2000 | 05 Lacuna Coil, Moloko, N17, Rosenfels, Patti Smith, Smog, JSBX, Paul Weller

LACUNA COIL - Half Life (Century Media)
The aesthetes from Italy are back with a Mini-LP. And whoever likes gloomy-melodic guitar music is in the right place. On 'Half Life' Lacuna Coil brought their trademarkt to perfection: the intense vocal duetts between Cristina Scabbia and her male counterpart Andrea Ferro as well as melodic, yet hard, guitar riffing. For the first time they included a song with italian lyrics ('Senza Fine') on the album. On 'Trance Awake' we follow the band on an instrumental journey to psychelic regions and they even did a Dubstar-Coverversion ('Stars'). Nice springtime tunes. (ks)

MOLOKO - Things to make and do (Echo Records)
Roisin Murphy has a colourful and sirenlike voice that - together with the weird lyrics - lets this album flit about like a will-ó-the wisp. Teutonic funky-beats by Mark Brydon and the ingenious mixture of music styles make this CD a pearl. While their first album "Do you like my tight sweater" was made of purest TripHop, Moloko cruised on their follow-up "I'm not a doctor" rolling funk-highways and now establish themselves as pioneers of their own style. A rummaging intensity and moments of unpredictable diversity make this album one of the best for a long time. (wh)

NOVEMBER 17 - Defy Everything (Slipdisc Records)
Welcome to world of heavy music! "Defy Everything" by November 17 jumps at you straigtly from the CD-player and nails you to your chair! With songs like 'Rust', 'Brash' oder 'Suffering' the band from Phoenix, Arizona makes their stylemix of Metal and Industrial permanent. The Album bursts with raw, unpolished sounds and suggests some affinity to good old Ministry... Dark, aggressive sounds mix with electronic elements, noisy guitars and brutal drums without completely forgetting a certain melodiosity. Expectations are high how this band will develop... (wh)

ROSENFELS - Trespiano (Indigo)
They still exist, these singular rocks in a flood of HipHop and Techno. Small, precious ballads of poetry and sadness. "Rosenfels" is the name of these masters of dreariness and with 'Trespiano' they finally released their second album. Sven Brandes and Michael Röhl send us on a journey full of melancholy, longing and guarded joy: with soft piano tunes, strings and this voice that wraps you like a warmed towel on a cold evening. Music that makes your slowly drift away... (wh)

PATTI SMITH - Gung Ho (Arista Records)
After seventeen years of abstinence in which she lost almost all close friends and husband Fred "Sonic" Smith, her comeback is triumphantly and leads her to the top again. Accompanied by an excellente band Patti Smith makes quite clear that she is the mother of all riot girls. "Gung Ho" is her eighth album and the third one in the last three years. It is full of strong, energetic songs with political lyrics and her hypnotic voice makes them go deep under your skin. After all she went through during the last decades she sees herself as a waking siren of the dawning 21st century and warns with a powerful voice from manipulation and exploitation of the "modern" man. Listening tips: "Lo and beholden" and "Glitter in their eyes". (wh)

SMOG - Dongs of Sevotion (Domino Records)
Well, this album isn't quite recommendable to people with suicidal tendencies. A pessimism without boundaries and manic manner of dealing with tastelessness dictates Bill Callahan's lyrics on this album, too. While he indulges in cutting throats to childrens' background choires on "Bloodflow", he describes on "Dress sexy at my funeral" all the places where he had sex. The songs create with their minimalistic simplicity and consequence a hypnotic undertow that you barely can resist. John McEntire of Tortoise excelled himself behind and in front of the sound desk and the music ranges from Low-Fi-Folk to fragile Pop-themes. But above all hovers Callahan's impressively low voice, full of cynism. (wh)

JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION - Experimental Remixes (Mute Records)
After the great albums "ACME", "ACME-Plus" and some side-projects like "Boss Hog", the band of his charming wife Christina Martinez, JSBX now present a remix-album that partly emerged from the cooperation with Dub-Narcotic-Sound-System on the album "Sideways Soul". Among others u.n.k.l.e., F Carles, Beck, Prince Paul, John Oswald, Killah Priest and Moby fumbled the studio-buttons and created a powerfull and alternate rainbow with "absolutely great party material". (wh)

PAUL WELLER - Heliocentric (Island Records)
After a slightly disappointing last album "Heavy Soul", Weller appears on his 5th solowork more relaxed than ever. He remembers his own talent as storyteller and songwriter. His old pal Robert Wyatt said about this gift: "He makes new furniture from old wood." And so, most of all "Heliocentric" impresses through the unpretentious but perfectly timed songs that this time sound much rounder and more balanced than in the past. While the old Weller was restless and lively he now presents himself as serene and resting. But apart from magnificent songs like "A whale's tale" in which he tells whaling from the whale's point of view and "There's no drinking after you're dead" you have an excellently played, very classic album, that lacks a bit of pepper. (wh)