Saint Etienne’s “So Tough” is wonderful. I can’t think of anything that better captures the UK’s “Second Summer of Love”. Everything needed is here: samples, nods to dance and acid, and a romantic sensibility. Usually I think pop from the early 90s ages horribly, almost to a laughable degree. But this has kept itself up well.

“Mario’s Café” contains numerous English-only references. I caught “Did you see the KLF last night?” and a few others. Most of the album is actually an unabashed celebration of all things English. Being an Anglophile, this only helps the album’s case. It is a…

When this begins playing, I don’t care what volume you have it at, increase it. Not Bite deserves it; it deserves you sinking your teeth into the spaz madness that’s about to happen. The singer seems to be working through some intense nervous breakdown, not realizing where he’s at. Vampires attack as he shouts “Not Bite”. Or that could be his dreary, boring life he’s rebelling against.

Drums are around; they go this way and that. Guitars freak out, find their place again. That organ that thing is sort of being tortured in the background, gives the closest thing to…

Grandaddy specializes in a certain, overly-dramatic emo rock. Due to that genre’s almost non-existence in polite society, that might explain why they’ve since disbanded. Nonetheless, despite the genre no longer being a viable option, this is a testament to the fact that even music I’m almost genetically programmed to dislike can have some bright spots.

Apparently the whole album works as a concept album musing over technology and its various failings. The songs refer to the coldness that technology brings us, disconnected from actual emotions. Of course, this means that occasionally things get cheesy. But most of the times they…

Dubstep worries me. Every time I see it describe a band, I cringe a little inside. I don’t know why I do this, maybe I’m not English enough? Maybe I’m not tough enough? Honestly, when people ask me what my literal beef is with dubstep, I have a difficult time explaining. So when I saw Shit and Shine’s new offering was going to be dubstep based, I had two thoughts:

1. Perhaps these guys can enlighten my mind.

2. Perhaps I’m going to start disliking Shit and Shine.

Thankfully, it was the former rather than the latter. For one, they…

Sometimes, good things happen. “Plays” effectively demonstrates how sampling doesn’t have to be some crass affair but rather an entire new way of looking at performance. Ekkehard Ehlers has made albums similar to these since, but this one has a sweet spot in my heart. Each two songs serve as dedication pieces, so that adds to the emotional resonance.

The Cornelius Cardew pieces are very airy, the first one being a brightly colored drone, and the second having a darker, angrier feel to it. Perhaps this was reflecting how Cardew started out with his idealism in music, only to go…

Slowcore exists only in the winter for me. I don’t know why, but when winter gets here, it feels like it lasts forever. Maybe that has to do with its very uniform approach: cold and sad. The White Birch, Codeine’s last album, has remained a staple for winters ever since I first heard it. Lacking any sort of happiness, it kind of embodies the winter for me: plain, dull, and a black hole of emotion.

Each time as I see my breath in the cold air, the songs pop into my head. It works as some kind of genetic disposition.…

Gastr Del Sol counts as among one of Jim O’Rourke’s best projects. The ability and talent he showed to combine extremely difficult experimental tendencies mixed with occasional pop was brilliant. Lately he’s gone too much towards the “not sure if I’m doing this ironically or not” category. With Upgrade and Afterlife, he is very clearly serious on what he’s about to do.

According to the original concept, this was supposed to be their “pop” album. When you first hear the beginning of “Our Exquisite Replica of ‘Eternity’” you immediately realize that wasn’t followed at all. Consisting of sustained organ drones…

I have no idea what’s going on half the time here. Otomo worked with glitches in CDs so early on (this came out in 93) that he needed to explain to people what was going on. What is now an everyday thing was not so common place, even in the experimental Japanese noise scene.

None of this gets coherent. Samples ranges from random Japanese advertisements to harsh noise. There is no in between, no melody, no development. This is some of the most nothing music ever, it is as you’re listening to the sound of infected pop culture.

Despite this…

I know where I was when I first heard this. I sat in my friend’s anorexic-looking white Volvo sedan from the early 90s. As the music played, we all felt happy and content listening to the hip stuff while non-descript shopping malls passed us by. We were going to the beach to walk around aimlessly for a few hours.

The album begins with “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth”. What comes before isn’t necessarily bad, but things really take off with this song. Part of me wonders why a band would get energized right in the middle of things,…

D.R. Hooker is the man presented on the cover of this album. To call him weird would be an understatement. Apparently he enjoyed rocking the ‘Jesus Freak’ look, and listening to the lyrics, he tried preaching it as well. Collectors drool over the vinyl for this. Unlike most of collector’s desperate longings, the music on here actually backs up the reputation.

Recorded during the beginning of the end of hippie culture, it is a fairly strange recording. Including a lounge-y track “Forge your own Chains” which warns against taking drugs and alcohol (can’t dig what you’re doing/I won’t know you…