Choice Cuts: December 2001 - Page 3
© Adam McKibbin
Highlight Track: “Wedding Day Lament” sounds like Technicolor. As with most of the album, it’s visual in a way that few songs are (i.e. Bjork’s “It’s Oh So Quiet”). You can almost see Fader twirling around the dreary courthouse that sets the scene.
Honorable Mention: “Johnny” represents the other, more boisterous side of the album. Fader’s vocals are playfully naughty (“I’m just a kid in a candy shop/ My sticky fingers linger ‘cause they just can’t stop”) while Carmona brings a horn section and a banjo along for the ride.For More Info: Visit http://www.clarefader.com or listen to selected tracks and purchase the album and http://www.cdbaby.com/clarefader
Artist: Peaches
Album: The Teaches of Peaches
The Scoop: Hot pink is the color of choice for Germany-by-way-of-Canada’s raunchy electronic rawker. In addition to changing countries, the former folk singer dubbed herself Peaches and picked up a MC-505 groovebox. The result is a sort of exploratory surgery with a sequencer, although the buzz has definitely come from the deliciously dirty, none-too-subtle lyrics from the “one Peach with a hole in the middle.”Highlight Track: “Lovertits” makes for a pretty good & sweaty dance number—they even used it in a Prada show—and, for you ear virgins out there, it’s a little less raunchy than its neighbors. But it’s still uniquely Peaches, as the MC-505 (her “rock and roll slave”) gets down and dirty while Peaches shout-moans lines like “Let’s get over this / I’m your Lovertits.”
Honorable Mention: “AA XXX” preys on the “innocent type/ deer in the headlight/ rockin’ me all night/ flexin’ his might.” And just in case you think it’s all a joke, the teaches of Peaches are delivered flatly and matter-of-factly throughout. She be serious, honey.For More Info: Check out the label’s site at http://www.kitty-yo.de
Artist: Nathaniel Ashley
Album: Gli Amore Morti Benevolenza Ritormano (original motion picture soundtrack)
The Scoop: This album serves as the score for an Italian horror film—the title of which translates roughly to The Dead Lover’s Benevolent Return--that became a cult classic after being banned for its subliminal messages. Ashley’s approach to the material is everything you’d want from a macabre B-movie with a bad rep, although the album feels a bit stutnted at only 27 minutes.Highlight Track: “Cemetary Dance” [sic] is the most evocative piece of the score that features the only guest instrumental on the album (Ann Fox’s clarinet). Ashley’s piano arrangement is hauntingly graceful.
Honorable Mention: The bonus track, “Thousand Yard Stare,” combines organ with staccato percussion to create something very akin to a funeral march. Creepily effective.
