Scooter — Jump That Rock (Whatever You Want)

 2008-11-16 23:39:00
I felt enthusiastic about Jump That Rock (Whatever You Want) as soon as I heard it. Bored by the high-pitched voices produced like on an assembly line, I was thinking Scooter is not able to make it anymore. But then, when I almost forgot about them, here's the first class gift for ya. Don't care about the value of the song for parties or whatever, it's just purely a terrific song. Simple as that. This may be the reason why the Status Quo themselves decided to show up together with such youngsters.Continue reading the entire review: Scooter — Jump That Rock (Whatever You Want)

Eskobar — Death In Athens

 2008-11-16 23:35:00
If you enjoy medium-paced melodic music that gets better each time you listen to it, Eskobar is for you. If you compare emotional athmosphere of the album to seasons of a year, this is most likely a very beginning of Fall, September or something.Continue reading the entire review: Eskobar — Death In Athens

Enya — And Winter Came

 2008-11-16 23:31:00
My relationship with Enya is very complex. Being exposed to sorts of music that very much differ from her in style, I often get infected with the cynicism of indie scene or snobbery typical for fans of electronics. So if I haven't heard her in a while, it's like "I'm not listening to her anymore" ... But there comes another album and I fall in love again. "And Winter Came..." proved this point one more time. Continue reading the entire review: Enya — And Winter Came

Dido — Safe Trip Home

 2008-11-16 23:27:00
The album is still a well-known Dido, intelligent mainstream pop music, it starts in a perfectly radio-friendly way with Don't Believe in Love, which is a sweet and sour song you may mistakenly skip on the first go, but on a second one it'll conquer your heart. And so goes the entire album, it's humble, not flamboyant, this "pop" music doesn't require tabloids to be popular, music is intimate and you can't even feel fully welcome on that album, like you overlooked something private matters you didn't intent to.Continue reading the entire review: Dido — Safe Trip Home

Yello — Progress And Perfection

 2008-11-16 23:24:00
First of all, this is recognizable Yello with all the ingredients you got used to. Low Dieter's voice is there, dark latin motives, typical dramatic effects and so on. One thing everybody will agree when they think of Yello — it's the ideal music for driving with high speed. This may be the reason why Audi guys chose Yello for making, basically, a soundtrack for Audi 5 promo campaign.Continue reading the entire review: Yello — Progress And Perfection

Mike Myers — The Love Guru OST

 2008-11-16 23:20:00
If you've seen the film, there's probably no need to say that the soundtrack is maybe the funniest part in this Mike Myers' first post-Austin (fairly humorous) comedy, even though even it barely breaks my limits of "must listen to" level (for instance, I don't think any Bollywood movie will ever make it).Continue reading the entire review: Mike Myers — The Love Guru OST

Klee — Berge Versetzen

 2008-11-16 23:18:00
From the very beginning, it's easy to feel the consistent development of the musical fabric, lyrics and everything else. Like no other band, Klee moves it on and on, sometimes with charming references to some British role models like Black Box Recorder, I as a listener is entirely under their spell. Continue reading the entire review: Klee — Berge Versetzen

Helios — Caesura (2008)

 2008-11-05 04:08:00
When you listen to albums like Helios' Caesura, you instantly realize there’s a massive amount of ideas hiding behind aural simplicity of music. Music is sober (maybe with just a little bit of pathos), arrangements are expertly crafted, and the whole thing sounds like a humble anthem to a concept of beauty or some sub-concept of it.Continue reading the entire review: Helios — Caesura

Flica — Windvane & Window (2008)

 2008-11-05 03:56:00
The overall tendency of the record is definitely oriented to Japan — there are two Japanese remixes on the CD, track titles better fall into a Japanese way of naming songs, cover art is minimal and relates to flora. Maybe you’ll see even more traces of a Far-Eastern approach there. And while I’ll be honest, I don’t really think this record is fully enjoyable apart from just a few tracks, I want to give heads up to Malaysian indie electronic scene. Way to go, Flica guys, and do more stuff!Continue reading the entire review: Flica — Windvane & Window

Annie — Don't Stop (2009 leaked album)

 2008-11-05 03:50:00
Annie's formula of successful track is probably something like that: ~130 BPM, programmed beat, rhythm guitars on the back, synth bass up front, some electronic bleeps and Lolita-like voice with teeny glamorous lyric hooks in the chorus. She’s definitely not a brain-digger, but on the other hand she’s much more attractive than all those MTV pop puppets in make-up.Continue reading entire review: Annie — Don't Stop

Zodiac — Disco Alliance (1980)

 2008-11-05 03:30:00
In spite of harmless instrumentals on a record, using the costly studio time for some young semi-amateurs can't be appreciated by the government. However, it pushed its way through and Zodiac were allowed to all the sacred cows of studio. All the instruments that were used on this record are listed on the backside of the cover. Lusens was fortunate enough to play "ARP Omni" and "ARP Odyssey". Practically all the melodies of this record are well known by everyone who watched soviet TV channels in the 80s. In the early 2000s one of the tracks was covered by a techno project PPK.Continue reading the entire review: Zodiac — Disco Alliance

Jay-Jay Johanson — Self-Portrait (2008)

 2008-11-05 03:16:00
I must admit Jay-Jay Johanson is not the guy I always took him for granted. I fell in love with his music around the time he released “Rush” and that album set such a level of sophistication in pop music that I immediately started to look for similar music — of course, to almost a complete lack of such. Wrongly, I was considering his earlier carrier as a trip-hopped path to sophisticated pop, from debut album through “On The Radio” and “Deja Vu” to the glory of “Mirror Man” which is the Top 1 song on my Last.FM charts at this moment. Shouldn’t have done it...Continue reading entire review: Jay-Jay Johanson — Self-Portrait