Alright everyone. Hows it going.. hope yer all well. If you're a band or
a techno/ambient/jungle/whatever the fuck prodcuer who'd like to get on
our compilation CD out around September or so, you'd better get in touch
soon, closing date is August 15th for entries. There's been a high level
of interest so far, thanks to everyone who has send us stuff. ALL formats
are welcome. Apologies if you didn't get you hands on the last issue of
S@E, it appears that someone took them from the shops after only a few
days, make your own mind up if you want to.. you can read it at the web
page, URL below. Ultramack have loads of cool gigs coming up,.7th August:
Si Begg (Buckfunk 3000); 14th SKAM Records night; 21st Richard H. Kirk
(live); 28th August  PURE: 11th Sept Andy Weatherall; 18th Sept Christian
Vogel; and 25th Sept Autechre (LIVE). Coming soon they've got the likes of
Plaid, Luke Vibert, Jega. Christ, it's making my dick hard with the
excitement of it all. Theres also the new Deep Burial LP out soon, and a
single from Java. The Fear run by Dave Cleary and the Droid from Power FM
has moved to Thursdays in the Funnel, nice one, now it is in NiteLink land
we'll actually be able to go to it, that's been the only thing that's
stopped us going before. Some groovy guitar-type gigs on soon also,
Palomine (sexiest band on the planet), Das Madman (cool avant garde noise
merchants !!) and Dot Creek in the Da Club on August 14th is the one to be
at if you want to hear the best stuff at the moment. There's also a few
bands playing for free (Chicks are playing I think, you'll see Singer up
there throwing shit at them..) in the TBMC on August 22nd as part of the
ANL/SWM "Rage Against Racism" march. You might not agree with all their
politics (we certainly don't) but racism is a growing evil in this
country, so get down there to show your support for the anti-racist cause.
You thought they had gone but they were just hiding, The Hope Collective
have their own freesheet out now, called "What Have You?" including an
interview with some obscure Swedish punk band, a recipe for Banana Bread
(Thayl likes them but I hate the fucking things) and some local news
updates in which they call us philanthropists. I don't know what that
means so I don't know if I should retort on the assumption it's an
insult.. wheres that fucking dictionary gone? If you want to get in touch
with us, the postal address is 10 Whitethorn Road, Artane, Dublin 5. Our
email address (best way to get in touch) is slanted@redbrick.dcu.ie, and
the ultra shit hot web site is located at www.compapp.dcu.ie/bscanl.ca1
which we try to update as much as we can. See you in a couple of weeks.

Railway Raver "Drop Acid not Bombs" Woo hoo !! Who says acid has died? Not
me for one, I cant think of a time when I wasn't guzzling down those
little squares of paper. What? Oh, the music.. right. Well, Rephlex, with
their usual style, have put out something pretty weird, but this time its
actually quite cool. It's been ten years since acid house in 1988, and I
could pretend I knew something about the whole thing, but I only got into
the whole rave/drugs/techno/ambient thing in 1992 so I'd only be a lying
wanker if I said I was there when the shit went down. But the music was
there man, and it was fuckin 'acid to the max. Loads of minimalism and 303
squelches and totally synthetic beats.. this LP by the Railway Raver shows
theres still loads of energy in the sound, even if it does sound extremely
dated by today's standards. My fave track on this release must be 'My
Lacoste (577 N Mix)' which is grrrroooovy, nice bassy bounces and a
relaxed cymbal ride, with handclap beats and a nice little perky squiggle.
It's the cymbals that get me though.. really silky and shiny. In fact, a
lot of this LP just keeps  to the more simplistic elements of dance music,
and its that which appeals to me somewhat. Most of the tracks are 4/4
beats with the occasional build-up and use of filters. There are other
moments as well which give the LP that typical Rephlex experimental edge,
the start of 'Manton's Run' sounds more like avant-gardeists gone mad with
an effects pedal plugged into a 303, while 'Keiths Trumpets', sounds to me
in places like the Jazzy house of Nuphonic mixed with acid wetness. Most
of it would be more floor-oriented (although I cant think of a club that
would play this sort of stuff nowadays) still.. overall a damn fine CD for
kids who didn't catch the first wave of acid (like me), silliness and all
included in the package. Along with the J.P. Buckle LP this is one of the
first decent Rephlex releases in a while.

Schneider TM "Moist": Yet again I must sing the praises of Road Records at
16 Fade Street, Dublin 2, which is just off George's Street, at Hogan's
Pub. Without a doubt the coolest layout of any shop at the moment, you
can't help but walk up to the counter and chat for ages with either of the
wonderfully friendly staff members. Other shops take note !! Being nice to
your customers brings you more business. Anyway I bought this City Slang
release in Road. I don't know much about City Slang lately, I do know that
Superchunk used to be on the label a long, long time ago (around the time
of the "mower" single) but I think City Slang have gone more techno/noise
in recent years, esp. with acts such as Tortoise and 8 Frozen Modules.
This release is more techno based to my ears but there is a lot of
out-there sounds mixed in as well. The first track, 'moist', starts off
nice and easy, and then explodes mid way through into hard, metallic-ish
beats, not mad hardcore shit though. It retains a measure of calmness and
doesn't irritate at all. Quite stylish. 'Masters' moves towards Autechre
territory with strangely structured beats and weird noises and melodies,
'starfuck' reminds me a lot of Schroeders Cat in their better moments,
with lots of interference and phasing, while 'up-tight' is almost akin to
a Laurent Garnier tune, funky tight techno. Tracks like the eight and half
minute 'Raum im ort' and 'camping' show that theres still lots of
exploring to do with this kind of music. Overall I enjoyed it, and
although it gets a bit repetitive in places, and slightly pointless in
others (e.g. 'the kid') it's definitely worthy of your collection.

The Null Set release gig: Hylton Wier were the first band on the bill, who
were unadvertised. According to Clodagh, princess of punk and all things
crust, this sort of music is called Emo, which is short for emotional
hardcore. It didn't sound much different to normal hardcore to me, except
for certain times when the band would slow down, and then it was very nice
and melodic. But it was so obvious from the way they were building up the
music, that they were just going to explode again and be too damn noisy. I
wasn't gone on their sound at all, but what did impress me was their
drummer. Holy shit. Talk about a human drum machine, this bloke was
drilling away on the snare and his feet were jumpin up and down at an
insane pace, but he kept it all in time, perfectly. One of the best
drummers I've seen in a while.
Joan of Arse were up next and although I enjoyed their 10", which was slow
and hazy, like Codeine in places, they just didn't do much for me live. I
don't think their sound transfers well to the live stage, its more for
sitting it on your own at night and drinking a bottle of whiskey to and
thinking about when you were younger and times were better. They've very
slow and relaxed on stage, but this comes across like they're bored. Even
when the singer was getting static electricity shocks on his face from
being too close to the microphone, he didn't seem too bothered about it.
The Null Set were on last and unfortunately I missed their last song due
to last bus syndrome. This was the first time I had seen them live, I
think, and I was well impressed. Nice jumpy stop-start buzz going on, all
timed to perfection. Obviously a good deal of practice had gone into their
live sound. Lots of energy as well, but it wasn't noisy to the point of
being noisy for the sake of it, which was the impression I got from Hylton
Wier sometimes. I was impressed enough to buy the 10" at the gig, which I
hadn't been able to buy before then due to a lack of cash after buying the
Railway Raver and Trans Am albums. I haven't had a chance to listen to it
yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

National Prayer Breakfast release gig: First on the bill were Palomine.
After a break in the hills of Kerry and the beaches of Portugal, this four
piece were back. They started off slightly off-tune or out of time, there
was just something slightly wrong with their sound. But after two songs
they found their rhythm again and everything was peachy. Palomine, in case
you havent seen them before, are undoubtedly one of the best bands around
at the moment, their mix of hard-edged indie-ness and hip- swinging
foot-tapping pop is a unique sound in this city, and it's a shame that
they aren't absolutely enormous. Showing their versatility, the band
members swapped around their instruments a couple of times, displaying
that there's all-round talent present. My favourite number of the night
must be that "An accident waiting to happen" one, Caoimhe's vocals are
gorgeous.
Second on the bill were the weird but wonderful Wormholes. I haven't seen
them in a long long time, although the others saw them at the
collaboration gig with Decal a while ago in the Funnel. I have the Scorpio
CD at home and I enjoyed bits and pieces of it, but this live set was
brilliant. Slightly sounding like Spiritualized in places, they built up
an enormous wall of noise slowly but surely, with a deafening crescendo at
the end, where the guitarist was using various pedals and a keyboard to
produce vibrating tones and wobbling noises. The guitarist then subjected
his guitar to further abuse by bending the neck while having it pressed
against the ceiling, producing a bending warped sound. Brilliant. Although
the Funnel is only a small venue, they put loads of effort and energy into
this gig, as if it was the last gig you were ever going to see in your
lifetime, so they were going to blow your head off. I'm not sure if their
sound goes down all that well though with the Dublin public, which is a
shame.
Finally the National Prayer Breakfast were on. This was their gig and for
the price of a fiver in, you got a copy of their new CD single, with four
tracks on it. Admittedly the highly professional CD inlay card and
newsletter made us green with envy. It's very well done and extremely
glossy, with a colour picture on the front, of all things !! They also had
the venue decked out nicely, with cartoon posters on the walls, a "Hymn
Book" distributed around with lyrics to the songs, and free sweets and
crisps around the shelves. But.. despite all this I still cant enjoy their
music. It just doesn't appeal to me at all. I tried to listen but after
two or three songs I gave up and just chatted with people in the crowd. I
listened to the CD at home then.. The only half-decent track was the
second one, "Country Death". It's slow and melodic, but the harmonica (or
whatever that instrument is) got on my nerves. The other tracks just
pissed me off, and to my ears sound much like The Stunning from a few
years ago. Most guilty culprit is the terrible "Feeding Frenzy", which has
a screechy refrain of the title through the chorus, which sounds even
worse live. Fair play to them for putting out such a professional CD, and
the decorations and stuff in the Funnel were cool, but I just can't find
anything attractive about their music.

Tortoise vs. Derrick Carter 12": I've never really seen the justificvation
for the hype surround Tortoise at all. Their first LP was interesting at
times, but I sold back "Millions now living will never die" back to
Freebird only a couple of days after I bought it. I found it boring and
slightly self-indulgent. I never bought TNT but I heard good reports about
it from friends rather than the music press, so I thought I'd give this
12" a go. Its hard to judge remixes fairlyu when you havent heard the
original that its actually vcome from, but this two track is pretty cool.
"D's Winter Crazy Dub" is nice, extremely relaxed minimal house, wityh
elements of avant garde warblings mixed on top of it. "D's Winter Outtake"
on the flip side is more upbeat, with a groovy funky bassline, combined
with plucky guitar string samples, xylophone tinkles, and general blissed
out ambience over the 4/4 beats. Very slick indeed. It's good to see house
names getting involved with more experimental noise outfits. Reccomended.

Dillinja "Hard Noise": This 12" has been out for a while on Test Records.
I picked it up in Tag Records after hearing it on Rohan's show on Power
(98.7, in case you don't know already). "Hard Noize" shows how cool vinyl
can be, with a pounding wobbler of a bassline and a dirty low-squelchy wet
melody. The vinyl picks up all the beats and somehow I just cant picture
this sounding at all similar on CD. The compilation I reviewed a couple of
issues back on Moving Shadow records was good but didn't make my chest
resonate in places, unlike this 12". Hard Noize is pretty hard, as it's
name would suggest, but still danceable and not too aggressive. "Fluid" is
extremely paranoid and edgy, with a dangerously pleasant intro, until the
beats kick in and from then on it's heads down and go. The breakdown
crashes are pretty hectic too.. it's a good track to hear coming out of an
enormous speaker stack I'' say, but on the stereo at home is gets slightly
repetitive. Not a bad release.

Chaos AD Remixes 12": Again like the Tortoise release, I haven't heard any
of the orginial Chaos AD material, so its not really fair to be reviewing
remixes.. anyway. Chaos AD in case you don't know is Tom Jenkinson AKA
Squarepusher. This 12" fits in somewhat in style with his previous pieces.
"Psultan (squarepusher mix)" is old school rave/breakbeat-oriented, with
speeded up drums and naff high pitched vocal samples mixed with acidic
melodies flying all over the place. Cool but drags on a bit in the same
vein for a while, doesn't seem to be going anywhere except around and
around. The "Every Time Mix" of Bioslate by Ceephax (also Tom Jenkinson
AFAIK) is mad acid hardcore, short and mental with the squelches. The
"Tarzan Mix" isn't much different, apart from a terrible digital
hardcore-esque scream in the middle of it. Not great. "Headstrong" is a
bit different, wandering from a hardcore track with bouncing beats, to
slightly weird ambience. It doesn't stick with either path, and instead of
going one way or another, it tries to walk the line between the two,
unsuccessfully. I am looking forward to hearing the Chaos AD material (if
CD Zone ever get around to delivering it to Thayl - don't ever order from
them, they take forever - www.cdzone.co.uk) but this 12" isnt great. He's
also reportedly got a new LP called "Music Is One Rotted Note" out around
October, and he's going to be shooting a video with Chris Cunningham for
"Come On My Selector" from Big Loada.

J.P. Buckle "Flyin Lo Fi": This is fucked up. Jason Buckle did a release
on Warp a good while back under the alias of Rubber Johnny, and this 28
track 2xLP is even more insane. Even the track titles give you an
indication of how crazy this Rephlex release is: "Send Him in, Mistress
Whip", "Cover me in Tranzparent Tatoos Please" and "Cheap Aftershave
Lingers Longer" are just typical examples. Take a little bit of Aphex,
Jega, and Global Goon, along with more 'pure' drum'n'bass producers a la
Dillinja, shove 'em all in a big dirty blender, put it on high spin, and
the sludge that emerges at the end is this LP. Most of the music is
breakbeat-driven, it's harder and darker in places, other times it veers
off into electronica territory, like "Kiss Me Quick", while frequently the
music reflects the humour of the titles. For example "Royal Court: Lets
Get Sanctioned" is quite funny and happy, with what sounds like a Jesters'
tune played over rapid breakbeats. Like the Jega LP (reviewed in S@E 35),
there's lots of different styles and beats present, and this release
actually managed to keep my interest the whole way through, which is rare
for something on Rephlex which can often be a mixed bag at the best of
times.

Joan of Arse "Le remvement triste et lent de la queue d'un vieux chien
(the sad slow wag of an old dog's tail)" I stuck this 10" on some time
well after midnight, after I had listened and reviewed all that "faceless
techno bollocks" as my brother, who listens to Oasis, calls it. This 10"
is night time music, probably goes well with a few drinks and maybe even a
cigar or two. A fine wine now mind you, this isnt your shitty
homebrew/cider music. The Arse remind me a small bit of a band called
Codeine that released a few albums on Sub Pop a few years ago. The Arse
are quite melodic and slowed down, in no hurry to build up the music.
They're content to let the guitar do the work with the tune, which I
surprisingly liked because I generally prefer treated sounds. The vocals
are slightly dodgy in places, to my ears around the higher notes the
singer just occasionally loses the note, but the singing accompanies the
music very well. This 6 tracker does get a bit depressing after a while.
The lyrics don't make for shiny happy people and the general tone is heavy
and introverted. Not bad, but I think their tunes would work better with a
lush female voice rather than the present one.

And here's a report from our mate Colm who's in Los Angeles right now.
(Lucky fucker):The Crayola Generations guide to LA: Greetings children.
How are things in the city of the small gene pool?  Well anyway it was
decided some time ago at S@E that it was  necessary  to look further
afield for some interesting topics so, armed with a ridiculously small
budget, some maps and a crap guide book your intrepid friend here was
exiled from the office and sent to The City That Never Sleeps. First
impressions? Well, it does sleep, in fact it sleeps quite a lot. From
Sunday till Thursday.  During that time period the town is empty. A pub or
club will be lucky to have one or two people in it, but on the weekend
things kinda get out of control and the city begins to live up to its
hype. But it never does. Sure you do see a lot of good looking people but
at the beach and clubs but it isn't exactly Baywatch. Hell Baywatch isn't
even Baywatch. That's set in Santa Monica and they shoot it down here in
Redondo. To make matters worse, don't expect the people to be friendly.
They tell you a lot of crap when you first meet them. One of their
favourite lines is how they always have some-one else's job. They work in
a restaurant but they're really a director/producer/actor. I keep
expecting to bump into Bruce Willis and have him tell me about the film
he's working on until he can get that 'big-break in the coffee-house
scene'. All in all if you have a conversation with your average run of the
mill Angelino expect the topic of how stressful the free-ways are  to come
up. And with good cause. There is a simple reason for this. Back home, a
road will always try to get you from A to B. In LA a road gets you from A
to B without having to go through the ghettos. As a result, millions of
WASP preppies can drive around without seeing the abject poverty that
there 'pigmentally challenged' fellow citizens live in, but I hope they're
ready for the next century, when whites become an official minority in
California for the first time. Se habla Espangol?
Colm's top tips: 1) Sales tax: Ha! Add 8% onto every listed price you see.
The highest in the US. 2) Cops: the LA County Sheriff will call you every
name under the sun right up to the point where they put the hand cuffs on.
The LAPD will call you Sir, right up to the point where they shoot you.
Drink some Guinness for me kids.

Thayl mouths off again: CDs are better than shitty vinyl: Since the dawn
of time man has been divided on this age old subject on what is better,
CDs or vinyl. Ancient vinyl-using cavemen used to batter their Neanderthal
CD-lover cousins daily, before and after lunch. "Unga bunga vinyl!!!" they
would say. "Banga dungo CDs!!" they would reply. In later years it even
got so out of hand that the Romans ordered their whole empire to use CDs
while some splitter claiming he was the son of christ kept going on about
how if everybody bought vinyl there'd be a place for them in heaven.
"Blessed are the record buyers, they shall find peace in god" he used to
say, before he got nailed to a tree.
Anyway you get the picture, nowadays it isn't so bad, people don't kill
each other over it but you could say there's still a slight animosity
between CD buyers and vinyl heads. The vinos think that they're the shit,
just because records are nice and old and phat and kool and not wack. It's
old-skool man!! Don't fear the wax. Of course the CD-people argue that
CD's are the future man, you've got to contemporize!!! Embrace the
new-age, cast off your black-circle-shackles and enter Tomorrow's World!!
I'm a CD-person. I've been buying CDs since I started listening to any
kind of music at all, way back in 1930. Actually that's a lie. CD's were
only invented in 1982. Which is why they kick ass, because they're
relatively new. So why are CD's so great and records so crap? Well I'll
tell you why.
Reason One: CD's are small. They fit into compact disc players that can be
taken anywhere. Records are big, if you tried to fit them into a compact
disk player they'd break.
Two: CD can have computer information on them like porn, or computer
games, or encyclopaedias. Records can have porn too, but it's only the
sound of porn, not the pictures.
Three: Using a machine called a CD-Recorder you can copy CD's onto other
CD's making totally perfect replicas. Thus your music collection can
double in no time. Using a machine called a tape recorder you can copy
records onto tapes, which are also crap.
Four: If you look at the back of a CD you can see yourself. If you look at
the back of a record you can see black vinyl plastic material.
Five: CD players can be programmed to skip all the tracks you hate, like
that Mark Bell one on the end of the Warp 100 compilation (that's a deadly
track !! - Stripe). If a song you hate comes onto the record player you
have to walk all the way over and kick the needle.
So there you have it, CD's are bleedin' well better. So why are people
still buying vinyl? Well, the one thing vinyl has going for it is it's
ability to go "wicka-wicka-wik-wik-weargh" when you move it back an
forward on the deck, where if you moved a CD back and forward on your CD
player all you'd hear is "clickedy-click-click-click" which isn't really
in fashion since Morse-code stopped being used. So my message to the
people of the electronic nation is this: abandon the old skool, accept the
CD as the new vinyl. Do it!!!

Stripe responds with some more mouthing off: You'll have to forgive Thayl,
as a musical fascist (one of his regular announcements to the masses is
"all music with 4/4 beats is shit") and someone who's been into decent
music for about eighteen seconds (unless you count Korn and Faith No
More), it's difficult for me to take his opinion seriously sometimes.
Part of the whole dance music culture revolves around the DJ, and vinyl is
essential for mixing properly. With the pitch sliders you can increase or
decrease the speed of your record by +8 or -8 and this allows the DJ to
blend the two records together in sync. This is virtually impossible to
achieve with CDs. I like to hear good mixing when I go out at night for a
boogie, theres nothing worse than hearing a train crash coming through the
PA, or else a DJ just turning down the volume on the first record, and
then turning up the volume on the next one (see David Holmes for example).
Thayl also seems to think that smaller size is better, maybe his
girlfriend can sort him out on that one. Its nice to hold twelve inches of
black plastic in your hands sometimes, seeing exactly where one track
starts on the grooves. The size of Vinyl also allows for nicer sleeves to
be designed. As for other types of information like porno or games on a
format, these exist already and I think should be kept separate from
music. As for CDs being reflective, well, Thayl just likes to look at his
own face. Programmable CD players are shit - they take away from the whole
album. You don't get the proper picture of an artists work if you're only
listening to their best material. Also with vinyl you have to get up and
change the side in the middle of the record - good !! That way people will
listen to more tracks and pay more attention to the music. People just
stick on CDs and then they're left in the background. People will always
know the first track of a CD but never know the 6th track as much as the
first. The fact that you can skip CDs with a press of a button also
appeals to people with a small attention span who are used to high speed
flicking of a TV remote - why bother listening to a 6 minute song all the
way through when you can just fast forward through it? Instant solution
for the quick-fix kids.
Aside from some of the crackling on vinyl, which occurs occasionally when
you don't take care of your vinyl properly, I find the bass on records
always comes out better than on CD. When a sound is digitised and filtered
through at a limited frequency (44.1 kHz is it?) I think it comes out
slightly "tinny" sounding. The analogue signals sound more deep. Vinyl can
get damaged easily but so can CDs - records may skip but CDs do also with
extreme regularity.
The one point where Thayl has some made some sort of case for CDs is the
copying element. Because the information on a CD is digital and not
analogue, so when you are copying it to another digital format (i.e. a
CDR) there is no loss in quality. It is not a copy - it's a clone. CD
burners are dropping in price all the time for the PC, at present they're
about 350 quid new, you can pick them up second hand for about 200 quid.
You can also get CD writers for your stereo now also, Richer Sounds Hi-Fi
store on Wellington Quay sells them. You can buy blank CDs for 2.50 each
in Peats of Parnell Street, and even cheaper from a place called IT Direct
on Parliament Street. This "home taping" of CDs will enable more and more
acts to put their music out on a format that the majority of the public
have access to at the moment. In that respect CDs are good.
Vinyl still holds a special place for me though. I bought my first record
around 1988 and since then I've collected around 250 pieces of vinyl, both
singles and albums. People who end up buying only CDs always end up
growing out of music when they're older, buying the occasional "greatest
hits" type shite or else really bad stuff like Celine Dion. Vinyl is still
for true music lovers, in a day when the CD is taking over..
 
Mojave 3 "Who do you love": The more mature shoegazers among you reading
this will more than likely remember a band called Slowdive from a few
years ago. Their first LP "Just for a day" was your typical indie fare at
the time. Their second long player, "souvlaki" was brilliant, a perfect
mix of ethereal shimmering tunes and experimental weirdness. The vocals of
Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell blended beautifully, especially on tracks
like "alison", which still remains one of my favourite tracks of all time.
Their third LP, "pygmalion" was unimpressive and they disappeared up their
own arse with the experimental shit. Getting back to basics, they signed
to 4AD and released the mostly acoustic "ask me tomorrow" LP under the
name Mojave 3. I listened to this a lot last summer after hectic nights
out in London, when my brain was fucked, and it really is one of the most
relaxing releases you'll ever hear. Rachel's voice is still one of the
most lush, enchanting female voices around and I could easily fall for her
in a split second if she sang close to my ear.. This "Who do you love"
single sees them continue in this light, with warm, gentle tracks. Neil
does most of the singing, with Rachel only present in the background,
which is a pity but Halstead is a good singer in his own right. Her voice
adds a nice harmony on "This Road I'm Travelling" and "Between Us". These
tracks are much like the "ask me.." LP, very mellow, downtempo, melodic,
with nice strumming and easy symbal rides. Very nice indeed. Hopefully
there'll be an LP some time soon. Mark Van Hoen (alias Locust) was
involved with the production I see also..
By the way if anyone out there has a copy of Slowdive's "5ep" which was
released on Creation a few years ago, and you'd be willing to sell it or
even do us a copy (yes yes, we know its illegal) then please get in touch
as this release is rarer than rocking horse shit.

Trans Am "The Surveillance": Hurrah again for Road Records !! Julie
recommended this when I was in the mood to make a "blind" purchase and its
pretty cool. I don't know the first thing about Trans Am, but put it this
way.. lets say that there's four of them in the band. Just hypothetically
speaking. Two of them are real guitar heads. You know, they like stuff
like chords, pedals, amps, "rocking out", playing gigs in sweaty venues
with lots of sweaty drunks sweating to the music. Then, the other two are
real mad techno heads. They like their 303s, beats, decks, "getting out of
it", playing sets in sweaty venues with lots of sweaty E-heads sweating to
the music. The two rival factions couldn't agree exactly what kind of
music they wanted to make as Trans Am, one side was producing tunes like
Access Control (reminiscent of Autechre with lots of tones) and Shadow
Boogie (short but kinda minimal fucked up hip hop), while the other side
was putting our stuff like head bopping pogo-bouncing numbers like The
Campaign, destined to be liked by long haired kids in long sleeved
t-shirts. They didn't want to split into two different bands though, cos
they all liked each other so much, and occasionally on some of the tracks
they managed to find a comprimise between the rival sides. By doing this
they've put out a CD that wont appeal to purists on either side but I
enjoyed it a lot, skipping from one genre to another (argh.. shoot me in
the head, I just used the word 'genre'). Thankfully theres no vocals on
any of the tracks, I think they would have spoiled them.. cool CD then.
Lots of energy and also intelligence to appeal to music lovers on both
sides of the divide.

Thievery Corporation "Songs from the Thievery Hi-Fi": This was another
blind purchase of sorts, the only thing I had heard by this lot was their
track "The Foundation" on the Anakin 4AD sampler out at the start of this
year. It got LP of the issue in the Event Guide, a paper which I like a
lot, and which I generally respect. I cant remember who the review was by,
either Leagues or Harry Guerin. Anyway, this came highly recommended, so I
had two hours off in the middle of the morning in between work shifts at
the time so I ran into Road and bought this. Extremely disappointing
indeed. Most of the LP is throwaway, theres only one or two tracks like
"The Glass Bead Game" and "So Vast As The Sky" that have anything going
for them, and even then they're only just alright. Its mostly dubby,
blissed out low-slung breakbeat music for smokers. Yes, chilling indeed,
but also happens to be monotonous. I can only picture this going down well
with people stoned out of their faces at some party and sitting in a hazy
room talking bollocks to one another. Its got that background music feel
to it, its like they decided that this LP was going to act as wallpaper
for stoners get-togethers everywhere. They're even just asking for smokers
to buy the damn thing with track titles like "2001 Spliff Odyssey". I
don't know if their name implies that they sample all their beats from
other people records, but they could do a lot of good for themselves if
they stole some decent tunes and ideas as well.

See you next issue then kids…