New Wave music reviews

I recently got this cd for my birthday. To be honest, I really only knew a few songs from the Fixx (One Thing Leads To Another, Red Skies, Are We Ourselves). mostly their earlier material, my junior high years) I prefer "live" albums over any studio or greatest hits packages so I decided to get this live album by the Fixx.WOW, was I impressed!!!! It opened up a whole new list of songs by the Fixx to me. Their music is very well written and put together and sounds even better when played live. "Subterranean", "I'm Life", "The Fool" and "Secret Separation" are just a few of the highlights to this recording. The music flows good together, and makes for a great 72 minutes of listening!!!The Fixx rock!!! Excellent musicianship!!! This is a very good cd and one that I would definitely recommend to anyone.

The Selecter, or should I say Pauline Black (lead vocal) shows she is still very much alive! This album has all great tracks again as if they were written in 1979. I can certainly recommend this album to all SKA lovers.

JUST GET THIS ALBUM! YOU WILL FIND OUT WHEN YOU LISTEN TO IT.

This is a very good and unique band. The album has two vocalists; Janina and Cyrus. Very soothing sounds and profound lyrics. To preview their songs go to their website www.edria.net where they have links to where you can listen to their songs. If what you're looking for is new music that has not been over-populated with fans and thus your voice becomes but another wave of the sea, then edria is for you because you can be sure they appreciate you individually. Trust me, being popular is not always being good and not being popular does not mean being bad.

This stuff is the real deal. I've been playing it for weeks on end and I just can't stop, because the more I listen, the stronger it gets. I think this is one of those bands that I'll be able to say I knew about long before the rest of the world catches up.

Comparisons are always lame -- writing about music is like dancing about architecture, right? -- so Regular sometimes gets tagged as "emo." Songs like "Talk Me Down" can sound a little like Jimmy Eat World -- if Bowie produced them during the "Hunky Dory" sessions, anyway -- but it's much richer than that kid stuff. The Elvis Costello influence is undeniable. And I'd even put John Kieltyka's songwriting on this first effort up against any of the big guns, like Neil Young, Steve Earle, PJ Harvey -- any of 'em. The strength of this guy's talent is particularly evident on tracks like "Tyrone," "Sin of Pride," "Parade," and "Huffer." As a matter of fact, it's worth getting the CD for "Huffer" alone. It's terrifying, it's beautiful -- it's hands-down the best song I've heard this year.

But I don't want to wreck anybody's experience of hearing "Huffer" for the first time by giving anything away (!!) so I'll try to describe "Tyrone" -- a song about kids and race relations without the soapbox -- to give you a taste of what you can expect. From the Hammond opening to the sidewinder slide-work, the guitar punctuation that jumps right into your lap and the fretless bass, it's pure magic. The tight performances somehow allow it to sound airy and just this side of lo-fi but it's still got a hot, solid groove. The songcraft has a pop sensibility and it's played by musicians who can make all sorts of sneaky references from Stax-Volt to Lou Reed.

Like I said, this is the real deal -- a desert-island-disc -- and not to be missed.

Right on schedule, somebody remixed "Relax" yet again and the results are pretty damn sexy, which is appropriate given the song's subject matter. The track listing is as follows:

1. Peter Rauhofer's Doomsday Radio Mix. Rauhofer is a world class DJ who used to do a lot of remixing under the moniker Club 69. This mix is an edit of the club mix and just distills the basic elements of that down to a radio-friendly 4.5 minutes.

2. Peter Rauhofer's Doomsday Club Mix. This is around 10 minutes of throbbing, banging, club-ready Frankie. Rauhofer uses a great many of the lyrics from the original mix and the effect of the entire mix is fantastically dark and sexy. To make it club compatible for 2001, things are speeded up a bit but not obnoxiously so. The production is spare but isn't lacking at all.

3. Saeed & Palash Addictive Journey. This mix is a little more straight-ahead dance. Lyrical use is minimal and there are elements of trance. Clocks in at nearly eleven minutes

4. Cold Cut Remix. This mix is amusing because it embellishes the original lyrics with snippets of spoken word type stuff that pertains to not relaxing. There's scratching, vocoder robot stuff and big bombastic drum noise. It definitely has the feel of an eighties era production. Not blatantly danceable.

5. Peter Rauhofer's Doomsday Dub. You know what a dub is, right? Rauhofer strips out most of the vocals and leaves you with the dark, subversive beats of the club mix (track 2). There's enough of the original in the song that you'll know what you're listening to.

6. Original New York 12" Mix. Score! Anytime a remix CD is created for an old song like this it only makes sense that the best known original remix be included and that's what this is. This one is just like the original single but has been stretched out to a more dance friendly length which is what eighties mixes are all about. If nothing else, it will let you see how far the art of the remix has travelled.

7. Original Radio Mix. Bless the record company for this inclusion. Here you have the original 3.5 minutes of Trevor Horn -produced eighties era pop, a song that spawned a sizable degree of hysteria in the UK and had new wavers and the like in America dancing along as well. Frankie say relax.

Come!

I've always been skeptical of tribute albums. With few exceptions, they more often than not fail to offer new musical insights in the subject being covered. 'Reproductions' is inexplicably different as it offers novel interpretations of songs that were sometimes regarded little more than novelties of the times. But each song here is a miniature delight in and of itself (most are tastefully brief), and all blend equally well to create a cohesive whole. The genius (if you will) of the Human League is power of their simple hooks, the allure of their sing-along lyrics and the durability of their pop vision.

1. Teenage Head "Disgusteen
2. The Stranglers "(Get a) Grip (on Yourself)
3. Viletones "screaming Fist"
4. Blondie "Denis"
5. Wire "I am the Fly"
6. Magazine "the Light Pours OUt of Me"
7. Generation X "kiss me Deadly"
8. Buzzcocks "ever fallen in Love"
9. Demics "New York City"
10. 999 "Homicide"
11. The Skids "Workin' for the Yankee Dollar"
12. The Forgotten Rebels "surfin' on Heroin"
13. Stiff Little Fingers "Roots, Radicals, Rockers & Reggae"
14. The Cramps "Goo Goo Muck"
15. Bow Wow Wow "C30 C60 C90 Go"
16. The Alarm "Spirit of '76"
17. Lords of the New Church "Dance with Me"
18. Iggy Pop "Lust for Life"

Oglio records was one of the early labels to bring us hard to find new wave 12" singles on compilations, and few labels have managed to keep up with it. Get them before sellers start charging ridiculous prices for them-like volume 4, which is already going for a lot because of the large number of rare 12" versions. Track times:

1. the way you are (7:46)
2. Reap the wild wind (3:50)
3. The promise (6:25)
4. Nevermore (6:44)
5. When the lights go out (3:00)
6. Chant #1 (5:46)
7. Oh yeah (6:25)
8. Lies (6:32) (the actual 12"-not the edit used on the crappy Thompson Twins Best of remixes CD)!!!)
9. Come on Eileen (4:12)
10. Beat surrender (3:28)
11. Turning Japanese (3:44)
12. Janitor (2:30)

Classic dance tunes and favorites for So. Cal. KRoQ listeners. I think this is the best of the Flash Back series, loved it!

If you like to hear different tracks of relax then this is the CD for you. It was interesting how one song can be the same sound but done so differently with some beats useing bongo drums. Very toe tapping CD and I enjoy it very much.

This is the reissue of the 1985 single "Relax" by England's finest none other then "Frankie Goes To Hollywood". The single has 5 tracks on it. The first 4 are all remixes of the classic new-wave song. But track 5 happens to be the 7 minute version. If you ever owned the 12 inch single of "Relax", it's on here. Not the 3 minute version that they played on the radio to death. Nope, your only going to find 4 remixes and the original 12 inch single (which happens to be better then the radio version). Get this only for the 12 inch single, if not buy the 1985 LP "Welcome To Pleasuredome" (that's only if you want the radio version of Relax). This is a must have for FGH fans. Track 5 the 12 inch single just rocks. Buy this also if your a big 80's fan.