SCREAM CLUB
Super Secret Hella Rough Mix
Out of 5 stars, I give Scream Club 10. This smart-mouthed lesbian hiphop duo sling super-catchy sex-savvy rhymes that don't resort to the common white indie kid rapper cliché of being too kitschy (see Avenue D). The Olympia duo's beats are simple but house-party friendly; live, the pair are as colorful as their language, dressing in matching outfits, and wrestling, dancing, and moving all over the place. Of all the new shit that's come across my desk lately, I have to say these ladies excite me the most, and not just because of their explicit lyrics. They'll only get bigger--not the least because their demo features guest appearances from impressive names like Busdriver, Subtitle, and Tobi Vail. (www.screamclub.com) JENNIFER MAERZ
THE SHESA COLLECTIVE
Lullabies and Cadences for the New Deca-lenium Neo-Existentialist Space Musician
Franklin Mazzeo leads this unit of eclectic electronicists through thickets of humid, turbulent worldbeat-inflected drum 'n' bass that smacks more of fucked-up otherness than the kitsch tokenism to which so many in this style succumb. In other words, the Shesa Collective are much more likely to have Sun City Girls and Master Musicians of Jajouka LPs in their collections than Putumayo comps. Irreverence toward foreign cultures has its benefits, as the Lullabies and Cadences for the New Deca-lenium Neo-Existentialist Space Musician CD proves. (www.audiostarbody.com) DAVE SEGAL
DEAF DATE
The Plane & Parachute EP
Deaf Date's The Plane & Parachute EP starts out with these really great space-rock synth sounds. Then a drummer kicks in a solid dance beat while the guitars enter in on a simply strummed chord... but then BAM... the singer opens his mouth and you're like, "What?" The music is pure, bouncy pop littered with synth riffs and clap-along moments... but man, the vocals could really use some work. Songs like these deserve a cleaner-sounding frontman... or at least one who's in tune. (www.deafdate.com) MEGAN SELING
YOUTH IN ASIA (YIA)
Umm... I'm going to say what I really think of this demo even though the band sounds really angry and tough and I'll probably get my ass kicked for saying it. But it's cliché hardcore with song titles like "Stupid People (Shouldn't Breed)" and lyrics like, "Politics, politics/Death of a nation/Politics, politics/a money hungry dream." The same Cookie Monster vocals, the same guitar chords, the same pounding drum beat, the same message... yeah. (www.geocities.com/nashville/2927/indexV2.html) MEGAN SELING
BIOS+A+IC
Subliminal lowercase drones and ominous pulses emit from the cryptic catacombs of sound sorcerer Wesley Davis and fellow aural alchemists Intonarumori, Xaxis Wye, Jim Deal, and Vance Galloway. Their Texture Blue CD tunnels through inner space with a microcosmic, mystical richness. This is music for new, alien rituals or soundtracks for 22nd-century science-fiction films. It's at once amorphously disturbing and chillingly tranquil. I don't want to know how Bios+a+ic work this dark magic. (www.entropicadvance.com) DAVE SEGAL
CHRIS RIFFLE
The Sun Is Up
Some kids post long-winded and dramatic entries in their LiveJournal as they steer through their turbulent life of teenagedom, but Chris Riffle has taken his everyday experiences and thoughts and turned them into songs. Charming, acoustic songs, actually, that are completely honest and unedited like any private journal entry. But, kind of like all those personal scribblings, the shelf life for the songs is very brief because young emotions are fleeting, and the words are often right only when you're also in that very moment. MEGAN SELING
BLK: JPN
Machines That Crush Bones
Two noise surgeons carefully extract, slice, and stitch together dissonant bodies of sound, working on operating tables full of electronics enclosed in black coffin-like cases. Their main patient is static, which encases a beating heart that throbs with echoing bass as viruses of delayed feedback squirm around in their host. Rather than sounding like a sick inside joke, though, BLK: JPN's music is more a salve to the ear than a wound, as the repetition of sound textures starts to induce trancelike reactions over the course of these six songs. JENNIFER MAERZ
