My Amazon Reviews: Didges Christ Superdrum "Alien Technology"

This ain't your daddy's Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.
4 Out Of 5 Stars


Didges Christ Superdrum are unlike anything else you're likely to hear this year. Their second album, "Alien Technology" ain't your daddy's Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. A pair of Goth looking prog rockers in Shaman's masks, a couple of added pick-up percussionists, then set to music that features a didgeridoo as the primary instrument. The lyrics sound like they were lifted from a Ministry album and the drums off some tribal drum circle. This CD is thick with some wicked mojo.

"Alien Technology" is space rock for those who aspire to a walkabout in the outback and need a soundtrack. It's the disco you need for dancing naked on the beach by firelight when ET decides to give you a probe. It's the bridge between Michael Oldfield and Hawkwind. If you play it as the soundtrack to The Wizard of Oz, you'll go forward in time. And I love it.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Band Of Horses "Cease To Begin"

Band at a Gallop
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Fronted by the otherworldly voice of Ben Bridwell, Band Of Horses make dreamy folk music ala Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket. Alternating between cushiony pop, unabashed folk and guitar rock, "Cease To Begin" cuts a wide swath musically. Sometimes the jumps can be jarring, like when the bashing guitars of "Cigarettes Wedding Bands" slips into the country ballad "Window Blues," complete with a banjo. There's a great opener in "Is There A Ghost" that mixes both the dream-pop with an eventual cascade of guitsr, combing the band's strength in the best offering here. What ties this all together is Bridwell's voice and an uncanny sense of melody; even his brashest songs have underlying hooks. Add some really gorgeous harmonies ("Window Blues" again), you get one of those indie bands earning their cred the hard way, by working outside the system. "Cease To Begin" is a relaxed and understated album.

     

My Amazon Reviews: David Bowie "The Next Day"

Hungover Heroes
4 Out Of 5 Stars
 
Like the willfully annoying cover art, David Bowie continues confounding his audience with his first album in 10 years. "The Next Day" finds the former recluse coming out with a bang, teasing with samples from his storied past. There are touches of "Heroes" here, along with "Station To Station" and a few of the stronger moments of the underrated "Hours." And he can't seem to stay away from the space thing, with the best song on the album being the mesmerizing "The Stars Are Out Tonight."

Or, for that matter, the minor odyssey of "Dancing in Outer Space." Which is one of the songs he actually sings on. Many of the songs are barked in a staccato fire method, including the blasting opener of the title song. Bowie is not edging into is older years quietly, but still challenging his own work. The anger in the war protest "I'd Rather Be High" contrasts to the weird doo-wop of "How Does The Grass Grow?" Finally, there's the mysterious closer, "Heat," which floats on a muted guitar and ominous cushion of electronics as Bowie murmurs a lyric whose odd reveal is "My father ran the prison" and "I tell myself I don't know who I am." Musical chameleon that he's always been, David Bowie is still, pushing 70, happy to play around with the perception of who we think he is.

As for the bonus tracks, the instrumental "Plan" is a dud. Why "So She" missed the cut is odd, as it has one of the prettier melodies on "The Next Day." The same speculation could be applied to "I'll Take You There," which rocks more than most of the album. You might as well buy the deluxe version as two of the three bonus cuts rival anything on the proper disc.

     

My Amazon DVD Reviews: Apollo 18

This Moon is Made Of Cheese
2 Out of 5 Stars

"Apollo 18" takes the 'found footage' horror methodology (think "Blair Witch" or "Paranormal Activity") and takes it off world. You thought Apollo 17 was our last lunar mission? You think the Russians never landed on the moon? Got news for you conspiracy minded types out there; neither of these is true. Sent up under the guise of a National Security/Department of Defense kind of Top Secret mission, our three astronauts board the Liberty and Freedom vehicles for one more investigation of what's really up there. It ain't the Sea of Tranquility, that's for sure.

Before you know it, something is making creepy noises outside the Lunar Module. Samples are suddenly not where the explorers originally left them. And them dastardly things ripped up the USA flag! Not only are these critters scary, they're downright UnAmerican! Then again, they weren't too nice to the Ruskie that landed there before Apollo 18, and the unlucky astronauts realize that their government may not have told them everything about their journey or its intended mission. The handheld cameras soon begin jerking and spinning, the automatic cameras are going static, and the humans just might be losing their minds.

"Apollo 18" mixes just enough "now-you-see-it" spookiness to add some real scare jolts, but mostly, it's dopey space B-Movie fun. The Metal Munching Moon Mice from the old Bullwinkle cartoons were about as believable as the space bug monsters wreaking havoc on our helpless heroes, and some of the effects are laughably bad. There's plenty of stock footage in use to help make the original bits work chronologically, however, as a horror movie is concerned, the green cheese that is "Apollo 18"? It certainly isn't rocket science.

   

My Amazon Reviews: My Morning Jacket "Circuital"

Completing The Circuit
4 Out Of 5 Stars

My Morning Jacket have such an ingrained sound that, no matter how many left turns they've taken since "Z," you can still pull their identity out of the ether their albums have become. On "Circuital," they make something of a return to the atmospheric space rock that had gone missing on the almost funky "Evil Urges," while still carrying the chromosomes of that album into this year's warp drives. Like a country-fried version of The Flaming Lips, Jim James and Company just can't stop evolving or lunging into the glorious fogs.

When your album starts with a vocalized faux-horn entrance into a "Victory Dance" and then into the epic title track where James hush/wails that he's "right back in the same place that we started out," and those two pieces are already almost a third of your album, you know you're in for an unconventional ride. Everything here is trippy but assured, from the beauty of the romantic waltz "Moving Away" to the goofy "Holding On To Black Metal;" the band never sounds tentative or as if they're searching for something. Or even if they're cracking musical jokes, as they do on "Outta My System," it's more like an ode to growing up than what most bands would use for filler.

My Morning Jacket may have become America's most fearless band. "Circuital" pulls influences together yet never seems to go down the same road twice, be it Pink Floyd mystical or The Who-like guitar intensity. (Having seen him play twice, I can assure you, the one thing I really wish for is the album where James lets that Townsend-sized energy appear on an album.) They now have discovered how to manage their many musical fusions while remaining their own band. While not the startling revelation that "Z" was, "Circuital" may well be MMJ's best to date, and one of 2011's best albums.