geekent's Buy Nothing Year

Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Date Acquired: March 28, 2005
Original Review: ... well put together, however, there's not enough rhymes to make it a solid hip hop album, and it's not enough turntablism to make it a good dj album..."
Thoughts/Memories/Remembrances: Disappointment. I was in the market for a new DJ to get into, and equally enthused for more Francophone hip-hop, and some random tracks of Porier's I had heard were intriguing and inviting. But this didn't measure up to expectations.

Re-Review: Quite frankly it's a dull album. To its credit, it's over 4 years old at this point and still has modern qualities to its style and production, but it never did retain my interest after I bought it, and upon revisiting it still doesn't. As the album plays through its scant 33 minutes, I even find myself wondering if I hadn't just listened to one song or another already; it just blurs together into a disinteresting mash. It's certainly got beats, but none of those beats have any hooks. The guest rappers, Séba and Diverse, provide something to attract the listener's ear, but the backing loops and rhythms don't glue you to the track, and eventually the words themselves just fade into the atmospheric nature of this album.

Rating (keep/sell/undecided): Sell

Source (purchased/given/ borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Date Acquired: cd - November 27, 2005, dvd - May 14, 2006
Original Review: movie review - "It's not as winged or sharp a mocumentary as "A Mighty Wind" or "This Is Spinal Tap" but I don't think it intended to be. There is an affable candor to it that sweeps you in, and the character of Terrifico is almost larger than life, Elvis-esque in many ways, and though perhaps a little stiff as an actor, Murphy excels as a performer both vocally and physically... The movie comes off more as a doc, rather than mock."
cd - I was pleasantly surprised. And not just surprised, these songs are country with that alt pop edge which Murphy excels at. In serving the needs of the film Murphy, with director Michael Mabbot, have created a fascinating and genuine country album that isn't just kitschy mocumentary music.
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: Okay, click on one of the reviews above and read how much I lurve me some Matt Murphy. From my first exposure to the Super Friendz (the Halifax-based pop band, not the cartoon) in high school through to the arrived-in-Toronto-just-as-I-did Flashing Lights, and then back again, and recently the ensemble City Field. He's a pop-music machine and one hell of a live performer. So to find him doing -gasp- country music and not just ironically but classically, and for a film which he stars, and is actually good in, no less (or that's what I recall anyway, in revisiting perhaps my cloud of adoration/apologizing will lift to see a different truth). The recent Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a less sincere, less earnest exploration of the world of country music, and the music, strong though it is, is still comedic in tone. I wanted to revisit Guy Terrifico to not just compare, but to see whether I can overcome my MM adoration and really see how I actually respond to it.

Re-Review: I honestly had some trepidation as I approached watching the film again. The CD wasn't nearly as hard to engage, since I genuinely like the bulk of the songs on the soundtrack and have listened to them often, but the film, having only watched it once prior was a bit more of an unknown. Was it actually entertaining or had the music I like so much skewed my opinion?

(streamed at Spinner ... thanks to Chromewaves for the link)



Media: web stream (now available on CD)

Release Date: January 15, 2008

My overwhelming affection for Stephin Merritt and his numerous side projects dissipated about two or three years ago with both "i" (under the Magnetic Fields banner) and "Showtunes" (under his own name) being disappointing diversions (I didn't even manage to locate his Lemony Snicket instrumental project, but also didn't put much effort into trying). I think Merritt is one of today's greatest lyricists and equally one of the most talented composers, but I'm almost loathe to say that he piqued at his epic "69 Love Songs" and he has been working in the shadows of that behemoth ever since.

As well, the conceptual meaning behind his side projects, like Gothic Archies and Future Bible Heroes have essentially been integrated into his Magnetic Fields gig, and somehow it's less interesting this way. I should be terribly disappointed that I can't buy Merritt's latest album, but previewing it now, I'm not.

Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Date Acquired: erm...late 2000-ish(?)
Original Review: n/a
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: I really enjoyed Gusgus back in the late 1990's, as I was seeking out anything different, and at the time Gusgus were different. I don't really even recall how I came to discover them but I believe it was through a freebie review copy whilst working at my university newspaper, although I could be wrong. gusgus vs. t-world was acquired in an effort to keep a step ahead of the Jones', or the GAKs in this case, and have some new and different and interesting material for our many mixtape exchanges (podcast of said tape exchanges coming soon). This album was a departure for the Icelandic group, vox-free and downtempo to a buzzed-out extreme, this I remember as my favourite effort of the band, and the last item I acquired of theirs.

Re-Review: To be honest, I'm kind of embarrassed by my Gusgus affection, mainly because Gusgus were pretty mainstream, having achieved some exposure on a few movie soundtracks while also maintaining a sound that screamed mass-market, dance club friendly. For all my insistence that they were doing something different, I really think they were about as generic as you could get in the post brit-pop and fading days of trip-hop era. It was homogenizing what Bjork was breaking ground in, and I think even when I was singing their praises I was already tired of it. For sure they produced some engaging hooks and maybe a couple memorable songs, but their sound wore thin and fast upon repeated listening.

Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Date Acquired: 1997/1998(?)
Original Review: n/a
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: I first came across Lush when I sat down for the first time at my desk as the entertainment editor at my university newspaper, the Argus. There was a copy of Lovelife and for certain I fell for the band. A dozen near-perfect (Brit- aside) pop hits (from what would turn out to be their final album) fast made me a fan. I searched out more from this quartet and eventually (weeks?months? later) came across "Split", their second full release, and hoped to experience more magic. Alas, beyond the opening track, I don't think I ever cared much for it.

Re-Review: Pressing play one does not expect to be met with silence, and yet that's what Lush delivers for ten seconds, some shortly-stroked violin strings signal their approach and deep cello delivering an ominous warning. Chimes plink away, seemingly (but not really) alternating from ear to ear as Emma Anderson's haunting, hushed vocals carry the instruments to a build, the guitars, drums and bass all joining in to something that feels almost epic in scope, yet still intimate and beautiful. This is Light From A Dead Star, the first track from Split is a grand (brilliant even) lead-in, but unfortunately leading to something much less inspired and certainly less engaging.

Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Date Acquired: June/July 2004
Original Review: "a no vox duo that mixes 80s-style power guitar with 80s-style electronics, creating something that's a cross between Commodore 64 video game music and the soundtrack to Night Rider... This shit is fun!"
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: It doesn't seem that long ago, but over three years have gone. I listened to Ratatat's self-titled debut heavily after I first got it, I even recall loaning to my boss after discovering his taste in music was pretty solid. I didn't pick up the duo's follow-up last year, primarily due to reducing spending on music, but the desire was(is) there. I will get a Ratatat tune stuck in my head from time to time, their swirling, stadium-rock hard to let go.

Re-Review: Yeah, this is the stuff. Listening to it now my head's bobbing, my toes tapping and a half-grin on my face. To quote myself, "this shit is fun" (emphasis: me). It doesn't really matter what track it's on, I'd need an EEG to detail exactly how much I'm responding to it.

Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Date Acquired: mid-late 2001(?)
Original Review: n/a
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: I first heard "Vibe Out!", the second track on this ep from the long-defunct no-wave band on the now defunct but nevertheless classic CBC Radio late-night program Brave New Waves. This was during the time that I was insane about catching the show, staying up listening from until 2am and then pressing record for an extra 45 - 50 minutes of the 4-hour broadcast to listen through the next morning. Since I did this nightly, I'd take catchy tunes from the previous night's broadcast and transfer them to a separate mix tape, one of which was "Vibe Out!" With it's early digital Speak'n'Spell introduction stating "Vibe Out!" (naturally) launching into a faltering bass line and tinny guitar strumming which then made way for Bridget Cross's soft, self-accompanying layered vocals alternating between droning drums, bass and guitar until the three and a half minute mark where the trio just Vibe Out and jam for another five minutes, no vox, just some sweet, unaggressive bass, guitar and drums action. It would be half a decade before I'd actually buy any of Unrest's recorded material... lucky for me, the first thing I would acquire was this ep which included that song which accompanied me, hands pounding on the steering week in rhythm, on many an evening car ride back home. I always liked this album, four tracks, the final, Hydro, a 33 minute jam session, but Vibe Out! still remains my first and favourite Unrest song

Re-Review: It's only now, with the miracle that is Wikipedia, that I come to understand the unusual format of the "Cath Carroll ep". "Developing from an experimental approach of never playing the same song twice," Wikipedia goes on to say that Unrest create "finely crafted pop songs interspersed with strange avant-garde percussive and sonic tracks." The "Cath Carroll ep" starts with one of those finely crafted pop songs, the titular track, and after it's completed it's 3:20 run, an ensemble of organized chimes and clashes along with that ever-pulsating bass and looped percussives pipe up and for the 10cc Mix for another four minutes. "Vibe Out!", in all its glory, follows up, which leads back into another pop slice called "goodbye". "goodbye" has a "Lush"-like sweetness to it, full of jangly britpop-like charm from the Washington D.C. trio, with a moderate tempo occasionally pushing towards tambourine-driven upbeats before reigning itself back in. The crowning glory is, as stated before, the 33:23 "Hydro" which is a straight-up bass, guitar, drums jam, the miracle of which is once it's over, I'm sad to see it gone. "Hydro" after the first minute or two no longer presents what I like to call "active listening" but it's steady-driving, occasionally switched-up, always rockin'. This is the kind of song I like to have on in the background when I'm working, writing, or just doing stuff that requires a bit of concentration. It keeps those rhythmic pleasure centers active but doesn't shock your brain into paying attention to it for over half an hour. If I were making music, every damn track I'd do would be like this, just going for it, nodding your head, tapping your feet and playing off your peers to create something that may not be Beethoven, but is intriguing solely for its freedom from confined premeditation. I can listen to "Hydro" over and over again and not get bored, and it's comfortingly familiar, even if it doesn't really stick in the brain afterwards (and if Unrest is never "playing the same song twice" the jam method is one way to ensure that. Conceptually stimulating and passively engaging.

Rating (keep/sell/undecided): keep for sure and find more Unrest eps when BNY is over. I forgot how much I liked them.

Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Date Acquired: July 18, 2006
Original Review: **1/2 (two and a half stars, no write-up)
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: Well, I really like Radiohead, but as a band they peaked for me with "Kid A" (although because of Buy Nothing Year, "In Rainbows" will remain as but a wee pang of longing). Thom Yorke's solo project wasn't much of a diversion from the (4-albums-in) now-typical Radiohead fare of vox, electronic warps and gurgles, sequencers and instrumentation, and by the unsupported 2.5/5 ranking I gave it 19 months ago it didn't really strike a chord. I cant even remember if any Yorke tracks made it onto my massive 4-disc 2005/06.5 compilation, and with, like, 75 tracks on that puppy, if he wasn't included that says a lot about how into this disc I was (which is to say not very much).

Re-Review: At this stage, I believe I've listened to "The Eraser" more times in the past week than I have in the 19 months combined. It's forty minutes of Thom Yorke singing hauntingly against sequenced loops, pianos, and minimalist compositions. I love Yorke's voice, it's soothing and relaxing, but the man has power that, when he chooses to use it, sends shivers up your spine and makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Yet here one track blurs into another as the downtempo glitches and tones backing Yorke's vocals set an equilibrium from which it can't escape and never tries. There's no adventure here, no sense of exploring his limits, in fact it appears Yorke spent a more concentrated effort on the sequencing than working on song structure, vocals and lyrics. The man's talented, without a doubt, but working solo on all this left him devoid of the collaborative spirit that's made him an excellent frontman for Radiohead and phenomenal guest vocalist with the likes of Bjork and PJ Harvey. In fact, if Yorke wants to do another "solo" album, he should serious contemplate doing duets.

If there's a standout track, I'm remiss to find it. Each song has its moment, a clever lyric or curious loop, but the moment passes quickly. None of these songs linger, none stay in your mind, to be recalled at inopportune moments, or nag you incessantly until you listen to them again. There are no bitter songs here, nothing that will put you off, but there's nothing outright stimulating that will rope you in. I've always called "Kid A" a great album to fall asleep to, but "The Eraser" is an album that will just plain put you to sleep. I want to like it because it's Thom Yorke and I want to hate it because I'm disappointed in this, but it's just such an innocuous work that I can't muster the passion for either. The more I revisit it, the more I search for something to hang onto, and find very little. If only his refrain from the title track - "The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear" - actually applied to this album. The more you erase this work, the less it matters.

Rating (keep/sell/undecided): sell

Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Date Acquired: 1999
Original Review: N/A
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: I first encountered the Legion of Green Men ("LoGM") back in my Brave New Waves-fixated days (circa 1994) when I would record those radio broadcasts and compile mixed tapes for repeated listening pleaser. The LoGM song "Synaptic Response" was easily one of highlights and still remains one of my all-time favourite songs in any genre. It's a brilliant techno composition, and I loved it immediately (loving it even more after catching its video on Bravo a year later). I made it a mission to seek out the LoGM album hosting that song, Spatial Specific, only to be quite disappointed with how... un-engaging it was, with "Synaptic Response" being one of few highlights. But based on my continued love of that song alone, I sallied forth and bought this follow-up album from LoGM, and again, was completely disinterested in it. Sometimes, I realized some time ago, I need to distance myself from something that I have an initial response to, and then return to it to see it more objectively. Sometimes opinions change....

Re-Review:...and sometimes they don't. The opening track "For Maria, Wherever I May Find Her" is a peppy, lounge/Caribbean-inspired song, hard to dislike but utterly incongruous with the rest of the album which explores sonic ambiance and spatial sound. Most works having a lot of room to breath and explore their trance-like assemblage of electronic tones, pulses and clicks. Some rhythms or deep bass will occasionally find their way in helping add movement and progression, but on the two-part "Patience" or the broaching 10-minute "Constellation" the sounds linger on far too long, the long-lead to an eventual destination of nowhere. I'm not unreceptive to soundscapes or transient music (hell, I've made some of my own) but there's still got to be a hook. The third and fourth tracks, "Owls In The Apple Tree" and "Gammaland" seem to understand how to engage and work with warmer, progressive textures, and track nine "Logarhythm Two Point Three" is like floating in dark space, nothing but electronic signals to keep you company, which isn't particularly enjoyable listening but it is interesting. This album also features experimental CD tracks requiring use of an old fashioned disc player. It has a track zero (Which requires you to rewind from the start of track one) and a sub-audible track 11 which requires the volume to be cranked near full to be heard.

Sometimes a diverse album really works, but this album lacks consistency or a recognizable theme. I can't fault Floating in Shallow Water for being experimental, and it does yield a few tracks of some interest, but the bulk of it results in detached listening, which I don't think is ever the objective of any musician.

Rating (sell/keep/undecided): sell

Bonus: Synaptic Response video

(I have about 600 - 700 cds [maybe?]) and if I'm really going to review them all [or, at the very least, one album from each artist in the collection] then I'm really going to have to step up these re-reviews. I mean at 700 CDs I'd have to do two reviews a day, which I really doubt possible, especially considering how much I dislike writing about music)

Albums: Peanut Butter Wolf -My Vinyl Weighs A Ton/ Prince Paul - Psychoanalysis [What Is It?]/ Orbital - In Sides
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Dates Acquired: 2000(?)/2001(?)/1996
Original Reviews: N/A
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:: My Vinyl Weighs A Ton - I don't remember when I first encountered producer/dj/label mogul Peanut Butter Wolf, and I don't even recall if I sought out Vinyl or if I found it at random. Anyway, I was a little disappointed with it, finding only a couple tracks ("Rock Unorthodox", "Theme From Peanut Butter Wolf") to be very engaging. I never did listen to the album much.

Psychoanalysis [What Is It?] - now this album I did seek out. Being a big De La Soul fan, and an admirer of the innovative (at that time) production on Three Feet High and Rising and De La Soul Is Dead, Prince Paul was a legend to me. This album came out first in 1996 with a small production run on an indie label and was more rumour than reality until I found a copy of the re-release shortly after moving to Toronto (I think, my time-frame may be off). The album wasn't as catchy as De La's stuff, but it was kind of warped and very unique. I liked it.

In Sides - I first came to love Orbital when I heard the track "Halcyon+on+on" on the Mortal Combat, and I'm still a confirmed fan 15 years later. In Sides was the first Orbital album I anticipated, purchasing it not long after it came out (all others I kind of found by chance well after their release), and to be honest I was disappointed at first. Eventually, however it did grow on me, but I've never been sure if it's the apologist in me or if it's actually any good.

Albums: DJ Spooky [That Subliminal Kid] - Riddim Warfare/ Sloan - Action Pact/ Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Sport Fishin' [The Lure of the Bait, The Luck of the Hook]
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Dates Acquired: 1998/ 2003/ 1994(?)
Original Reviews: Action Pact: "Action Pact is an album with forward momentum, each carried along with the strength of the strings, alternating between Jay Freguson and Patrick Pentland's guitar in the driver's seat. It's twelve songs over almost as quickly as they start, and put together more tightly and consistently than any of the six previous efforts. Though this would be considered a plus with most artists, with this band it's almost a detriment, considering how typically varied and diversified the song each member crafts usually are."
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:
Riddim Warfare - I'm not sure where or when my love affair with DJ Spooky [That Subliminal Kid] began, but I know it ended not long after I purchased this album, relatively fresh off the press (judging by its release date I can assuredly say I bought it at St. James' Stereo, which was the only decent place to buy indie/alt music in Thunder Bay during the '90's (sadly, no longer) and either I came across Spooky on a compilation or on CBC's Brave New Waves (where most things I bought in the '90's I became aware of). Anyway, this album I liked, I think, but after a few listens and an extracted track for compilation listening, I put it on the shelf where stayed, until it was occasionally dusted off to be moved to a new household. I still bought DJ Spooky albums in the years that followed, with depreciating returns, liking each subsequent less and less. To be honest, I just don't think I understood them.

Action Pact - Oh, Sloan, after two albums I didn't like much at all (I didn't even buy that sixth album) here was one full of relatively short, catchy 80's inspired pop melodies. I did come to respect Sloan again, but for my immediate pleasure with this album, it's lasting power in my CD player was not long at all. Though I don't have any sentimental attachments to this album, I do have quite the soft spot for the band.

Sport Fishin' - It was at some point during my grade 12 year in 1993/94, during art class sitting next to this dude (who would later become one of my longest and bestest friends) that I learned that the opening and incidental music that was played on Kids In The Hall (still the second best sketch comedy show ever) wasn't just ambiance, but actual music, played by an actual band. That's when I learned about Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, and life really hasn't been the same since. As soon as I found out about them I had. to. own. music. And I did, finding their latest release (this very CD) at the record shoppe and going all agog over it. GAK and I both, with a long love of art, comedy, music and irreverence formed a long bonding (not bondage) friendship that somewhere at the heart of it is always playing a vocals-free sweet bass/guitar/drums (and sometimes keyboards) riff. (Though defunct for over a decade [RIP Reid Diamond], GAK still manages to unearth new Shadowy Men tracks we've both never heard from time to time, the latest can be heard on this week's Radio Free GAK).

Albums Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman - Ravenous Soundtrack
Massive Attack - Protection
This Heat - This Heat
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased
Date Purchased: 1999/ 1994/ May 3, 2006
Original Review: N/A
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:
Ravenous Soundtrack - In my last year working at the student newspaper, we received a press portfolio for the film, which itself was a pretty creative piece of work, with it's paper looking pulpy and withered (oh it was high gloss but printed to look like it was old) and blood splatters and bits of flesh adorning some pages. The high-gloss photos of Guy Pierce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies and crew made this mid-19th century tale of cannibalism look bizarrely appealing. After seeing the movie, it became instantly one of my favourites. Darkly humourous and rife with flawed characters, curious supernaturalism and some brilliant twists. In lesser hands it would have been a cheesy splatterfest, but director Antonia Bird crafted a reserved, but highly suggestive work of ingeniousness. Upon hearing "Boyd's Journey", the track playing during the opening credit sequence, I knew I had to have the soundtrack, assembled by Blur's Damon Albarn and master composer Michael Nyman. It's as irreverent as the film, melding askew instrumentation with traditional score fare, and the score remains as beloved as the movie. (Aside: I can't believe the film's website is still on-line, but it's awesome)

Protection - I've been trying to choose my re-review CDs at random, however sometimes I pull a disc off the shelf that I just don't want to listen to. But then again, that should be all the more reason to force myself to pull it down and give it a go. That's what happened with Massive Attack's sophomoric release here, an album I played to death over a two year period between 1994 and 1996. My CD collection at that time was just beginning, and Massive Attack's Protection was one of my crown jewels. I was agog over Trip Hop for much of the mid-'90s, taking elements of hip hop, dance, downtempo electronica, dub and jazz and blending them in a truly innovative way. Unfortunately trip-hop burned itself out by around 1998, or at least I was quite done with it by then. I haven't really listened to this (or any other Massive Attack, Tricky, Morcheeba, etc) album for a long time and I don't know how it'll play anymore. I have a pretty strong personal attachment to it, since it was one of my formative albums, really defining my taste in music, but, yeah, I don't really want to look back at it.

This Heat - I bought only one album from New York's Other Music store back in 2000 but have been receiving their new release emails every week since. Featuring audio clips, the Other Music Weekly Release email became my main source for a number of years at the beginning of this decade for hearing new music. It's where I heard this, and from the basis of one track I sought out this album (finding it locally at SoundScapes a few weeks later) and was pretty nonplussed with it. The one track I heard, I kind of enjoyed, but the rest of the album is early-80's (it's a reissue) sparse avant-garde-ism, a mix of noise and silence. I didn't really give it much of a chance, having pretty immediately regretted its purchase upon first listen. Wonder how it'll do on fresh ears nearly 2 years later?

Albums Subtle - Wishingbone
Novillero - The Brindleford Follies
Swell - Too Many Days Without Thinking
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased/ purchased/ review copy
Date Purchased: May 3, 2006/2002/1997
Original Review: Too Many Days Without Thinking - "Entertaining, amusing, thought-provoking, psychotic - all describe the music that Swell produces... inventive music that's ultimately been lacking in today's mainstream marked [sic] of mundane and thoughtless copycat crap. The best album I've heard this year!" - The Argus, March 18, 1997.

Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: Wishingbone - Back in the day when I was a hip-hop kid (not that I really ever got into the whole baggy clothes and break-stepping thing) nothing excited me more than a remix album or ep. That same enthusiasm stretched into the realm of electronica, trip hop and other new musics, as, I guess, nothing keeps a song fresh like completely retooling it. The other great thing about remix albums/eps was there tended to be some new b-side material that didn't quite make it to album either seen as out of step with the album's theme or just somewhat incomplete. Wishingbone is in the spirit of a remix album, but more of a half-release, a companion piece to Subtle's first major release A New White. The CD/DVD set (with the DVD containing the 15-minute video spanning three tracks) was acquired and shelved roughly within the same period of time as I recall it not being as engaging as I'd hoped and I'd always meant to spend some time with it and A New White to really hear if and how it does actually compliment it (alas, my consumptive habits have prevented this). Oh, and now it would seem the DVD's gone missing.

Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:The Brindleford Follies - At the turn of the century/millennium, Canadian "supergroups" started cropping up, the biggest of which being the New Pornographers in Vancouver and Broken Social Scene in Toronto. It may be a stretch to say but in Winnepeg it's Novillero. In 1999/2000 when they came together it was from the ashes of lounge group Transonic and acts like Duotang and Waking Eyes. When I first heard about Novillero (on CBC Radio, no doubt, a few months after this album's release I recall) I knew I had to seek it out. I was a big Duotang fan and to hear Rod Slaughter sing with more than just bass and drums accompanying him excited me. The album, however, let me down, and I never did fully digest it, leaving it to collect dust until their second album, Aim Right For The Holes In Their Lives, came out in 2005, when I decided to revisit it once again. It didn't compare at all to the powerful and energetic second album, where their sound completely shifted gears, but I found it more listenable than I had remembered.

Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:Too Many Days Without Thinking - Unlike the prior two cds mentioned above, I've driven this Swell album -- my first -- into the ground, and still it holds up. I received it as a review comp from Beggar's Banquet in 1997 whilst working at the university newspaper and it instantly made a fan of me. I've been following Swell, perhaps not devotedly, but enthusiastically ever since, collecting all the major back catalogue releases and pouncing on any new albums. Swell is the one band that I've never met another fan of, and it constantly amazes me that nobody I've ever met has heard of them. Their releases come out quietly without much fanfare, and I've yet to be truly disappointed with one. But this album is my perennial favourite, perhaps just because it was my first, but I also think it's their most accessible album, each song something special.

Albums Digital Underground - Sons of the P
Supergenius - Star Wars Breakbeats
Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased/ purchased/ purchased
Date Purchased: 1993/1998/May 3, 2006
Original Review: - n/a

Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances:Sons of the P - Digital Underground were a damn fun group, producing a few stellar albums before fading under the weight of "gangsta" rap's popularity. Most prominently fronted by Humpty Hump, a congested sounding, comedic rhyme-maker who wore glasses and a fake (sometimes gold-plated) nose (not quite "Groucho glasses" but similar idea), Digital Underground were a massive crew that at one time called Tupac and Jay-Z members. This album was a tribute to the classic funk bands of the 70's, using Funkadelic, Parliament and Sly and The Family Stone samples to create some memorable tracks, but moreover a fantastic album. This album is one of my favourite rap albums ever, and contains "Good Thing We're Rappin", which I believe is my favourite song of all time. Sons of the P is a tribute to times past, an exploration of burgeoning fame and a jab at the changing times which would eventually overwhelm the band. I haven't listened to it in years, but it's still a favourite.

Star Wars Breakbeats - I think it was GAK all those years ago that alerted me to the existence of Star Wars Breakbeats, a limited-run album from New York-based bedroom producer "Supergenius" (aka Morgan Phillips, now the "Sucklord"). Being the fervent Star Wars geek that I was back then, I promptly made my way to The Other Music website and purchased the album before (as the store feared) Lucasfilm would come crashing down with their cease and desist orders. With the spectre of illicitness hovering over it, not to mention its rarity, this album has always felt like a prized acquisition, a real coup for my collection. Unfortunately, I never actually thought it was all that great. It's always seemed like a cheesy curiosity which I pull out from time to time, and as my Star Wars fanaticism has waned, so too has the leniency I've been giving the record.

He Poos Clouds - I bought this when I was in my "buy anything from the blocks label phase, even though I didn't really like the first album. Plus, there was all that internet hype that told me this was the awesome album of aught-six I should be sure to have. Oh, yes, I was one of those people. You know the type... the kind of person who had to be on top of what was new, fresh, hot and innovative... especially in the music scene, even more, the local music scene. I didn't do all the stupid haircuts or the "ironic" whatevers (moustaches, t-shirts), but I did appreciate them until I realized exactly how pathetically hard some people were trying to be a part of it all. The idea of "cliques" and "scenes" has never appealed to me, and I quickly gave up on it. I just tried to enjoy the music instead, but I eventually wound up resenting the musicians for the crowd that they drew, for the people that, well, ruined it by being there for the sole purpose of being seen ("scenesters"). That's the Final Fantasy crowd, a small group of people desperate to be seen at the ground floor of something that will hopefully grow big enough so that they can say they were there when it was just 20 people really digging that shit man. Problem is, Final Fantasy has always come off as scenester music, "arty" pomp as pretentious as the people who pretend to enjoy it. My distaste for the scene has clouded my judgment of the "Polaris Prize" winning music and I've barely given this album a chance.

Albums Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom
Death In Vegas - Scorpio Rising
OP8 featuring Lisa Germano - Slush
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased/ purchased/ purchased
Date Purchased: 1996/2002/1998
Original Review (s): - n/a

Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: Ruby Vroom - "Screenwriter's Blues" was the first Soul Coughing track I had ever heard. It was back in 1994 when MuchMusic was still playing videos and supported independent music. It was one afternoon, after school and I just had Much playing in the background. I didn't catch the title of the song, or the band, but the general sensation of the tune stuck with me for years and years. When two years later I heard a song from Soul Coughing's second album (Irresistible Bliss), I knew immediately that it was the same band and that I was overwhelmingly responding to them. I bought their then-current album in a snap, spending another year before locating this, their first studio effort. I liked this album quite a bit, although I never listened to it much. I'm still sad that Soul Coughing called it a day, since frontman M. Doughty's solo work is a little too folky/kitscy/twee/cutesy for my liking and his irreverence isn't nearly as pronounced. Plus there's the classic interview paraphrase (which I've only ever heard about, but have adopted into my lexicon) featuring drummer Yuval Gabay's brilliant third-person broken English/Israeli accent: "Yuval styling highly, yes!"

Scorpio Rising - I have a couple Death In Vegas' albums, but I don't remember them at all clearly. I think they have their place in the evolution of modern music, a fusion of gothic undertones, electronic overtones, a dash of punk, post-punk and psychedelia. DiV is a duo of, ultimately, dance music producers taking inspiration from a variety of sources, and yet often descending into some dark place. What I've liked from them was the dose of catharsis they provide... a bit of evil, but non-threatening. Neither the band nor any specific tracks are meaningful to me, but I remember them helping pass some simple summers. For all their darkness, I they work best in a bright atmosphere. Scorpio Rising was the last of their albums I bought and the one I least remember... there's probably a reason for that.

Slush - There was a period in my life where I absolutely fixated on everything... a specific girl, a specific director, a specific comic book creator, a specific musician. I really shouldn't phrase those in the singular though, since there were multiples of each, I was an obsessive plain and simple, and when you combine obsessions, girls and music for instance, it was all pretty embarrassing. One artist who you won't find me re-reviewing is Tori Amos, whom I was most obsessed about in the 1990s (but there's a whole other post there). But amongst her obsessed-over-by-Graig peers include Lisa Marr from Cub, Bjork, and, most obscurely, Lisa Germano. I'm not certain I remember accurately what I saw in Germano, but she had a way of being solemnly upbeat, or upbeatly solemn, or darkly irreverent, playing her violin and singing her hushed tunes about... well pain and escaping from pain. I really dug that stuff when I was a teen, but when I heard OP8 on the Brave New Waves, a wildly different trio utilizing a vast variety of atypical instruments in a pop manner, accompanied by Germano, it was the most engaging work of hers I had heard. I had to have it, then I got it, then I loved it for a while, then moved along, fixating on something/one else.

Albums Loop Guru - The Fountains of Paradise
Quannum - Live on British Radio
Atom and His Package - "Redefining Music"
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased/ purchased/ purchased
Date Purchased: February 2003/200?/200?
Original Review (s): - n/a

Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: The Fountains of Paradise -- I have four Loop Guru albums, two of which contain some spectacular Indian/African world music and western dance music blends and another which features soundscapes moving along the Brian Eno or John Cage in nature. As with so much of my music, I first heard Loop Guru on CBC's lamented Brave New Waves, an epic 8-minute song which is at once both meditative and danceable. This album was the last of Loop Guru's I purchased, and to be honest I don't remember it at all. The psychedelic front cover and the atrociously laid out back cover (featuring a photo of the band, looking like sophomoric art school students) are beyond uninspiring, Perhaps I was too overwhelmed with other sounds when I purchased this (used, and likely with a half dozen other cds) or perhaps it was just a bitter disappointment when compared to their more engaging past efforts.

Quannum - Live on British Radio -- If it wasn't Brave New Waves then it was probably GAK who introduced me to most of the music I have in my collection, and it was certainly GAK who introduced me to the Quannum collective of hip-hop artists. Hailing from, primarily, Southern California, Quannum is a collective that has rejected the aggressive, socially-destructive, ego-driven nature of modern rap and instead seeks out positivity, seeking to inspire and elevate, with intellectual and challenging lyrics, as well as a general sense of enjoyment. Featuring such artists as Blackalicious, DJ Shadow and Latyrx, the collective formed from a love of crate-digging, and sampling still plays a large role in what they do. Steadily moving forward but still embracing the roots of hip-hop and DJ culture, Quannum appeared as the last bastion of hope for hip-hop when Eminem and company made it seem most dire. This album either came at the recommendation of GAK or was purchased as a "look what I got" object. Ultimately, though, compared to the brilliant 2-disc SoulSides retrospective, or the bulk of Quannum's studio output, I've barely given this "Live on British Radio" compilation much time at all. Just looking at the track listing, though, makes me excited.

"Redefining Music" -- back in 2002, unemployed and bored and just starting this whole blogging thing, I was searching searching searching for new music on the internet all the time. One of my favourite places to troll through for hours was Epitonic, where I found a lot of new music and legal mp3s to boot. It was awesome. Before there were music bloggers, tastemakers, podcasts and the mighty Pitchfork, Epitonic allowed people to find their own music, instead of having stuff thrust at them. Most of the hundreds of songs I found there didn't hold up to repeated listening, but a couple dozen artists kept my interest, one man army Atom and His Package was near the top. His nerd-punk music, topics ranging from inane to insane, was a shot in the ass and predated nerdcore hiphop popularized by MC Chris and Paul Barman by mere days. Atom's schtick was that he was a one-man act, plugging his guitar into an amp and playing along with his sequenced drumbeats and electronic fidgets. So very punk, so very nerdy. Atom's day has passed, he hung up his ballcap and glasses a few years back, but we will always have three albums full of memories.

Albums Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
The National - Boxer
Bjork - Homogenic
Source (purchased/given/borrowed/the wife's): purchased/ purchased/ purchased
Date Purchased:
Original Review (s): - n/a

Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - the scenesters probably champion this album but likely don't get it. it's the true music snob that decrees this one of the best albums ever made. Quite frankly, when I first heard it, I hated it. I put it away for a couple years before the disc saw some play again, suddenly, in the year 2000. It was then I finally understood it and I spread the love amongst my fellow music aficionados, they too falling under its sway. I don't pull it out very often, since it's a heartbreaking work of disturbing imagery and delicate nuance that demands attention and interpretation. This album will never be passive listening, and I routinely prefer listening to things that fade into the background, you know, the whole soundtrack of our lives thing. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is no soundtrack, it's a stand-alone work of art. Or so I recall.

Boxer - There's been all of a year since the National released this album and if my music tastes have not deviated at all, I can assume that I'll still think this is one of the best records to come out this decade. In an era where the music blogosphere cycles through and tires of new talent more quickly than the porn industry, The National are so bloody talented enough that they're going to be around for a long, long time.

Homogenic - Oh, I loved Bjork for a good decade. I rebelled against her at first, having seen one of her Debut videos on Muchmusic and hearing a girl I liked/ disliked- because- she- didn't- like- me say how big a fan of hers she was. The funky hairdo, the bizarre vocal stylings, the pinchable cuteness was all just too much. But somewhere along the way she nabbed me, then deep into electronica and hip-hop, Bjork provided the gateway into alternative music, herself embracing trip-hop and jungle (dating Tricky and Goldie will have an influence I suppose). But it was Homogenic that Bjork reached her apex. Working with the producer Mark Bell, they crafted joint electronic and symphonic landscapes for her voice to explore, and it's results were equally serene and intense. I tired of Bjork, her antics and her music earlier this decade (it was instrument-free, all vocals of Medulla that did it) the and I'm wondering if the albums I used to so enjoy still retain their sway over me. This, being the strongest of them, will likely provide the best gage.

Media: CD/DVD
Release Date: February 5, 2008

Somewhere along the way in my music listening fandom I became somewhat transfixed by alternative kids music. I suppose my undying love for childhood fixations like comics, sci fi movies, and action figures, all of which have only flourished into appreciation as I've gotten older, would logically transcend into my music snobsession. It might have been Saturday Morning: Cartoon's Greatest Hits or Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks that first brought forth (at least to me) the idea of kids music being performed in an energetic and palatable manner to a crowd that doesn't necessarily enjoy the overblown bombast or grating repetitiveness of standard children's music, not to mention the teeth-achingly saccharine or patronizing lyrics that typically accompany youth-oriented music.

They Might Be Giants have over the past half-dozen years, redefined themselves, if only slightly, as the pre-eminent performers of children's music, first with their delightful and diverse NO! followed by the Here Come The ABCs, both featuring strong visual components... NO! having a handful of enhanced Flash-animated videos viewable on computer on the CD itself, while ABCs was sold as either a CD or a DVD (many of the songs were tailored to have video accompaniment and thus were slightly nonsensical as just a song, which isn't anything atypical for TMBG). With Here Come The 123s the Giants once again did the joint CD and DVD thing, only this time they packaged them both together, and at an obscenely low price (less than $15 for the set from most on-line vendors).

preamble: Whoo, burnout. It's been four weeks since the last one of these re-review tryptycs from my CD collection. Work has been excessively busy so I've only (barely) been keeping up on my Radio Free GAK podcast and fatigue and excessive gorging at home have resulted in low interest levels. Sporadic blogging aside, I'm going to tweak the Re-Review format (excising the "remembrances" part, primarily) to get things done quicker, such that I'm not having to do so much work.

Albums: Oukast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below; Huevos Rancheros - Get Outta Dodge; Under The Influence mixed by DJ Spooky that subliminal kid
Date(s) Purchased: - 2003/2000/2001
Original Review (s): - Hey Ya commentary

Albums: The Organ - Sinking Hearts; Amon Tobin - Verbal Remixes and Collaborations; Solex - Athens, Ohio
Dates Purchased - 2002/2002/2001
Original Review(s) - Sinking Hearts
Verbal Remixes and Collaborations

Re-Review Sinking Hearts - the barely-existent chord shifts of Deborah Cohen's guitar, ashley webber's simplistic bass lick, the methodical perfunctoriness of shelby stacks drums all cowering behind the minimalist drone of Jenny Smyth's hammond, the titular instrument the only one to stand out from the crowd, and even then it's competing for attention with Katie Sketch's (oxymoronically) haunting lilt. I fell in love with this EP the moment I heard the almost slow-motion drumbeat of "We've Got To Meet" make way for a single not of the organ and a penetrating bass dub. Six songs not even totaling 15 minutes were enough to make me a lifelong fan, and the dark glory of Sinking Hearts still resonates with me as powerfully as it did half a decade ago. I'm still amazed at how Sketch and her band of amateur instrumentalists managed to put together such an impeccable dose of anti-pop, so bleak in tone and yet somehow uplifting and beautiful. I sat patiently waiting for a full length, which came in 2004, proving somewhat disappointing by merely adding a few more tracks to restructured and rerecorded versions of the ep tracks. I caught the Organ on tour four times (maybe more) and was enraptured by what was, in every sense, a boring set, the band moving about as animatedly as Robert Palmer's animatronic "Addicted To Love" women. But the androgynous Sketch was a siren on stage, her voice dragging the audience gladly to their doom. Comprised of gay, straight and bi members, the music transcends orientation and delves straight into the sexual and romantic subconscious. It's absolutely gorgeous stuff, a classic work that, due to lack of future output from the band, will scarcely be recognized as such.

Albums: Magnetic Fields - Holiday; Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary; Balanescu Quartet - Possessed
Dates Purchased - 1994(95?)/2005/2001
Original Review(s) - none

[re-review] The Magnetic Fields - Holiday
Oh... oh my, it's been ages, years and years since I last listened to this album. It's the first Magnetic Fields album I bought and possibly the first indie music purchase I ever made (unconfirmed). It's certainly weathered the years though, and coming out the other end 15 years later it once again brings a smile to my face. Stephin Merritt's utter desire to create pop music was never so misguided than back in 1993 when he was using sequencers and keyboards and toys rather than every instrument under the sun in developing his songs. What results is 13 rapidly-paced, highly infectious, and deviantly bouncy tracks and a curious introduction. What's been evident from my very first listen (on a Brave New Waves spotlight on CBC radio in early 2004) to Stephin Merritt's work - be it the Magnetic Fields, the Sixths, the Gothic Archies, or the Future Bible Heroes - is the lyrics are always the primary focus. No matter how great or attractive or attention getting the instrumentation is, the lyrics are always front and center. Here, with his backing tracks of abstract bubbles of noise and fuzzy warbles, it pushes his somewhat underwhelming sing-talking vocals ever forward as the listeners' ear clutches onto the sounds that aren't so foreign. Merritt's lyrics are surreal, beautiful, imaginative, humourous, and most often brilliant. From his earliest outings and still today he's an unparalleled lyricist, although his song-smithing has moved from innovative to heavily influenced. His earliest works, where his sequencers took care of most of the work, though spare compared to his rich instrumentals today, only bear a feint scar of influence from the Pet Shop Boys and Depeche mode, unlike, say, this year's Distortion which is an unapologetic tribute to Jesus and Mary Chain. A song like "The Trouble I've Been Looking For" is a romantic punch to the gut that tells a story, has emotional resonance, and is accompanied by some whining drones that dare you to accept them, it's one of Merritt's most challenging and rewarding songs and is surrounded by six songs on either side that equally dare you to catch on or flee in revulsion. Does it sound dated? Yes, but only because I repeatedly listened to it while I was still a teenager, but were I to encounter it today for the first time, there'd be nothing else like it.
Rating (keep/sell/undecided): keep