From: anderson-NOSPAM@eye.net (Jason Anderson)
To: dougo@ccs.neu.edu
Subject: Poll, slightly late
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 13:42:29 -0500 (EST)

Oh hi, I wanted to submit a list for the chug thang. No order, obviously,
and some entries have been appended with pretentious commentary (also,
obviously).
Thanks.
Jason Anderson, Toronto

1998 Novelties

Stina Nordenstam _People Are Strange_ CD (Eastwest)
(Most vanguard disc to show up on European major label to get at least a
partial release in North America - Nordenstam has a girlish but distinctive
voice and here she seems to respond to a record-company demand to do a
covers album, something with more obvious sales potential than another
album of creepy Nordenstam originals. She makes something even of
potentially dodgy material, "Purple Rain" and "I Dream of Jeannie," and
with "Bird on a Wire," performs the most sacreligious Leonard Cohen cover
since the Flying Lizards' "Suzanne." Totally perplexing mix of foreground
and background elements in the mix.)
The Ex _Starters, Alternators_ CD (Touch and Go)
PJ Harvey _Is This Desire_ CD (Island)
Black Box Recorder _England Made Me_ CD (Chrysalis UK)
(Probably Auteurs guy Luke Haines' best and least over-written set of
songs. Sicker, funnier and deeper than an Irvine Welsh novel.)
Perry Blake _Perry Blake_ CD (Polydor UK)
(Would-be Scott Walker with orchestra and Portishead sensibility. Amazingly
low on kitsch value, which may be why it didn't get to North America.
Avoids most of the Anthony Newley cheese factor of the Divine Comedy's
discs and flaunts appropriately "grown-up" moodiness.)
Olu Dara _In the World_ CD (Atlantic)
Masonna _Frequency LSD_ CD (Alien 8, Montreal)
(Like speed metal without any guitars. The least boring extreme noise album
yet made. A bit better than Korn.)
Josh Rouse _Dressed Up Like Nebraska_ CD (Slow River/Rykodisc)
Mark Hollis _Mark Hollis_ CD (Polydor UK)
Leila _Like Weather_ CD (Rephlex)
(Bjork keyboardist on Aphex Twin label -- nifty electro-pop.)
Kurtis Mantronik _I Sing the Body Electro_ CD (Oxygen Music Works)
Andrea Parker _DJ Kicks_ CD (K7, Germany)
Acid Brass _Acid Brass_ CD (Mute)
(Early acid house and rave tracks, e.g., Kevin Saunderson's "The Groove
That Won't Stop," 808 State's "Pacific," A Guy Called Gerald's "Voodoo Ray,
as performed by an English brass band -- surreal reading material to
accompany the tomes of techno scholarship by Simon Reynolds and Kodwo
Eshun.)
Burger/Ink _Las Vegas_ CD (Matador)
Tommy Keene _Isolation Party _ CD (Matador)
(Super-solid power-pop and further proof that there's never been any major
commercial interest in the stuff, despite the best efforts of A&R men
through the ages.)
The Nits _Alankomaat_ CD (Sony Holland)
(Slightly more interesting than the Notwist, but similarly arty European
pop from long-lived Dutch group, who are kind of like what the Talking
Heads would've become if they'd met Umberto Eco instead of Eno.)
Refused _The Shape of Punk to Come_ CD (Burning Heart/Epitaph)
Richard Buckner _Since_ CD (MCA)
(Strong showings by John McEntire et al. make this the best Chicago indie
disc to come out on a major.)
Ice _Bad Blood_ CD (In Bloom/Reprise)