At first take, moodroom's influences seem to
range only vaguely outside of alternative rock
standards. But after a few runs, the album's pop
and trip hop starts to surface.
This Los Angeles-based foursome is bending some
genres. But they're bending them beautifully,
knowledgeably and with purpose. Project B is
an entirely fresh blend of jazz, funk and the sort
of electronica that can most easily be described as
ambient.
Sunset Room describes themselves as "Jazz
Electronica." They blend electronic and acoustic
instruments to create a future-retro sound, tied
together with jazz-driven vocals.
Though there is irony throughout Music To
Make Love To Your Old Lady By, the finished CD
is precisely as advertised: a darkly sensuous album
perfectly appropriate to play after the lights go
out.
Slider: Ambient Excursions for Pedal Steel
Guitar has engineer, producer, session
player and multi-instrumentalist Bruce Kaphan
boldly pushing the ambient envelope with the pedal
steel.
At first take, Stronger looks practically
indistinguishable from any number of albums by
current singers who, for one reason or another,
have only been allowed one name. The first spin
startles.
On Into The Night Chris Sheppard and
Simone Denny are back with an oddly mainstream club
album with tracks that invite you to chill and
others that demand movement.
Year of the Dragon brings back the
frenetic and fertile Berlin club scene of the
mid-1980s. Think Club Dance. Think Dance Pop. Think
practically prehistoric Electronica. This is Modern
Talking.
Hanin Elias is not someone most folks would want
to meet in a dark alley. But if you resonate in a
personal way to the concerns voiced on In
Flames, she could be your own personal Dirty
Harry.
KMFDM began as a style consortium of hip hop,
techno and metal and the band was unjustly lumped
in with purveyors of industrial mope. Then came the
Columbine massacre and the band's reported status
as the freak killers' musical inspiration. Enter
reincarnation and MDFMK.
The Hi-Fi Companion isn't a CD that
impresses on first listen. It's with repeat
exposure that Deepfried Toguma's subdued brilliance
creates a cumulatively addictive effect.
