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Walker has been busy the past year with "Only Myself to Blame" on thelatest Bond movie soundtrack, two songs for the latest Ute Lemper album"Punishing Kiss" and curator of this year's Meltdown Festival at theRoyal Festival Hall in London, as well as a 'Dance Project' score forsaid event. And now this soundtrack, the first major new release fromWalker since 1995's rather difficult masterpiece "Tilt". "Pola X" is aFrench film (with English subtitles) based upon the Herman Melvillenovel "Pierre", directed and co-written by Leos Carax. The basic storyis a young author meets his long lost sister and they begin anincestuous relationship. The soundtrack is composed and produced byWalker, a serious cinemaphile, with 5 tracks by others, and is pepperedwith dialogue and sounds from the film. Of Walker's 11 tracks, 34minutes total, about half feature the Paris Philharmonic asorchestrated by longtime Walker keyboardist / arranger Brian Gascoigne.Most of these are brief string compositions, beautiful and foreboding.The remaining Walker tracks are short sound effects / dialogue / samplecollages (Walker even samples his own "The Cockfighter" in the openingtrack) or similar to those found on "Tilt": bizarre barrages of guitarand percussion. "The Church of the Apostles" in particular builds afrenzied attack for nearly six minutes. "Never Again" is a minute ofswirling noise slabs interspersed with a heavy duty beat and ragga rap... possibly the oddest thing Walker has ever done. This materialreally whets the appetite for the always on the horizon, new 'album inprogress' by Walker. And now for the rest of the disc. "Extra Blues" bySMOG is just plain tedious with inane lyrics and dreadful half spoken /half-sung vocals. "Iza Kana Zanbi" by Fairuz is nearly 9 minutes ofswooping strings, hand percussion, chanting and female / male wailingall with a bit of a gypsy vibe, very cinematic and entertaining. Tracks8 and 9 are throwaway bits of Vietnamese karaoke. "Blink" by SonicYouth is a wonderful surprise as I'm not normally a SY fan. Kimspeak-sings seductively over an ambient mix of drone, light percussionand guitar taps and pluckings. Unfortunately, I'm unable to experiencethis soundtrack within the intended context of the film as I've neverseen it (and probably never will) but overall most of it does hold upwell on it's own. Though, the $24 import price will likely keep mostaway, save for Walker and Sonic Youth fanatics. Walker is currently atMeltdown through July 2nd and the film is due out in the fall ... samples:
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It features 2 more tracks from the sessions, 're-mixs' of "Nommos" fromSystemwide's 1997 dub album "Sirius". "Nommos' Ark" is very fracturedwith many sudden stops and starts as fast drum 'n bass rhythms dominateand bits of the original's keyboard gurgles churn up here and there.It's a headache inducing 5 minutes if listened to at the wrong time."Nommos' Ghosts" is about a minute longer, also quite fractured butmuch slower paced with a delayed dub groove, heavy vinyl static noiseand electro bleeps that give way to and eerie, fading keyboard melodyand intermittent percussion loop. The vocals from the original song areeither obliterated or gone altogether, thankfully I might add. "Ghosts"alone makes this worth the $9 (postage paid in the U.S.) direct fromBSI Records (http://www.bsi-records.com/). The record is thick blackvinyl and comes in a yellow-orange sleeve with the title and arabicinscriptions around the center hole. It's rather dull in comparison tothe much more complex artwork that graces the other two releases. Justanother little piece of the enormous and ever expanding Muslimgauzepuzzle to add to your collection. The next release due out is the twotrack Bass Communion v Muslimgauze CDEP. Never mind the fact that boththe Nommos tracks found here could have fit on the "Lo-Fi India Abuse"CD and the two new BC v M tracks could have fit on the first BC v M CD.They sure know how to milk it for all it's worth, don't they? Oh well.I'll be buying them all like all the other addicts ...Read More
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- Brian Bieniowski
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While electronic dub or minimalism can be inviting and attractive attimes, Pole has failed on his third album to present anything ofinterest. Clicks sound like somebody's playing with 1/4 inch plugs inrhythm while the intentional tape hiss sound is downright obnoxious. Isthis a joke? I'm honestly surprised people pay money for this! PerhapsI need to be coming down from a really heavy trip to enjoy it... Pole 3is simply an overrated underachieved reissue of both 1 and 2. samples:
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It's a German 2xCD release of exclusive tracks from Tortoise, Isotope217, Mick Turner, Bobby Conn, Pullman, Bundy K. Brown, Ken Vandermark5, Chicago Underground Duo, Freakwater and many many more. While it'san excellent collection of some of these bands finer songs and amust-have for any fan of these bands, I'm left wondering what's thepoint? Did this German 'discover' these bands? It's not as if theyhaven't been touring all around Europe for the last 5 years or more,really. I haven't seen it on this side of the water yet but I haveheard word that it is avaialble through various mail order outlets.Full with a big booklet with words in German (translated into English)and loads of pictures of bulls, it's a great bargain!
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- Tortoise - Jetty 99
- Bobby Conn - The Whistler
- Mick Turner - Sunny Xmas Day
- Chicago Underground Duo - King Cobra
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- Jon Whitney with Andrew Shires
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Gone are the whiny rock chick antics of the early 90s Kim Gordon and the chord banging Thurston Moore. There's much more care and delicacy to the noise banged out, this could be the result of Jim O'Rourke's production and occasional playing on the record. Spoken and sung bits through the last part of the disc echo of Slint stuff. On the back is displayed the total time as 42:22. Perfect! We don't get to hear 15 minute long drones in a pop context. Sonic Youth are no longer trying to sneak noise in, they're using carefully constructed dissonance in an album which is arguably their best pop record (Musical Perspectives 1-4 aside) since Daydream Nation. samples:
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- Ross Owen Katz
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Off World Sounds has some screwy catalogue numbers. For instance, Sassi & Loco's 'Bibleopoly' CDS (the label's first release) is catalogue number OFF1, while the various artists compilation, 'Cooking With Gas' on 12" vinyl is catalogue number OFFWORLD1. Furthermore, the CD version of 'Cooking With Gas' is catalogue number OFFCD3.
By the way, for those of you into Fila Brazillia you'll find the track 'Speewah' on 'Cooking With Gas'. Also worth mentioning is the various artist compilation 'Heat Electric'; available on 12" vinyl (OFFWORLD4) and CD (OFFCD5).
There is hope for all you mad trainspotters who have been attempting to round up all of the compilations that feature one of the four or five odd Sassi & Loco tracks. Rumour has it that Stephen Mallinder is planning to release a retrospective of the duo's 18 month studio output. The retrospective should feature 'Bibleopoly' and 'Orange Street' from the 'Bibleopoly' EP, 'Away Away', 'Tommy Roberts', 'Lost Loco' from the 'Trans Pacific Express' compilation, as well as other exclusive mixes.
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- Daniel McKernan
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After having heard the teaser single, "Legal Man," which is not available on this album, I was surprised at such a new sound and was curious to hear more of their new material. The single does not have the same feeling - that classic Belle and Sebastian mood - that the album does. The opening tracks, "I Fought in a War" and "The Model" show lots of promise, retaining the band's older styles and Stuart Murdoch's wonderfully emotional voice, but still moving forward. However, the third track, "Beyond the Sunrise," completely breaks the flow of the album with mellow acoustics and deep, funny sounding vocals. The album picks up again after this, with wonderful tracks like "Don't Leave the Light on, Baby," and "Family Tree." Some of the lyrics on this release seem a little sillier than previous albums, but for the most part they are still fairly classic B&S. There is an even mix of male and female vocals, and also a balance of dancey and sulky numbers. For the most part, this album, despite those few "flaws," is a really nice listen: quaint. samples:
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- Daniel McKernan
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Download's "Toooly Hooof" is a remix from III, nice and danceable with Key's stylistic touch. A Duck, D.R. Goettel's solo project, delivers "Quakerz (Revision)," an awesome tune light years ahead of its time insofar as techno sounds go. The platEAU track is quiet and makes a nice ambient break in the beats. The Doubting Thomas track has their classic dancey, hard-hitting beats with wavery synths in the background. The compilation stops to beat the dead horse that once was Skinny Puppy by including "Rodent (Remix)," seemingly stuck in here merely to have the name dropped (an "exclusive, unreleased" track). Next is a new Tear Garden track ? a bouncy and touching tale of abuse, from "To Be An Angel Blind" sessions. Ryan Moore donated a somewhat predictable Twilight Circus tune. Philth's track, "Sanity Shovel," is a bit boring at first, though later picks up and is reminiscent of his last album, The Escapist. Floatpoint is Philth and D. Handrabur ? who together create a wonderful electronic sounding track, "Foundflap," heavy on the Eastern influence. "I Still Ate Here," from cEvin Key sounds like an outtake from the 'Music for Cats' album which didn't make the cut. Lustmord's "Infinite Domain" is an alternate version from an upcoming album, 'Metavoid,' which has me convinced enough to look forward to it. Off and Gone consists of the same people as Floatpoint, but thri contribution is a faster A Duck-style beat-driven track. While "Fate's Faithful Punchline," from Legendary Pink Dots is beautiful, this 'version' is all too much like the original ? with very little differences. Dead Voices on Air meets Dropstar for album's closer, "Rijn" -- it's a minimal soundscape with quiet, processed vocals ? much like other DVOA stuff of this nature. This compilation is really a great disc overall, as expected when dealing with 14 exclusive tracks from some really wonderful artists. samples:
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- Daniel McKernan with Jon Whitney
- Albums and Singles
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