushed under the disharmony of the guitars and the screaming noise of the vocals. Botch's world of chaotic metal will drive some people up the walls like fingernails on the chalkboard. If you would crank this up at home you would drive all the animals in the house to their best hiding places and your neighbors to give you even stranger looks. The packing for We are the Romans is a quite spectacular, multi-folded digipak. I like digipaks, but they tend to get beaten up easily. *-Steve Weatherholt* [ top of page ]
Cenotaph Puked Genital Purulency Hammer Links: Cenotaph email		Holy Jumping Steaming Spewing Entrails! The puts the puke back in putrid! This is gonna rock you to the soles of grindy little feet and lower. This is pure, unholy, ramrodding, purulent, brutal, disgusting (in a good way) goregrind. Their bruised and bleeding fingers have forged this hotbed of festering, splattering, brutal death metal-influenced grindcore. They use decaying sore throat vocals that must require immediate medical attention to get their putrid message of gore airborne. These guys toss in a few well-placed technical deathy breaks that would make Cannibal Corpse, early Carcass or early Death extremely jealous. This is extremely brutal gore grind; the subject matter is gross, disgusting and probably highly infectious. Before hordes of the undead rise up and dismember me...no, wait...this is not the Mexican grind band. This band hails (knew I'd work that in somewhere someday) from Turkey (home of some incredible torture techniques, but most notably Turkish disembowelment) via a Turkish label. However, at least one member lives in Austria. Quite international, eh? Avoiding the gore division of Interpol? It just doesn't get much better than this. Put this gem on and plug in a mute Army of Darkness DVD and groove. Stay gore. *-Sabrina Wade-Haines* [ top of page ]
Chipsett Chipsett Sprout Recordings (Hydrant)		This sampler disk is a fine example of the caliber of music coming from a little-known label out of Northern California called Hydrant/Sprout. They are producing some of the finest electronics being released right now. The Chipsett EP is a four-song release containing ultra-clean precision electronics in the noise 'n' drum 'n' bass genre (see eP's review of Proem, also on Hydrant). This EP starts out with a minimalist exercise in pulsating chirps and bleeps backed up by some seriously awesome drum 'n' bass programming. Short and sweet is the formula here. Song two, "Spyryl," is just that, a smooth cascade of dreamy ambience set against some rythmic clicking and bouncing. If you close your eyes you can almost follow the bouncing ball as it moves through the song. Again, concise is the name of the game and it works like a charm. Song three, "Marble Eye," picks the pace up a bit. Although it is not dance-oriented per se, it is danceable. The rhythm section is primary here with the other elements remaining secondary throughout the composition. My favorite song on the set is number four, "Swells," a departure from the rest of the disc in that it employs some down tempo style à la Kruder & Dorfmeister or DJ Spooky. "Swells" is a smoky, rather moody piece that would make for excellent soundtrack fare. Chipsett remind me a lot of Architect, Daniel Myer's (of Haujobb) one time project. I find it extremely exciting that more and more projects are using electronics to further the cause and uphold the artistic integrity of what their forefathers started. I have yet to hear anything put out by Hydrant that doesn't live up to this. Very interesting stuff. *-Jeff Ashley* [ top of page ]
Corporation 187 Subliminal Fear Wicked World		Corporation 187 have dived into the metal gene pool of thrash, groove and melodic death metals to emerge a shining example of all that is superior in the millennium of metal. This is the future: a single man screaming his heart and lungs amplified to pierce and punctuate the hard and heavy guitars shredding rhythmically over iron-reinforced bass walls pounded by manufactured industrial rhythms and riffs and annihilated by the crushing, pulsating drum soundwaves that sonically assault your senses. The press release says they are heavily influenced by Slayer and Entombed. Well, maybe only as a jumping off point--seriously. Pull out everyone that they will remind you of throughout this disc--Machine Head, Haunted, Slayer, Entombed, Earth Crisis and others--and put all their discs on and flip back and forth, hither and dither and yon. After hours and days of trying to peg them, you will find that you cannot. Just give it up...I've tried. My husband has helped. We have failed to adequately describe Corporation 187 except that it is entirely and completely necessary for every metal fan to own this fine disc. He just says that "it rocks"--the last time he said it was Kid Rock. Listen, you will never regret buying it. It will drive you crazy with shards of rhythm and melody that will grab you by the ear and force you to figure out that they have spliced nineteen different bands and still made it sound so good and so new. This should be on every radio. This is a strong nominee for kick-ass record of the year. *-Sabrina Wade-Haines* [ top of page ]
D'Angelo Voodoo Cheeba/Virgin Records Links: D'Angelo		"Hallucinogenic" was the first word that came to mind after hearing Voodoo, the long-awaited sophomore release from neo-soul artist D'Angelo. After hearing it a few more times, the words, like the album's contents, morphed into something altogether different, and I became helplessly intoxicated by it. With each listen I found myself continually drawn into a sultry haze, left awash, searching neither for an escape nor an answer. A dreamlike state would come over me, feelings of passion, creativity and spirituality carried me about, and yet where they took me left no tangible image. The deep abyss of creativity that is the soul of one Michael D'Angelo Archer had swallowed me up. I awoke adrift in a small boat staring out at the vast expanse that was Mr. D'Angelo's creative soul, an ocean of deep blue. Lying there helplessly like a lost child I floated aimlessly about 'til a siren's call broke the silence of this strange dreamlike place. A soft sweet wind began blowing across my ear; I began instantly to dream, eyes wide open, about an encounter between two former lovers, "One Mo'Gin." The siren's song is the tale of a man's yearning to be with a lover of his past that he still has strong feelings of desire for. My heart swelled, threatening to burst forth from my chest; I longed to be shipwrecked on an island with the love of my life or at least the greatest sex I ever had. The wind suddenly changed directions and the siren voice was gone. The images of lust and passion faded, the swelling of my heart was replaced by an aching like I'd never felt before. The siren's voice returns, only now he (funny, I thought sirens were always women) begins singing of a man tortured by an ex-lover. No longer able to enjoy the fruits another can provide, he suspects "The Root" has been placed on him. He seeks help from traditional medicine but gets nowhere; the doctor tells him there's nothing he can do. And yet his fire remains snuffed out. Love and his desire for it have been replaced by memories that seem more like faded dreams. The pain in my chest feels too real to be ignored. Could it be that a lover scorned will let you love no more if he or she uses "The Root?" A phone rings, and just like that the room returns. Was I dreaming? I look at my CD player. An hour has passed since I first put the disc in and pressed play. Where to is the question. In the background I hear D'Angelo singing in his mush-mouthed falsetto over a loosely structured jam. Listening closer, I realize he's remade Roberta Flack's 1974 hit "Feel Like Making Love." Why am I all hot a sweaty? Voodoo surely will affect everyone who hears it differently, but for this critic it was well worth the five-year wait. Be advised though, it shouldn't be played while one is operating heavy machinery or behind the wheel of a car. I recommend a bed or really comfortable armchair for maximum enjoyment--or a nice throw rug and a fire if listening for two or more. *-Cecil Beatty-Yasutake* [ top of page ]
Enigma The Screen Behind the Mirror Virgin Links: Enigma (Official Site) Enigma (Fan Page)		Michael Cretu is back to milk the Enigma machine for one last run. If you've been fumbling through the bins at all these last few months, you've probably seen a re-release of his multi-platinum selling first album (the one dripping with the sexy heavy breathing and the Gregorian chants) complete with the addition of several remixes tacked on to the end. This re-release is for those who were finding that 45 minutes just wasn't enough to get the groove on any more in their dotage. Time has certainly mamboed along for those of us who were young enough to get all aquiver with the first album. Cretu had a formula (much like Robin Cook's approach to medical thrillers) that worked well; and yet, by the third Enigma album, he had strayed, ending up in a forsaken corner of the pop charts where chances of his return were slim to none. A half decade later he's back with a septuagenarian's denial of the passage of time and a smoothly packaged retread wrapped around one of the most classic and most overused choral bits of the last hundred years. A decade of Enigma plays out thus: MCMXC A.D. got played a lot in my house in 1990 because it was mildly erotic and had a good beat. The Screen Behind the Mirror gets player time in 2000 because it's almost time for spring cleaning and this disc is pretty unobtrusive as background music while I scrub my kitchen counter. Your mileage may vary, but I'll warn you of this much: it'll do more for your sense of nostalgia than your libido. *-Mark Teppo* [ top of page ]
Guy Guy III MCA Records Links: Guy		New Jack Swing is the R&B hybrid creation of producer/songwriter/musician Teddy Riley. In 1988, the world got its first taste of this hip-hop beat-styled, synthesizer-heavy, soulful vocal meld of rhythm and blues with the self-titled release of Guy. Songs like "I Like," "Teddy's Jam," and "Groove Me" would become big hits for the group and put Teddy squarely on the map as hit songmaker. Ironically, Guy's second album entitled The Future would be their last for years to come. With hits like "Let's Chill" and "Wanna Get With U," the group continued its successful chart-topping ways from the first album despite a lineup change--between albums Timmy Gatling left the group and was replaced by Damion Hall, Aaron Hall's brother. Now ten years later, Aaron, Damion and Teddy have decided to put a rocky and troubled past behind them and reunite: question is, has time passed them by? After listening to Guy III I'm happy to report the answer to that question is a firm "no." I must admit however that I had serious doubts on the ride home from the record store. I envisioned Teddy's New Jack Swing style sounding tinny and horribly dated; I could see myself having a tragic '80s flashback. Such, however, was not the case; songs like "Dancin'" and the soulful "Rescue Me" jump out at the listener. Both are sure to be platinum hit singles, which leaves you wondering what these guys were thinking when they decided to split up. The biggest surprise on this disc comes on a track entitled "Why You Wanna Keep Me From My Baby." Here Aaron Hall sings in gospel-like manner about an estranged father's love for his child. This song is sure to be every single-father-in-crisis' anthem. Finally, it wouldn't be a Guy LP without a Jam from Teddy, and "Teddy's Jam III" is a fitting tribute to the recently deceased Roger Troutman, frontman for Zapp and talented solo artist and innovator. This album may not break any new ground but it will hold its own against any of today's current acts and is definitely worth a listen if not being added to your collection. *-Cecil Beatty-Yasutake* [ top of page ]

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