The Residents - Demons Dance Alone

What a strange thing this is...sometimes sounding like the Pet Shop Boys on acid, having some quite sad tunes and otherwise the upfront strangeness of The Redidents. Go see them live as I did, it´s beautiful, funny, strange and honest. Electronic and noisy? Yeah, that too...

David Byrne - In Spite of Wishing and Wanting

Now here´s a beauty. In 1999, David Byrne (ex- Talking Heads) hooked up with theatre guy Wim Vandekeybus to organise and compose music for a theatre play of Wim. Ultimately, the play got performed in the US, but I am not sure about rest of the world. The interesting part is, the CD for this was made as a limited edition only (though not numbered) but got only sold directly at the theatre venues or online, but not in any shops. So I guess, it´s quite rare, I heard only 3000 copies were made.

It features David Byrne at what he sometimes is known best for, quirky, strange pop/rock-tunes with catchy (or not...) percussion work. Covers with background information are included.

Marc and the Mambas - Untitled

Marc Almonds first official solo release as a 2 x LP or here as its CD release.
Wonderful small and sad tunes.


Buy the original, it´s worth it.

Underworld - Beaucoup Fish

A stunning album of smart, dance-pop craft, Beaucoup Fish blends stomping beats and meandering, binary dream worlds into a cohesive and heavenly revelation. It's another work filled with Karl Hyde's singsong talk-vocals ("Push Downstairs") floating over DJ Darren Emerson's sinewy, house-style rave-ups ("King of Snake"), a sound that has distinguished them since 1993's Dubnobasswithmyheadman. On Beaucoup Fish, however, that sound slips around tracks that do more than patiently await the next thick coat of rhythm, building simple songs into a digitized, epic whole. There are eruptions of ecstatic melody on songs such as "Jumbo," while jerky dance tracks such as "Bruce Lee" open whole new avenues for bursting layers of rhythmic ambience. Underworld are doomed to be haunted forever by "Born Slippy" (popularized via the Trainspotting soundtrack), the world's first international rave anthem, yet Beaucoup Fish goes well beyond such timely phenomena, and works instead to free electronic music from its computer-age constraints.
Buy the original. It´s worth it.

Underworld - Second Toughest in the Infants

On their second album, Underworld continues to explore the fringes of dub, dance and techno, creating a seamless, eclectic fusion of various dance genres. Second Toughest in the Infants carries the same knockout punch of their debut, Dubnobasswithmyheadman, but it's subtler and more varied, offering proof that the outfit is one of the leading dance collectives of the mid-'90s.

W.S. Burroughs - Spare Ass Annie

Very cool mixture of Hiphopricy's jazz/funk/hiphop grooves and Burrough's always ahead-of-his-time future rants, stream-o-conciousness, and political concerns. Whoever thought of this idea was an absolute genius.

The Best of James

...what a great compilation CD, 1996, of a great Manchester based guitar band...

The band that was almost too happy for Manchester.
The 18 songs here include the hit "Laid", and several other UK hits that were US sleepers, including "Come Home", "Sit Down", "She's a Star", and others.
The compilation attests to the wonderful pop sensibility that characterised the James sound, as well as to the lyrical depth that helped the band develop the dedicated following that enabled its survival long after the Madchester scene had floundered.