"Everything, Everything"
Underworld
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At the end of 1999 Underworld returned from their "Beaucoup
Fish" tour utterly exhausted after almost two years of
international touring. It was the final straw for deck
wizard Darren Emerson, who picked up his record box, jetted
off to Uruguay, and claimed his mantle as a globe-trotting
international DJ, turning his back on Underworld forever.
Rick Smith, however, reacted to the experience of coming off
tour in a very different way. Locking himself in the studio
for eight months, he watched and listened to tape after tape
of the Underworld's live experience, examining it,
dissecting it, evaluating it. The result is "Everything,
Everything," a 75-minute compilation of the band's greatest
onstage moments that seriously lives up to its name.
"Essence"
A Guy Called Gerald
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U.K.-based producer A Guy Called Gerald, who helped invent
drum & bass, has consistently set new musical benchmarks
that cagily straddle the line between experimentation and
melody. This latest album from the creator of the house
classic "Voodoo Ray" shows that he is still capable of
pushing the envelope, though not beyond the breaking
point. "Essence" is packed full of vocal cuts in a soulful
breakbeat style.
"Back to Mine"
Groove Armada
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Prior to the breakthrough success of their second album,
"Vertigo," Groove Armada (Tom Findlay and Andy Cato) were
better known as successful club DJs who plied their trade in
clubs the length and breadth of England, from Tangled in
Manchester to the End in London. For their first mix CD they
eschew uptempo dance-floor tunes in favor of a far more
laid-back repertoire. It's an eclectic mixture of classic
and modern--from Barry White to Tears for Fears, stopping at
all stations along the way.
"Behind the Sun"
Chicane
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As pop trance records go, this is a pretty damn good one.
Isolating the more jubilant properties of trance, the beat
is a light bounce, levitating above club-dance brainlessness
and sounding like a house music hybrid meant for sparkling
sunshine instead of dark and sweaty warehouses. They exist
in an idealized, pseudo-enlightened fairy tale filled with
bright colors and youthful beauty. None other than Bryan
Adams lends his raspy tenor to the subtle grooves and
euphoric dreaminess of "Don't Give Up," and it's actually
good. Sit back and enjoy the summery grooves while there is
still a taste of summer left in the air around you.
"El Baile Aleman"
Senor Coconut y Su Conjunto
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Uwe Schmidt has taken the techno DIY trip of releasing
myriad recordings under multiple identities to extremes,
releasing CDs under dozens of aliases--among them Atom
Heart, Geez 'N' Gosh, Flanger, and now Senor Coconut.
Hilarious and reverent at the same time, Senor Coconut y Su
Conjunto's "El Baile Aleman" is a collection of breezy, fun
covers of Kraftwerk songs performed in Latin styles. It's
the tribute album of the year thus far.
"Disappeared"
Spring Heel Jack
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On "Disappeared," Spring Heel Jack forge an energizing
alliance between the populist and the avant-garde, splicing
together dance-floor rhythms with free jazz dynamics. The
title track, "Disappeared 1," even opens with a blast of
discordant and distorted bass clarinet, whose circular
squall hangs in the air like an avian predator. What follows
sounds like electric-era Miles Davis stapled to a subliminal
wash of therapeutic synths, by turns contemplative and
extremely agitating. "Disappeared 2" uses the bass clarinet
to underpin a meandering melody with an insistent
hoochy-coochy rhythm. This is dance music with a spring in
its step as it fast-forwards to the future.
"Music"
Madonna
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With producer William Orbit by her side, Madonna pulled
world-class electronica into the pop realm with her trip-
hop-inspired release "Ray of Light." On "Music," French DJ
and producer Mirwais Ahmadzai shares production billing,
giving the early '80s electro-pop in Madonna's ubiquitous
title track a modern makeover. Daring as always, the
self-reinventing pop goddess once again takes an established
form and makes it her own. "Music" heralds the power of the
medium to bring people together and is destined to resurrect
the freakazoid in all of us. (That is, if your freakazoid is
at all dormant in the first place.)
"Solaris"
Photek
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It may come as a shock to the purists, but after two albums
of pushing abstruse drum & bass to minimalist and epic
extremes, the U.K.-based producer has thrown a heap of new
sounds onto his percussive palette. To some, "Solaris" is
going to sound like a chicken in search of a roost--both
"Can't Come Down" and "Mine to Give" are pure 1988 old
school Chicago house. What's missing in terms of coherence
is more than made up by the visceral power of Photek's
intense, stripped-down production.
EDITOR'S CHOICE
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"Tourist"
St Germain
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Ludovic Navarre, a.k.a. St Germain, has displayed a deep
affinity for American roots music by funking up the 4/4
electronic world with a little blues and gospel since the
early '90s. "Tourist," his first album for Blue Note,
further spices his own brand of weird, almost downtempo deep
house with a solid jazz base. "Tourist" is an album that you
put on the stereo at a fantastic, idyllic beach bar at
sunset and set on repeat.
RECOMMENDED REISSUE
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"South Bronx Story"
ESG
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You've heard the samples, now it's time to check out the
source material! ESG occupy a very individual place in the
musical no man's land between "no wave"-era punk and the
alternative dance culture of the '80s. The all-female group
inadvertently established themselves as antecedents to house
with "Tiny Sticks" and "Moody" and to hip-hop with "UFO"
(later sampled by Public Enemy and Big Daddy Kane). The
Scroggins sisters developed a particularly weird, lovely
blend of punk-funk and dance-floor fusion with a stripped-
down sound of rapid drums and percussion, solid grooves, and
bass lines to die for.
AMBIENT SPOTLIGHT
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"Agaetis Byrjun"
Sigur Ros
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The Reykjavik-based ambient sonic squall quartet Sigur Ros
are the biggest band in their native Iceland. And while they
are in no way danceable, their music is so great we had to
get up on our soapbox and tell you about them. Poised
somewhere between the haunting soundscapes of My Bloody
Valentine circa "Loveless," the noise deconstruction of
Mogwai, and the lilting Celtic falsetto of Enya, "Agaetis
Byrjun" is a truly breathtaking listen. This is an amazing
record that spans genres.
FOCUS ON INDIE DANCE POP
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"Fun 9"
Takako Minekawa
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Takako Minekawa's eclectic, addictive 1999 disc of
electronic avant-pop music, "Fun 9" ably demonstrates why
she is an important figure in Japan's fertile electronic
scene. Similar in some ways to the music released on
Nobukazu Takemura's Childisc label, Minekawa's songs are
strange yet sugary, childlike yet complex.
VISIT OUR VIDEO & MUSIC SOFTWARE STORE
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So we decided to throw a party--a real party with a DJ and
everything--and in he walks with nothing but a laptop. What
followed was an ass-shaking DEMON-stration of the power that
music software holds, with Mixman Studio Pro and a host of
MP3s doing the honors. You'll find plenty of software for
sequencing, mixing, burning, ripping, and other ways of
producing musical mayhem in our Video & Music Software Store.
on Sale
Albita : Son, May 09
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Capleton : More Fire, May 16
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DJ Honda : Turnablist Revolution, May 09
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Five : Invincible, May 16
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Keoki : DJ Mixed.Com, May 09
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Orbit : Tonedeaf, May 15
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Reality : Mind Over Matter-Album, May 09
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Snowboy : Soul Of Snowboy, May 16
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Spring Heel Jack : Oddities, May 09
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Tony Touch : Rican-Struction Ep, May 15
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Underworld : Beaucoup Fish, May 16
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We : Decentertainment, May 09
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Albita : Son, May 09
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Duke : Kill Them Slowly, May 05
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Keoki : DJ Mixed.Com, May 09
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Primal Scream : Xtrmntr, May 02
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Reality : Mind Over Matter-Album, May 09
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Spring Heel Jack : Oddities, May 09
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We : Decentertainment, May 09
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NEW AND NOTABLE
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"Exterminator"
Primal Scream
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Primal Scream's sixth album, "Exterminator," is an angry,
inventive dance-rock hybrid rife with apocalyptic
invective. From the Chemical Brothers-ish "Swastika Eyes" to
the noisy, brilliant, slowly building "MBV Arkestra (If They
Move, Kill 'Em)"--featuring My Bloody Valentine mastermind
Kevin Shields, these seven minutes alone are worth the price
of admission--this is easily one of the year's best.
"Hong Kong"
John Digweed
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A mere five months after releasing his exquisite double-CD
"Bedrock," John Digweed returns with an agile piece of
turntable mastery for the next--perhaps riskiest--chapter in
the popular Global Underground series. Diving into a shadowy
and more varied collection of down-and-dirty house and
computer-age funk, Digweed's transitions are once again
almost inhumanly smooth as he slips his light touch into the
outer edges of trance. Digweed's style shines through this
gloriously mucky mix, remaining lighter than air even when
the beats are downright subterranean.
"A Shocking Hobby"
Speedy J
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In the background of "Balk Acid," the fourth song on Speedy
J's fourth album, you can hear a reminder of the music this
Rotterdam-based techno producer used to make. A series of
gently ambient synth chords deliberately climb their way up
and down the scale, evoking the placidity of a savanna at
night. The foreground is where the wild things are.
Breakbeats scurry about, flame on, flame out. Nasty
breakbeats at that: clipped, tuned to pitches that scrape
against the ear, distorted almost to the point of
absurdity. They move ever so slowly, at the blunted tempos
gangsta rap favored before Timbaland and the electrofied
Dirty South redefined the game. The dance-floor culture that
once spawned him most likely no longer knows what to do with
his music. But that probably tells us more about dance
floors than it does about him.
"DJmixed.com"
Keoki
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Bouncing from grand trance to down-and-dirty house,
superstar DJ Keoki's latest mix record is the first of a new
series by the label Moonshine (everybody loves a series, don't
they?). This line is promoted as a place to find the latest
electronic music and explore the ins and outs of DJ culture.
They're really on to something if they manage to harness
more of the turntable skill and star wattage that Keoki so
easily displays on this enjoyable collection.
"Journey Inwards"
LTJ Bukem
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Though he was once on top of the drum & bass heap, in recent
years LTJ Bukem, king of ambient D&B, has been pushed aside
in favor of the hard and dark sound of tech-step. "Journey
Inwards" marks his long-awaited return and an attempt to
reclaim his throne in the fickle drum & bass community. True
to form, Bukem turns in a two-disc set of songs heavy on the
reverb, caressed by light lyrics and sweet singing
throughout. Whether he's playing with scattershot drums or
mellow-yellow downtempo, Bukem manipulates the mood as
deftly as he chops a beat.
"Global Underground: Nu-Breed"
Anthony Pappa
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Boxed Records, which has built legions of loyal followers by
marshaling the world's best-known trance DJs for their
Global Underground series, now look to mine a new generation
of mixologists bubbling just under the surface. This first
double-CD entry in the Nu-Breed series, featuring Italian-
Australian DJ Anthony Pappa, incorporates a darker, more
house-oriented sound than most of the GU discs, while
admirably avoiding any obvious glow-stick-waving anthems.
There's a progressive, genre-skipping resourcefulness that
provides snap and crackle to the beats. Talented, nameless
shadow-men lurk behind turntables in clubs all over the
world. After this dreamy and admirable effort, Pappa should
soon find his name on everyone's lips.
"Who Needs Guitars Anyway?"
Alice Deejay
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Alice Deejay finds its inspiration at the nexus where house
music meets Eurovision songwriting. "Who Needs Guitars
Anyway?" provides a mixture of melodies that are heavily
Europop, with maybe a dash of contemporary U.S.
Britney-'n'-Backstreet Top 40 over a beat that started with
Giorgio Moroder in the late '70s, took a trip through the
British Hi-NRG style in the '80s, and hasn't yet quit. The
handiest comparison to someone who has combined a similar
set of elements in an obviously successful way is to Cher
and her hit "Believe."
"Explosion"
The Modernist
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There are no real jolts on this debut full-length by Jorg
Burger, a.k.a. the Modernist; "Explosion" is all steady
pulse and flow. House inflects a number of the tracks and
elements of dub and R&B can be found. "Channel 28" stands
out for a couple of reasons: its sensuous swing and
atmospheric, beat-free intro and outro. Vocal chatter and
guitar parts make an appearance on "Manson Soup," which
nevertheless fits right into the album's general tone of
low-key restraint. "Explosion," like so much minimal
techno, throbs with self-contained tension.
REST IN PEACE: SUBA
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"Sao Paulo Confessions"
Suba
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Suba's "Sao Paulo Confessions" is a wonderful soundscape
intended to bring the 18-million-strong city to musical
life. The result is a magical blend of Afro-Brazilian
rhythms, dreamy vocals, and forward-looking techno. A
posthumous release, "Confessions" shows a young musician in
the forefront of a new generation of electronically savvy
musicians intent on updating the smooth yet intricate sounds
of samba and bossa nova. The album is subtly intoxicating;
Suba will be missed.
OUR CUSTOMERS RECOMMEND: PEACE ORCHESTRA
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"Peace Orchestra"
Peace Orchestra
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A music lover from New Zealand recommends Peace Orchestra's
self-titled debut: "Peter Kruder's 'Peace Orchestra' is
nothing short of a downtempo masterpiece. The album as a
whole has a laid-back, dreamy feel, as well as remaining
slick and polished. [It] almost sounds too complex to be a
solo effort. If you dig electronica consisting of funky bass
lines, fine drum beats, and a thinly scattered use of
vocals, 'Peace Orchestra' is important."
TRANCE DELIGHTS: A NEWLY UPDATED LIST
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Really great trance music transports the listener to nether
regions of space, time, and sound. Amazon.com has a list of
crucial trance CDs--from Sasha and Digweed to BT and Paul
van Dyk--for your blissed-out brain.
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IN DVD AND VIDEO: "AIR: EATING, SLEEPING, WAITING, AND PLAYING"
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"Air: Eating, Sleeping, Waiting, and Playing" (1999) (NR) DVD
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A customer from Chicago recommends the DVD "Air: Eating,
Sleeping, Waiting, and Playing": "This is one quirky
film. It had me puzzled at first, but by the end I was
laughing out loud. Yes, this is a documentary about Air's
(the French band) first world tour with their album 'Moon
Safari.' It contains playful interviews with the artists
themselves, band members, and average people on the street.
I just wish it contained more concert footage of the show
itself. All four music videos are included, especially
'Kelly Watch the Stars.' Overall, a fun documentary trying
to capture and understand the insanity of touring."
EDITOR'S CHOICE: "A NIGHT AT THE PLAYBOY MANSION"
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"A Night at the Playboy Mansion"
Dimitri from Paris
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French musician and DJ Dimitri from Paris seamlessly weds
subtle lounge and house elements in his decadent retro-disco
mix disc "A Night at the Playboy Mansion." If you close your
eyes and just listen, you'll be transported behind the
velvet ropes of Studio 54 in 1976, where the disco-funk was
thicker than smoke. It's great to have you back, Dimitri!
