earpollution album reviews [page 1] - issue 2.Ų9, september 2ŲŲŲ

Beefcake - Coincidentia Oppositorum
Burial - Enlightened with Pain
Caitlin Cary - Waltzie
Canned Heat - Canned Heat 1967-1976: The Boogie House Tapes
Decapitated - Winds of Creation
Deep - Pieces of Nothing
Deftones - White Pony
Dr. Dre - 2001 - Instrumentals Only
Enter Self - Awake in Agony
Hypocrisy - Into the Abyss
Ian Astbury - Spirit\Light\Speed

Judas Iscariot - Heaven in Flames
Peggy Green - Songs of Naka Peida
Psychorealm - A War Story
Retina - Batterie
Various Artists - Economi$ed
Various Artists - Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
Various Artists - Search and Destroy: The History of Punk, Volume I
Various Artists - Staedtizism
The Von Zippers - Blitzhacker

Beefcake Coincidentia Oppositorum Hymen Links: Beefcake		Beefcake's second album for the Ant-Zen side label Hymen is sixteen unnamed tracks that veer from Italian opera to drifting soundscapes to hard drum 'n' bass to downtempo, pausing briefly at about every other genre along the way. It's not as much an unholy mess as you would imagine. In fact, the lads in Beefcake have actually managed to build a rather hypnotic album from this wide wash of musical nuggets. It begins with Italian opera heard over an old shortwave radio, music that is lost under the growing rush of a thousand moth wings. There are harsh breakbeat noises--rhythms quite at home on the Ant-Zen label--that turn into orchestral flourish taken directly from Craig Armstrong's work on the Plunkett & Macleane soundtrack. This, in turn, is skewed by digital fuckery as you would find on an Oval record. Soft piano lines drift over the distant roar of the ocean as if we've just skipped into the back row of John Tesh's Concert by the Sea. And then skipping again, we find ourselves deep in an IDM track that appears to be a lost outtake from Tri Repetae-era Autechre. An Enigma-esque dance number with laughing schoolchildren echoing in the background is brushed away again by harsh, scattered beats. And it all ends with a calming ballad. All in all, a soundtrack for the patients of the schizophrenia wing, meant to delight and soothe in the end. It's not the jarring world of sampledelica, but rather an adventure crafted with exquisite care to take you through the wide range of influence without a scratch. This is what Lewis Carroll would be doing if he were writing music in the 21st century instead of plunging down the rabbit hole in the latter part of the 19th. *-Mark Teppo* [ top of page ]
Burial Enlightened with Pain Lost Disciple Records		Uh-oh, I like the colors on their cover--not a good sign. Apprehensively I slide the disc into the slot and hold my breath as it clicks into spin and lets loose its demons. Whew, it's all right, it's brutal and blasting. Enlightened with Pain is one of my favorite releases this year. This is rocking, ferocious, torture-all-prisoners, true brutal death metal. The rhythms are occasionally off-kilter just enough to snap you back to attention. Not that your attention would wander often with this blitzkrieg of blazing death metal unleashing its musical brutality for your hellish pleasure. If you don't give them your undivided attention, they will come to your house and hurt you and your loved ones repeatedly until you beg them to stay. Musically I hear a little of Immortal during their more guitar-oriented material, a tad of Dying Fetus and just a dash of Deeds of Flesh. This is old-fashioned brutal death metal--it wants to earn your pain for their twisted pleasure. Don't doubt for a second the hate and vitriol inherent in Enlightened with Pain. Hate oozes from the deep, brutal cuts infested with death, demons and gore. It's best just to purchase their disc immediately and allow your entire essence to get Enlightened with Pain. Your burial awaits. *-Sabrina Haines* [ top of page ]
Caitlin Cary Waltzie Yep Roc Records Links: Caitlin Cary		The numb moments immediately following the last words of a relationship in ruin can carry a surreal fortitude and an almost detached melancholy. Caitlin Cary captures those moments and maintains them for the entirety of Waltzie, her debut five-song EP. She does this with strong acoustic songs that stand tall within their folk/country templates. She doesn't deviate much from the vocal style she developed in her regular band, Whiskeytown, and I think this is wise because it's simple and it carries an indescribable undercurrent that stays under your tongue and in your chest. Guitarist Mike Daly adds stable strums with his 12-string and some harmony notes on pedal steel. Cary also continues her fiddle brilliance with some of her best work thus far, while bandmate Ryan Adams contributes several calm helpings of harmonica. Waltzie is supposed to be a prelude to Cary's upcoming solo LP, and touts itself as a collection of "rough pebbles." With the effect achieved here, one hopes she doesn't tamper too much with the raw sound. Moments such as these, after all, are difficult to capture. *-Al Cordray* [ top of page ]
Canned Heat Canned Heat 1967-1976: The Boogie House Tapes Ruf Records Links: Canned Heat		Those of you who grew up in small communities whose only wellspring of music was "that one classic rock station" will probably remember Canned Heat's hit, "Goin' Up the Country"--if not for the name or the band, then for singer Alan Wilson's memorable soft-spoken vocal style. In fact, I can just about guarantee that at some point during the station's daily airtime, they would play the song. Problem is, Wilson only appears on about half of the tracks here, and it becomes painfully obvious that it was his voice that added the depth to Canned Heat's music and makes trolling through this double-CD set excruciatingly boring. Somewhere in the back hills of Belgium is a man by the name of "Dr. Boogie," a longtime friend and fan of the band who has been amassing unreleased Canned Heat demos, outtakes and live versions of songs for a long damn time...too long. Someone got the bright idea that this music should get released, and thus we have The Boogie House Tapes, something best left in Dr. Boogie's private collection along with those Foghat rarities. It's painful enough putting up with the chatter and babble of friends who are giggling on about how stoned they are, but it's worse having to put up with it in a recorded format by a band thirty years past its expiration date, which is mostly what we have here. Even listening to the album stoned didn't help. Maybe I've just fallen out of touch with my inner boogie 'n' blues child. Maybe there is something here in this collection that I'm missing. I kinda doubt it. *-Craig Young* [ top of page ]
Decapitated Winds of Creation Earache Records		Death metal played by kids? Holy shades of Raise Hell. Is this gonna be a Hanson-like, Menudo-ish gimmick on every band. Just stop it and let twelve-year-olds be twelve-year-olds. If the music holds up on its own, let's not mention their ages. If it sucks, people are just going to say that you expected too much from kids anyway. These gimmicks suck, but Decapitated doesn't. This is a genuine brutal thrash band that is ageless and timeless. Decapitated play above average, extremely technical, brutal, thrash death metal and they play it better than a lot of bands regardless of age. "World's Youngest Death Metal Warriors" my ass, next week an A&R man will find two-year-olds that can cha-cha, chant Hare Krishna hymns and play harsh disco-techno-metal. However this week they have unearthed a band of twelve-year-olds playing death metal. One problem...these kids are from Poland and have Vader as a mentor. Vader are the Polish lords of anal-retentively duck-tight, unrelenting black/death metal. Vader are taking their countrymen on tour and taking the "Decapitated" challenge to outplay the immense energy and talent of these young death metallers every night. I think Vader needed the challenge. Decapitated would be a challenge to top. Imagine all that energy funneled into blazing, brutal, technical death thrash and expelled in a zippy rush of enthusiasm and discovery. Winds of Creation rocks from beginning to end and shows a high level of technical inventiveness. However, I will wait a few discs for them to catch up lyrically and emotionally. There's a lot of joy and power and surges of enthusiasm in Winds of Creation, but it is lacking in depth. Of course, that will come with time...so too might the crown of death kings. This is one hell of a head start. *-Sabrina Haines* [ top of page ]
Deep Pieces of Nothing Pavement		This is intelligent and discerning melodic death metal that lyrically and musically lives up to the band's name: Deep. These control fiends not only did the music, but also the art and the logos. I'm surprised they allowed Logan Mader (formerly of Machine Head and Soulfly) to produce. It is rare to hear a death metal band that can hang so precariously over the edge of brutality and yet hold their poise, displaying their technical prowess and unrelenting hooks. These guys are so well produced that you could slip this on radio and listeners would be impressed and hooked. Major labels should run in fear from Deep, they have too much integrity to be bought and too much independence to be pigeonholed. Why do I always have this fear that a major label will snap up and destroy a genuine article like Deep? Pieces of Nothing is a dangerous death metal masterpiece. The guitars (courtesy of vocalist Jerome Hoofnagle and Mark Lopez) range from deadly fast to distinctively doomy to heartbreakingly melodic. The range is wide, the texture, the emotion, the energy--it is all there. Fearless, flawless (musically) and frantic. They move fast and could easily out-raw many brutal bands as well as floor them with their superior technicality. The drummer (Spike Jackson--cool name) is extremely good and may be tossing out the warning (rim)shots to the older percussive elitists. Hoofnagle's vocals aren't quite as dominating as his guitar. Most of the time he impresses with the power in his pipes, but there are moments when it seems he is lost in the melee. Instead of the traditional death gurgle growl, Hoofnagle chooses to use thrash-style vocals similar to a young James Hetfield (early Metallica). Pieces of Nothing is a substantial release that verges on the abyss of perfection and spits down its bloody gullet just to see if how far it falls. Deep is darn near perfect...or at least as close as humans can edge. Of course, Deep will try to top it next time out. So this was a sophomore release. Time to find the debut. *-Sabrina Haines* [ top of page ]
Deftones White Pony Maverick Records Links: Deftones		I admit that White Pony is my first Deftones album. My avenues of finding and assimilating music are often abnormal and unpredictable; consequently, I missed the boat on the Deftones. The only exposure to them I remember were t-shirts donned by neighborhood skaters and the vague radio play of "Be Quiet and Drive" from their last album Around The Fur. That said, I think White Pony is amazing. It's a symmetric corridor of Stephen Carpenter's aggressive and airy guitar walls mixed with just the right amount of electronica supplied by turntablist Frank Delgado. Sliding erotically down that corridor is Chino Moreno, an unbelievable vocalist/lyricist who clearly knows how to hone a grating scream into something of beauty, yet opts to dominate the album's vocals with choice singing and frequent, almost Dot Allison-like, refrains. The results are very gratifying and the lyrical phrasing and delivery match his unique intensity. This album slides on really easy in light of its heaviness. There is a meekness to the Deftones' sound that draws you into all the dynamics of their evolved thrash-to-caress expressions, and it's that meekness and the sense that it's impossible to come out with an album of this caliber on the first try that make White Pony a mesmerizing ride. *-Al Cordray* [ top of page ]
Dr. Dre 2001 - Instrumentals Only Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records Links: Dr. Dre		Few men on the planet can say that they have three times over during their career reinvented the genre of music that they themselves first invented. During NWA, two solo albums, and his production and songwriting credits with countless brilliant musicians (Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, etc.), gangsta rap was shaped by his golden touch as he set the musical standards for all who would reinterpret. Instead of releasing an album of remixes or B-sides, Dre simply removed the vocal tracks from the amazing The Chronic 2001 and released it as an instrumental album. It can hardly be labeled hip-hop. After repeated and dizzying listens, Dre takes you to the very center of his creative process and forces the music to take center stage. Each song is a perfectly simple reflection on Dre's spatial genius. Not to belittle the vocalists, but this is the way this album should be experienced; its minimalist nature and stone-cold groove catapult Dr. Dre into and entirely different galaxy of music. DJs will spin this at raves. It will drive all of the drum 'n' bass and downtempo kids into a frenzy. And it could to do more for the future of hip-hop than anything I've ever heard. When I listen to the vocalized version now, I have a completely different perspective and new appreciation for it. *-Jeff Ashley* [ top of page ]
Enter Self Awaken in Agony Lost Disciple Records		Awaken in Agony--awake, hell yes! Agony? Not to my musical tastebuds. This is the coolest. I love it when labels send you fantastic releases. This is great, but it probably means next month will be really lousy. Awaken in Agony is killer brutal death metal that is slick and well produced so that it comes across as technically superior and rhythmic within clearly defined death metal parameters. Oh wow! Of course it's well produced--Awaken in Agony was produced by the legendary Jim Morris at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida. Guess the band thought he could add a dab of Morbid Angel or Monstrosity to the mix. Morris always adds superior production and an uncanny sense of perfect sound values for each individual client. Your neck will be snapping with emphasis on the almost-as-fast-as-Krisiun parts and flipping side-to-side with the militaristic melodic marchs à la Pantera. Tym and Wes combine for a potent guitar duo pumping out superior leads and rocking riffs that will keep your interest. Fist-pumping, head-shaking favorites include "Clandestine Fear," "Erosion," "Habitual God," and "Blood Flow Chamber." Did I mention that this is some of the fastest and most melodic brutal death metal that I have ever witnessed? I am definitely keeping an eye on Enter Self. *-Sabrina Haines* [ top of page ]
Hypocrisy Into the Abyss Nuclear Blast America Links: Hypocrisy		Virtually every release from Hypocrisy just seems to get better and better. I don't think you can do better than Into the Abyss. Whereas the other great discs distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack, Into the Abyss simply kicks everybody's ass singularly and as a whole. This is sheer perfection from start to finish. Tagtgren's songwriting ability has developed to a level where everything is balanced in extremes. Tagtgren's vocals are incredible, he puts so much emotion/venom into every song. Mikael Hedlund plunks an incredibly deep and nimble bass and more than compliments Tagtgren's guitar and Szoke's drums. Szoke's drums sound like supercharged, unnaturally powerful pistons, pummeling and pounding more than should be human and at paces that would tire a wolverine with A.D.D. and Tourette's Syndrome. Lars Szoke must have an exercise regimen that would embarrass most weightlifters, either that or he is an alien. Hmmm...that could be more than appropriate. The aliens came to earth, mated with some wild Swedish babes, made a few meatballs and gave each one extraordinary musical talents and purpose that only those with superior knowledge and vision could understand or appreciate. These are alien prophecies that only impart enlightenment to the chosen few. Have you had your vision checked lately? Go purchase Into the Abyss, listen, absorb and utilize senses heretofore unknown to experience Hypocrisy's brilliance. *-Sabrina Haines* [ top of page ]

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