812. Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)

















Track Listing

1. Metronomic Underground
2. Cybele's Reverie
3. Percolator
4. Les Yper Sound
5. Spark Plug
6. OLV 26
7. Noise Of Carpet
8. Tomorrow Is Already Here
9. Emperor Tomato Ketchup
10. Monstre Sacre
11. Motoroller Scalatron
12. Slow Fast Hazel
13. Anonymous Collective

Review

When listening to this album, particularly the pretty good first track it is hard to fight the feeling that I would rather be listening to Can. From the title of that track you can see that the "inspiration" is definitely self-conscious. That makes it not so bad.

This influence of krautrock runs throughout the whole album, and it is a good thing because I like krautrock... still it is a bit lazy to be at times so close to imitation. That said the album is a generally pleasant affair, being relly good mood music.

Still, the fact that you can't help but want to listen to the original metronomic krautrockers instead points at a problem with the album, they are just not as good, interesting or original as their influences, but that standard is a bit too high for any band to achieve, really. You have to admire their guts and the tracks where they deviate slightly from krautrock re-imaginings show great promise indeed.

Track Highlights

1. Cybele's Reverie
2. Metronomic Underground
3. Les Yper Sound
4. Percolator

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Tomato Kecchappu Kôtei (Emperor Tomato Ketchup) is a 1971 film by Japanese director Shuji Terayama.

Cybele's Reverie:

811. Dr Octagon - Dr. Octagonecologyst (1996)

















Track Listing

1. Intro
2. 3000
3. I Got To Tell You
4. Earth People
5. No Awareness
6. Real Raw
7. General Hospital
8. Blue Flowers
9. Technical Difficulties
10. Visit To The Gynecologist
11. Bear Witness
12. Dr. Octagon
13. Girl Let Me Touch You
14. I'm Destructive
15. Wild And Crazy
16. Elective Surgery
17. halfsharkalligatorhalfman
18. Blue Flower
19. Waiting List
20. 1977

Review

Now this is a very strange hip-hop album. If you take the concept behind it for starters you can see what I mean: A gynecologist comes from the year 3000 to face medical problems of today. And fuck.

That being said, the album is pretty good. The music is at the same time chilled and pretty innovative. The beats make this a really great album to have in the background while paying attention to the music will make you blush.

Still great to see truly innovative and fresh sounding hip-hop albums coming out. It is a real pity that not much more was heard from Dr. Octagon, barring a couple of vastly inferior albums. This is, however, a true classic.

Track Highlights

1. Blue Flowers
2. 3000
3. Earth People
4. halfsharkalligatorhalfman


Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In Dr. Octagonecologyst, Dr. Octagon is described as having yellow eyes, green skin, and a pink-and-white Afro. Further tracks detail a list of services offered by Octagon, who claims to treat chimpanzee acne and moosebumps, and relocate saliva glands. Octagon is described as being incompetent, as many of his surgery patients die as he conducts his rounds. Octagon also pretends to be a female gynecologist and often engages in sexual intercourse with female patients and nurses. Octagon's uncle, Mr. Gerbik, is described as being half shark, having the skin of an alligator, and is 208 years old.

Blue Flowers:

810. Fatboy Slim - Better Living Through Chemistry (1996)
















Track Listing

1. Song For Lindy
2. Santa Cruz
3. Going Out Of My Head
4. Weekend Starts Here
5. Everybody Needs A 303
6. Give The Po' Man A Break
7. 10th And Crenshaw
8. First Down
9. Punk To Funk
10. Sound Of Milwaukee
11. Crenshaw Siren Beats

Review

We've had the Chemical Brothers not that long ago here, and now we get the other great name in big beat electronic music. The kind of electronic music that is tailor made to fill up stadiums, beaches, arenas, festivals whatever place you can stick many people in.

Part of its charm is precisely this attempt to appeal to a large crowd, a much bigger one than the rave-going, pill-popping crowd. This does make the music slightly more middle of the road, but when it is well done this does not need to be a negative point.

This is a good big beat album, not the best Fatboy Slim one, which is still to come, but it works perfectly in what it sets out to do. In this sense it is a success, but frankly I am not sure how many times I will actually want to listen to it again. But hey, it's good background music. Oh, and I am a bit more stationary now in my new house, so hopefully we can make this blog slightly more regular again.

Track Highlights

1. Going Out of My Head
2. Everybody Needs a 303
3. Song for Lindy
4. Santa Cruz

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

The album cover features the image of a 3.5-inch floppy disk, paying homage to "Blue Monday" by New Order (which featured a 5.25-inch disk).


Going Out Of My Head:

809. Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic (1996)
















Track Listing

1. God! Show Me Magic
2. Fuzzy Birds
3. Something 4 The Weekend
4. Frisbee
5. Hometown Unicorn
6. Gathering Moss
7. If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You
8. Bad Behaviour
9. Mario Man
10. Hangin' With Howard Marks
11. Long Gone
12. For Now And Ever

Review

I am back! For semi-regular updates. I got a house today, signed the contract, got the keys, now I need to get the electricity, water and gas up and running, and then go back to Manchester, pack everything and come back. As you can imagine this means that my updates are from now on, until the forseeable future only semi-regular, although I hope that by mid-march it should be more regular.

But now let's look at the Super Furry Animals, with an album I love for pretty much the same reasons I liked the Supergrass album. This is relentlessly cheery music, even if it does draw from a lot of older music it does it in an interesting enough way to be original.

The Super Furry Animals are a lot of fun, from songs about Unicorns, Frisbees to convicted criminals like Howard Marks the lyrics are almost dream-like and nonsensical, although little snippets point to interesting stories somewhere in there. Oh and it is very Welsh, from some of the accent to a whole kind of bucolic thing going on. Great album, and of great influence in the whole indie scene which would develop in the next decade.

Track Highlights

1. Homeward Unicorn
2. Gathering Moss
3. Hangin' With Howard Marks
4. Something For the Weekend

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Fuzzy Logic is often noted for its cover depicting a variety of photos of international drug smuggler Howard Marks. Marks, who is paid tribute to on the song "Hangin' with Howard Marks", visited Rockfield during the making of the album at the band's request "wearing leather trousers and a cloak with a big entourage". As a result, the band later struck up a friendship with Marks, and are referenced in his autobiography Mr Nice.

Hometown Unicorn:

A small Hiatus on the blog while I go to Portugal to look for a house. I am taking the next few albums with me so as soon as I set up someplace where I can listen to them there will be more reviews. The film blog will also continue. The Books and Classical music blog go on a more extended hiatus, for a couple of weeks.