V02I16 - 04181999
Brainwashed.com has now been on the net THREE YEARS!!! Thanks to all the support from the bands, readers, labels, ISPs and everybody else who made this domain as awesome as we think it is. We're all damned proud.
IN BRIEF
I love living in Boston but the music scene needs to pick up. The bands are getting old and tired and seem to be spinning their wheels. Along comes Cathode. While the style of music can be heard from Lousiville to Chicago, from London to Glasgow, Boston's rather late in the game to get into the instrumental rock scene. Cathode's music is spacious and driving, pleasant but never wimpy. The melodies flow naturally and smooth, without any falter. Steve Fisk co-produced most of this, their debut full-length release: 7 songs - 40 minutes of a wonderful play of guitars, bass and drums. Without making comparisons, anybody who's into the melodic guitar and slow driving pace of Aerial M, the loud/soft jumps from Mogwai's Young Team or the grand spaces from the Boxhead Ensemble or Angelo Badalamenti scores should enjoy this disc. Get into them now before all their 7" singles become auctioned off for $50. - Jon Whitney
ELECTRIC COMPANY, "OMAKASE"
"Omakase" marks Brad Laner's (ex-Medicine/Amnesia) third proper
full-length for his Electric Company project, and a deeper foray into
melody. His loopy noise n' breakbeat constructions that graced his
former two album (the last, "Studio City" for Island, is rumored to have
been so harsh that the higher-ups on the label booted Laner a few weeks
after it's release and refused to ship any more), are now peppered with
little melodies and warm sonic textures. "A Lab Errand" bounces along
happily, sounding a bit like a dream meeting of Autechre and odd-sound
junkies Matmos. It sounds as though Mr. Laner has been listening to a
lot of Vinyl Communication's broken noises and Lucky Kitchen's arcade
soundtracks. However, halfway through the album, things start to become
unfocused. The beats become fractured or out of time, and some tracks
just deteriorate into a noisy mess. It's not entirely bad, though,
because even buried underneath the noise lay little melodies or odd
loops, which provide interest after repeated listens. Beware, though,
that the last seven tracks form one continuous track, in hyper Mercury
Rev style. A great step forward for Electric Company, and may he
continue to take many more. - Jason "jub-jub" Olariu
RUDE MECHANIC
Over 5 weeks in 1996, one hundred hours of sound was produced at the public gallery space of Beaconsfield. The two Panasonic guys were the responsable sound artists while David Crawforth and Hayley Newman were the responsable visual artists. The live installation had many noisemakers in addition to Panasonic's sound machine. Other artists contributing work to this event included Bruce Gilbert, Jimi Tenor, Simon Fisher Turner, and Scanner. The CD of Rude Mechanic was recently issued in a limited run of 1,000 copies. It's a 2-CD set, almost a "best of" the event with 31 tracks, totalling 136 minutes of music. The recordings are great and play out appropriately despite the 100 hours bring abridged to shortly over two hours. The only problem I personally have is the awful cardboard packaging - the sticky glue was sticking to both of the CDs when I was pulling them out. Thankfully the music wasn't wrecked, but other consumers might not be as fortunate. - Jon Whitney
REPORT
Cathode was the first band that I have seen who can actually make me forget the bleak fact that I was upstairs at The Middle East. Reflecting Skin and Mistle Thrush also played this night, also very good bands, but I can't stop thinking about Cathode. They give me new hope for Boston music in general. Their music filled the space, cleared the air and wowed the crowd. While this style of slow, yet moving instrumental rock is nothing new for bands like M, Mogwai, etc, it is a refreshing thing for Boston. No fancy guitar licks, rock star poses or Berklee-type musical masturbation, this band is sincere and just came to share the music. Check out www.cathode.org for any future dates or to buy the album since no distributors have picked up on it yet. - Jon Whitney
RELEASES
* 808 State - Newbuild CD/3xLP [reissue of rare first album from 1988] (Rephlex, UK)
Appliance - Food Music 7"/CDEP (Mute, UK)
Natacha Atlas - One Brief Moment 7"/CDEP (Beggars Banquet, UK)
* Coil - North 7" [repress on white vinyl, ltd to 300 copies] (World Serpent, UK)
Current 93/Michael Cashmore/Christoph Heeman - untitled LP [vinyl edition of last month's CD release, ltd to 1500 copies on clear vinyl] (World Serpent, UK)
Der Blutharsch/Deutsch Nepal - Apocalyptic Climax II 10" [ltd to 404 copies] (World Serpent, UK)
Electronic [New Order side project] - Twisted Tenderness CD [includes contributions by Fridge] (London, UK)
Fatboy Slim - Right Here Right Now 12"/CDEP (Skint, UK)
The Herbaliser - Very Mercenary CD/2xLP (Ninja Tune, UK/Canada/US)
Lo-Fi Generator - Stereo CD (Underground Sounds, UK)
Lobe - Hibernation CD (Swim~, UK)
Nobody & Leutha Meet - You Will Hate Yourself In Me CD (World Serpent, UK)
Nurse With Wound - An Awkward Pause CD (World Serpent, UK)
Thievery Corporation - Lebanese Blonde (Version Francais) CDEP [special 8 track mini-album] (4AD, UK)
Various - Points in Time Vol. 1 CD/3xLP, Points in Time Vol. 2 CD/3xLP and Points in Time Vol. 3 CD/3xLP (Good Looking, UK)
TUESDAY
Add N To X - Avant Hard CD/LP (Mute, US)
Expansion Union [James Bernhard] - World Wide Funk CD (Wax Trax, US)
Future Pilot AKA - Vs. A Galaxy of Sound LP [mixes by Cornershop, Scanner, Kim Fowley, The Pastels and more - CD released in March] (Beggars Banquet, US)
Randy Greif/Robin Storey - Nail of Pious Bride CD (Soleilmoon, US)
Randy Greif/Nigel Ayers - Build a Poison Fire CD (Soleilmoon, US)
KMFDM - ADIOS CD (Wax Trax/TVT, US)
Nightmares on Wax - Car Boot Soul CD/2xLP (Warp/Matador, US)
Pizzicato 5 - The International Playboy & Playgirl Record CD/LP (Matador, US)
* Plaid - Peel Session CDEP (Warp/Nothing, US)
Robin Storey/Nigel Ayers - Perfidious Albion CD (Soleilmoon, US)
* Jimi Tenor - Organism CD (Warp/Sire, US)
* VNV Nation - Praise the Fallen CD (TVT, US)
:wumpscut: - Eevil Young Flesh CD (Metropolis, US)
X Marks the Pedwalk - Retrospective CD (Metropolis, US)
For a more comprehensive release schedule stretching far into the future, please check out the NEW RELEASES brought to you by Greg and Feedback Monitor.
This whole recycling trend has stretched into places where it shouldn't. Sure, reusing and recycling plastic and glass bottles is a great thing, but recycling media trends has got to cease. About half of the cable-only tv stations that comes with my cable service are devoted to showing reruns of 'Sanford and Son,' 'All in the Family,' and 'One Day at a Time.' Even 'ER' and 'Friends' are in syndication and they're not even off the air yet! In terms of music, I'm bloody well sick of 80s retro compilations offered on late night info-mercials and horrible bands like Orgy, Save Ferris and Harvey Dinger making a name for themselves by covering 80s MTV hits. I was there, I remember the 80s but I don't want care to re-live them. There will always be a contingency of idiots in the world who claim "everything out now sucks." You know these people, they're the same ones who are 10 years behind the rest of the world, listening to Men Without Hats in 1999 when in 1984 they were still listening to REO Speedwagon's "High Infidelity." Most of the people that are reading this right now are progressive individuals, but take this to the street, make everybody throw out their trash. The whole Swing Revival is finally playing itself out thankfully, now let's work on keeping a Whitesnake reunion tour from ever happening. - Jon Whitney, trying to live in the present.
Subject: Post-rock
Hi.
I'm young Crotian and I agree with you all the way.I have followed the Croatian
sceen fromm the begining where on concerts were couple of my friend (all of
them in bands) an myselfe.Now it is diferent story because people heard the
music and they found it irrisistable like myselfe.
I think it is great that these kinde of pages show up on internet and brings
music closer to people.
Whish you luck with the page and I hope more band will play in Croatia.
Sencearly Croatian post-rocker.
Thanks for your enthusiasm! Letters are great even if the grammar isn't there, the spirit sure is.
OF THE
WEEK
This here is a list of all the remaining words in the English language that do not have a .com after them as of April 14th, 3:00 AM PDT. Check out www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/19116.html. I think I'm gonna take morphophonemic.com if I can still get it.
CELEBRITY
OF THE
WEEK
TERRI GARROnce a star of TV and film, now she seems to be making her way across the e-z listening radio station circut - starring in TV commercials for those stations with less talk and more music. I thought it was only a Boston thing until reports came in from all over the country. This must mean her rates have gotten pretty low, low enough to be in this week's discount bin. Get her while you can!
YOUR CD
PLAYER?
20'' to 2000 - komet / ilpo vaisanen / ryoji ikeda / coH
To Rococo Rot - The Amateur View
Various - Elektronische Musik aus Buenos Aires
Various - Across Uneven Terrain
Gas - Konigsforest
- Robin "Scanner" Rimbaud
Brainwashed Bed & Breakfasts
PO Box 7
Arlington MA 02476
USA