The beat goes on ...
19. Quoit - Properties. You generally can't go wrong with Mick Harris. However, you are generally more right when choosing his dub material over his drum n bass material. His Quoit alias is reserved for his nosebleedingest beat experiments, although the Overload Lady project (with Eraldo Bernocchi) offers a smoother sculpture. On second thought, OL is the forming, crafting and setting of the sculpture. Quoit is what happens when you chisel it into pieces. To each his own. Coincidentally, I hadn't owned the OL album until just a few weeks back. I'm proud to say I found it on vinyl for the criminal price of two bucks (CDN). Hey, it's not *all* about the West Coast. B, $3.95, M.
20. Telstar Ponies - Voices from the New Music. I listened to a TP album in HMV a few years ago. It was OK, but not what I was expecting. I think I'd heard about their first album being kinda Krautrockish. The album I heard was not Krautrockish at all. I think it was this album. Whatever it was, it was a bit folksy and a bit too meandering in getting to the point of each song.
If this was that disc (I'm 95% sure it was), then what was I thinking back then? Oh yeah, it cost like 25 bucks. This CD isn't worth that. But for three bucks, I figured, hey, let's give this thing another chance. This album is equal parts the unpredictability and strangeness of the Flaming Lips, and the wild-eyed psychedelic shoegazing folk of Mercury Rev. Except it’s nowhere near as good as the best stuff by either of those bands. Still, it's a nice little piece of buried treasure. A, $2.95, E.
21. Manitoba - Up in Flames. Rasputin had a promo copy in their clearance racks. Patience, people! It pays off! Start flipping through those racks! I'd already heard this record earlier in the year, and it's been reviewed to death, sowhat more can I add? I don't think Byrds-ian folktronic pop is the future of music or anything, but it's more interesting than what 99% of the Boards of Canada clones are doing. B, $3.00, M.
22. Innerzone Orchestra - Programmed. Sometimes, techno pioneers get bored of just doing pure techno. In his Model 500 guise, Juan Atkins branched into soul music on the aptly titled "Body and Soul". Here, we have Carl Craig doing a jazz album. These Detroit guys really know their music, they never fail to make tried-and-true genres sound fresh. That's probably why Detroit techno never seems to age.
As for the price, yeah, that's no misprint. It was less than a dollar thanks to a clearance bin filled with dollar discs plus the "buy three get one free" thing. D, $0.83, M.
23. Steve Roach/Vidna Obmana - Innerzone. You can always depend on Steve Roach for dreamy late-night ambience. I can never tell any of his songs apart, but when you're drifting off to sleep, those details never seem to matter. C, $1.95, M.
