tuesday tunes

the orb - Orbsessions Vol. 2: Second installation of previously unreleased material spanning their history. Much more cohesively orby than the first edition. Many tracks echo the overwhelming enchantment afforded to the listener during their prime, and rightly so since many of these cutting room floor scraps were conceived during that period from which the orb could do no wrong.



interpol - Our Love to Admire: Instant gratification. Not much of a departure from previous efforts which is fine because this is what they do well. Gloomy yet strangely upbeat, echoing r.e.m. during the 80's. Just some rage and three kinds of yes.



thurston moore - Trees Outside the Academy: Essentially a series of skeletal sonic youth tunes performed largely acoustically by thurston and some friends, notably J masicis (who's studio it was recorded in), samara lubelski (who provides violin accompaniment and bass), and good ol' steve shelley (best known as the sonic youth drummer). A good piece to tide you over to the next sonic youth album proper while the band tours around this summer in celebration of daydream nation's cemented iconic status (scroll down to #50).



airiel - The Battle of Sealand: Latent shoegaze is always suspect, since it really had a time from which it came. Many claim the Silversun Pickups as the next coming of shoegaze, but their thin veil of poseury is just as easily seen through as like-minded shoegaze revivalists, The Startford 4 on their embarisingly bad 2nd album. This is Airiel's first full length and it holds up fairly well to the promise evident on their slew of EPs released over the past couple of years. Even though they hail from chicago, these guys could be mistaken for a british band from the early 90's. Think of it like this - Airiel is to shoegaze as Kasabian is to the madchester scene, not in the same class but decent enough successors.



datarock - Datarock:Could just as easily have been called Nerdrock, taking cues from the Talking Heads. You can't take it too seriously, but it's good fun when you're in the mood for some good fun.