BEAUTIFUL SKIN / Everything, All This, and More (GSL)
I always bemoaned the fact that bands like the Stiffs Inc.and Beautiful
Skin were in NYC at the wrong time; both added a unique, artful slant to
80's aesthetic in the 1990's, but it was, unfortunately in some ways for
them, a decade indie rock was riding high with the ripple effects of
alternately-tuned guitars, K, Amphetamine Reptile and Sub Pop in popular
corners of underground music. Of course, this doesn't detract at all from
the reason these bands should have existed, they were both great and
certainly had fans who "got it" regardless of what was hip for the time,
it just would have been nice if some of the scene's prejudices towards
particular influences didn't hamper more people hearing them. Just as
Beautiful Skin busted up in 2001, Interpol hit the scene and really blew
the doors open on a revisiting of certain sounds, all of a sudden the
Cure, Joy Division, and 80's Wire weren't so off the map in terms of
influence again. Formed in 1997 by Nick Forte (who had previously been in
punk band Rorschach and the also-predating-a-revival dance punk outfit
Computer Cougar) and Brazilian ex-pat Rossano Totino, Beautiful Skin sunk
their teeth into both the pop and abstract: the definite Cure/Wire vibe
was there, but there were also textural explorations of vintage drum
machines and synthscapes that echoed Chrome, SPK, Grauzone and Krautrock
in general. When the duo added on Mitch Rackin and Charles Burst, the band
locked into a new kind of power, and I have great memories of a 2000
summer show at the Cooler which I think showcased BS at their peak. This
new disc digs out some recordings from the quartet period never released,
adding on an early demo as a duo and the band's 7".
DANDI WIND / Bait the Traps/ (Bongo Beat)
And speaking of the Nylon Revival, here's a newbie appropriating some 80's
synthblatt with a good sense of invention, danger, Germanic humor and
definitely leaning heavily on the substance as well as style. Dandi Wind
is actually one half of a duo (Szam Fidelity plays and writes the music),
and I don't know about you, but the WFMU mailbox is stuffed daily with a
more-than-generous share of Electrobrats making the scene with atonal
synths, too much rouge, and the declaration of nothing more than "I am a
robot." We know, we know, you are robots, we believe you. No really,
calling your band "I Am A Robot" on top of it isn't necessary. So when
someone like Dandi comes along totally tossing a bomb full of
living/breathing aggro humanity (the bizarro video tacked on to this CD is
basically three minutes of her convulsing, screaming and barfing all over
a garbageheap in an alley and nothing more, not even music) one knows that
they are in for a bit more than a round of regurgitated Siouxsie-isms.
MOONDOG / The German Years 1977-1999 (Roof Music)
A beautifully packaged overview of a period in Louis Hardin's grand
existance that is unjustly and unfortunately glazed over (though to be
fair, competes with quite a preceding saga that is nothing to sneeze at.)
It would amaze me to see copies of his final studio work, 1997's Sax Pax
for a Sax (Atlantic) floating around in dollar bins all over town while
people would be dropping big bucks on various out jazz reissues; it was a
stunning document that shouldn't have been discounted for its lateness or
mainstream connections, and this collection captures a great snapshot of a
still vital legend. First noticed as a blind street musician in New York
in 1943, the Viking-garbed, poem-selling Moondog may have been considered
an eccentric, but he was quickly taken in by New York's Carnegie
musicians, making the scene with Toscanini, Stravinski, and Bernstein and
learning orchestration while guest-appearing with ensembles. Alan Freed
allegedly swiped Moondog's monicker to promo his rock and roll shows,
Jimmy McGriff dedicated songs to him, Charlie Parker was supposedly a fan,
and avant-minimalists like Philip Glass and Steve Reich profess that it
was indeed Moondog that set them on course. Though he certainly relished
his sphere of influence on the Out composers, Hardin was a classicist at
heart, but one with high adaptability. He disappeared and reappeared in
the 90's at BAM and then in Germany, even gravitating to using samplers
(one 1991 show even included a Mouse on Mars member), and this 2CD set
really shows Moondog's continuing open ear to adventure while carrying on
tradition (with a 44 page book to boot).
VARIOUS / The Answer Tapes (Heresee)
Well-described as "a sociological document of discarded human existance",
here is a whole CD-R of found answering machine tapes, collected between
2000 and 2005 in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and
Pennsylvania by Michael Barker. Alternately hilarious and heartbreaking,
you get the details of urinary tract infections, someone displaying some
extreme bravado over his crabcake-making prowess, assorted personal
threats, pleas to have heating oil delivered that segue into profane
rants, conversations from the commode, admissions to overfeeding the
fishtank, discussions on Britney Spears and more. The ultimate
eavesdropping document (at least since the "Cellular Hellular" cassettes
and our own Audio Kitchen show).
VARIOUS / Can You Jack? Chicago Acid and Experimental House
1985-95 (Soul Jazz)
One of thee best Soul Jazz releases ever! And there have been some killer
ones (Studio One stuff, No New York, New Thing, ESG) without doubt. But
getting your brain erased by several hours of that Roland drum machine is
pure pleasure indeed. This is without doubt the definitive (of many) comps
trailing the history of the Chicago House scene, mainly because it ties
such snug knots between the hits and flat-out experimental weirdness that
flowed through several waves of artists in this scene. I love this stuff
for the same reason I have dug the Baltimore Trax as of late; absurd
limitations and one-trick pony items like the TR-808 required a creative
mind, and the simple layers of structure on tracks like Marshall
Jefferson's "Virgo" or Maurice's "This Is Acid" flick your synapses on and
off like a light switch while you totally bug out on the repetition.
Originally just dismissed as a cheapo variation on disco, Chicago Acid
House quickly was reassessed when it took over clubs (not to mention the
UK pop scene), but again, the limitations of the cheap gear and basslines
that could only be varied on so much made this a limited genre. Some may
get fried out easily on it, but those with a love of gurgling synth beats,
and lacking in any of this stuff should just go for it.
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