Mouse on Mars
Niun Niggung (Thrill Jockey)
There's enough squawking silicon here to please the most finicky electronica gourmand. But this German duo haven't lost their souls to samplers and digital sound processors. Beneath the giddy knob-twisting lurk timbral textures built from good old French horn, cello, broom bass, and MoM's most endearing instrument - humor.
The Busy Signals
Baby's First Beats (Sugar Free)
This disc is a perfect soundtrack for a flying/falling dream: You're floating along, looking down at the tiny, twinkling house lights below; all is peaceful. Suddenly, you realize you need to flap your wings - which you didn't even know you had.Baby's First Beats weaves in and out of soft lo-fi melodies and jarring alterna-grooves, providing a trying yet exhilarating airborne experience. Most tracks are cleverly styled, though the flow is occasionally interrupted by generic, wannabe-experimental pop-tarts. Nevertheless, Beats' oddball array of noise blends well with our natural rhythms. Besides, a little effort is nothing when you can fly.
Femi Kuti
Shoki Shoki (MCA)
The son of Nigerian iconoclast Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti bears the weight of his country's political strife and his father's profound musical legacy. Shoki Shoki builds upon the Afro-beat formula his dad developed and perfected - big-band instrumentation featuring vibrant horns over elaborate, polyrhythmic drumming. Antiphonal chants resound throughout, with Femi asking, "What will tomorrow bring for Africa?" and urging his countrymen, "Black man know yourself / Don't forget your past." Yet these admonitions are delivered over exuberant arrangements that serve as affirmations of a brighter future.
Air
Original Motion Picture Score for "The Virgin Suicides" (RecordMakers/Source/Astralwerks)
As a follow-up to their 1998 hipster smash,Moon Safari, this French pair have assembled a fanciful, compelling score toThe Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola's directorial debut. The structure meanders a bit and the tone is subdued, but this is, after all, program music. Air turns these 13 sketches of songs into a model for the modern soundtrack.
Blue Man Group
Audio (Blue Man Group/Virgin)
Hammering away on percussion instruments of their own creation - the shaker gong, the drum bone, the backpack tubulum (which also launches fireworks) - Blue Man Group created an off-Broadway sensation called *Tubes.*Audio expands on the stage gig, rolling out more musicians and a full range of instruments. The resulting tracks are melodic as well as percussive, though the key concept here is syncopation from another blue world.
Catatonia
Equally Cursed and Blessed (Atlantic)
Frontwoman Cerys Matthews' sensuously raw Marianne Faithfull-meets-Björk voice is admittedly an acquired taste. Still, it's a perfect off-kilter counterpoint to this Welsh band's alternately shimmery, twangy, even Kurt Weill-ish pop. From the soaring, stringed opener "Dead From the Waist Down" and the witty ditty "Mulder and Scully" to the disturbingly lovely "Bulimic Beats," where a Welsh harp hovers like a lovelorn spirit,Equally Cursed and Blessed's 14 tracks ultimately embrace you.
Thisway
Thisway (Reprise)
When your third-grade teacher said you weren't living up to your potential, she was trying to unearth the genius buried somewhere in your 8-year-old brain. The members of Thisway clearly did not listen to their teachers. The quartet's generic rock falls somewhere between John Mellencamp and Better Than Ezra - not a good place to be, given the other dozen groups in the space. "She Takes," "Tool," and "Dry Out" all rely on formula guitar chords, machinelike drumming, and vocals that sometimes strain to convey emotion. Lyrics? Most are about lost love, family problems, personal angst. I'd go with a 99-cent Hallmark card.
Robin Andre
Paper Bag (RCA)
Robin Andre knows who he sounds like: Bad Brains' H. R., a young Bob Marley, a next-gen Grandmaster Flash. What's unclear, however, is how influential the young artist will be, with his singsongy, quick-rhyming style and a backup band that vacillates between reggae, hip hop, and pop. Honest if a bit self-indulgent,Paper Bag is a book of Andre's short stories, tracing his insomnia, his humanitarianism, his fondness for round booty. Flash or fixture?
STREET CRED
Camtastic
The Drive to Drive
Bot-Conquest
Is That a V Series in Your Pocket ...
Scripting With Sharks
A Brighter Idea
This Life's for You
Read Me
Music
Meat and Greet
The Rite Stuff at JPL
Headset Smasher
Thief of Arts
Just Outta Beta
Think Small
Finding the Fast Lane Fast
Contributors
