Featured Releases

Amiina, Kurr (12)

Icelandic contemporary, string arranger, and touring partner of Sigur Rós, Amiina’s four femmes are more of a minimal chamber quartet with Björkian aesthetics (think “Vespertine” hushed music-box and crushed-ice ambience). A Scandinavian parallel to the Rachel’s in restoring the beauty of the chamber form. The cover shot of the quartet silently knitting a four-color tapestry also makes a nice visual metaphor.

Bad Religion, Honest Goodbye (1)

First single from “New Maps of Hell.”

Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd, The Moon and the Melodies (8)

Previously posted (and still available) as originally attributed to “Harold Budd, Simon Raymonde, Robin Guthrie, Elizabeth Fraser”. Maybe they decided visitors would either not pick on the identity of the latter 3 as Cocteau Twins, or would never think to search by their individual names.

As for the album, it’s precisely what you would expect when hooking up the Cocteaus with Budd’s ambient piano compositions, although since anything Elizabeth sings on with Guthrie’s guitar echo almost immediately becomes Cocteau-esque by definition, it might as well be called a CT project with special guest Budd.

Ladytron, Soft Power (5)

Four mixes plus album version of crunchy-electro track from 2005’s “Witching Hour”, and arguably its thematic namesake: “Daylight is the enemy / Witching hour / Soft power”

Meat Puppets, Rise To Your Knees (15)

New Meat Puppets album? Where have they been the last 10 years? (AMG suggests the not-unexpected aftereffects of life in a seminal 80s hardcore band.)

Stellamara, Star of the Sea (9)

Earlier album by SF-based world-fusion group, featuring Eastern drones, Croatian folk, medieval-esque dulcimer, and evocative language stew titles like “Zephyrus”, “Kereshme” and “Oj Jabuko.”

Free Stuff

various, African Salsa (12)

various, Real Music Sampler (10)

See Also

The Polyphonic Spree, The Fragile Army (12)

Tribute Corner

various, Goth Tribute To Dead Can Dance (12)

Originally sold as “The Carnival Is Over,” the surprise was how many of these goth-industrial covers by the usual Cleopatra suspects were tolerably good-or-better. It helps to remember that Dead Can Dance began as more of a 4AD post-punk staple (e.g. 1984’s “The Trial” wears its Peter Murphy proudly) before they became a genre unto themselves. Rhea’s Obsession manages to comfortably adapt Lisa Gerrard’s swooping “Mesmerism”, while the remainder wisely stay in Brendan’s vocal catalogue or more instrumental works like “Cantara” (with Evil Mothers chanting evilly in place of Lisa’s glossolalia). Still inferior to the more varied tributes “Summoning of the Muse” and “Lotus Eaters”, but largely free of embarrassment (except maybe Jarboe’s wavering recitation of Brendan’s “I Can See Now” from his Neil Diamond period). However…did we really need *two* versions of the interminable “Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove”?

Harry Potter Piano Tribute (10)

Short portions of John Williams’ score for the Harry Potter series for piano. (Is a piano composition based on a symphonic work really even a ‘tribute’?) Sadly the plink-heavy performance is akin to shrill MIDI arrangements of orchestral themes, but even those have the advantage of including multiple instruments. One might ask, “why bother?” but of course the answer is “because someone will buy it.”

Pickin’ On, Pink Floyd (12)

Pink Floyd already has a good bluegrass translation in Luther Wright & The Wrong’s “Rebuild the Wall”, so the interest here is in older material like “Astronomy Domine” and non-Wall mainstays like “Wish You Were Here” (already more folk/country than most of their material). Plus it’s just nice to see that others have heard of songs from before “Dark Side on the Moon,” especially the early Barrett-era psychedelic-pop singles like “See Emily Play.” The adaptation necessarily loses some of the menace of the early material - particularly in a much more upbeat “Astronomy Domine”, although the progressive-metal version on Voivod’s “Nothingface” makes up for that. Meanwhile “Julia Dream” almost passes for Italian dinner music. Most faithful is perhaps “Goodbye Blue Sky”, which already had a strong acoustic cast.

various, Valley Girl Days (34)

Per Cleopatra’s wont, a somewhat bizarre collection of 80s hits performed by their stable of “where are they now?” original artists (some, like A Flock of Seagull’s “I Ran”, are clearly new recordings); original 80s artists covering other hits (e.g. Tiffany doing a Freezepop take on Kim Wilde’s “Kids in America”); and their usual stable of B- to Z-list goth-industrial covers (e.g. Ambra Red’s “Tainted Love”, which aspires to Client-hood). “Ultimate 80s Collection”? No. But some possible diamonds in the rough.

Also, did anyone ever really wear bumblebee-striped legwarmers over platform heels in the 80s?