Ride the Five Disc Carousel

I blew too much cash on music this month. More than I should have. As a result I am going to be eating on credit until next week. No cash for food. Oh well, I can always slather some catsup all over the new Stereolab disc and chow down, if need be.

Anyhow, I got my hands on some real winners. Let’s take a closer look:

New Releases

The First of the Microbe Hunters Stereolab 2000 WEA/Elektra

This is not a good album. But only because it is an EP, not a full length LP. It’s just under 40 minutes long and that kind of pisses me off. This disc needs to be way longer. I keep thinking this every time my disc changer flips to a new disc after just 37 minutes. “Dammit!” I holler. I get all mad. But then I remember that Stereolab put out a full length album just last year and this EP is just a nice bonus. I should be glad that Stereolab put out anything at all this year. I am thankful as this EP is a pretty enjoyable 37 minutes of music. To describe it I would just say “more of the same,” except that would sound derogatory. This EP keeps with the sounds that Stereolab has developed over the last half a decade. Actually, this EP sounds a little more like Dots and Loops than their most recent album. This is fine by me. One thing that the listener will notice though, is that you really have no idea where one track ends and another begins. This is not because of any DJ style mixing, but because of Stereolab’s way of completely changing to a new groove right in the middle of a track. It’s abrupt, but yet works out surprisingly well. I must add that Magic Dave, a music scholar by all accounts, thinks Stereolab is out there. I concur.

GusGus vs. T-World GusGus 2000 4AD

The new GusGus is goodgood. This album takes a turn away from GusGus’ mostly acid jazz work of the past (see review of This is Normal below) and heads more towards a programmed universe. I think it works out better for them. While they made some good acid jazz sounds, they are really much better at what they tried to do on this album. Nerds may recognize the first track on this disc, “Anthem” as being from the soundtrack of the ultra-nerdy yet good indie movie “Pi”. (I saw it. I even understood it. It had math in it and I still liked it). GusGus vs. T-World is a strange mixture between drum and bass and more ambient/trance sounds. Any track off this disc would sound great in a club, providing the DJ mixing had some skills.

Older Releases

"a new stereophonic sound spectacular" Hooverphonic 1997 Sony Music

I almost fell over when I heard this album. It’s truly amazing. I think it’s got to be one of the best things I’ve heard in a while. A few months, maybe. Hooverphonic is a Belgian group that incorporates a lot of digital programming, strings, and vaguely indie rock sounding guitar and drums with an incredible voice. It sounds wonderful. It’s really surprising to find out that this band isn’t American, though. Listen to a few tracks. The song 2Wicky is based entirely on the music of Isaac Hayes’ “Walk On By” from the Shaft sound track. They take the groove and work some ultra-freaky and ethereal lyrics on top of it. In the song “Revolver,” Hooverphonic decides to sample some truckers talking about the 10-20 of some Smokies. “Revolver” sounds incredibly American in the same way that Cracker does. However the rest of the album has no such similarity, which is a good thing. Most of this album is fairly laid back. There’s not a whole lot to complain about. Hooverphonic, in a nutshell, is a wonderful combination of Stereolab and Portishead, with just a tad of Jeff Buckley thrown in just for kicks..

Blue Wonder Power Milk Hooverphonic 1998 Sony Music

Blue Wonder Power Milk is in some ways better than "a new stereophonic sound spectacular", but in many ways much worse. Let’s start with the bad stuff. First of all, they let some dude sing. Definitely a bad plan. Every time my CD player gets to a track with a male vocal I immediately skip it. I can’t tolerate that since I know how wonderful Hooverphonics’ female vocals are. Most of the songs where the female voice is not pushed to the side are outstanding. Mostly better than the work of their previous album. Hooverphonic found an even better female vocalist than the one on their older album, and that is saying something. Basically, after listening to Hooverphonic’s first album I would sum “Blue Wonder Power Milk” by saying the bad is badder, but the good is much gooder. People who watch a lot of TEEvee will recognize the song “Renaissance Affair” from the Volkswagen Vapor commercial.

This is Normal GusGus 1999 WEA/Warner Brothers

This album shows that GusGus has lots of potential. This is Normal works around some pretty classic acid jazz sounds and shows a little foreshadowing of their more current work as well. Some of the tracks off this album are terribly groovy. Tracks like “Very Important People”, which has a nicely active, yet laid back groove. Most of this album is pretty good, except that some of the tracks’ lead-ins tend to be sort of tedious. People who watch a lot of TEEvee will recognize the song “Ladyshave” from one of those damned obnoxious Mitsubishi Eclipse commercials.