Faux-grunge stuff that generally keeps the beat up-tempo. Sure helps to keep boredom from setting in immediately.

Certainly not much original musical thought here. The riffs are recycled, the vocals just a latter-day Cornell rehash. But, like I said, if you keep the speed up, the stuff is at least poppy enough to stand. For a minute or two.

And the melodies are reasonably catchy. Another flavor of the STP theory, I suppose, except that the members of Big Hate don't seem to be completely full of themselves.

The song "Simple Things" is a perfect example of the problems with the album. The guitars are a little overwrought, and the production is a bit pristine, but the underlying songwriting is decent. And then a big load of shit is dropped right in the middle. That kind of thing can ruin a nice pop song. Perhaps if this wasn't crafted as to satisfy a marketing report...

But it was. If Big Hate were to drop some of the grunge silliness and stick to heavy pop, that might be a little more satisfying, in my book.

One part hardcore, one part pop, one part grunge. Once again, I have to ask: Why?

The pop-hardcore thing is a good idea, well-executed by quite a few bands. And for moments (the verse of "Flip the Switch Fantastic" in particular) Both Worlds manages just fine.

But the lyrics are not strong enough to anthemize, and that's just what happens. The whole grandiose methodology of grunge does not fit with the other ideas. By the end of EP, everything has just merged into a blur of generic guitars and silly rants.

I hate to reiterate this every week. I really hate to rail on album after album this way. But this is the fact: There hasn't been a big new grunge band since Candlebox, and even fans of their first album (pathetic fools) have to admit now that those fuckers suck. So quit trying to be cool by sounding like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden and folks like that. The stuff is passe. It's dull. It's time to try something else.

And now, off the soapbox and back to your regularly scheduled reviews.

Category-defying music that once existed in Richmond.
A few foreign students, some locals (including Tim Harris, who has since found a nice home in Kepone) draping plenty of cool sounds around basic dancehall grooves. Samples, moody vocals and wonderful atmospheric guitar licks (courtesy of Mr. Harris, of course) permeate the air.

I don't like much reggae stuff in general ; I don't like much dub or ska in particular; acid-jazz is not my thing. But Burma Jam manages to merge all that and more into an astonishingly addictive sound. The story of the band is that the "out-of-towners" went back to Uganda and Jamaica, and some other local sorts stepped in to keep the thing going. This disc is the second (recorded in 1992), and has the original membership intact.

Ahead of the current trends by a few years, Burma Jam also does this stuff so much better than just about anyone I've heard. While it's almost impossible to explain the difference between a band who loves the music it plays and one that's angling for a record deal, Burma Jam is a perfect counter-point to any of the Caribbean groove pretenders out there.

I sure didn't expect to like this. But that didn't stop me from having a wonderful time. Burma Jam will win over all comers.

First, a note about the sponsors: Fifth Colvmn.

Many of you are no doubt familiar with Chemlab (If not, then you should consider getting educated). Fifth Colvmn licensed Burn Out to Metal Blade, but the new one stays home. These folks are purveyors of some fine industrial works. Okay, now the review of this band.

Weird ass name, no doubt about it. and C17... lives up to that with meandering experimental fare. Nuance and subtlety are the tool here, supplanting usual suspects speed, distortion and volume.

No, these folk are perfectly willing to spend 8 minutes (or longer) to weave a complex musical web that isn't ambient by a long shot, but certainly will throw those expecting a Skinny Puppy or Pigface-like take on electronic music.

Kinda reminds me of early In the Nursery. Snippets don't do it justice; a full listen is required. And anyway, this band doesn't speak in bits and pieces; it uses big words and sentences with impeccable structure.

Completely impressive. C17... has a good grasp on composition and structure, and is not afraid to challenge to listener. Always a good thing. Those with patience will be rewarded.

A side project containing Bryan Black of Haloblack, Eric Powell of 16 Volt, Jared Hendrickson and Dylan Thomas of Chemlab and Charles Levi of MLWTTKK (knowhutimeen?). A nice pedigree, indeed.

A very sterile sound, complete with half-spoken vocals, a spare drum machine and the odd techno warblings in the background. And the usual wandering bass.

The whole proceedings are quite reserved, considering where these guys come from. But it's precisely that restraint that gives the impression all hell is about the break loose, bringing wonderful tension that adds immensely to the appeal. The thing is, the expected pain never arrives. Obviously the concept was laid out before the creation of the music, and the boys never wandered out of the parameters.

Not what you would expect from this crew, but such things result from a successful side venture. No, this isn't the catchy guitar-driven sound of the guys' regular gigs. But the departure is not only refreshing, it's quite satisfying in its own right. Hellbent has that technopop thing down rather well.

Another sampling of the ever-present German industrial pop stuff.

Goes down like cotton candy. A little is sweet and yummy. Too much, and you puke like a dog. Only five tracks here, so there's not too much temptation that way. Klute has a little more goth in the mix than, say, Die Krupps, and obviously this is a little more techno, too. But then, chances are you've heard Klute before.

I've never been terribly impressed with Klute's creativity, but this is nicely catchy, with beats perfect for dance floor grinding. Okay, so you've heard it all before. I have too. The folk still manage to pump enough oomph to keep the clubs happy. You could find many worse generic dance bands.

Creamy, distortion-laden pop from Rhode Island (but with a definite Chicago feel).

A mostly new set of tunes (as opposed to last year's singles compilation), though this does include "Grave Digger", which was part of the Thick picture disc series. Albini took control the knobs on about half the tunes (most of the others were recorded back in Providence by Jon Williams), with no detrimental effects. The Laurels fit in well with Albini's theory of "cool guitars, fuck the vocals", spinning layers of fury over unusual rhythms and bass lines.

And, anyway, the Laurels are quite unique. No producer could shove songwriter/bandleader Jeff Toste and his revolving cast (currently including Dare Matheson on drums and Ryan Lesser on guitar) into a niche. And I can't imagine why anyone would even try.

Obviously a real treat for fans of Slint, any of the Jim O'Rourke projects and that kinda thing. I can't find the spark that would make this a truly god-like effort, so the Laurels will have to be content with simply a very good album. Ain't life a bitch?

Not the outstanding Skin Graft artist, which goes by the moniker U.S. Maple anyway. This Maple plays pop music in a much more straightforward way. Singer Bryony (female, if you couldn't deduce that from the name) has the standard affected style, but the music is amusing enough to make even that attractive.

Sure, this sounds rather drafted for the big leagues. Simple song construction, with just enough dissonance to satisfy them frat-boy "alternative" types. But the presentation is pleasantly low-key, and like I said, the music is decent enough.

Nothing groundbreaking, just reasonably good. Maple wends a few nice tunes down the pike, hoping for good returns. Eminently forgettable, but a nice ride nonetheless. If inoffensive, facile pop is what you want, Maple will service fine.

The final outing from this fine bunch of Swedes (whose ranks include Dan and Benny from Edge of Sanity). For the unwashed hordes who may be unfamiliar, Pan-Thy-Monium presents a vision of death metal untainted by convention or good taste.

Nope, these guys throw everything into the pot (plenty of Maiden, a few John-Zorn-esque hardcore jazz breaks and plenty of really messy keyboard work) and hope it comes out alright. Luckily, we are dealing some truly talented folk, and the truly epochal songs (coming in at 12, 14 and seven minutes, respectively) are wondrous musings of the dark variety.

Masturbatory as all get out, of course, but the excesses serve to make the whole stronger. There is a sense of purpose, and the extravagance stays within the necessary bounds of the musical concept.

And some truly amazing riffage. When the stuff gets going, the sound is awesome. You'll be hearing this stuff in your dreams (and certainly your nightmares).

Hey, how often have you heard a blazing death metal riff interrupted by a few toots of a sax, followed by a blazing set of dueling guitar and keyboard solos? And following that up with some pure sampled noise? Not for the squeamish or the doctrinaire, but aficionados of truly adventurous music will find pure bliss here.

Certainly British. How else could a band justify a pseudo-industrial instrumental song to kick of and album, follow that with a really poppy (with Fall features) tune and then rip into a really messy eight-minute strident guitar piece?

I suppose creativity has something to do with that. Inconsistency is a word that pops up, too. At least the folk have plenty of ideas, good or otherwise. That's always appreciated here.

The big Melody Maker spread included with the press has a big blurb saying "Live, they've got the potential to be absolutely crap". See, in England that can be taken as a recommendation. If you're in the right frame of mind.

God knows how to categorize this wild collection of songs. All over the pop universe, and not coherent enough to really keep the ear of your average bloke. With all the odd directions this album takes, it's pretty hard to pin Prolapse down to anything. The consistency question again. Prolapse is decidedly undecisive.

But ultimately interesting. Those with a real affection for Britpop should gain some pleasure from this, and anyone who wants to hear a band struggling to define itself (on record) would probably dig it as well. Prolapse may be adrift without a compass, but at least the voyage hits a few interesting points of call.

Oddly underproduced heavy techno with a decided goth tone. And plenty of antisocial musings for the kiddies. Just like Six Six Six Nights in Hell.

Strangely enough, that album caught on with a few metal guys at college radio. Diversity rules, man. But Psychopomps is cool enough to find a home in many formats with lots of people. And that outreach only helps the sound.

Yeah, this is German, but not of the guitar-friendly variety. These folk are on the same German label as X Marks the Pedwalk (perhaps the finest hard techno band in the universe; new album reviewed below), and that explains a lot. Moderately experimental, heavily addicting.

An acquired taste, surely, but one that many folks should be able to pick up without too much effort. The ability to jump genres without really changing the base sound is valuable, one Psychopomps learned years ago.

The press and liner notes don't seem to agree on some facts, but here's what I have divined: This disc contains songs from a couple albums released on Merciful Records, which, of course, is the original Sisters of Mercy UK imprint. Andrew Eldritch did some of the producing. Gives you an idea of what's to come.

Gothic-influenced pop industrial stuff. Some really long tunes, too. Apparently there are four more James Ray albums coming out through Fifth Colvmn here in the U.S. I assume they're re-issues.

Ray avoids some of the dreary excesses that later Sisters stuff got bogged down in, and simply cranks out quite a few moody yet catchy tunes. Good enough for me. Sure, he's taking whole pages right out of the Sisters' book, but if Eldritch has signed off on it, I guess he doesn't mind.

Another one of those "if that's your thing" deals, but I know there's a bunch of Sisters fans out there, and Ray replicates that concept pretty well without too much silliness. A fine execution of someone else's original concept.

Hawaii's biggest industrial band. Sez so much, eh?

Of course, getting help from Birmingham 6 (who remixed "Cyberium" and mastered the disc along with Lene Reidel) can't be a bad thing.

Rather techno oriented for such a heavy sound (bringing to mind FLA more than once), Razed in Black does a good job of building the sound in each song to a fever pitch. Using the same song construction can get repetitive and dull, but RiB does a decent job of manipulating the process and switching gears when necessary.

The key to this is the great sound achieved by Reidel and Birmingham 6. The tones are sharp, and the music cuts through space like a razor. No mush allowed. And even with this edgy sound, RiB still conveys a wide range of emotions.

A cool disc to explore. Plenty of good songs; a fun trip through the techno side of the industrial dance sound.

The latest Doctor Dream release is often a good way to gauge the current cool punk sound in Orange County. And to prove that theory, here's the Screaming Bloody Marys, produced by East Bay Ray. Okay, so they're a bit north of Anaheim.

Not nearly so poppy as the usual East Bay sound (and since the band hails from SF itself, that makes some sense), the Marys propagate more of a classic punk sound. Pretty heavy guitars, but still decent tuneage.

Which means the band fits right in with the Doctor Dream lineup. This is a tres L.A. sound, though the Marys crank out much catchier tunes than the average L.A. band. Speedy and in-your-face, with hooks.

And not much more than that. Close enough for rock and roll, but not brilliant or anything. Just your better-than-average punk band cranking out plenty of attitudinal tunes. Nothing to complain about.

More hard techno for the elektro fan. I can dig it.
A little more lush than Transmission Pervous, with more emphasis on songwriting. I like. Very much.

All in all, more coherent and attractive than the first album. Yeah, that cuts down on the experimental touches, but then, Steril wasn't heavy into that, anyway. This is music ready-cranked for the dance floor.

And plenty of good humor, too. Like the sample from Simon and Garfunkel's Concert in Central Park. I'm not sure what it's meant to do, but it sure is funny. And once the laughs are done, the beat kicks in again. Fine by me.

Much more satisfying than Pervous, in every way possible. Steril is almost up to X Marks to the Pedwalk territory here. Not a clunker in the bunch.

Hyper-aggressive elektro stuff from former members of the awesome Stereotaxic Device.

Cranking things up to the Ultraviolence or Numb level, T.H.C. packs enough distortion and speed into the songs to satisfy any fan of that kind of electronic madness. Coherence is not a virtue; simplicity is a sin.

And I'm kinda bummed by all the aggro. When T.H.C. slows down (you have to sometimes), the lack of songwriting skills really shows up. Yeah, this will work for the speed freak, but T.H.C. is not terribly innovative, and the songs tend to degenerate into beat frenzies just a bit too often for my taste.

A little more work on the composing would do wonders. T.H.C. has the sound and attitude down. All it needs are some contemplative skills.

Wacky pop stuff with widely-varying production. At times the tape hiss can be deafening.

Mostly this reminds me of stuff like Chevy Heston, though Tracy and Co. are not quite up to that level. The lyrics are kinda moronic and the melodies have a sing-song quality at times. And that Casio drum machine sound really starts to grate after a while.

Still, Margaret Dumont is a charming enough album. It's so fucking silly I can't help but be amused. I can't imagine this going anywhere, but for nutty pop stuff it's good enough. Certainly no one else would lay claim to this sound (and I'm not sure why these folk would want that, either).

Quirky and amusing. Creative enough to keep my interest. Strange enough to keep any normal person miles away. But I've never claimed that last appellation, myself.

The slavish devotion many folk have to Bauhaus still eludes me. Sure, the band was one of the first true goth bands (back when the term didn't exist), but come on.

Well, I suppose there have been sillier tributes (the Eagles and Kiss ones come to mind, mostly for the similar personnel), but Bauhaus was always this close to being a self-parody (a fact admitted in the liners here) it strikes me as strange so many would take the band so seriously.

Alright, my revision of music history aside, this is still a redundant and absurd tribute. Goth bands wrapping even more pretension around Bauhaus songs that are hollow in the core. There is simply so little substance here, the songs blow away with the first little breath of wind.

The goth-industrial reworking of "Dark Entries" by Kill Switch... Klick is about the most interesting bit here, and it's one of the lesser things that band has ever done. Take away the pun in the tribute's title and there is even less to like in the set. I've never made any bones about it: Tributes are mostly crap, in my opinion. This once certainly doesn't change my mind.

I've sworn by this band since hearing The Killing Had Begun. A masterful mix of hard techno, electronic experimentation and addictive grooves and melodies puts X Marks the Pedwalk ahead of almost every other electronic act around.

As if to prove the point, the title track (which leads off the set) is almost an ambient piece, with subtle beats and a mellow groove. Somewhat of a departure, but well-executed. And then plenty of what made the band famous: club tunes with an astonishing array of sounds and moods. And, yes, a few trance-like introductions. Done with the ultimate in style. Of course.

Some might complain about the length of the tunes (the average is well over six minutes) or the excessive intros. Valid to a point, I guess. But I didn't get bored one bit throughout. There's more than enough going on to keep even the most ardent speed freak amused. And once the full song kicks in, well, I don't know a person who can resist.

X Marks the Pedwalk in full stride is an awesome sound indeed. Eight songs (and a remix) are hardly enough, and yet more than necessary to satisfy my need for fine electronic music. Another amazing performance.

Standard dance-pop rhythms (even venturing into the disco), with vocals that are alternately ethereal and sharp. A few acid-house keyboards tossed in for good measure. Just a bit of a mess.

The strangest bit is that I get a real "retro" feel from this. For the uninitiated, retro is my term for the new wave stuff of the early 80s. My junior high music, or retro. I'm not sure if this is intentional. I could simply be crazy. It's happened before.

Amusing enough to keep my interest, but not good enough to make me play it again. Zia sounds like it is trying very hard to make this stuff. The melodies don't quite flow correctly, and the vocals are often at odds with the music. The music itself sounds disjointed much of the time, shifting rhythms and sounds without much thought for continuity.

I like the sparse sound (which is probably where I get the retro feel), but Zia needs to work more on song construction. And singer Elaine Walker needs to sings a bit more confidently. Often enough she seems to be merely tossing off the words rather than imbibing the proceedings with some emotion.

Simplicity in an industrial act is a good idea, but Zia has some ways to go before it properly implements the concept.