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Tortoise: Remixed
Various Artists
(Thrill Jockey)
Of related interest: DJ Spooky, Gastr del Sol While it's true that electronica is well into its 14th minute of fame, there are a few DJs who surprise the listener with innovation, giving this tired genre new life. Musicians who can accomplish this feat are more than brilliant: They are definitive, like the artists on Tortoise: Remixed. Luke Vibert, Springheel Jack and several members of Tortoise have stolen tiny snippets or entire songs from Tortoise's Millions Now Living Will Never Die, rearranged them until they are unrecognizable, and sold them as a new, improved product. In the hands of these musicians, songs are transformed from the experimental rock/jazz songs that are a staple for Tortoise into dark, atmospheric electronic pieces. The album starts with some furious trip-hop from London's U.N.K.L.E, followed by light, flighty tech from Tortoise-member John McEntire in the song "Tjed." There's the ubiquitous drum 'n' bass song from Springheel Jack and the ambient finale, a nightmarish remix of "Find the One" by Bundy K. Brown. But scrutinizing the songs separately is missing the point. Each tune not only builds tension to a dramatic finale but represents a sample of the most innovative sub-genres of the electronic music scene. David Kihara California Police State
Sexy Death Soda
(Bong Load)
Of related interest: XTC, the Olivia Tremor Control, Ween Anxiety-inducing multisensory onslaughts affect everyone these days. There's the boardroom exec who eyes the skittering stock quotes as they crawl across the screens of TVs and computers; the sports junkie who can surf cable to get scores and highlights almost before they happen; and the musician charged with writing something that will stand out from the rest. Sexy Death Soda responds to stimuli with a pop tart of a debut album that's a tasty treat for the low-attention-span era, though a slight bitterness lurks beneath all the sugar. The Ventura, Calif., quintet excels at cleverly masked ironic pop--no surprise given two members' past affiliation with Beck (in the band Liquor Cabinet). Playful songs like "Bourbon Thighs" and "Sick Tube" emphasize Sexy Death's melodic mastery, and vocalist Steaksauce (a.k.a. filmmaker Steve Hanft) recites his roundabout lyrics with a suitably snotty delivery. But the quintet settles for amateurish chord patterns on a few tracks ("Oil Chick" and "Acid Trip"), which causes Steaksauce--do we really have to call him this?--to lapse into a monotonous drawl. It's unfortunate because elsewhere Sexy Death Soda exercises marvelous restraint in these days of style-hopping over substance, stringing together enjoyable summery songs with disposableuitar riffs and lyrics like "She's in her underwear/She doesn't ever care." Richard Martin Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years
Tom Waits
(Island)
Of related interest: Kurt Weill, Captain Beefheart, William S. Burroughs The arc of a typical career in popular music is well-known: Explode onto the scene with a vision, streamline toward accessibility without recapturing that initial spark, break up or fall out of fashion and wait around for nostalgia to build demand for a reunion. The rarest of creatures is an artist who can grow into his skin over the years and reach a place far more remote than where he started. After a decade playing the weary lounge pianist/beat poet, Tom Waits reinvented himself as an avant-garde showman--with roots in everything from circus freak shows to Brecht/Weill opera to Captain Beefheart--and created his most adventurous material relatively late in life. Beautiful Maladies documents the wondrous music Waits created after signing to Island in 1983. The bulk of Beautiful Maladies draws from Waits' astounding trilogy of '80s albums--Swordfishtrombones, Raindogs and Frank's Wild Years--with more recent soundtrack work, theatrical scores and a sole '90s studio record (Bone Machine) filling in. While it's easy to wholeheartedly recommend this music--particularly the older material--Beautiful Maladies' shortcoming is that it cannot include everything Waits produced during these years. You'd do yourself a greater favor by collecting the individual albums and hearing as a whole the sound of a true visionary swimming against the tide. Roni Sarig |
