earpollution - album reviews [page 1] - issue 3.Ø8, august 2ØØ1

All Else Failed - Archetype
Astroqueen - Into Submission
Big Wreck - The Pleasure and the Greed
The Bionaut - Lubricate Your Living-Room
Drunk Horse - Tanning Salon/Biblical Proportions
GB Arts - The Lake
Lucinda Williams - Essence
Maharahj - Repetition
Meshuggah - Rare Trax
Neotropic - La Prochaine Fois

Peter Benisch - Soundtrack Saga
Peter Green - Macbeth: An Original Score
Rhea's Obsession - Re:Initiation
Various Artists - The Braindance Coincidence
Various Artists - Universal Indicator: Innovation in the Dynamics of Acid
Vincent Clarke and Martyn Ware - Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle
Wellwater Conspiracy - The Scroll and Its Combinations

All Else Failed Archetype Now or Never Records Maharahj Repetition Now or Never Records		This must be the month for metalcore releases--hardcore calendar crossover, perhaps? Or perhaps this is screemo (reader described that to me as black metal screech vocals on emo hardcore crossover). Add to that really fast and heavy drums. All Else Failed exposes more of hardcore sound with the start-stop rhythm, staccato guitar blurps and martial drumming. Archetype blurred into one long, screaming, anguished mathmetal rock soundtrack blaring away to the youthful hordes awaiting them in pits worldwide. Dave Klenk's superior drumming sparks the sound and keeps a thinly veiled control over the overly-emoted proceedings. Fans of screemo, emo or hardcore will flip for All Else Failed. Maharahj absolutely floored me with Repetition. It's sly, intelligent metal that salutes and slaps you while snickering all the while. The final track is a polite spit in the face of critics of aggressive music. I applaud the band for their enthusiasm, piss-and-vinegar and their incredible drums. Repetition is punctuated by some of the finest drumming I've ever had the honor of enjoying. Maharahj say they don't appreciate labels, boundaries or mercy, so here goes: the worst thing I can say about Maharahj is that they frequently come off as pretentious. Tracks like "A Portrait of Plague & Decay," "Time & Death & God," "The Devourment of Intellect," "The Architects of the Moment" and "Sonata of the Enslaved" come off as a bit overblown in concept and title and I'm still not sure what many of the lyrics mean. Maharahj has a knack for a haunting melody or riff that sticks to your ribs while coated with some of the most bitter and vicious music known to man. This is definitely metal with a strong avant-garde influence--kind of like if you took Meshuggah and blended them with Godflesh, 3D House of Beef and tossed in a John Zorn vibe; or maybe like a blend of Napalm Death and Mister Bungle. Fans of metal without boundaries will sell their souls for Repetition. *-Sabrina Haines* [ top of page ]
Astroqueen Into Submission Pavement Music		Remember the Astroqueen single last month? Yeah, I said it was good, but it's nothing compared to the full deal, Into Submission. The album is best described as "all killer, no filler." Much like Hawkwind or Man or Astroman have space vibes, Astroqueen is heavy into the outer limits. They are into stretching limits and boundaries, and I see no doomy end in sight for Astroqueen. They have taken doom metal ala Black Sabbath and mated it with a keen sense of melodic death metal--they are from Sweden after all--à la Entombed, and twisted it up with a touch of stoner ala Hangnail. There's even the occasional Psychedelic touch. It goes well with the "space vibe." Daniel Angede's vocals are perfect--rough enough, kinda growly, but totally melodic. They are getting penned into the stoner category because of the number of stoner rock compilations upon which Astroqueen appear. But don't despair, Astroqueen have a lot of rock in their souls and they love to bare their souls. Angede and the boys like to speed you up and then hippie it all down real slow and trippy-dippy then jolt you back into their wide world of metal before shooting you "Into Submission" into the stratosphere of stoned-out-cool riffs. Pavement must really believe in the potential of Astroqueen because they shelled out the big bucks to get Andy LaRoque of King Diamond to flawlessly produce Into Submission. Astroqueen are from Sweden; however, not from Gothenburg, but further north in the tiny seaside village of Stenungsund. Tony Jelencovich of the Transport League (also on Pavement) brought their demo to the attention of Pavement by having Astroqueen play a few gigs at his club "Belsepub" (nice pun). Their music is loaded with influences from Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Kyuss and Soundgarden according to the band. Into Submission is a darn near flawless disc. Anyone within earshot will be impressed. This disc is rock enough that you could play it on mainstream radio but it would probably make way too many scouts flock to Stenungsund. *-Sabrina Haines* [ top of page ]
Big Wreck The Pleasure and the Greed Atlantic Records Links: Big Wreck		The sheer girth of recorded material presented on this the second album from Big Wreck is, at the very least, representative of the four long years since the release of In Loving Memory Of, a viable collection of songs from a band short on exposure and long on chops and ability. Sixteen songs and over an hour's worth of music is an invasion of the concept album realm, but even though singer, principal songwriter, and guitarist Ian Thornley grew up in Toronto, he's not leading his band down a Rush-inspired path. The Pleasure and the Greed serves up a veritable feast of melodic hard rock with the main course a generous helping of fret-board firepower, but a dearth of variation--my apologies to the fantastic saloon ditty "Ease My Mind" and the gossamer-like "Defined by What We Steal"--makes this banquet a little overfilling. Nevertheless, behind all the highly developed layers of electric guitar and the saturating power of Thornley's formidable voice, lies a genuine knack for crafting complete and fully realized rock compositions. Thornley's niche is the crashing upward-spiraling hard rock song, heavy on soft-to-loud dynamics and painstakingly melodic and oftentimes gut-wrenching vocals. Big Wreck is a solid nominee to carry this genre on their shoulders now that Chris Cornell and his Soundgarden mates have taken their respective acts elsewhere. Thornley's increasingly Cornellian croon-and-scream delivery and his liberal use of alternate guitar tunings in songwriting are just two of the parallels that exist between the two frontmen. Instrumentally, expect a diet of crisp guitar passages with tones that resemble the clashing of swords, meaty yet pliable riffs, fat, resonant bass lines and faultless drumming. There is brightness within the Big Wreck sound that goes against the grain of most music that falls into this same range of heaviness. No matter how dark the riff, these guys follow through to the end of the tunnel where there is always some degree of light. This atypical heaviness without darkness drives many of the tracks on their debut; especially their biggest hit to date "The Oaf," a song that introduced the band with an energizing, twanging guitar figure that was just a taste of Thornley's aptitude in the riff-writing ring. Much of that light floods The Pleasure and the Greed. "Mistake" opens with an ominous dirge-of-a-guitar-figure but is soon awash in Thornley's soothing tenor, a harmonic sea of backing vocals and a floating keyboard (or is it violin?) cycle that join forces to reroute it towards the sky. "All by Design" is this album's "Blown Wide Open," another subdued introspective number that steadily builds into a tsunami of emotion, harmonies intertwining and instruments streamed into one. Thornley impressively makes vocal transitions from a league above sedation to vein-popping heights like few others. One of Big Wreck's greatest accomplishments on this album is the melding of the banjo into their primarily non-roots driven, heavily-electrified musical world. The instrument, deftly finger-picked, weaves its way into the urgent "Ladylike," giving way to a razor-sharp electric guitar run that mimics its ancestor's percussive riff. Those with a taste for refinement, instrumental and production-wise, and no-nonsense productivity in their hard rock should give The Pleasure and the Greed an open ear. *-Dan Cullity* [ top of page ]
The Bionaut Lubricate Your Living-Room Matador Records Links: The Bionaut Discography		Lubricate Your Living-Room will grease your walls with the warm, buttery sound of lush electronica. A collection of tracks from releases ranging back to 1993, Lubricate Your Living-Room is a summation of Jörg Burger's work under his The Bionaut moniker. Well-known for his groundbreaking work in the Cologne minimal techno scene, Burger has released material under a number of names, rivaling Mike Ink for the most convoluted discography to come out Cologne. Matador has made life a little easier for us by putting together a solid collection of tracks from six releases that quite enthusiastically sum up The Bionaut's sound. Beginning with the burlesque Henry Miller-style campfire tale of "Electric Campfire (In a Neo-Ackerman Style)," the disc undulates through an hour of blissful melodic electronic music. Like all minimalists coming out of Cologne, Burger's music is equal parts sparse beats, playful melodies, and warm analog environments. Much more a rhythmic beast associated with the techno beat than the glitch structures of Intelligent Dance Music, Burger's songs dance and flit with a easy rhythm. The "Theme from 'Please Teenage'" is very reminiscent of the Burger/Ink record that Matador re-issued a few years ago and "Der Kurze Weg" has a somber, yet beautiful, quality to its multiple melodies that intertwine over the constant beats. Lubricate Your Living-Room is a great soundtrack to taking a train ride in the early summer sun, which, actually, is exactly what I've been doing with it these last few days. The ride gets shorter and shorter and I'm arriving more and more refreshed--well lubed, even. *-Mark Teppo* [ top of page ]
Drunk Horse Tanning Salon - Biblical Proportions Man's Ruin Records Links: Drunk Horse		This Oakland foursome is one of the more aptly named bands in recent memory. Drunk Horse show bona fide glimpses of heavy riffing goodness but often get lost beneath a murky swagger perpetuated by rum-soaked singer Elijah Eckert. The collective train of thought gets lost amidst several instances of aimless tinkering that fall far short of anything that deserves a life beyond closed studio doors. The first phase, Tanning Salon, contains the title track--a hilarious look at modern age narcissism in all its gleaming, leather-skinned splendor--and three less-clever and less put-together tunes that seemingly paint a clearer picture of this staggering Drunk Horse. The second, Biblical Proportions, clumsily wraps experimental recordings complete with mock biblical titles and an irritating lack of cohesion around a tiresome instrumental foray and two raunchy slabs of barroom recklessness that barely salvage the album side. Rarely do bands present recorded material that enables such a black and white synopsis: when Drunk Horse steer clear of experimental studio noodling and rein in sporadic moments of clarity that capitalize on decent riffs, clever lyrics and a loose and heavy playing style, they'll be on to something worth 37 minutes of listening time. *-Dan Cullity* [ top of page ]
GB Arts The Lake Pavement Music		I've never been a huge fan of progressive (prog) rock and probably am not a good barometer of how a fan of that genre would respond to GB Arts. I have never heard of them before and the name is enough to scare off most metalheads--it sounds like an art shop in the UK. Oddly enough, they are German. Of course, bear in mind, most prog freaks like Genesis. Scary, isn't it? Nervously, I shook the disc into the player and held my breath. Whoosh. This ain't as bad as I thought it would be and actually has become great music to play while you work--lively, but not as over the top as death metal. As I read the release, I learn that GB Arts has recently lost their "long-term vocalist" Achim Reichert and sports a new front man, Markus Brand, who sounds rather like a rougher Bruce Dickinson. This concept opus (aren't all prog rock productions?) was produced by Victor Smolski (Rage) and is enhanced by guest performances by Peavy Wagner and Mike Terrana from Rage, Dirk Thurisch from Angel Dust and Andreas Dirksmeier from Mind Odyssey. There is a definite prog vibe to the whole thing, but rarely does it protrude into the metal so much as to bore you to death. The Lake cruises along an almost-power-metal path but takes stops at the prog rock and industrial exits long enough to break up the journey. GB Arts sound rather like a cross between Judas Priest (older stuff) and Iron Maiden, with some blips and keys tossed in for futuristic effect. I would assume that most prog fans would consider this a masterpiece, for others, it's a damn fine odyssey. *-Sabrina Haines* [ top of page ]
Lucinda Williams Essence Lost Highway Link: Lucinda Williams		I've always been a bit conflicted where Lucinda Williams is concerned. Certainly she's not as great as some of her press over the years (e.g., the second coming of Bob Dylan, etc.), yet undoubtedly she is pretty darn good. Commercially, she seems to serve a niche for left wing yuppies--that black-framed glasses, dark clothed class of people you see applauding politely on Sessions at West 54th--or Saab-driving baby boomers with a few too many Emmylou Harris and Nanci Griffith albums in their collections. She's a bastion of credibility. She's the type of artist Rolling Stone likes to drool over every few years in an attempt to maintain a crumb of dignity (while parading alterna-Ritalin cases like Crazy Town and Staind--they're troubled, y'know --or mega-corporate aberrations like Britney and 'N Sync or new agey has-beens like the Chili Peppers through its pages). Even Time magazine got in on the glad-handing recently (something about "America's Best Songwriter" or something). Her last release, 1998's breathlessly anticipated Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, was heralded a masterpiece and placed atop many critic's polls. But I'm here to blaspheme: I'm here to tell you that after several years of being a Lucinda Williams fan and considering her latest album, Essence, quite carefully...that she may just be merely good. One has to appreciate this release, however, particularly Williams' emotional histrionics on the title track, as she pleads in a hoarse, desperate purr, "Baby, sweet baby, you're my drug / Come on and let me taste your stuff / ...Please come and find me and help me get fucked up." As a side note, I've always had a problem with the word "fuck" in songs. Not a moral problem--it just seems like the person is trying too hard. It's just like when teenagers continually use the word "soul" in their poems. I always imagine Pete Townshend rolling his eyes when Roger spits, "Who the fuck are you?!" Ahh, but then Lucinda lazily rolls her vowels around and lays her crystal vibrato across tracks like "Reason to Cry" and "Bus to Baton Rouge" and I don't want to write anymore, but just lay back and close my eyes at the clear blue sky.... Sometimes merely good is good enough for me. *-Erik Hage* [ top of page ]

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