June 1, 2007

Various Artists 8-Bit Operators: An 8-Bit Tribute to The Music Of Kraftwerk [3.5/5] This is apparently “an 8-bit tribute to the music of Kraftwerk,” and many of the tracks (Oliver Wittchow’s “Kristallo” in particular) do, indeed, sound like Kling Klang tunes covered by a GameBoy. Others, though, like David E. Sugar’s take on “Radioactivity,” include...

White Flight White Flight [3.5/5] To call Justin Roelofs’ solo project White Flight a departure from his work in the Anniversary is to profoundly underestimate the degree this album deviates from his former outfit’s shaggily melodic psychedelic-rock template. It’s more of a stratospheric launch-one allegedly abetted by Peruvian hallucinogens-into a parallel musical universe populated by...

Money Mark Brand New By Tomorrow [4/5] While you may not even realize it, you’ve heard Money Mark before. He’s the man responsible for providing his multi-instrumental talents to albums by artists like Beck and Yoko Ono. Likely, it’s his contributions to the Beastie Boys’ classic Check Your Head you’d most easily recognize. (The killer...

Hella There’s No 666 In Outer Space [4/5] After spending years in the anti-social, we-don’t-give-a-fuck, noise-spaz category, Hella have finally come in for a landing and actually delivered a (cough, clears throat) listenable release with There’s No 666 In Outer Space, albeit in a totally off-kilter, Hella sort of way. And just think, it only...

K-os Atlantis-Hymns For Disco [3.5/5] K-os is Canada’s biggest hip-hop star, which, admittedly, is like being the best ice hockey player in Compton. Ironically, he’s also the most despised. Haters-or whatever they’re called in the land of igloos and back bacon-can’t stand the way he uses hip-hop as a base from which to mix and...

Bracken We Know About The Need [3/5] Anticon’s transition from abrasive hip-hop to evocative glitch-pop has been a productive musical metamorphosis. And you can argue that what really kicked it off was the 2001 collaboration between Anticon’s braintrust and Leeds’ lo-fi soundscapers Hood. So now that the two parties have never sounded more alike, it...

Minus The Bear Interpretaciones Del Oso [4/5] With their love of squiggly time signatures and quirky keyboards, Minus The Bear always seemed like the perfect candidate for a remix record. But it’s still a pleasant surprise to hear just how good the Seattle band’s 2005 album, Menos El Oso, sounds all chopped ’n’ screwed as...

The Mooney Suzuki Have Mercy [3/5] It’s been a hard slog for New York City’s the Mooney Suzuki, what with lineup changes, label woes and coming down from the verge of near-garage rock superstardom. So it’s more than a little surprising that this record sounds like so much fun. "99%" is all hand claps and...

Fu Manchu We Must Obey [4.5/5] We Must Obey is the new Fu Manchu album. It has 11 songs. What more do you need to know? The band’s mastery of ’70s rock language remains total; the Ted Nugent-esque riff that anchors “Knew It All Along” is merely the first of a string of head-nodding, fist-pumping...