Reviewed by: Rox 8 June, 1998
For The Record (no pun)
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I have recently learned to appreciate many of the sub-genres under the heading of Electronic Music. I say that as a confession to those of you who know me, and are now vomiting all over your monitor. As an old punk, I really didn't want to like the stuff at all, but several styles have grabbed my attention. Breakbeat shares a close similarity to old school Rap. Trip-Hop is a close cousin to Goth, at times evoking Siouxsie, The Cure, and Love and Rockets.
To all of you "purists" out there that are Industrial fans, if you take away about 10-15 of the guitar tracks of say "Thieves," you are left with an Electronic song. Yeah it kills me too, but this is this, this is not something else.
Other exceptional efforts in the field for you E-music rookies are Dead Elvis by Death in Vegas, and The Urbal Beats Compilation. No...I'm not even about to utter the "P" word. They have enough of their own hype, so screw 'em. Psychosomatic, addict insane...oh yeah!
Mezzanine, in particular, is a very strong Trip Hop/Trance effort. I don't know a whole lot about the scene, so I won't try to bullshit you by throwing around names and places. What I will tell you that if you need an album to groove to, or are planning on breaking somebody off in the near future; this IS the album for you.
The whole album is full of dreamy, surreal tunes that almost light the candles and incense for you. There is a great variety of styles also. The current hype for the "Eastern" vibe (sans nukes) works well in "Inertia Creeps", as does Motown in "Exchange", and the crunchy guitars in "Dissolve Girl" fill out the 11-track offering quite nicely.
These guys have great instrumentation, great vocalists and do some pretty cool sampling. Included in this are bits from The Cure and the Velvets. No, as a matter of fact, I am not shitting you.
"Teardrop" has gotten substantial airplay in the Bay Area if that matters to anyone out there. Third Eye Blind also got a lot of airplay, and now look at 'em...bigger than Right, Said Fred. Other strong tracks on this album include "Angel", "Risingson", "Exchange" and "Black Milk". I have found zero tracks on this to be boring, or objectionable and as such must give it a * * * * rating. It will probably make the year's Top Ten List, but unlike Dead Elvis, it doesn't seem to be novel enough to rate the extra star.