Edited By Mike Breen

· Aphex Twin -- Drugks (Warp).
Druqks is the much anticipated new album by one of the pioneers of ambient Electronica, Aphex Twin. It's a double-CD, with 30 tracks, and song titles that are nonsensical to anyone but the one man who created them, Richard D. James (who is Aphex Twin, for the uninitiated). While much of the time he keeps with his signature ambient sound, he also experiments quite a bit on this effort.

This new album is a must-have for any fan of Aphex Twin. If you like Richard D. James' other work, you will find this really interesting. It's his last effort in the deal he signed with Warp Records, so this is most likely his last major label album. James has turned out another masterpiece that's completely original, never clichéd, and consistently exciting to listen to.

It seems like the CD has two very contrasting styles of music on it, one being the danceable ambient electronic music, most of the time recognizable as Aphex Twin. The other style is slow, somber piano or organ music that bleeds sadness. One song, "Kesson Dalef," the last track on the first CD, sounds like Helium doing piano work for the Godfather soundtrack. Many of the songs on the album have that sort of cinematic quality, like they were written to be placed in the background of a movie we will never see.

The songs are arranged in a seemingly deliberate fashion. A faster, more typical Aphex Twin song will be followed directly by one of the slower, more morose songs. They are sandwiched this way through the entire album. At times, the jumping from high energy Techno to slow piano solos can be unsettling, but not distracting enough that it's hard to listen to. It's actually really fun to listen to -- the ups and downs bring variety, rather than annoyance, and each song is refreshingly unique. Overall, this is a solid album which stands out for its individuality in an industry that's become all too generic. (Heather Jones)
CityBeat grade: A.

· Sting -- ... All This Time (A&M;/Interscope).
Talk about bad timing. When ex-Police chief Sting first made the decision to record a quickie "thank you" concert album for fans, he, of course, couldn't have conceived that the recording date would coincide with one of the biggest tragic events in modern world history. On Sept. 11, Sting and his band set up for an intimate concert in front of a crowd of 200 people at his Italian residence and readied for a worldwide Web cast. After news of the World Trade Center attack reached the assembled, the singer played the fitting ballad "Fragile," shut the Web cast down and, encouraged by the audience, carried on with the performance.

Taking a note from the Joe Jackson playbook, All This Time features reconfigurations of Sting hits, including a neo-Funk stab at "All This Time," and a shadowy, cello-laden "Don't Stand So Close To Me" (coming off a billion times better than The Police's '86 re-make), which he segues nicely into "When We Dance." It's hard to tell how much the circumstances contributed to the largely somber tone of the album -- even the uptempo numbers like "(If You Love Someone) Set Them Free" have a certain sadness about them -- but the subtle ambiance does give the record a distinct cohesiveness. That is, until the finale of "Every Breath You Take," which is rushed with a kind of Las Vegas-styled revue feel.

If you're someone who lost interest in Sting's career once he started hob-knobbing with MOR stalwarts like James Taylor and Jimmy Buffett (and making similarly-styled music), you will likely be bored by every moment of ... All This Time. But Sting's low-key craftiness, particularly as an arranger, hasn't been displayed this exquisitely in quite some time. (Mike Breen)
CityBeat grade: B.

· Radiohead -- I Might Be Wrong (Capitol).
The title of this live EP, culled from Radiohead's most recent U.S. touring spat, could be the conclusion of a fan disgruntled by the band's avant-garde explorations upon seeing them in concert. The eight songs presented are culled from the Amnesiac and Kid A albums, two far-reaching, experimental records that sparked wide-spread debate amongst the band's followers. But I Might Be Wrong shows what anyone who happened to see the group live in the past few years already knows. In a live setting, Radiohead's palpable energy lifts the experimentation to a whole new level, sounding more like a Rock Band with some intriguing ideas and less like a bunch of computer geeks messing around with technology. While it's not quite the Rock Band of studio albums like The Bends, the versions of "The National Anthem" and "Dollars and Cents" have the same kind of possessed intensity. There are some special moments captured on I Might Be Wrong, including singer Thom Yorke's spastic, beat-box-like intro to "The National Anthem" and the lovely acoustic dreaminess of "True Love Waits." Live albums rarely amount to much more than a concert souvenir, but this one shows one of the era's most important bands in a mesmerizing transitional phase, making their next step all the more heatedly anticipated. (MB)
CityBeat grade: B.

E-mail Mike Breen

National Anthems (November 15, 2001)
Spill It (November 15, 2001)
Locals Only (November 15, 2001)
more...

personals | cover | listings | humor | news | movies | music | arts & entertainment | dining | classifieds | mediakit | home

Silver and Gold
Canadian hard rockers Nickelback have worked hard for success

Locals Only
Local musician Dan Walzer draws on personal turmoil and discovery on his debut album

Spill It

Gig of the Week:Karl Denson

Yeah Yeah Yeah
New Tunes

Music Listings

Club Directory

Dance Directory