Robert Fripp and the Orb, no pussyfooting. Disturbing yet delightful ambient explorations. Sound effects, slow crescendos, and reverb. Nothing groundbreaking. You either love it or you don't. I do. Oh, and there's no dance beats to speak of save the excellent percussion in "Collossus". --S.A.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #4)

"Listen to Fragmented with the lights out," advises the fine print on this mournful 4AD-ish nuevo-goth release, thus confirming the gloom-and-introspection bent that all but the most clueless will perceive upon auditioning the sound and inspecting the sleeve of this here Knowledge of War. Low, ominous vocals, fuzz guitar and drum machine are the main tools applied--and for all the melodramatic trappings, the music itself is satisfyingly spare and lacking in pretension. (NOTE: As of this writing, this CD is available for free on request--while supplies last--at the label website.) --K.S.

(review date: 1/17/97)

Sloppy-ass noise funk from the heart of space, curving around the perimeters of blues, doghouse rap, and free jam goof ("Act like you're retarded/Get this party started..."). Also swell for sampling trivia contests (I spy "A Love Supreme" and Robyn Hitchcock's minimalist "Pit of Souls"), each tape is jammed to the leader with content, context, and personal transfiguration. Where NC/AM are twin releases from the same timespan, heavy on the basement texture and loose covers (VU's "I'm Set Free", for example), WTSITTM is, like Technicolor Soul (see separate review), a more focused (and better-recorded) long cool groove, with the introduction of some hilarious rap (in the true improvisational sense) and a general, lean structure that allows the various lysergical elements of Fuzzhead's sound to clarify and coalesce rather than wallow in concrete reverb. This stuff is so fucking great it's difficult for me to extricate myself from what it is enough to see the whole of it and send back a coherent report. Interview with these idiot savants next issue if I can swing it. BTW: Fuzzhead vinyl now exists (LSD, compiled by Byron Coley and released on Twisted Village). --K.S.

(first appeared in Reign of Toads #3)

last update 1/17/97

Reign of Toads PO Box 40498 Albuquerque NM 87196-0498 USA
info@rtoads.com