PAULA ABDUL
Thank god she's gone away. That little "boo hoo hoo, I did sing my own vocals, you can tell on my brand new album coming out in two weeks" publicity stunt was one of the most pathetic displays I've ever seen from the music biz... Well, aside from her music, of course.
AC/DC
The lead singer's always just sounded like Donald Duck on acid to me.
ACE OF BASE
Why does it take so many people to make such damn bad music?
BRYAN ADAMS
It's amazing that a man can have a career for so long when none of his songs exceed a second grade vocabulary-- or musical compositional-- level. And just who is he sleeping with at MTV to get so much goddamn airplay?
AIR
I never caught onto the euro-kitsch techno movement inspired by Dimitri from Paris and the likes; and as my first exposure to Air was their "Sexy Boy" single, I didn't think much of them... until a year later when I heard the ethereal beauty of "All I Need." (
) Apparently, I set the trend of rediscovering Air because some time after I got around to finally buying their debut album Moon Safari, they seem to be enjoying a goodly amount of success here in 1999 despite the fact that their album is anything but new now. While they do borrow from some fairly nerve-grating 70's motiffs-- namely the kind of Herb Alpert-esque horns sound which I personally can't stand the least of-- the predominance of mellow moog grooves and dreamy vocals makes them the perfect soundtrack for sensual moods or warm summer nights of stargazing.
ALICE IN CHAINS
Grunge. Like "scud" and "cyberspace" a buzz word thankfully decreasingly used as the 90's wane. Out of all the Grunge Era groups who ever existed, Alice in Chains are the only ones who have consistently remained a part of my listening regime; Perhaps it's because the radio deejay infatuation to play Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and [especially, especially] the late Soundgarden as if they were legends-- or maybe it's just because Alice in Chains superiorly kick ass! You decide: Goatee not required for listening.
ALL SAINTS
Having wanted to be the Spice Girls so much, you'd think they wouldn't have bothered to wear bras during the filming of their debut video too.
ALPHA
While their debut album comefromheaven is wall to wall snoozy ambient fodder, their Pepper EP is a wonderfully diverse collection of remixes, ranging in tone from smoothed out trip-hop with just a touch of boogie () to hard trance material (). At around $10 for 44 plus minutes of top-notch grooves, this is not only an excellent disc, but a great "starter" disc for those unfamiliar with the techno genre. And it's on Massive Attack's label, so for loyalists of that group, this is a must own!
As the years progress, I find myself disliking her music slightly less and less (even outside of remixed form)-- Still the same, I think if I bought one of her albums and listened to it too much, I might feel the need to shoot myself in the head. (Note: If you are a heterosexual male fan of Tori, please e-mail me; I am conducting a scientific survey to see if, in fact, this demographic even exists.)
AMP
God knows what time of night it was-- I'm a rather nocturnal creature. But I flipped on MTV one night and actually didn't change the channel three seconds later. It was the debut of a new show: In fact, possibly the most motherf***ing cool show MTV has ever aired. In the tradition of Liquid Television, The Idiot Box, and Dead at 21-- which I all greatly adored-- I was sure it would be quickly canceled. But alas, it has persisted [awhile until it was shuffled and pre-empted so much watching it was virtually impossible]. The Amp collection is an excellent springboard for those with a penchant for exploring the techno realm: The Amp 2 collection a different kind of good; vastly treading a thin line between trip-hop and hip-hop, although Fatboy Slim's progressively and utterly addictive surf/funk/techno "Rockafeller Skank" is worth the purchase price alone.
One scary note: In 1997, MTV announced it wants to move away from this flaccid, alternative "rock" so prevalent now and move into a more "electronica" mode. As a great fan of techno, this scares me because "electronica" has the possibility to do exactly to techno what "alternative music" did to modern rock. When techno is bad, it's REALLY, REALLY bad; i.e. a seven minute mix of one hokey looped sample over a 140 BPM canned beat. Compilation discs that are a blatant corporate humping of the techno cash cow are now commonplace in the market-- Caveat emptor, dudes! As a general rule, stick to WaxTrax!,Astralwerks/Caroline, and especially Moonshine labels for your techno fixes.
Samplers are the way to go in any musical genre you wish to explore but are unfamiliar with; except in the cases of soft jazz and new age, in which case you should just opt for the lobotomy instead. Dorian Recordings, whose website has been in alpha mode for many, many months now is an otherwise wonderful classical label; and this compilation of theirs offers a wonderful glimpse into early classical music-- The muscianship and production quality is unrivaled, and did I mention it's an inexpensive CD too? (Note: The CDnow listing shows five tracks with samples; the actual CD has 30 tracks.) If you've ever been overcome by the urge to jump around a forest in a nymph-like manner, this would be a very good recording for you. If you've ever been overcome by the urge to jump on someone and act in a nymphomaniac-like manner, you probably want to try a Lords of Acid disc instead; and then e-mail my ex-coworker Ian, who's reasonably cute if you're into the simple Midwestern boy thing.
Gothic is the bomb. However, if you think I'm talking about anything relating to pasty people who dye their hair jet black and spend way too much time trying to make themselves look bad, I'm talking actual Gothic music-- Like "Chant" but perfer the female voice for your canticles? Look no further than the acapella Anonymous 4, a major entry on the pantheon of early classical groups. Okay, truth be told, the casual listener won't be able to tell album from album, but that fact doesn't detract from the very beauty of the voice whose sweet ethereality begs to be accompaniment to a starlit night or a candlelit dinner.
LOUIS ARMSTRONG
Jazz icon. Jazz master. Jazz god. Buoyant, soulful, and all around awesome. What
more can I say? It's Satchmo for Christ sake! If you don't own anything by him, you really suck-- Fortunately, you're just a few clicks away from being able to buy one of his albums. I don't know of anything of his that's actually bad, but I generally like to stick to the Verve label since they've made great efforts to release a lot of remastered material in the last years. Though Louis alone is great, he's best accompanied by Ella; and is as perfect a soundtrack for lazy summer afternoons as it is for cozy winter night by the fire.
THE ART OF NOISE
In the late 20th Century, I suppose they could be considered proto-techno and
ambient icons. Their last new album came out nearly a decade ago, yet they are still quite alive in the music scene; or more aptly remixed, namely in two deejay compilations: The Fon Mixes and the Drum and Bass Collection. It seems a logical progression since their Best of disc, which exists in two slightly varied releases (one from the 80's, one in the 90's), contains their work in self-remixed forms. Below the Waste contains their trademark beats accented with an African sound as well as a progression into ambient music. So cruise to the sounds of "Peter Gunn" ( ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION
If the music of Rage Against the Machine, the Beastie Boys, and Talvin Singh had a menage a trois it might sound like this; with just the right kick of Atari Teenage Riot and dubwise nature of Bob Marley to boot. Intrigued? Confused? Well, the sound is diverse: It's not often an East Indian quintent get together to play dub-alicious groove of sitar-flavored drum n� bass with a rap / punk punch. ADB's Rafi's Revenge is one of the finest dub entries ever, hopefully these guys stick around awhile and knock out more killer tunes alone the lines of "Buzzin" (
ATARI TEENAGE RIOT
I do not think that a louder, more intense band has ever existed ( ATOMIC BABIES
If you made a list of all the revolutionary techno groups and deejays of today, the Atomic Babies would not appear on it: Most of their tracks seem to be three seconds of beats looped for seven minutes. However, their "Get Up" CD5 is 70+ minutes of solid, mindless dance-fodder, worth every penny of the $1.70 I spent on it; If not for the cool packaging design alone, which is more memorable than anything I heard off the disc.
) or rehash the 80's with Max Headroom on "Paranoimia," these guys are worth a listen! And stayed tuned for brand spankin' new album coming this summer!
) and "Naxalite" ()
)-- Somewhere in a virtually psychedelic and possibly psychotic symbiosis of punk and industrial techno lurks the sound that is Atari Teenage Riot: If you like brain liquefying music that's bound to piss off your neighbors and cause your pets to have seizures, this is surely it boys and girls!!
