New Wave music reviews

If you thought European dance music meant crashing industrial techno you are behind times. Europe has gone Jazz. It is jazz filtred through house and electronica and aimed at the dance floor, but it is none the worse for that.

But Is It Art? - Funkdafied fusion from Nigel Hayes on the Austrian Sunshine label. Groovy rhythms of all tempos with a distinct jazz influence and live-sounding instrumental elements give this release an interesting crossover appeal. A couple of 4/4 beats in the house range, some bossa nova, a little breakiness...diversified beats for the easy-to-please beatfiend.
From the the synth and sample funk of "Shriek" to the electronic weirdness of the house-fuelled "Detonate the Charge" this is an impressive outing. Sparse and cerebral but with a strong rhythmic pulse throughout this is where jazz-house should be at the beginning of a new century.

If you are a big fan of the tuneful end of techno - to which this seems quite close - but at the same time you remain essentially a soul and jazz fan, then this cd is for you.Fortunately this album stays close enough to those values to satisfy and even throws in the odd vocal to give a human feel to what at times could become a rather arid enterprise. There is an intelligence and a coherence about all the tracks but just enough muscularity to avoid it being too academic an exercise. One for dancers and listeners alike - which is what jazz-house has always been about.

Nigel Hayes plays programmed keyboards to a very good effect.This recording is the step towards jazzhouse that everyone else failed to make.Just listen to "Ode To Odyssey" you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Get this cd if you want to own something special, something superb, Nigel is marvel :-) Enjoy

It's an european point of view on the matter, but such a work is probably the best cd I bought in Y2k. Simply perfect. A perfect sight on actual european non commercial scene. Absolutly amazing must have.

deep house with solid rythmic roots and a strong tropical jazz influence reminiscent of Joe Clausel. A must have.

What a shame that this fantastic album never got the attention it deserved -- especially in the U.S. The album is especially noteworthy for the longer (and much better) versions of How Many Lies and Through the Barricades, both of which were issued in their single formats on The Best of Spandau Ballet. The ballad Swept is easily as gorgeous as anything from the True album, and Snakes and Lovers is absolutely infectious.

This was a great comeback cd for the guys although it never really caught on in North America. Which is sad because the songs were ahead of its time.

Most people would remember Spandau's "True" as being definitive of the group, but I appreciate their ambition, as contained in Through the Barricades. Right from the opening introduction one gets the sense that the group is out to accomplish something different other than simply making a pop album. I won't want to single out any song for praise; not because they are lousy, but rather because they ought to be listened as a single "entity" with a thematic concern. Politically tinged perhaps, but the 80s could always spring such surprises.

I absolutely love the music produced by the collaboration of R. Carlos Nakai and Peter Kater. Their music manages to transport me to another place that is peaceful, relaxing, and does not have a care in the world. It is food for my psyche and for my soul and I never tire of listening of this CD.

There are 9 tracks on this CD and each and every one of them is a delight to hear. The evocative flute, combined with the subtle percussion, piano or vocals is just so incredibly beautiful. Each track is a joy to behold and you will feel a full range of emotions listing to this wonderful CD. I am soothed, I am uplifted, I am relaxed, but mostly I just feel so good listening as I listen over and over to the music. There are very few artists that have this response with me, another one of them being Dolphin Dreams by Marty Weintraub (which I also highly recommend).

The music is hauntingly evocative, beautiful and so very mesmerizing. Listen to the entire CD and let yourself be carried away! You will be re-energized!!!!

If I could, I would rate this with ten stars, as five stars just does not do it justice!!

If there was ever music created that becomes one with your soul, then this is it. I feel very connected to each mood as it moves from melodic to introspective.

At times you feel like an eagle soaring high above the earth. This music will lift your spirit.

The trademark style of piano and Native American flute, along with voice and percussion will create a relaxing mood for you to enjoy.

Perfect for playing when giving or receiving a massage. This music is also like a massage for your heart.

Truly Beautiful.

A long time ago, in a canyon far away, Peter Kater and R. Carlos Nakai collaborated on two of the best Native-American inspired CDs of all time, "Honorable Sky" and "Natives". There hasn't been a CD of that quality for a while, except for the "live version" offered last year, but this new release sure comes close. Peter Kater's melodic piano stylings are a wonderful complement to the soft, haunting woodwind from R. Carlos Nakai. When these two musicians perform together, the result is a flavorful, gentle window into time and landscape. If you are familiar with their other releases, you will truly enjoy this one as well. If you have not heard the others, but are searching for Native American inspired awareness, then I recommend this CD---and the others....

This is in fact an (inexplicably resequenced) re-release of The Set's first two classic albums, both from 1980: Strange Boutique (tracks 1 to 11) and Love Zombies (tracks 12 to 20).

Call it Art-Punk, call it Neo-Psychedelia, call it refreshingly intelligent pop, call it anything you want, but if you haven't got it BUY IT NOW!

After disbanding in the late 1980s, the Monochrome Set are back again with the same great style rendered somewhat more mature. This album contains some of their finest material. One to treasure for years.

I listened to these songs 15 years ago in Santiago, Chile. I didn't know who they where then, it was just an unnamed tape. Ten years later one word still remained in my mind: "monochrome set". I looked it up and I have finally found the source. This band has one of the most intriguing, refreshing and liberating new wave sounds of the era. It makes you want to play and experiment. ATU/99

This is a great CD with great (and rare) mixes. But beware that there are two versions of this compilation -- I think one is German and the other is British. This one has Relax (doomsday mix) and Don't Lose What's Left of Your Mind. The other one,...by the name of "Welcome to the 12 Inch Mixes" contains Relax (new york mix) and Watching the Wildlife (die letzten tage der menschheit). Personally, I bought both.

I think the most outstanding track on this CD is the 17 minute sex mix of Relax. All these years I thought the 8 minute new york mix was the only remix. Silly me -- I should have known, since Frankie releases multiple remixes of every single.

If you like FGTH than this is the one you MUST buy ! All the original mixes of frankie on two cd's...

And if you know Frankie you will know that all the mixes are something special, amazing, everytime !

Enjoy ...

If you like FGTH than this is the one you MUST buy ! All (well almost) the original mixes from frankie on two cd's...
And if you know Frankie you will know that all the mixes are something special, they'll amaze you everytime !
Conclusion: For every (casual) fan a must have.

Enjoy ...

"Ultimate Collection" is a mixed bag. While the sound is great and the selections terrific, it's an odd sort of collection. Fans will buy it for the complete "Mike's Murder" available for the first time on CD and self contained on disc three. Fans looking for a hits collection will find this to be a pretty good overview although it's missing a number of key tracks and the running time of each disc left plenty of room to add between 5 songs per disc.

The booklet isn't as exhaustive as it should be. Like the booklet for the reissued "Night and Day", it's designed for new fans. That's ok but the "Ultimate Collection" is aimed at two markets with its inclusion of "Mike's Murder". I would have liked to see complete lyrics as well as comments from Joe about each of the songs. It's clear he didn't have much to do with the compilation.

The beautifully remastered sound almost makes this worthwhile even if you have all of Joe's albums and singles on various CDs. The 32 bit remastered sound blows away just about any other version of the hits collections previously issued. Ultimately, this should have mirrored the two disc American set with "Mike's Murder" as a bonus disc.

No complaints really, I just wish that Joe had gotten the true "Ultimate Collection" he really deserved; a 4 disc boxed set with rarities, album tracks similar to XTC's wonderful "A Coat of Many Cupboards" (although I had some issues with that set as well but it's great for the most part).

This set appealed to me because it contains the hits from early in his career, a time that most would argue was his best. I differ--I actually prefer his latest albums. I bought this because I DON'T have those early albums and wanted the hits from that period. The main reason for buying this is that it contains the entire "Mike's Murder" soundtrack. Parts of it are available on the remastered 2-disc set of "Night and Day" that was also recently released, but forego that disc and buy this one. The sound quality is superb. I would have added more tunes from his excellent (in my opinion) Blaze of Glory CD, for there's only one tune from it here (and there were better tracks on it than "Nineteen Forever"). And I would have added tracks from "Night and Day II" (which I liked alot). OK, there's more that should have been added: a track or two from "Will Power" and a movement from his "Symphony" CD's. Both would have been great instrumental additions to the third CD which falls short of complete, clocking in at 38 minutes. (CD1 = 56 min., CD2 = 66 minutes). If you're a Joe Jackson fan, this is a definite buy. FYI: Try Tower Records which had mine for $29.99.

For the casual listener, this CD package is a fine overview of Joe Jackson's A&M recordings. All the hits are here, and they sound fantastic! The real treat though is disc #3 - the ENTIRE soundtrack of "Mike's Murder"! Definitely worth the price of the entire package!

The voice of Sara, sweet and melodic is a refreshing change to the dogmatic sound of todays females. The entertaining vocals of Buzz in "Psychic" keeps the senses going and the touching lyrics of" Love in the 80's" brings memories to all. The new rendition of "Whole Lotta Love" sends a driving force of energy through the room!!!!! Probe is definitely a band with talent and they cannot be ignored. Try it, listen and you will be hooked!!!

Finally, somebody has returned music to its fun roots! I'm sick and tired of whiney drone music and Probe is a fantastic exception. They are upbeat, they are fun, they are lively, and they are original. The CD has been on my 5-disc carousel for weeks. I change the other CDs, but Probe stays because it is great music with great lyrics. Buy it. NOW! See them live, too. They have a wild stage show.

Terrific lyrics; hilariously original instrumentation - a refreshingly noncynical treatment of eighties science mania. Well worth the four week WordMail wait! I hope this band sticks around!

whether ur part of the insect nation or an ant virgin, this is definatley a must buy for everyone. his unique singing voice and the band. There r some great classics and ones which wil be new to people. There are so many songs as well. Great value for money. One of the best cds in my large collection

this is a superb cd and my favs on it hav to be
antmusic, stand and deliver, prince charming, apollo 9 and most of the rest.

What a great collection. If you want to know where much of today's alternative music originated, listen to this. His blend of various genres paired with his personal flair, great vocals and original lyrics will please the toughest of critics.

Favs- can't set rules about love, wonderful, desperate but not serious, and heck...the rest of them

by far the best collection of ant music out there.plenty of ant favorites plus some very hard to find classics also if you were lucky enough to get a early copy of this it came with a live concert cd this is a must for all fans everywhere.............

Ultravox is another classic band from the 80's with those fabulous rythms and synthesizers. It's great that CD technology caught on and the record companies decided to re-release classic compilations like this so the music could live on. This is a great one. Sit back, listen and relax.

Ultravox are very influential. For starters look at their name and look at mine. In the middle of each song, it gets very harmonious with very good solos, esp. from Billy Currie's Viola. Listen to the song Vienna and you will see what I mean. And if you want to listen to a very similar version of Mr.X look at John Foxx's (once again notice the similarities), Metamatic CD and listen to the song touch and go. And to top it all up, Midge has a very good voice, thus the blend is amazing.

It's the beginning of a new decade, the 1980's. Margaret Thatcher & Ronald Reagan have been elected, the reign of Punk Rock has ended, so what's next? The New Romantics.

The New Romantic movement was a short phase in British pop music, but for a short time it was possible to hear music that was truly different. Different at least if you grew up in America in the 70's. The music of the New Romantics, in particular Ultravox, sounded like nothing I had heard before. I dare anyone to find any link to old R&B or soul in this album. As stated by lead singer/guitar player Midge Ure, "Listening to Ultravox doesn't evoke images of cruising down the road in a convertible...". This isn't Led Zepplin or the Rolling Stones recycling blues licks from the 20's and 30's, this was, in the words of Monty Python, "Something Completely Different".

My first exposure to Ultravox was seeing the video to the song "Vienna" from this very album on HBO. Back in the early 80's, when HBO had a few minutes to kill between movies, they would show music videos. Considering that this was well before the birth of MTV, seeing a music video was certainly something new. Especially when it featured a band I had never heard of. Ultravox's videos of that time featured excellent production values, many directed by future film director Russell Mulcahy, and were visually impressive. They did an excellent job in capturing the mood of the music, which brings me back to the subject of this review... mood. If you're a fan of Ultravox, you're not expecting to hear stirring ballads, or rousing political statements. You expect to be transported to a different place or time, and hey... if you can dance to it as well, that's a bonus. Ultravox excelled at setting a mood. They did this with a combination of classical violin, viola, and other strings, rock guitar, synthesizers, and what would become their 'trademark' sound: Billy Currie's lead synthesizer lines. These synth parts could be (poorly) described as sounding a bit like "smooth-sounding guitar feedback, that was piercing, yet melodic at the same time". Listen to the first track on this album, "Sleepwalk" for a good example of what I'm talking about. I've had many listeners think that the synth solo in the middle of this song was actually highly distorted guitar, but it's Ultravox's keyboard player Billy Currie doing his thing. I've talked about what didn't influence Ultravox, but now you may ask what did. The main influence that I see is a combination of German Krautrock/Synthrock of Kraftwerk and Neu!, with a bit of Roxy Music and David Bowie during his "Low" period. That said, Ultravox manages to sound very different from these influences. Perhaps the main source of the influence can be traced to the producer of this album, the late, lamented, Conny Plank. Conny also produced albums for Kraftwerk and other German bands.

The songs on this album invoke a plethora of moods; the nightmarish fear of "Sleepwalk", the questionable, unknown future of "New Europeans", the soaring heights of "Astradyne", the alienation of "Mr. X", the old-world decadence of "Vienna", and finally the post-apocalyptic eulogy of "All Stood Still". Many other artists were part of the New Romantic movement, including Ultravox's step-brother band Visage, but none had the clarity of vision of Ultravox, especially on this release. If you are not moved by the intertwining violin and piano on the title track, you have no heart. This is the second incarnation of Ultravox, but that is a different story for a different review. If you grew up in America in the 70's & 80's listening to AOR rock stations, you probably have never heard of Ultravox. You don't know what you've missed. Buy this album and give it a listen... your ears and your mind will thank you.

GREAT CD by one of Minneapolis' finest at Minneapolis' finest venue. Next best thing to bein' there...

I thought I had seen their last, farewell concert at First Avenue, and then years later came across this wonderful CD. Nothing can really capture the party that was a Suburbs concert, but here's a taste of the indescribable earthly delights.

An awesome compilation of some of their greatest hits, from the rocking Cig Machine, Every Night and Tape Your Wife, to the dance floor madness of Rattle My Bones and Love is the Law, the piercing ballads of Spring Came and Girlfriend, and plain silliness of Cows, and all the other great songs. Something for most everyone, and it all fits together somehow.

A great 80's band that never quite made it out of the club scene but sure made a lot of great music, this CD (or the non-live greatest hits compilation) is great for fans old and new. Sure is fun to hear Beej and the boys jamming! Ah, wasted youth...

This is a live disk containing most of the Suburbs' best songs. From "Cows" to "Life is Like" it spans the Burbs' short but sweet tenure as the best band in the Twin Cities. "Rattle My Bones" is one of the best live recordings on the market.

For the uninitiated, the Suburbs were an alternative rock band from the 80's that, had they played in the late 90's, could have ruled the U.S. Hard electric guitar, amazing electric piano and a devastating brass section combined with a funky beat and incredibly fun lyrics that became the mainstay of my undergraduate hearing loss.

The Burbs' breakup made the front page of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and was a dark day for this music lover. Nonetheless, there are at least two Burbs disks out there, and this is the best (the other that I know of is a greatest hits package of their studio work).

This is a really great piece of work and a lot of fun to hear.