earpollution album reviews [page 1] - issue 2.Ų5, may 2ŲŲŲ

Angie Aparo - The American
AnthroPile - Take.
Babylon Whores - King Fear
Do Say Make Think - Goodbye Enemy Airship, the Landlord is Dead
Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy
Foehn - Hidden Cinema Soundtrack
Gorgoroth - Incipt Satan
Himsa - GroundBREAKINGceremony
Imminent/Synapscape - Screenwalking
The Makers - Rock Star God
MDFMK - MDFMK
Mira - Mira

The Modernist - Explosion
Night in Gales - Nailwork
Nightmares on Wax - Sound of N.O.W.
Patti Smith - Gung Ho
Septic Flesh - Revolution DNA
Sonogram - Heartbeat Submarines
Soul Reaper - Written in Blood
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - Blues at Sunrise
U.D.O. - Holy
Various Artists - Power from The North: Sweden Rocks The World
The Ziggens - Live: Tickets Still Available

Angie Aparo The American Arista Links: Angie Aparo		I think I'm a lost cause when it comes to most mainstream pop. I seriously can't bear to listen to much of it anymore. Each new album is like a pilot episode of a Friends or Sienfeld wanna-be sitcom. I go from headset to headset, ripping through the listening stations at Tower Records as if I were channel surfing on my arse. Like 95% of television programs, I'm weary of trite pop albums which have almost nothing to add to the mainstream. Mr. Aparo's The American is such an album. I barely got through it twice before yanking it out of the player, placing it back in its jewel case and pushing the album slowly away from me. After getting over myself, I looked up "Angie" on the internet. Turns out he's been playing intimate one-man and three-piece acoustic shows in the Southeast and New York since about '96. Unfortunately, he was introduced to Matt Serletic, famed producer of products such as Matchbox 20, Edwin McCain and Shawn Mullins. Well, imagine an entire album of Shawn Mullins filler tunes. I guess Serletic didn't think much of Aparo's guitar work, because it's all but disappeared on the mix, being replaced by programming, melodramatic strings, and all sorts of movie-theme-song nonsense Aparo probably didn't have in his backpack when he inked the deal at Arista. All of this is compounded by what seems to be a flawed vocal performance that gives hints of a performer that could probably do much better. I suppose the more folkie version of Aparo could have been more or less as engaging as the material here on The American, but we'll probably never know. Too bad. To make matters worse, he's been nauseatingly groomed for MTV. If you've ever watched Late Night with Conan O'Brien (part of the 5% of watchable programming), you've probably seen the "If They Mated" sketch, displaying computer composites of involved celebrities' photos created to mockingly determine how their children would look. Picture Billy Corgan and Garth Brooks alter ego Chris Gaines. It seems as though Angie's limb strings are pretty taut; hell, they won't even let him have a bona fide hidden track on the album...title track "The American" is three empty tracks after the last song (with no lyrics for it in the inlay), but it's still listed on the back cover after the twelfth track in a slightly smaller font with an ellipse instead of a track number. sad. If you need a copy, look for mine in the used bin. *-Al Cordray* [ top of page ]
AnthroPile Take. 12Ton Productions Links: AnthroPile		Take. Ministry. Take. Negativland. Take. Phallus Dei. Mix them together--just enough to not be a direct reiteration, but not enough to make the influence less than obvious. You now have AnthroPile, a techno-industrial project from Bellingham, Washington's Bryan Tewell Hughes. Having played in several Northwest bands, he understandably got tired of depending on the contributions of others and took the opportunity to start out on his own, admirably recording, producing and distributing this debut himself. Thickly covered in samples and soundbites, the songs are driving and aggressive, with the lyrics and samples combining for sarcastic commentary on TV psychics, militarism, overpopulation, Desert Storm and more. At the risk of being labeled a "sheep" by criticizing politically aware lyrics, I've heard it before and this doesn't bring anything new to the discussion. Similarly for the music: the album as a whole doesn't do enough to counter the impression that the opening riff of "My Shiny Toys" is from Ministry's "Thieves" or--sadly more difficult to correct--that his vocals strongly recall Negativland. But songs like "Ambulatory Meat Plants," "PaM" and "Angels and Machines" seem to indicate that Hughes has plenty of potential once he figures out how to differentiate himself from his influences. *-Paul Goracke* [ top of page ]
Babylon Whores King Fear Necropolis Records Links: Babylon Whores		A friend of mine in Finland (whom I have not spoken to in a while) used to trade packets of music every few months or so. In several of these packets would be a new Babylon Whores release: Slone 313, Trismegistos and Cold Heaven. I would listen to them and think this is alright, but nothing spectacular. They played a dirty rock 'n' roll style with a bit of Glenn Danzig-sounding vocals. I happened upon the new copy of Pit magazine with a compilation disc in it (you see, in the great Northwest we never seem to get the requisite disc with our metal magazines, so I was surprised) and this issue had a Necropolis V/A disc. The first track was "Errata Stigma" by The Babylon Whores. To say the least I was impressed with the maturity and growth in their music. They smoothed out some of the rough edges and added more gloominess to the polished rock 'n' roll that they normally write. This is a great release; well-written and damn good to bob your head to. These guys write some very infectious tunes with all the right hooks and changeups and with tons of metal to fill a scrap yard. Plus, the Babylon Whores are not afraid to change things up on a couple of the songs. They also get the artwork of the year award from me; the design is incredible with tons of depth to it. *Steve Weatherholt* [ top of page ]
Do Say Make Think Goodbye Enemy Airship, the Landlord is Dead Constellation Records Links: Do Say Make Think		The worst part of this album is that it invites all sort of hyperbole. The British New Musical Express saw the album's seven tracks as a forceful declaration of "the politics of refusal...to be customized, branded and merchandised." The prevailing critical opinion is more modest, but it still hails the Canadian sextet as a towering presence in the long arid plains of post-rock. ("Do Say Make Think is producing some of the most exciting, truly creative music of the moment," says Pat Long in April's Select Magazine.) Considering that its debut album consisted of sophomoric dubby instrumentals, you'd suspect the worst thing going for this album is the glowing praise it has received. The greater the hype the higher the chances for disappointment. Nonetheless, it's hard to add a more sober appraisal. If the flurry of guitars that propel "The Landlord is Dead" to the stratosphere don't make you drop an august phrase, then the skittish "Goodbye Enemy Airship" will. And there's hardly a breather during which to add a negative remark. Even the languid "Minmin" seems to mount and develop, if just through sheer repetition. One after another these songs come on hard: the synthesizers overwhelm, the horns give an unsuspected depth, the guitars sparkle or rumble in turns, while the drums thrust things along. Perhaps you'd do well to let the band surprise you and remain skeptical, but really the reviews are the worse part. *-Edgar Ortega* [ top of page ]
Eels Daisies of the Galaxy Dreamworks Links: Eels		While not as darkly introspective as 1998's Electro-Shock Blues, Daisies of the Galaxy still finds A Man Called E (Mark Oliver Everett) exploring some of the same feelings of despair and loneliness. Helped by longtime drummer Butch and by the likes of Peter Buck and Grant Lee Phillips, the album opens up with "Grace Kelly Blues"--the rush of a marching band counterpointing E's melancholy voice and the soft strum of his guitar. "Packing Blankets" and "The Sound of Fear" mine similar musical veins, and "I Like Birds" finds a enjoyably childlike innocence in the lyrics and melody, but by the time "Daisies of the Galaxy" queues we start to catch a glimpse of the darkness that pervaded the Eels' previous release. Haunting visions of lost love and loneliness swim just beneath the lush surface of the songs' music. "It's a motherfucker being here without you / Thinking 'bout the good times, thinking 'bout the bad times / And I won't ever be the same" ("It's a Motherfucker"), and "How does her world spin without me in her nest / Could there be such happiness?" ("Jeannie's Diary"). Whether it's just E and his sorrowful voice and lamenting guitar, or accompanied by the layered sounds of organs, strings and horns, the impact is the same. But all is not lost, and for the greater part Daisies of the Galaxy is an upbeat affair; an attempt to reconcile and move ahead. As E sings in "Selective Memory:" "I wish I could remember / but my selective memory won't let me." That sentiment is reinforced by the unlisted closing track and its refrain: "Goddamn right it's a beautiful day." Goddamn right. *-Craig Young* [ top of page ]
Foehn Hidden Cinema Soundtrack FatCat Links: Foehn		Foehn is better known for her musical lineage than for her three albums. The band is a late offspring of the Bristol scene that spawned such luminaries as Third Eye Foundation, Flying Saucer Attack and Amp. Legend has it that Debbie Parsons worked with Matt Elliot on the caustic textures of Third Eye Foundation's haunting "Semtex." Her only stateside release was Insideout Eyes, a piercing dark album featuring distorted clarinets and warped drum loops. Hidden Cinema Soundtrack finds Debbie writing twenty-eight short but suggestive songs for an imagined silver screen. Still as brooding as before, but this time with a much softer touch, Foehn even comes close to sexy during "We Tear at Each Other's Heart," and works up a solid groove in "Pour Vous Timide Voyou." But mostly it's background music for old haunted houses or black and white movies. Presumably these musical one-liners don't aim to engross the listener. There is purposefully little to sink one's teeth into and, well, there is little one can say about that, either good or bad. *-Edgar Ortega* [ top of page ]
Gorgoroth Incipt Satan Nuclear Blast		Gorgoroth. Having seen the name on many extreme metal magazine covers, I don't think I have had the pleasure of listening to them. I had a feeling of what I was in for, but you can never tell. What we have here is Black Metal in its extreme form along the lines of Bathory, Immortal, and Dark Funeral. Gorgoroth have spawned their own form of Hell and only their lives are the keys to such depths. Apart from the standard extreme everything, Gorgoroth changes things up extreme-ly well by slowing things down but still keeping the gears grinding and pulverizing all fearful men in their path. Gorgoroth do not fall into the atmospheric realms that have been bleeding the soothsayers mouths dry. Their bio says this new release is symbolic of a new era in the realm of Gorgoroth; they are more refined and far more mature, but do not give up the insipid bestiality of their uncompromising black souls. *-Steve Weatherholt* [ top of page ]
Himsa GroundBREAKINGceremony Revelation Records Links: Himsa		The power of Himsa is melting out of Seattle, WA into the vast expanse of the world with their immensely diverse metalcore that is hard to classify. Himsa have so many elements to their songs that each is a treat in its own way. I would be hard-pressed to pigeonhole them in some metal subgenre. Himsa follow in the footsteps of the meaning of their name: wrath, rage and violence. Himsa pounds out a violent onslaught of vocal screeching and chunky, twisted metal progressions coupled with a mind-numbing rhythm section. Words that come to mind about this release are challenging, noisy, multi-layered, a bit fucked up and definitely pushing the bounderies of what metal is, was or should be. Himsa are not your typical trip down metal's chugga-chugga row, but more like a gurney ride down the halls of the twisted mental hospital scenes Jacob's Ladder. From what I have been hearing, Himsa have replaced some members in the band, possibly the singer and one other. If you are looking for a new band that is different and makes you rethink your ideals about metal, give Himsa a listen. *-Steve Weatherholt* [ top of page ]
Imminent/Synapscape Screenwalking Ant-Zen Links: Imminent Synapscape		Celebrating a full hundred releases under the furious ant moniker as well as the successful Power Electronics assault of America this past March, Ant-Zen put Olivier Moreau (operating under his recently truncated Imminent [Starvation] persona) and the two lads from Synapscape into a studio shortly before they went on tour and had them bang out eight tracks of fused sonics. Traditionally, the term "bang out" has pejorative connotations, but in this case the threesome literally banged these tracks out of their equipment, wrestled them and tied them down with live spikes of electricity, and force-fed them through the electron equivalent of a meat grinder. As evidenced by his improvised live set, Imminent is exploring broad soundscapes of splintering noise, leaving the beat influence on this EP to be the responsibility of Synapscape. The combined efforts are thick jackhammering rhythms buried beneath thick fields of churning static with short-wavelength drones scurrying back and forth in the middle distance. This is Einstürzende Neubauten before they forgot how to make noise blended with all the snarling industrial beatbox that Front Line Assembly ever aspired to be; all this forced beneath heavy atmospherics as if scooped from the surface of Venus and ladled into your ear canals. Ant-Zen continues to push back the limit of music with their relentless assault on the outer fringes of technoid rhythms. *-Mark Teppo* [ top of page ]
The Makers Rock Star God Sub Pop Links: The Makers		From rags to riches, from gutter to glam, the Makers have emerged from their Dickensonian roots to give us Rock Star God, a "concept" album that shows them shaking off their garage and punk roots for a style more akin to the sounds that emerged from the British Invasion of the '60s. When we say "concept," we mean The Kinks and not Pink Floyd. Tight, pop-inflected songs with a running theme that's broken into two halves--"Knives, Needles, Bullets, Blood" and "How Hard is Your Heart"--Rock Star God is not as swagger sexy as their previous release, Psychopathia Sexualias, but it still holds its own, and with the help of horns and strings lifts The Makers from their gutter punk, hard-knuckle roots to the glam stars we always knew they were. Make no mistake, the songwriter and the attitude are still there, but with Rock Star God, The Makers have taken it to the next level. *-Craig Young* [ top of page ]
MDFMK MDFMK Universal Records Links: MDFMK		Like a tetanus-inflicted patient at the local ward, KMFDM were extremely reluctant to let go of their singular aggro-industrial pop vision. By the end, they had ground their molars down and all but given up with trying to inject their "KMFDM doing it again" mantra with any sense of enthusiasm. Close the studio. Power down the boards. KMFDM has left the building. What comes roaring back is MDFMK, a construct fabricated from Shotgun Messiah's industrial riot guitar, Goldie-inspired jungle breakbeats, the Shirley Manson sex kitten growl, and Sasha's insistence on lyrics that parade about as the battle cry of the technologically-savvy oppressed. (Just couldn't let those go could you Sasha?) As much as MDFMK handicaps themselves with sounds and structures that are completely ossified, they do manage to lift a few songs out of the burial mound where old, decrepit industrial acts go to be buried by using Lucia Cifarelli to great effect (try "Transmutation" and "Hydro-Electric"). And when they don't, we get tired Depeche Mode pastiches like "Torpedoes." Kind of ironic, isn't it? While we're on the subject of acronyms, at least we get to start the guessing game all over again. Let's see...how about: Marginally Despondent Fan Mourns Kitsch. *-Mark Teppo* [ top of page ]
Mira Mira Projekt Links: Mira		Kevin Shields may never get around to another album as My Bloody Valentine, and for the shoegazer crowd this has always been an ugly truth rather not reflected upon. But there are distractions--other offerings which ease the pain and, in time, you may forget the source of the pain. Projekt's newest signing, Mira, provides a hazy salve for the long time pain of shoegazer denial. Mixing MBV's fuzzbox guitar sensibility with equal helpings of the ethereal qualities of Germany's Chandeen and MBV successor Slowdive, Mira is an excellent addition to the Projekt family. Vocalist Regina Sosinski is an alluring siren, her voice gliding effortlessly over the thermal loft of Tom Palmer's guitar and the subterranean underpinnings of Alan Donaldson (drums) and Max Fresen (bass). Like labelmates loveliescrushing, Mira delivers up sonic rapture which washes over the listener, although while loveliescrushing drags you deep, Mira keeps us close to the shore. Buoyed by the fan response and success from their track on last year's compilation, A Cat-Shaped Hole in My Heart, Mira presents us with a strong debut Album--a welcoming potion against dry, dusty pop music. There's even a My Bloody Valentine cover with "When You Sleep" that challenges us to remember the origins of the shoegazer sound. Mira challenges us to move forward into the 21st century with them; a hand held out--a wailing, siren call sent forth--that we can't help but take. *-Mark Teppo* [ top of page ]

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