Things open up with "The Replay," a dirge-like number that echoes the sounds of Mazzy Star. At any moment you expect Hope Sandoval to join in alongside Pillar on vocals. "Spider Eyes" begins with the soft tick-tock of a drum loop before slowing and sliding down into a gentle refrain of bass and guitar. "Farewell" is another mid-to-dirge-tempo depressing affair that finds you staring back across at yourself in the mirror behind the bar, wondering exactly when it was that your hair started thinning and the lines in your face started growing so long. "Broken Boy's" lingering guitar notes and sparse piano break way to an epileptic fit of noise halfway through the song before giving way to "Washed Away," another reminder that it's your money in the jukebox that bought you the beautiful sorrow you're listening to. The instrumental "Sunday" closes things out with more sleepy drum loops alongside the random twirling of a radio dial.

At a short 22 minutes, Little Eyes does more with its six songs than many bands do over six albums. Its sparse instrumentation and cathedral hall recording production gives the listener a dreamy intimacy, a quality that alone can conjure an emotional hiccup. And like many of the other songs inside the Deep Elm jukebox, its grooves feel like the worn, familiar grooves of the bar you're seated in front of. And so you slip another dollar in the jukebox and order another drink; alone but content, quietly pondering Little Eyes' beauty.

-Craig Young
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Smoother
Chasing The Dragon
Nettwerk

Links:
Smoother

J.J. Paradise Players Club would just as soon throttle you as hug you. They might make you the butt of a bad practical joke. They may just point and laugh at you, but make no mistake, these are not the boys next door. This is dirty, gritty, tough-guy noise-sludge-sleaze rock. Veteran band members out the yin-yang with former Players belonging to Unsane, Kiss It Goodbye, Glazed Baby and The Kill Van Kull. I only recognize a couple of those bands, but it does rather remind me of how I figured Glazed Baby and Unsane would sound with a bit of a rock edge added to the dirges. This is very scratchy and raw like a like of the early AmRep releases, then it smooths out to a mid-paced noisy doom. It is the aural equivalent of wool--it scratches, but still keeps you warm. These Players hail from Brooklyn and are improving from the self-titled EP that really didn't shoot sparks out my rump to a full fledged, half-assed release like Wine Cooler Blowout. This still won't send your senses into overdrive with spectacular aural fireworks, but you'll find yourself bobbing along occasionally to a good groove then all of a sudden it just evaporates. This is a group simmering under the boiling point. I'm not sure they can turn up enough heat and power to really blow minds and eardrums. This edges and bulldozes along a road going nowhere very fast.

Smoother has released their debut disc, Chasing the Dragon, and they really want you to like them. Check out the cute logo and the cool name. Song titles like "Good Times," "Happy If It Kills Me," "Rock Her Like a Lion (yeah, right)," "Comfortable," "Les" and "French Cigarettes" show signs of a real weak band. This is light, airy pop-punk with hum-along melodies and poppy, synthesized "industrial" sounds. I could go about three tracks before barfing, but after that I just couldn't handle the saccharine anymore. It's a great diet aid for speed and power freaks. Smoother lists their influences as Air, Beck, Massive Attack, the Beatles and the Beach Boys. The ladies in my office, well musically it's a morgue, really like two or three of the songs and that is all I need to know to say "Hell No" to Smoother. I will not be lured into listening to pop pap by slick art and sounds and a cute little dragon. Okay, maybe by the cute, little dragon.

-Sabrina Haines
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Links:
Dark Ambient Net

The answer is: no. Bauke Van Der Wal--the mind behind the collective--has been a part of the dark ambient technoid noise community for some time and Incarnation is his first full release. And he's taking his time. The first incarnation (the nine tracks are simply labeled "Incarnation 1" through "Incarnation 9") is the lifespan of this tone and beneath it, rumbling and oozing, are dark subterranean noises. You start hoping the tone will stop, but since it symbolizes daylight--the upper world where shadows fear you--you know that once that sound is gone, the light will flee as well. You'll be all alone in the dark.

Labeled as powerambient, Incarnation hovers just behind Vromb and Lustmord and Aphex Twin's early ambient work slowed down to about a quarter speed. These are the drones of quiet power, of deadly poisons draining beneath the surface of old rocks, of miasmas which drift with deadly intent from the dull stacks of old chemical factories. Not quite the same dark ambience that graces Cold Meat Industries releases--they're more of the "Oh shit! Who popped the seal on the ancient tomb?" type of creeping dread--The [Law-Rah] Collective takes us on a metaphysical journey through black caverns, shivering in the bottom of a reed boat as it floats under the direction of the black water beneath its bow. The Egyptian Book of the Dead tells of the soul's journey through the underworld and how, along the fetid banks of the dark water, your soul will be threatened by hippopotami with dead eyes, crocodiles with cracked teeth, and Typhonian animals which caper and cackle with voices like the rattle of dry bones. Incarnation is a spooky soundtrack of the finest order, a definitive demonstration that there are still dark places that can be explored.

-Mark Teppo
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Links:
Mark Laliberte

Fast-forward to this year and Craig and I are having lunch one day when he hands over a stack of mail. One is an envelope addressed specifically to me and it contains the CD for Pillowscenes. I stare at the CD for a long time and Craig finally asks what has got me so spooked. I admit to him that I never told anyone that, of the pieces in the "Dusk" show, Laliberte's stuff is the only work that stayed with me. And yet, here is a very full press kit of his work, complete with a jovial letter that starts off with "I've been meaning to send you a copy of this CD..."

Remember when I said "creepy and arresting?" Okay, now I'm really starting to get the heebie-jeebies. And the collected material on the CD doesn't make me sleep any better. Pillowscapes drops you deep into the craniums of its subjects where you get to eavesdrop on the thin soundtracks of their lives, surrounded by the whispered voices of their doubts and fears, the childhood melodies that never quite seem to go away. I felt like I was spying on someone's dreams when I saw the pictures and the visual accompaniment to these audio tracks does add a very effective layer. "The Number Virus (Red Zone Measurements)" is just a woman's voice, reciting numbers in either a seductive or a bored professional tone of voice. The portrait is a sleeping woman, nearly plastic in her perfection, and you find there are numbers--tiny digits--tattooed on her body.

The man in "Undertechno (Industry Loop)" has a speaker for a mouth and his voice is modulated and chopped up by technology. The atmospheres that creep around him are like dank miasmas and bolts of unregulated static. "Summer Heat (A Moment of Sadness)" limps along with a dull piano melody, interrupted by a woman's song and a man's dry chuckle. The portrait is a woman's wet face. She's in the tub, in repose, trying to find some hope in the submerged warmth of the water, but all there is are the noises of her failures during the day.

Listening again to the soundtracks that Laliberte uses with his portraits, I'm again thrown into the minds of these sleepers. But this time, I know what that creepy feeling is: it's a two-way conduit. I'm in their heads, but they're in mine as well. And they report back to their master. You just think they're sleeping, you just mistake their stillness for death. But, really, they're watching you, watching your reaction, and listening in to your doubts and fears.

-Mark Teppo
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Myrkskog
Deathmachine
Candlelight Records

While Peccatum's debut Strangling from Within is strangely beautiful and symphonic, it lacked the oomph I require out of music. However, Amor Fati is running on all cylinders. The disc smokes then drops off into a serene, pastoral passage then fries you with a scorching bombastic operatic finish. I never expected this to blow me away. I really put-off listening because I wasn't so thrilled with Strangling, but the groove is on. When Peccatum rocks they are unrelenting, the segues between hard and soft are very graduated. This is so well done that it certainly smacks of Ihsahn's genius. Ihriel places her mark on the music by unleashing storms of operatic arias that uplift the quality level of the release. Songs like "One Play. No Script.," "Murder" and "A Game Divine?" just scorched the earth and skies with the highs and lows and the transitions between. This is extremely interesting, sense-boggling symphonic metal that should be in everyone's collection--melodic, powerful, heartbreaking, uplifting, destructive...what else would you want?

With this is a double dose of damnably fine reissues from Candlelight, how will they top these releases? Beats me, but they keep talking about a new Emperor disc... We'll see.

-Sabrina Haines
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Links:
Novadriver

Novadriver loads up their stoner rock with the sound of the Deeee-Troit Streets. There's a few psychedelic touches that let you know that Billy Reedy has more than studied the Hendrix guitar tabs. Mark Miers exhibits some fine psycho-serial-stud vocals the not only alert you to the "Danger, Danger" signs (apologies to Will Robinson) but thrill your tingling spine as well. Eric Miller must be hooked on crank (joking) to bash drums that fast. My speakers are still vibrating from the beating. These are smart, tough space junkies that love to jam. Check out "Rocket Superstar" if you have any doubts where Novadriver is headed. Novadriver and Hangnail have been two awesome surprises this Spring. Both bands should be heavily in rotation in your earspace.

-Sabrina Haines
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Radio Birdman
The Essential Radio Birdman (1974 - 1978)
Sub Pop

Links:
The Shins
Radio Birdman

The latter is The Shins' debut for Sub Pop, and hands down, this one is a keeper that will keep you humming all summer long with a shimmering pop beauty that harkens back to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. James Mercer's vocals come across at times sounding like a distant Ray Davies, and titles like "Caring Is Creepy" and "Know Your Onion!" belie the warm glow of the music beneath--a bittersweet happiness that even my mom liked. Lush and inviting, this release is the soft glow after a perfect first date, walking hand-in-hand down the boardwalk on a hot summer night.

The former, Essential Radio Birdman, marks the first time any of this Australian band's material has seen the light of day here in the States in over 20 years. High octane garage punk mixed with a splash of surf after-burner, you can see where these six channeled in the influences of everything from the Sonics to the MC5, and piped out a sound and influence that would both touch and torch the guitars of everyone from Sweden's The Nomads to fellow Aussies Exploding White Mice. The brilliant "Aloha Steve & Danno" (a wink to Hawaii 5-0's theme song) kicks off the anthology, and there's no arguing that this is the album to kick off your summer with. Slide on your shades, roll down the top, slip this one in and let it ride.

"Steve, I wanna say 'thank you' for all you've done for me / The night is dark and heavy when you're not on T.V." Buh buh buh ba buh buh... buh buh buh ba buh...

-Craig Young
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Not true. You're just getting set up for the whiplash that comes hurtling through "Boneville Occident" as Tom sends the beats catapulting into a range that only an overdriven computer chip can hope to generate without fracturing both wrists and ankles. Squarepusher has always been about stretching for the far side of the drum 'n' bass break while still keeping one foot in jazz and funk. He's managed to accomplish this with varying degrees of success across his career and Go Plastic finds him in a more playful, groovy mood than a serious beat-splattering frame of mind.

Some of the tracks are still all over the map like "Go! Spastic" that veers from an over-hyped vocal dub trying to defragment itself into a coherent sentence to a drill 'n' bass bridge to a skittering IDM-glitch workout while doing a quick samba through a room of jazz musicians. "Metteng Excuske v1.2" simpers past like the echoes of lost radio transmissions which haven't quite managed to find their way out of your receiver. "The Exploding Psychology" starts with a little electronic soft-shoe, a pattering of little feet as if a cricket were dancing on your nightstand. It turns out to be a millipede with different shoes on every pair of leg and, after awhile, every leg is hopping and chattering on the wood stand. "Greenways Trajectory" explodes out of yours speakers while "Tommib" builds from a relaxing synthetic melody before getting smashed beneath the jabbering beats of "My Fucking Sound." Lying in the shade of "My Fucking Sound" is "Plaistow Flex Out," a slippery drip of a tune--an exhausted, sweat-drenched cat sauntering out of the jazz club after a steamin' set to catch some night air and a few minutes of peace for a quick smoke.

It can make you a little tired. It can also be the perfect soundtrack when you're completely whacked out on too much caffeine. Plan your day accordingly.

-Mark Teppo
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Links:
Tyrese

The follow-up to Tyrese's self-titled debut, is 2000 Watts. Judging from the list of producers credited with working on the project, it's obvious Tyrese is taking every precaution to avoid the dreaded sophomore jinx. Master spell breakers Babyface, Rodney Jerkins, Jermaine Dupri, and Diane Warren have all been enlisted to ward off the music industry's most feared if not consistent curse. And it was money well spent. Songs like the summertime anthem "I Like Them Girls," and the club-oriented "Off the Heezy (Featuring Jermaine Dupri)" promise to compete heavily for airplay all summer long from coast to coast. Over all there is more up-tempo material on this album than his previous work as Tyrese flexes a little more club muscle. Fans of Tyrese's silky smooth crooning need not worry about being left out in the cold though, with songs like the future classic "I'm sorry" guaranteed to leave more than a few eyes moist when it hits the air waves.

The song that really caught my attention, however, was the highly original mid-tempo number entitled "Housekeepin'," which apparently is about a chance encounter between Tyrese and a very attractive young female hotel housekeeper somewhere on the road. If what he sings about is true more than a few fellas are going to want to know this hotel's location, not to mention her name!

We knew he could sing the first time we saw him have a Coke and a smile, but what is surprising is that at age 22 he has already managed to put together an impressive collection of modern R&B music. On this album he mixes it up a bit more, giving you something for the streets, the club, the bedroom, and those moments of reflection, while never missing a beat. Like the Watts Towers, Tyrese is standing tall and proud, and he's earned it.

-Cecil Beatty-Yasutake
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Links:
Underwater

These twelve songs explore the nature of relationships, the lost moments which make up the empty hollows into which one may stumble. Is it over? Can I make it last? Can I make it live again? There is the hissing percussion of "Canada" wrestling with Mileski's voice, snaking around her as her lyrics tell of a woman's realization of the emptiness in her relationship. "E," built like a collision between Liz Fraser in a lyrically coherent Cocteau Twins moment and Kevin Shields surfacing briefly to apply his My Bloody Valentine buzz to a well-crafted pop structure, wreathes a mist of denial about the listener. "'Life's not a movie' she says with a smile / but in her heart she still wonders why / she's been sitting so still for so long there's no one to blame anymore."

The rest of Underwater is Jeremy Wilins, Matthew Jeanes and Alec Irvin. While it is Mileski's voice that so piercingly delivers the heartache, it is their production work and instrumentation that snares you. You are seduced by the melodies and delicate percussion of "Melc," captured like a hypnotized animal as you find your lips moving along with Mileski on the chorus. "And yes we're falling apart and yes we're falling apart / What will you do when you're older?"

Make more albums like this one, I hope. I'm all for catharsis through art and I hope that any anguish was purged by the creative act, but unfettered, uncluttered and honest exploration of the human condition like this is rare.

-Mark Teppo
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Links:
Ozzfest

The track listing on Second Stage Live is nothing short of sick. Soulfly, Disturbed, Slaves On Dope, Kittie, Primer 55, Queens of the Stone Age, Pitchshifter, Taproot, Ozzy, Coal Chamber, Earth Crisis, Powerman 5000, Neurosis, Fear Factory, Biohazard, Sepultura, and Slayer. A perfect mix of badass veterans and new acts that give you a fantastic diversity of the bands that typically play the second stage. If you like just one of these bands, this is a collection you should expose yourself to.

Although I find it terribly hard to believe that Ozzy has never played the second stage (there are two Ozzy songs on this set), this is hardly geared towards the commercial end of things with amazing performances from Pitchshifter, Earth Crisis, Neurosis, and none other than the consummate metal band, Slayer. So whether you have been lucky enough to have been to Ozzfest or not, get your hands on this and start your Summer the right way.

-Jeff Ashley
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Links:
Windy & Carl

-Mark Teppo
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