COMPACT DISKS ~TEST.FIL~ 'With a good ending, has to be a good beginning' Confucius -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C O M P A C T D I S K S by Slimer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A wide diversity of compact enjoyment has found it's way into this issue's review article. Unlike other diskmagazines we don't keep a narrow mind on music. It's not impossible that there actually are people roaming this earth who don't like Heavy Metal (shock !). Although I personally are quite fond of Metal, I do dig other music forms (how pathetic this may seem to some individuals). Anyway prepare yourself for a journey through musicland, -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title : Jar of Flies Artist/group : Alice in Chains Playing time : about 30 minutes or so I saw this CD lying all alone in the shop, it send subconscious messages to my mind, begging me to hire it.... Gently I took the CD from the shelf and before I knew it it was spinning in my NAD CD-player at home. With a title like 'Jar of Flies' you expect an encounter with a Metal CD but the opposite is the truth. No drums of a speeding locomotive and no screamin' electric guitars ! This is unlike anything else I heard before from 'Alice in Chains' and it is not bad..... I will unveil a tip of the curtain, better yet, I remove the curtain ! It turns out to be ballad/jazzy/acoustic kinda stuff in the genre 'Swing on this'. Also judging by the total playing time, this CD seems to be some-sort of an experimental 'wewannadosomethingelseforachange' project! Well, they succeeded and to my even greater surprise, the CD can even be given the predicate good ! It's even one of my current fave tapes (as I taped the CD) to relax on without getting into really mushy and soft music. Quite relaxing while working under stress at my work ! The CD contains the following tracks, Rotten Apple Nutshell I Stay Away No Excuses Whale and Wasp Don't Follow Swing On This The CD contains quiet and acoustic kind of tracks with nice melodies. There are many influences like Jazz in 'Swing On This' and even some Beatless influence in the 'I Stay Away 'track. 'The Whale and Wasp' track is quite nice as it's melody does actually resemble the 'sonar' sounds of whales. I can conclude that the songs contain atmosphere and depth and are worth to be at least taped ! Before I throw the figures at you, I couldn't keep myself from mentioning that 'Swing On This' sounds somewhat like a male Star Sisters track. Yeah that figures, Musical interest : 7+ Recording quality : 8+ Value : 7 For being a bit on the short side of things -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title : Superunknown Artist/group : Soundgarden Playing time : 73:40 minutes Another drug addicted 'Grunge' band from Seattle with misty minds and good but dark depressive music. Another band that started at the underground music scene and reached more popularity than they bargained for. Another band that didn't want to be put into a labeled compartment with a stamp on their forehead. Another group that failed to get out of the reach of the music-mob ! At least 'Soundgarden' isn't your standard Seattle band and believe me there are quite a few around these days. The 'Superunknown' CD is the latest creation of the group and is well received within the music community. You could describe the sound of 'Soundgarden' to be raw, in mine opinion sometimes as raw as for instance Nirvana. There are also a lot of emotions hidden in the songs songs that sometimes scream in frustration ! M.T.V. has played the 'Spoonman' track for quite a while and it can be said that this is one of the more 'jolly' tracks on this CD. It almost seems that I can understand the feelings of leadsinger Chris Cornell on this CD but I think that nobody but Chris himself will understand it all... There are 16 tracks with titles that shine on the depressive nature of this CD, Let Me Drown My Wave Fell On Black Days Mailman Superunknown Head Down Black Hole Sun Spoonman Limo Wreck The Day I Tried To Live Kickstand Fresh Tendrils 4th Of July Half Like Suicide She Likes Surprises The tracks seem to be chaotic at first but they have to grow on you. I have said a lot about the tracks already but you could say that it is raw and above all 'honest' music. My fave tracks are 'My Wave' 'Spoonman' 'Limo Wreck', 'Day I Tried To Live' and 'The Superunknown'. The shiny disk comes with a booklet and has all the songtexts with nice 'art' photos on the background in it.'Soundgarden' is along with the 'Stone Temple Pilots' my favourite 'Grung' group as you will find in the figures, Musical interest : 7+ Recording quality : 8- Value : 7+ I throw in the the songtext of 'Spoonman' before I proceed with the next review, seems appropriate with this review, SPOONMAN FEEL THE RHYTHM WITH YOUR HANDS STEAL THE RHYTHM WHILE YOU CAN, SPOONMAN SPEAK THE RHYTHM ON YOUR OWN SPEAK THE RHYTHM ALL ALONE, SPOONMAN SPOONMAN, COME TOGETHER WITH YOUR HANDS SAVE ME, I'M TOGETHER WITH YOUR PLAN SAVE ME ALL MY FRIENDS ARE INDIANS ALL MY FRIENDS ARE BROWN AND RED, SPOONMAN ALL MY FRIENDS ARE SKELETONS THEY BEAT THE RHYTHM WITH THEIR BONES SPOONMAN FEEL THE RHYTHM WITH YOUR HANDS STEAL THE RHYTHM WHILE YOU CAN, SPOONMAN THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT PEOPLE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title : What's Up? Artist/group : Various Playing time : At least a hour or so The music world is virtually drowning in a never ending flow of compilation CDs ! It seems that the musicscene have their own sort of 'Automation' compiling teams that try to bring you several compiles each month. Compilation CDs are very popular and the 'music-mob' makes quite a few bucks out of them. A big disadvantage of these compiles are, that you always get stuck with several tracks that you don't like or already have. The 'What's Up' CD is one of the first compiles that I almost like completely. It's ofcourse my personal taste and you don't have to share my opinion on this. 'What's Up' contains a mix of mostly well-known rock-ballads or rock tracks from various groups. Here's a list of tracks that you will find on the disk, Easy - Faith No More What's Up - 4 Non Blonds Losing My Religion - Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Two Princes - Spin Doctors Runaway Train - Soul Asylum Remedy - The Black Crows Cats In The Cradle - Ugly Kid Joe Plush - Stone Temple Pilots Would? - Alice in Chains Take Me With You - The Jayhawks Taillights Fade - Buffalo Tom Movin' Up The Cattle - Burma Shave Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms Motorcycle Emptiness - Manic Street Preachers Parachute - Something Happens Without You - Childman Say Hello 2 Heaven - Temple Of The Dog Under The Bridge - Red Hot Chilli Peppers Smells Like Teen Spirit - ?? I taped the CD and skipped a few tracks that I already had especially the last track, which was really worth skipping. It's a raped cover version of the original Nirvana track done by some bitchy female 'singer' who defiantly had short-circuited her vibrator. The previous sentence will certainly give this issue the predicate 'contains dirty and offending language'(hurrah) ! Most stuff will be familiar to most of you, so I don't bother describing you the tracks on this compilation. I rather throw some figures at you and go on with the next review, Musical interest : 7+ Recording quality : 8 Value : 8- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title : The Soul Cages Artist/group : Sting Playing time : 48:16 minutes Former 'Police' leadsinger 'Sting' is already for quite some time on the solo side of things. He has never actually equaled the success days of 'The Police' in his solo career till now. But nevertheless he still is one of the big guys on the big international music stage. He does charity cases and tries to help Indians/Negros/dwarfs or what ever lurks within the dark rainforest. The only pity is that non of these poor souls saw any of the money so I have a short theory about what actually happened with it, With all this charity money rolling in, 'Sting' decided to keep it all for himself and use it to record his songs with 'Qsound' technique. He also stole bit's of some African music styles and mixed to whole thing together under the name 'The Soul Cages'. I'm afraid that I'm getting a bit carried away now, so back to the review part of the CD. Lets take a closer look at the tracks on the CD, starting with the titles, Island Of Souls All This Time Mad About You Why Should I Cry For You? Jeremiah Blues (part 1) Saint Agnes And The Burning Train The Wild Wild Sea The Soul Cages When The Angels Fall The titles are not exactly in the right sequence because they are hard to read on the backside of the box. It's always hard to decipher almost white characters on a white background, huurrraaayy for the designer ! There is only one track on this CD that I recognized immediately and that was 'All This Time', an older song. All the other tracks are a bit in the style of this song (a small hit) and could be seen as average. However, I bought the CD for another purpose than it's actual contents, it's one of the few CDs that is recorded with 'Qsound' ! You could read about this new technique in many of the other (disk)magazines so I will give you the facts in a nutshell The music gets more depth, clarity and a more three- dimensional imagery. It has something to do with putting sound in multiple channels on the CD(maybe something a long the line as a 8 channel tracker instead of 4 chan.) You don't need special equipment but you can use your conventional system. The 'Qsound' recordings can be recognized by the small 'Qsound' pictogram on the CD box. I must admit that the sound of this recording is more alive than that of a conventional stereo recording. But I must also state that I wasn't blown of my socks by 'Qsound' but it does add something to the recording. Lets hope that they going to use this technique in every future recording ! Musical interest : 7+ Recording quality : 9+ Value : 8 Here's another more 'profound' songtext to look at... I LOOKED OUT ACROSS THE RIVER TODAY I SAW A CITY IN THE FOG AND AN OLD CHURCH TOWER WHERE THE SEAGULLS PLAY I SAW THE SAD SHIRE HORSES WALKING HOME IN THE SODIUM LIGHT I SAW TWO PRIESTS ON THE FERRY OCTOBER GEESE ON A COLD WINTER'S NIGHT AND ALL THIS TIME THE RIVER FLOWED ENDLESSLY TO THE SEA TWO PRIESTS CAME AROUND OUR HOUSE TONIGHT ONE YOUNG, ONE OLD, TO OFFER PRAYERS FOR THE DYING TO SERVE THE FINAL RITE ONE TO LEARN, ONE TO TEACH WHICHS WAY THE COLD WIND BLOWS FUSSING AND FLAPPING IN PRIESTLY BLACK LIKE A MURDER OF CROWS AND ALL THIS TIME THE RIVER FLOWED ENDLESSLY TO THE SEA IF I HAD MY WAY I'D TAKE A BOAT FROM THE RIVER AND I'D BURY THE OLD MAN I'D BURY HIM AT SEA BLESSED ARE THE POOR, FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH BETTER TO BE POOR THAN A FAT MAN IN THE EYE OF A NEEDLE AND AS THESE WORDS WERE SPOKEN I SWEAR I HEAR THE OLD MAN LAUGHING 'WHAT GOOD IS A USED UP WORLD, AND HOW COULD IT BE WORTH HAVING' AND ALL THIS TIME THE RIVER FLOWED ENDLESSLY LIKE A SILENT TEAR AND ALL THIS TIME THE RIVER FLOWED FATHER, IF JESUS EXISTS, THEN HOW COME HE NEVER LIVED HERE THE TEACHERS TOLD US, THAT THE ROMANS BUILT THIS PLACE THEY BUILT A WALL AND A TEMPLE, AN EDGE OF THE EMPIRE GARRISON TOWN THEY LIVED AND DIED, THEY PRAYED TO THEIR GODS BUT THE STONE GODS DID NOT MAKE A SOUND AND THE EMPIRE CRUMBLED, 'TILL ALL THAT WAS LEFT WERE THE STONES THE WORKMEN FOUND AND ALL THIS TIME THE RIVER FLOWED IN THE FALLING LIGHT OF THE NORTHERN SUN IF I HAD MY WAY I'D TAKE A BOAT FROM THE RIVER MEN GO CRAZY IN CONGREGATIONS BUT THEY ONLY GET BETTER ONE BY ONE ONE BY ONE.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title : God Shuffled His Feet Artist/group : Crash Test Dummies Playing time : 44:52 Sometime ago I came across a very enjoyable CD by a rather new band. The CD was given to a mate of mine for his birthday. When I visited him, he played it on his CD player. A red fog arose for my eyes, followed by a total black-out ! The police told me afterwards that I had brutally molested my mate and stole the CD from him. Now I'm in therapy, writing reviews about CDs for a disk- magazine. The psychologist's told me that there is only hope of full recovery when I write long review articles. Anyway they didn't take away the CD I took and therefore you can read the next review, I haven't found out exactly yet where this band is coming from but according to some information found in the booklet it must be either Canada or the U.S. The Crash Test Dummies certainly have a rather odd and funny frontman with a remarkable voice who looks like the leadsinger of a Metal band. The same man has also written all the lyrics to the songs on this CD. Most of the lyrics are simple but quite entertaining as they contain sometimes witty phrases and story lines. On the CD are 12 tracks from which 2 are hits, God Shuffled His Feet Afternoons & Coffeespoons Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm In The Days Of The Caveman Swimming In Your Ocean Here I Stand Before Me I Think I'll Disappear Now How Does A Duck Know? When I Go Out With Artists The Psychic Two Knight And Two Maidens Untitled I think that most of you out there know the second and third song as they both roamed the airwaves for a while. A description of their music is a bit hard. You could say that it resembles a 17th century music style with lyrics that jesters seemed to use in those days. They play the modern 20th century versions. My mate described it as a kind of folk music. Whatever it maybe it's nice to listen to for a change in a world full of hard-core House and heavy Metal. Musical interest : 8- Recording quality : 8- Value : 8- I leave with the songtext of Afternoons & Coffeespoons, ---- WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES ME JUST A LITTLE BIT QUEASY? THERE'S A BREEZE THAT MAKES MY BREATHING NOT SO EASY I'VE HAD MY LONGS CHECKED OUT WITH X RAYS I'VE SMELLED THE HOSPITAL HALLWAYS SOMEDAY I'LL HAVE A DISAPPEARING HAIRLINE SOMEDAY I'LL WEAR PYJAMAS IN THE DAYTIME TIMES WHEN THE DAY IS LIKE A PLAY BY SARTRE WHEN IT SEEMS A BOOKBURNING'S IN PERFECT ORDER..... I GAVE THE DOCTOR MY DESCRIPTION I'VE TRIED TO STICK TO MY PRESCRIPTIONS SOMEDAY I'LL HAVE A DISAPPEARING HAIRLINE SOMEDAY I'LL WEAR PYJAMAS IN THE DAYTIME AFTERNOONS WILL BE MEASURED OUT MEASURED OUT, MEASURED WITH COFFEESPOONS AND T.S. ELLIOT MAYBE IF I COULD DO A PLAY-BY-PLAYBACK I COULD CHANGE THE TEST RESULTS THAT I GET BACK I'VE WATCHED THE SUMMER EVENINGS PASS BY I'VE HEARD THE RATTLE IN MY BRONCHI ... --- ~GREEN.PAL~