Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
STRAVINSKY - PROKOFIEV: Gunter Wand
Sparks [CD-single] [Enhanced] [Import]
The Factory Los Angeles Presents Kimberly S
Studio Rehearsal Tapes '77 [Import]
Schubert: Impromptus D 899 & D 935 / Radu Lupu
Amazon.com
This compilation takes the inclusiveness of indie rock's DIY (do-it-yourself) ideology to a logical extreme by getting 24 underground rock-based artists to contribute an unaccompanied vocal. A capella singing is as accessible as music gets--who hasn't, at some point or another, lifted their voice and sung out loud? Some of the contributors to this disc are moderately well known, some quite unknown, and their performances range from impressive executions of technically complex vocal music to artless bellowing. There is a lot to like about the efforts at each extreme, especially when they're surprise discoveries. Who'd have thought that guitarist Elliott Sharp was a passable throat singer? That someone in the Grifters was such a good human beat box? Or that visual artist Nikki McClure could sound so breathlessly sexy on "Blackberry"? I have no idea who the Japonize Elephants are or how they got their name, but they do a great rousing job on the hymn "Daniel." Just one caveat--Richard Buckner and P.W. Long's rendering of "Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down" is so dreadfully misogynistic one hopes they're wrong. --Bill Meyer