: Kid A CD
reviewed by Larry Crane
It's not that often a CD comes along that I really have to listen to closely and try and figure out where all the sounds are coming from. This is one. Where OK Computer had interesting textures and...
Music Reviews
by Larry Crane
: Byrdmaniax CD
reviewed by Larry Crane
I've been buying all the Byrds' reissues, and just today completed my collection. There's some great music, of course, but in the process of being a completist there's always the glimpse into what...
: Fontanelle CD
reviewed by Larry Crane, Roman Sokal
Fontanelle, a Portland, Oregon, quartet which includes orphaned Jessamine offspring Andy Brown and Rex Ritter, paint a bipolar musical landscape that is both soothing and sardonically ominous in a...
: Trail Of Stars CD
reviewed by Larry Crane
Phill Brown, in issue #12, talked with us about his recording styles while he was in the middle of making this record, and it's a great example of his work. With his Talk Talk/Mark Hollis work the...
: Golders Green CD, Died for Your Sins CD
reviewed by Larry Crane
Pete Ham was a member of Badfinger and this is the second collection of "demo" songs that he recorded at home, in the late '60s and early '70s, on a sound-on-sound Revox 1/4" reel deck. The curious...
: Echo Box CD
reviewed by Larry Crane
I love keyboards, I dig instrumental music, and I like home recordings. Beat Down Sound are drums, bass and keys with a little bit of guitar and one vocal track. The music reminds me of Booker T,...
: Do the Collapse CD
reviewed by Larry Crane
God, I hate record reviewers, especially the smug, confused bastards that write for little 'zines. They're all gonna (once again) tell us how Bob Pollard and company sold out by going into a fancy...
: Ghosts of Dead Aeroplanes
reviewed by Larry Crane
It has always seemed to me that UK "bands" are a lot less afraid to use effects and such in their recordings compared to their US counterparts. Prolapse are a case in point. These mixes are a study in...
: Drinking From Puddles CD
reviewed by Larry Crane
This is an interesting compilation, featuring live radio broadcasts from a local Portland show (on KBOO) from 1991 to 1998. Eternally grumpy Jay Bozich engineered most, affable host Brandon Lieberman...
: Indyglow CD
reviewed by Larry Crane
Some of you might remember a band called Sidecar and their frightening studio horror stories in issue #3 of Tape Op. Sidecar, due to someone else using the name, has now become Poolside, and they have...
: a-OK CD
reviewed by Larry Crane
As you may have read about in the J. Christian Quick interview elsewhere in this issue, this album was recorded at Stillness Sound Facility on a 16 track 1" recorder in the old house that is...
: Secret Luminaries CD
reviewed by Larry Crane
There's several ways to run a commercial studio. You can be outspoken, you can be highly visible on the local "scene" or you can quietly stay in and do some great work. In Portland, I sometimes feel...