TRANCE TIESTO Just Be (Nebula/Virgin) O
'TIQST
Distressingly, Tiesto (aka Tijs Vervestl has been voted best DJ in the world two years running by DJ Magazine. His second album begins with the kind of classical strings yOu uSually associate with slow motion gunfire. before shifting (after a good few minutes) into the kind of one-dimensional trance you associate with kids driving their mums' car very badly. There is some variety here — Aqualung make a brief and not entirely unpleasant appearance — but this is pop without style. dance stripped of its soul. its spark and its sexuality. You might as well eat polystyrene. (James Smart ‘i
ROCK SONIC YOUTH
Sonic Nurse (Geffen) 0...
Having found their own effective groove for almost 25 years. Sonic Youth. it seems. do three kinds of album: the mental death rattle noise one. the pop song one and that Neil Young tribute one. Sonic Nurse is an easy blend of all three.
Tying their entrancing freeform guitar explosions to actual song structures — as they did so perfectly on Sister. Daydream Nation and Dirty — gives both the casual listener and hardened advocate equal access to their de- tuned, off-kilter magic.
Sonic Nurse has a subdued. almost melancholic vibe throughout and while they rarely boil over into their trademark wall of dissonance. this only helps highlight their more delicate musical
skills. A quiet storm. (Mark Robertsom
ROCK
TRAMP ATTACK Attack! Attack! Attack!
(Must . . . Destroy!) coo
Recorded on a hastily cobbled together eight- track. Tramp Attacks debut inarguably makes the most out of not very much. The stripped- down recording adds a gritty edge to the energetic songs that really start lifting the ol' gooseflesh and making your skin prickle with ‘Eight Years Since School' and Bought And Sold'.
Lyrically. however. the band are pretty much content to kid around for most of the album. with tracks such as ‘14? 1' being little more than extended gags.
(Allan Radcliffei
ROCK
GENE SIMMONS Asshole
(Simmons Recordsi
'. . ‘ Ilcmuutloll‘.” 1
Kiss are true gods of rock and half-man half- demon bassist and inventor Gene Simmons is the ‘God of Thunder' himself. the ultimate rock spectacle. They ruled the 70s and now Simmons is releasing his first solo album since 1978 and for those years of silence we can only be thankful. This is pretty embarrz ssing stuff. watching a :35- year-old cover the Prodigy's 'Firestarter' is like watching your dad down the disco: ungainly. ugly and in over his head. The rest is rock by numbers. cliche upon cliche. Fair enough. they invented halt these cliches but don't give up the day job. (Henry Northmorei
ROCK
THE CHARLATANS Up at the Lake (Island) 00
Never thought I'd live to see the day. but Northwich's finest have finally lived up to their name. Up at the Lake may be Burgess and co dipping their toes into the Dylan pond but after two listens of a torpid affair. this listener was tempted to die by drowning.
Sure. there's flirting with Zimmerman going. and there's a nod to the Small Faces and a crack at the Doors but when it gets to some sub-Chas and Dave doodlings. you know it's time to pack it in. For their ninth album. theyW/e made proper Charlies out of themselves and us with a labour that's far from lovely. (Brian Donaldsoni
Fl T-ClHONlCA roi k JUANA MOLINA
Segundo (DOllllllO' .00.
Right then. Imagine Icelandic pastoral electronica experts Mum hanging out '.'.iith our very own wobbly retro sonic ex;)erimentalists Boards of Canada while getting down to some serious South American folk music. Et voila! Juana Molina. Already a famous comedienne and television host in her home country of
Argentina. Molina has now become a bona tide musician and songi.-.rritei'. and this mesmerising and sumptuous record is an extraor<linarily seductive slice of lettfield folky electronica. full of blips. burps. strums and sultry cioons. Segundo is beautiful and strange. much like Molina herself. and it is a gently brilliant piece of music.
(Doug JOHNSIOHM
PASTORAL ELECTRONICA MUM
Summer Make Good (Fat Cat) um
Mum sound like no one else in the world. This is the Icelandic band's second worlt‘lwide release. and it is a more expansive and organic beast than their debut. Fina/Iv lrr’v/e are No One. while still retaining that records wonderfully iittiiiizitt> (:liztriit 21ii(l unique outlook.
The main ingredients are hugely innovative electronic and natural rhythms. a cinematic breadth and depth of colossal. sweeping sound and some almost impossibly beautiful and fragile melodies from singer Kristin Anna Valtysdottir. And so sounds lurch and creak and bla/e and crawl and
sound; it“: pep ietk umssms you w: Duet: WHITQ .or
soar all over the place. with more musical ideas packed into one minute here than most indie bands \Nl“ have in a
lifetime. Simply stunning.
(Doug Johnstonel
FUNK ROCK BROWN EYE SUPERFLY Any Other Way (Zeroiil 0..
Dear God. It's hardly doing this quartet of Glasgow funkateers any favours that they have possibly one of the worst band names in all Christendom. Or — let's be honest ~ that they're treading the same boards of perceivet‘l Ja/z-tunk respectalnlity that gave birth to Hue and Cry. The Hammond organ weighs in heavily throughout. while the obligatory wah-wah hammering is somewhere between a pleasure and a chore. HaVing said that. the production is polished and rough edges are virtually non-eXIstent. while vocalist Simon Sinclair enjoys a suitably gravelly delivery. So
'Ybe'eiitiiuily understoted” ‘ ‘
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Engaging stice o? british omericcne”
g'nntenl tribute to hiring in tow: worm and intimate e um! ports. record Larry heaven and II‘V‘I g;
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tunes like 'Should Have Known' and ‘Time Will Never Change' trade a little on the nebulous ‘authenticity' of the bluesman. but a good portion of the James Taylor Quartets (lancefloor-moving funk still seeps through. (DaVid Pollock)
ROCK
JESSIE MALIN The HeatSegundo (One Little Indian) 0..
3;, Wifv' 494g
With this second solo album. ex-punk rocker turned thoughtful
singer songwriter Jessie lvlalin has vowed to 'turn up both the temperature and the volume'. The subjects he has cast his eagle eyes over from the furnished comfort of the tour bus certainly mine the dark depths and fringes of contemporary
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(Juli 730.2
THE LIST 1 07