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| What's
on Disc by Thomas Schulte |
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XMAS
RECORDINGS
*Stony Plain's Christmas Blues, a
various artists' collection, will not dampen the spirits at any
festive holiday gatherings. The fourteen tracks here are upbeat,
cheerful Yuletide tunes from the talented Stony Plains Records label
"manger." Duke Robillard kicks off the collection with a
merry instrumental. He produced and features on a half-dozen of
the tracks. Other highlights include Maria Muldaur with "No
Money, No Honey," sleigh bell ornamented Kansas City blues from
Jay McShann and an authentic blues ballad from premier vocalist
Jimmy Witherspoon. |
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| *
Go around the world while you go around the tree hanging ornaments
with Putumayo's A Putumayo Christmas: World, Folk,
Blues, Jazz And Soul. This international experience
offers traditional song in new settings, Michael Doucet's Cajun
take on "We Three Kings." While there may be no "Silent Night" we
do get a sweet and serene musing upon the holiday in the Spanish
"Nadal de Luintra." More of the multi-cultural cheer includes a
bouncy Celtic "Here we come A-Wassailing" and the lively Brazilian
"Noite para Festejar." |
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 *
This is also the season of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights
that offers its own rich tradition of music. Rachel Buchman's
Shine Little Candles: Chanukah Songs for Children
(Rounder) offers 25 quick, happy tracks full of spinning dreydl
tops, menorahs and the giving of Chanukah gelt. |
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LAST
BEAT
Last
Beat
2819 Commerce St., Dallas, TX 75226;
http://www.lastbeatrecords.com
Last Beat is a record label, studio and rehearsal space owned
and operated by several female musicians. One group on the label
is Astrogin. Their CD single Shine includes
the Wipe Out Kids' Cancer Ambassadors 2000. This is local children
adding a backing chorus to Astrogin's AAA song. The kids' own writing
provided lyrics for the song. This single is a benefit for a local
anti-cancer charity.
Captain Audio's Luxury or Whether it is Better to be
Loved than Feared includes QuickTime videos for two tracks.
Captain Audio creates a potent pop blend featuring two vocalists.
Co-vocalist Regina Chellew spent time in the touring version
of Europe's Ruby. Bassist and co-vocalist Brandon Curtis
comes from punk rock group UFOFU. They distilled these slick, Euro-pop
and rowdy punk influences into pop rock with substance. Featuring
well-delivered vocals and thoughtful lyrics, the background is filled
out with tough drum beats, punctuating horns and prominent electric
guitar.
Taking a more traditional approach to power pop is PiNKSTON,
a group made up of veteran Dallas rockers. Vocalist Beth Lewis
hails from art-noise outfit Rubberbullet. Her strong voice
and clarion melodies make excellent contrast to the wall-of-noise
guitar sound. Giving it all a firm foundation is the vigorous percussion
of drummer Ben Burt (tomorrowpeople, Brutal Juice). The Pavement-like
approach to the guitars blend with Beth's vocals to approach some
of the early Throwing Muses material.
The label has a compilation bringing together the samples of their
entire roster. |
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| DECEMBER
2000 REVIEWS >>>>>>>>>> |
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 Tom
Tom Club
The Good, The Bad and The Funky
Rykodisc/Tip Top
http://www.tomtomclub.com
http://www.rykodisc.com
info@rykodisc.com
Like Talking Heads, the group Tom Tom Club's Tina Weymouth and Chris
Frantz formed with David Byrne, Tom Tom Club is a synthesis of New
Wave dance music and funk. More beat music while Talking Heads leaned
toward art rock, Tom Tom Club is about fresh beat and fun sounds.
After a mid-90's hiatus, while much of the hip-hop world played
catch up and recorded their own versions of Tom Tom Club tunes,
Tom Tom Club returned with The Good, The Bad and The Funky. The
beats are still fun and funky and Tina still sings bright and bouncy.
There is a larger amount of samples and sound bites, but nothing
that gets in the way of the success of this electro-pop. (3.5) |
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Lucy
Mongrel
Lucy Mongrel
Joe Records
http://www.joerecords.com
Lucy Mongrel puts the rhythms of a world music band with the guitar
sound of experimental indie rock. Lucy's songs are witty, sarcastic
and cutting. Non-commercial with a vengeance, this is the type of
album that you will identify with pride in someone's CD collection
years from now. Wacky and wonderful, Lucy Mongrel is a refined dash
of David Byrne, a shade of Frank Zappa and a whole of one woman
damned determined to have fun making her own artistic statement
regardless of what is going on in the music world at large. (4) |
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 Amber
Asylum
The Supernatural Parlour Collection
Release
http://www.ReleaseEntertainment.com
With Amber Asylum, Kris Force continues to explore the realms of
dark, post-Classical, post-Gothic music. She creates dark, melancholy
visions out of cellos, violins, bass, percussion and her Nico-like,
cold-soul vocal delivery. Substituting stringed instruments for
the guitars places Amber Asylum at the intersection of high art
and underground culture. The word "black" appears in four out
of seven song names here and the disc builds to a powerful, gloomy
conclusion with a version of "Black Sabbath" featuring fierce cello.
(3) |
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Wendy
Carlos
Beauty in the Beast
East Side Digital
530 N 3d St., No. 230, Mnpls, MN 55401
http://www.noside.com/esd/
Wendy Carlos is best know for her opuses interpreting popular classical
works on the synthesizer as in Switched on Bach and the soundtrack
to A Clockwork Orange. However, her most stylized and impressive
album is undoubtedly Beauty in the Beast. Quietly released in 1986,
this album now is re-mastered as an enhanced CD laden with extra
material. This album is full of the exotic sounds especially of
synthesized ethnic percussion. Tibetan gongs, Balinese gamelan and
African percussion makes this an enchanting travelogue. Shimmering
with pan-ethnic beauty, these compositions at the same time rumble
with an animalistic menace. The stark chiaroscuro of beastly danger
and beautiful exotica is what makes this recording so unique. The
enhance portion is a snapshot of the Wendy Carlos Web site. Beside
containing much information on this recording, the HTML documents
also go into Wendy other interests, such as map making and eclipses.
(4.5) |
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6X
Thunder Bomb
Daemon
http://www.daemonrecords.com/
6X are one of those rare pop-rock groups
that really deserve the term "infection." Truly joyous and engaging
their power pop affects the listener definitively. They traded in
shallow angst for witty cynicism and alt-rock guitar saturation
for a clear, bold 70's-style rock combo production mix of separated
drums, guitar, bass and vocals. Obvious influenced strongly by '70's
and 80's radio, "I Feel Better" has Nikki and The Corvettes backing
vocals and an opening from The Knack. "Attitude" smacks of Joe Jackson.
Putting it all together they come with a great rock album that everyone
that lived through the last two decades can relate to. Drummer Tim
Johnston and vocalist Lara Kiang were formerly in pop-punk outfit
17 Years. (4) |
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_________________________________
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DID
YOU MISS ANY OF TOM SCHULTE'S REVIEWS?
BACK ISSUES:
1999
| JULY | AUGUST
| SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER
| NOVEMBER | DECEMBER
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2000
| JANUARY | FEBRUARY
| MARCH | APRIL
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MAY | JUNE
|
2000 |
JULY | AUGUST
| SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER
| NOVEMBER |
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_________________________________
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Outsight
brings to light non-mainstream music, film, books, art, ideas and
opinions.
Published, somewhere, monthly since July 1991. Feel free to re-print
this article.
Ratings are (1) = :(, (5) = :)
"Don't be normal, be natural!"
Visit or Join Outsight's Web ring: http://d.webring.com/hub?ring=music1432
Outsight Radio Hours Webcasts
Sundays 6pm-8pm EST @
http://www.outsight.mu
NEW MAILING ADDRESS:
Tom 'Tearaway' Schulte,
5224 Shoreline Blvd.,
Waterford, MI 48329-1670
E-mail Outsight at: outsight@usa.net
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_________________________________
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Current
reading list:
"Code Complete" (McConnell)
"Individualism Reconsidered" (David Riesman)
Al Green's autobiography
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