Artist	Death In Vegas
Title:	Dead Elvis
Label	Time Bomb Records
Available	Most major record stores
Rating

To be absolutely blunt about it, I'm getting kind of sick of the term "Electronica". For someone like myself who grew up with the synth-heavy progressive rock bands of the 70's and 80's, keyboard-rich music is pretty tough to come by, so I always check out the Electronica stuff, hoping to slip back into the music of a simpler time in my life. Electronica however is often nothing close to what it seems like -- by virtue of its name -- it should be. Electronica is dance grooves that will shake a club to its foundation. Electronica is sampling and digital wizardry brought to a different, often bizarre level. Electronica ain't your Grandma's toe-tappin' boogie tunes -- it's new and powerful and picking up steam like a freight train here in the states. Just because the new Electronic movement is popular, that doesn't mean I have to like it. Quite frankly I think the majority of the discs I've heard that fall into this category are irritating nearly to the point of being unlistenable. It's the same manufactured beats, the same unimaginative and simple melodies and the same tired samples over and over again. It's often mind-numbing to the point of being suicide-inspiring. I can't even understand how people can dance to most of this stuff, let alone listen to it. BUT! Death in Vegas is different! I try to always go into a new disc without the extra baggage of bias holding me down. Being human, this is usually an exercise in futility. When I saw 'Electronica' in the notes I received with the press kit for Death in Vegas, I couldn't help rolling my eyes and getting a little nostalgic for last month's palette of music. But from the first few seconds of the first track I knew that "Dead Elvis" wasn't what I feared it would be. Yep, it's got some mean rhythms. Yep, there's that hypno-melodic filler weaving in, around and between tracks. Yep, this disc abounds with sampled voices and music. But where most of the rest of the music in this genre lacks any real imagination and depth, Death In Vegas transcends the rest of the heap and hits home with some really solid tunes! I especially liked the first track, "All That Glitters". This bluesy, laid back tune sets the pace for the rest of the disc which features, among the typical Techno-rhythms and synth ministrations, influences from a host of different musical styles -- styles not readily associated with the current direction of the Electronica movement. Track four, "Twist and Crawl" features a deep bass and Moog-like synth track overlaid with a very Caribbean melody and vocal. The effect is kind of bizarre, but definitely interesting and NOT bad at all! "Rekkit" and "I Spy" are also funky tunes with unusual twists to keep non-techno heads like myself interested. In all, this is not the most interesting disc I've heard, but considering how this whole genre is starting to sound like a race to see who can sound the most like Chemical Brothers, Death In Vegas stands out as one of the better, less cookie-cutter approaches to the new Electronic movement.

Artist	Luke Slater
Title:	Freek Funk
Label	NovaMute
Available	Most major record stores
Rating

I try so hard not to be brutal. I even went so far as to try to find something good about "Doktor Kosmos", one of the silliest albums in the History of the whole world, let alone Sweden. But I just can't seem to find anything good to say about Luke Slater's "Freek Funk". I read a review that claimed "Freek Funk" is an 'Electronic Anthem' and that it's 'Electronica the way it's meant to be'. If this is the case, I'm packing it in right now. I couldn't get all the way through this CD in one sitting -- no matter how hard I tried. I fell asleep a couple of times (once nearly falling asleep while driving!), and the other times I just couldn't stand it anymore and had to go onto something else. "Freek Funk" is Synth-Dance-Techno babble, of that you can be sure. The melodies (when you can find them), are woven into tiny snippets looped over and over (and over and over) again until you, the listener, are lulled into either unconsciousness or a total, living vegetative state. Maybe you're looking for something to handily alleviate that nagging bout of insomnia you've been dealing with. Maybe you're planning a marathon rave, during which you'll need to hyp-mo-tize your ravers into the next dimension. Perhaps you're attempting to raise your consciousness to a level at which you can finally understand what your dog has been saying to you all this time. Perhaps you're a died-in-the-wool Electronica lover who just can't get enough of this monotone ambrosia. If you fall under any of these four categories, this disc might be for you. Otherwise RUN, don't walk to the next bin. You'll be thanking me later. Sorry.

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