Extremely calculated pop music. Every little discordant bit has been pasted into its proper place, decorating fairly catchy little songs.

Posies lite? Yeah, I can say that. Like if Alex Chilton had made that third Big Star album while on coffee instead whatever he could get his hands on. And its exactly that preconceived feel that punches Agnes Gooch the wrong way.

Great pop music is found, not made. I know, I promised I would quit foisting my faux-eastern philosophy on the masses, but I'm pretty sure about this idea. It's real easy to write a three-chord song. My old dog wrote three or four. The trick is making it sound natural. Agnes Gooch has no idea how to do that.

As the album wears on, the more annoyed I get. Oh, there's some potential. These guys understand more music theory than I'll even be able to even glance at. But there's no there here. No soul. Nothing holding the stuff together. In the end, it's just a few chords and the odd shout.

CMI specializes in hardcore Gothic stuff, and Arcana is no exception. Comparisons to early Dead Can Dance are certainly in order, although Arcana proves itself capable of shifting from sparse to atmospheric in a (relative) blink of an eye.

This music doesn't move, it flows. Barely. The emphasis is on mood and emotion, and the deftness with which Arcana handles those is amazing. In a genre that some critics refer to as "painting a thousand shades of black", Arcana seems to understand that day is needed, if only in contrast to night.

A wild diversity of voices, instruments and melodic ideas pervades this disc. And while the song construction is bast described as amorphous, Arcana has still managed to define a personal style.

As good a representation of this sound as I've heard in quite a while. While certainly not something to throw in with a bunch of other discs and hit "random" (this is not a bad thing, necessarily), this album shows how good a "real" goth album can be.

Yet another seven-inch from a cool Lawrence band. It's as if now that the whole grunge thing has lifted, all the truly talented people have clawed their way to the surface.

These guys are something like a less-processed Brainiac. Cool noise pop with lots of odd things running about in the background. The b-side, "Claw Use in the Autumn Years of the Twentieth Century", reminds me a lot of Morsel, another truly fine noise pop outfit.

These guys understand how to manipulate their instruments to present a wondrous sound. Yeah, the sound is awfully lo-fi, but there is no other way to really present these ideas.

An album's worth of brilliance in a small slab. Be/Non is plowing some amazing fertile ground.

Rambling and sometimes raucous emo stylings that every once in a while almost coalesce into a hook, a little catchphrase that always manages to fall through at the last minute. The build-up is excruciating, and the ultimate letdown pure agony.

It's been a while since I've been so wondrously manipulated. The playing is always slightly out of tune, and the singing is never even close. The songs sound like they've just been decanted from the storehouse, with the band discovering them just as they are being played here.

Fresh is an overused word. I heard someone a couple days ago refer to some Nirvana song as "fresh". But despite my misgivings, I think you'll understand. This is truly fresh music. The songs are written in an unusual yet accessible style, and the performances here have been captured in amazing style. It's as if the Bellbats are playing right in front of me. And the show is one of the best I've seen.

Alright, the folks have trademarked their name. I'll overlook that bit of legal excess (mostly because I know plenty of folks who didn't do that and then got screwed, even after recording a couple albums) and simply exhort anyone reading this to find this disc and play it lots. Play it loud, play it soft, play it for your lover, your friend or even that asshole down the street who slashed your tires. Great music must be shared at all costs.

Deathwish is the darkwave side of Nuclear Blast, if you hadn't gotten that message already. Born for Bliss sounds a lot like the Cure run through a Pet Shop Boys machine. A pretty cool idea, really.

The production is awfully tinny, which hurts both the vocals and the drum machine. The latter sounds dreadfully fake, and I don't think this is intentional.

When all the cylinders start firing, though, the sound is very impressive. The uptempo pieces are not only club ready, they demand an audience. The synth and guitar mix is very nice, and that strange production doesn't seem to affect them as much.

I'm not sure how the kids in black will take such upbeat musings, but I'm sure they'll work it out. There are enough moody slots on this disc to keep the succubi happy. Oh, and for the cover crowd, there's one of the better rips of "White Rabbit" I've heard. A cool set.

The liners are written by John Sinclair, and now everything makes much more sense. Powered by an infusion of fusion-style horns, the Delta 72 an even bigger chunk of the rock pie this time out, and the results are even more satisfying.

Kinda like if the Laughing Hyenas ventured to Memphis and ended up arriving in 1966. Lots of noise and other crunchy delights, but filled with a vibrant, soulful feel that pervades every bit of this album. MC5 comparisons are obvious (exhibit A: the liner notes), but the Delta 72 lets the music do the talking, preferring to sing about somewhat more oblique topics.

Making this at once a more sophisticated and entertaining album. It is an experience for the heart, mind and soul. My guess is that's where the bad wanted to end up, and so it has. Nice when that happens.

This can only win over new fans. And if you don't believe such ragged music can also be soulful, well, go back and listen to that first Otis Redding album and prove me wrong.

A while back, I described a band as "Jesus Lizard plays jazz". One of the band members wrote back, saying that the Denison Kimball Trio was Jesus Lizard playing jazz. I said, sure, if you want to take that literally. He seemed shocked that I'd heard of this nifty project.

And now that Jim Kimball is continuing his run through the Touch and Go lineup by assuming drumming responsibilities for Jesus Lizard (at least for the summer), this appellation is even more accurate. In addition to the rather awesome rhythms Denison and Kimball assemble, Ken Vandermark adds various and sundry reed instrumentation and Tom Bickley joins in on recorder.

With this fuller sound, DK3 proceeds to eliminate all rational musical thought and travel on some higher plane. Tight and yet utterly free, each song rises from its base concept to fully flower on its own.

Unsettling, to be sure. But rather worth the adventure.

Trance dub, if I had to limit the description of this sound to a particular style. But, thankfully, my job is to do the oppose and paint as full a picture as possible.

Plenty of the dub feel, with lots of electronic and ambient touches. Not to mention plenty of world beat snippets. All tossed together in the hopes of creating a coherent stew.

Which happens more often than not. The main groove of each song is simple and established early, leaving plenty of room for exploration. And as the base beats for different songs vary wildly, Malacoda whips through quite a variety of musical ideas.

Sometimes a bit too sterile, with wave after wave of excess sampled material floating past. But even accounting for such well-intentioned blunders, Malacoda shows it knows how to craft some intriguing music.

As in the guy from Wire Colin Newman. Instead of packing in his musical inventiveness and sticking to familiar territory, though, Newman trips out into the vagaries of highly-overdubbed self recording.

Newman uses plenty of loops to create his sound here. He adds one after another, sometimes distorting or otherwise manipulating existing bits. It's kinda hypnotic, but also a little dull in its obsessive orderliness.
He's got some interesting ideas, but once they've been subjected to the whole looping process, all the vitality seems stripped. I can appreciate the time and effort necessary to create such a sound, but it doesn't completely appeal to me.

Well-executed, nonetheless. I don't agree with his destination, but I have to say it sounds like Newman got exactly where he wanted to go.

Sweet, simple pop music with a bit of a bite. The sound is timeless, thanks to the occasional overlaid organ, and the three songs are well-written and highly evocative.

Reichman's voice is a bit unsteady at times, but that quavering really helps provide an emotional connection. He really reminds me of one of my favorite bands, the Boorays. The guitar work is simplistic, but otherwise the songwriting style and general midtempo pacing are right in the same groove.

Better production and some lead guitar work would probably help this material, but the basics are already present. Reichman has a good ear for songwriting. He knows when enough is enough and doesn't overreach. A skill that cannot be taught.

German pop punk, sung in the same fake British accent that American bands get made fun of for using. Reasonably catchy, crunchy fare, but nothing much more.

Sounds like Lawnmower Deth without the cleverness. There is a rather thick sheen over all this, and the playing is so technically perfect that all spontaneity has been wrung out. There's nothing particularly wrong with this, except that there isn't anything unusual going on here.

This sorta punk really needs that special kick to move things into a higher gear. And while the Seasick Pirates seem to understand what it takes to play punk, they don't have the sense of fun and abandon I like to hear.

Perfectly adequate. And I think that's a big part of the problem.

Odds and ends from the past five years or so. There are a few unreleased songs that were recorded during the Chaos A.D. and Roots sessions, a couple demo versions of songs, an industrial-rap remix of "Lookaway" and seven live tracks. Since it looks like Sepultura (as we know it) is no more, better to get something than nothing at all.

Mike Patton of Faith No More guests on "Mine", though his vocals are so processed you probably wouldn't have recognized him right off. The other really unusual (not to mention exciting) track is the remix of "Lookaway", which is almost as trendsetting as that industrial-groove cover of "Orgasmatron" the guys did ages back.

True Sepultura fans (there are plenty, me among them) will pore over every little bit, attempting to put together a more complete picture of the band. While not as necessary as a new album (something we probably shouldn't be looking for any time soon, anyway), this set is nonetheless a worthy addition to the canon, if nothing more than an indexing.

Better than I figured it would be, anyway. Blood Rooted is a step above a blatant appeal for cash. The general quality of the group's work accounts for all of that.

A couple guys from Chicago who recruited a few friends to put out a disc. Light pop, as alterna-stuff goes anyway, but while the sound isn't earth shaking, the lyrics are incisive and intelligent.

Kinda reminds me of latter-day Tom Petty, for better and worse. I think the sound really does get a bit treacly (the mix is more than a bit treble heavy), but that's somewhat correctable on the stereo. What Ellis Clark and John Krenger do well is create observational songs with a personal touch. The guitars weave simple but intriguing lines, and the tunes have nice, understated hooks.

I think Social Act would benefit from a somewhat dirtier production. No distortion or anything, but the drums and upper levels of the guitars in particular are just way too sharp. All that leaves the sound with a calculated feel, and that's not what this music calls for. Other than that, these guys should recruit a regular band to showcase these great songs.

An assured and confident set of songs. These guys know how to write.

Big monster fans of Treepeople. In fact, I haven't heard a band recreate that complicated-yet-messy feel of the Toxic Shock days in quite some time. Maybe it's just bad mastering of the vinyl, but it works for me.

Solar Coaster is from North Carolina, and certainly has also benefited from the general proximity of Superchunk and Archers of Loaf. Indeed, the amazing speed at which these songs are performed outpaces even Superchunk's most manic moments.

An exhilarating blast of thrashing pop. I'm not sure if these folks can keep this up for an entire album, but if they do, well, I'll be the first to proclaim genius. This takes one of my favorite sounds and warps it ahead to another level.

Replay. Again.

A few years back, the "next big music town" was Louisville. One of the exciting young bands from that locale was one known as Rodan. That outfit disbanded after one Quarterstick album, and then reformed (sorta) as the Sonora Pine. An album arrived soon after.

A really minimal album, one that brought to mind a lot Drag City acts like Silver Jews or the really quiet Palace moments. Here, though, it sounds like this immensely talented trio has been listening to the Dirty Three a lot, deciding that it's actually okay to get a little crazy from time to time.

If you never heard the Rodan album, then you don't understand what a radical departure much of the first Sonora Pine album was. While most everything remains understated and calm, on this album there is a nice tension that wraps all the pieces together. While often quiet, this second album is anything but dull.

Now that these folks have had time to work together and flesh out this concept they call the Sonora Pine, the results are even more impressive. An album of strange beauty and depth.

This looks too horrible to even contemplate. A bulked-up bodybuilder and his sidekick with a chunky stripper's physique. Hell, it's obviously going to be cheese metal. The hope is that the music doesn't totally suck.

Sounds like Manowar, except I don't think this is a joke. Of course, I know plenty of folks who think Manowar is serious, too. The playing is adequate, the lyrics utterly absurd. The vocals have a sing-song quality and are overdubbed (way too high in the mix), but this could be worse.

Well, I guess I hope Thor understands how silly this is. If so, I'll give him some credit. Songs like "Ride of the Chariots" and "Thunderhawk" are entertaining enough if I can imagine them performed with a wink.

If you don't go looking for anything, then nothing will disappoint you. Thor is utterly goofy, but that's enough to make me smile. No heavy rotation or anything, but I'm reminded of this band called Skrapp Mettle, whose album featured the tune "Muff Diving in the 80's". Way too dumb to even cause offense. The same goes here.

Vaporhead takes the gang vocal theory from glam metal and grafts that onto various sorts of pop sounds. Catchy as hell, though there's little under the surface.

The songs shift through various punk and pop styles (coming damned close to stealing riffs often enough), but always keeping the tempo up and ending up with a shouted chorus. Going nowhere fast with a big smile on my face.

God, this is so throwaway. But a great summer record, nonetheless. If you want depth or musical development, well, go somewhere else. Vaporhead is out to amuse, and it does a fairly good job.

I'll probably get real tired of this in a few days, but until then I'll be just happy. I like this much more than I should.

The biggest names of the Black Mark line-up doing covers. That's the whole theory.

And when you consider that some of this has been released before (including Edge of Sanity's awe-inspiring cover of "Invisible Sun"), well, there's very little to get excited about. Honestly, who cares about Necrophobic doing an Autopsy song (though it is much better than the original) or Quorthon doing "God Save the Queen"?

More interesting are bits like Soulquake System doing The Prodigy's "Firestarter" or Corporal Punishment sludging its way through the Pet Shop Boys's "It's a Sin". Other odd pairings include Hexenhaus doing "War" (a truly weird track) and Morgana LeFay giving the hardcore techno treatment to "Parasite", one of the rawest Kiss tracks ever.

There are a few good laughs (that Morgana LeFay track in particular is simply bizarre, particularly considering what that band usually sounds like), but unless you are a big fan of this sort of stuff, I'd stay away.

This compilation is the coming out party for Hellcat Records, which is pretty much run by Tim Armstrong of Rancid, with lots of help from Bret Gurewitz and the Epitaph clan.

There's a new Rancid track (giving a taste of what the new album-due in September- may be like), stuff from the Hellcat lineup and plenty of the better ska and oi acts around (the Skatalites, the Business, and Voodoo Glow Skulls included).

Twenty tracks in all, with widely varying quality. The better stuff is actually from the Hellcat bands (including Hepcat, the Pietasters and U.S. Bombs). Union 13 does a mostly-Espanol cover of the Rancid song that inspired the title of this compilation.

With friends like the folks at Epitaph, how can Hellcat go wrong? This is a generous sampling of the current ska scene, with enough diversity to satisfy anyone lookin' to skank.

This compilation holds together much better than the other Black Mark set reviewed in this issue. For starters, this puts together a lot of unsigned metal bands. Consistently good stuff, which isn't always the case with this kinda stuff.

A lot of this is black metal, although certainly not everything. In fact, it would be correct to say a nice variety of style appears here.

The production varies wildly, and it certainly doesn't bring down a couple of the tracks. But what's nice to hear here is that the bands aren't trying to conform to any ideal. Instead, these acts are charting new paths into the metal wilderness.

Great care and concern went into putting this compilation together, and it shows. Not just a cheap knockoff. This is worth searching out if you're interested in hearing what metal will sound like in a couple years.

Adventurous dance pop. Born for Bliss has a track here, and more than a few of these acts have goth and darkwave tendencies. But the emphasis is on stuff that works for the club floor, so upbeat is the word.

Yeah, this is catchy stuff, but there's also a high level of experimentation. In fact, while all of these acts are generally related, the diversity among the songs is quite nice to hear.

And instead of a dreary label-only sampler, the bands here are from all over. Oh, sure, there are a few Deathwish Office bands, but this music was chosen for reasons of quality, not cashing in.

This disc shows why samplers were created, and why they can still be used in a positive way. When the goal is dispersing good music and not just stuff you're selling, it's amazing how good the set can get.

Moon Ska is the home of such bands as the Toasters and Let's Go Bowling (and plenty more, as this sampler shows). The folks made sure to cram enough music here, though a good amount of it is rather nondescript.

Still, there's some very nice work here (including where Skavoovie and the Epitones combine on "Japanese Robot"). If you're a ska fan you already know about this label and so this set is likely unnecessary for you.

If you're a recent convert, however, this would serve as a nice primer. The songs here are intentionally accessible, but that's probably for the best. A serviceable sampler that does its job.

Rather disjointed fare that lurches to-and-fro, from singer to singer and rhythm to rhythm. The strange thing is that in the end, it all makes sense.

The actual content of the songs is kept behind wall of fuzz guitars and a something akin to a mattress. It's something like that demo feeling, except that this is intentional and it works. Maybe it's the flute that comes by every once in a while.

Heavily layered stuff that requires some discipline to appreciate. I promise, though, that if you sit through it you will be much happier afterward. This is one of those sounds that must be experienced to be understood. Outstanding work.