2000 | 06 Babybird, Calexico, Earthlings?,
16 Horsepower, MDFMK

BABYBIRD - Bugged (Roadrunner Records)
Babybird is Stephen Jones. And Stephen Jones is a storyteller. So "Bugged", his eighth album in five years is in fact a collection of stories set to music. And as we all know that there is nothing more difficult than to tell little, simple stories we bow with respect to his new oevre. There are stories that tell of looking back fondly about life as a kid ("The F-Word"), about an old man wanting to be a kid again ("Fireflies") or about the difficulties to let go someone you love - no matter wether it's a child or a lover ("Out of Sight"). Soft tunes, harmonic, rhythmic, sometimes cheerfully-swinging, sometimes sadly-restrained and always fitting to his gentle voice. And if you think about Ron Sexsmith in this context it's not bad either. This is simply a very beautiful album. (ks)

CALEXICO - Hot Rail (City Slang Records)
Take a seat in the dusty restaurant car of a rattling local train in the border region of Southern California. Already the band's name describes the feeling on this trip by train between two worlds. Forgotten carwrecks, sandy gost cities, bullfight arenas, dimmed jazz clubs and glittering boulevards pass by the windows. Soundpuzzles remind us of Italowesterns, Morricone, Peckinpah and Ry Cooder. Joey Burns and John Convertino, both co-players in Howe Gelb's Giant Sand, make use of the breaks with Giant Sand and their overflowing ideas for this dreamy and smoke-dusted trips through the south. (wh)

EARTHLINGS? - Human Beans (Crippled Records)
The second album of Californian trio Fred Drake, Dave Catching & Pete Stahl makes the meaning of the question mark in the band's title quite clear. Although some of the tracks are quite interesting they also irritate through the distance they keep. Somehow the impression of a wild compilation of set pieces remains that find their climax in a completely uninspired hangover-elctro-version of Chuck Berry's "Jonny B. Good". Inbetween country-guitars whimper to clumsy tinbeats and lazy keyboards. Our advice: they should go on an extended holiday and remember the making of their quite remarkable first album... (wh)

16 HORSEPOWER - Secret South (Glitterhouse Records)
And again we reached Ennio Morricone. Geographically as well as musically situated in America's south, David Eugene and his boys arrange great hard-country guitars with sharp violins, accordions and dancing banjos. then they season the whole thing with a dash of saloon-atmosphere while a bunch of voodoo-dolls dance in the backroom. "Secret South" is a brilliant, homogenic album, that partly even reaches Bob Dylan's best. And last, not least, with the coverversion of "Nobody 'cept you" and the cutting presence of David Eugenene's voice reminiscences of the the Violent Femmes in their high times are not far away... (wh)

MDFMK - MDFMK (Republic/Universal Records)
An era is over und KMFDM are history. Yet, there is hope, as from the ashes emerged MDFMK. And this is far more than simply KMFDM held up to a mirror... This time late members Sascha Konietzko and Tim Skold were joined by singer Lucia Cifarelli and it is far more than just "one of these techno-things". Guitars, vocals and a kind of digital garbage are being melted to the well-known and highly estimated melodic noise. And so everything sounds still a little bit familiar but is at the same time interestingly different. Slamming, heavy guitars, Sascha screaming as ever and Lucia whispers, whimpers, murmurs and sings heartwarmingly above the layer of noise. A good development that makes us curious for the future. And whatever MDFMK might mean - we will find out soon! (ks)