Drekka – Take Care to Fall
2002 BlueSanct, 14 tracks 47 minutes
I don't know how to explain Drekka.  First off Drekka is intentionally low fidelity to the point that the noise floor sometimes competes with some of the quiet sounds in the music.  Also songs are intentionally left flawed.  Okay, so that probably already turned off most of the people who wouldn't like the record anyway.  So this is a very introspective record & it feels kind of like looking through someone's photo album in an attempt to learn who they are & what they're about & if they have the knowledge that you've been seeking out for years on end.  & this is probably pretty much exactly the aesthetic that Michael Anderson is after, something built from nostalgia & hope.

Hefner – Dead Media
2002 Too Pure, 15 tracks 46 minutes
I'm not sure what I think of this.  I had heard the rumors that Hefner was becoming highly influenced by Kraftwerk, but I thought it was a joke.  There are some songs in the old style here, but then some of the stuff feels like euro-trash dance music.  The dilemna is it's still kinda good even though it's euro-trash because you still have Darren doing the lyrics on songs like "When the Angels Play Their Drum Machines."  If you like Hefner & Prozzak, this record will inevitably grow on you, but if you're a fan of Hefner & Elvis Costello this record will really piss you off.  So anyway I'm done talking about the style aspect of this record.  I still like Hefner, I'm just confused.

Hockey Night – Rad Zapping
2002 lmg, 12 tracks 42 minutes
This band is kinda like a trainwreck of styles & I'm not sure if it's awesome or horrible.  I think an accurate statement would be Beatie Boys meet Sonic Youth meet kindercore.  There's this song called "Battlestar Scholastica" that is really amazing.  Like I said I'm not sure what to think of this record, but I do actually keep listening to it....

Mike Johnson – What Would You Do
2002 Up Records, 13 tracks 58 minutes
Wow.  It's like I finally found the Leonard Cohen record I've been looking for.  Well, really I think this is loads better than anything Cohen's probably ever done, but up to par with what I expected before I ever heard a Cohen album in its entirety.  Very mellow almost lounge music with an outstanding voice.  When you're tired of listening to all the trendy intentionally difficult music, try out Mike Johnson.

Lycia – tripping back into the broken days
2002 Projekt, 12 tracks 64 minutes
I guess there's a little bit of a debate whether this is a Lycia record or an Estraya record, then again Mike's said in the past that all the side projects are really just a veiled Lycia anyway.  So anyway, here's what's going on for the music acoustic guitar & vocals with controlled & pitched reverb as an instrument & I think a little bit of keyboards.  This is not the angry young Lycia of a few years ago, this is the Lycia battling between hope & desperation that was first hinted at on The Burning Circle & Then Dust.  Without the drum machine & harmonized guitar, Lycia feels even sadder.

Jana McCall – Slumber
2002 Up Records, 9 tracks 42 minutes
I feel like there’s a track missing on this cd because I really want to hear this girl cover Joy Division’s “New Dawn Fades.”  There is a pretty great cover of “Echoes” to make up for that though.  The music is very melodic & a little slow & a lot good.  The things I can think of this sounds most like are Six by Seven ala “England & a Broken Radio” & maybe the Bad Seeds covering a Stromkern song (which hasn’t happened) & maybe the Ramones when they covered 60’s pop ballads & I think Miranda Sex Garden sounded something like this & maybe parts of the Creatures first record & something about it also reminds me of Hooverphonic.  The instrumentation I think is based around a guitar-bass-drums-vocals setup but includes some strings & organ.  I’ll probably be trying to get an interview with her soon.

Mull Historical Society – Loss
2002 XL Records/Beggars Banquet, 11 tracks 58 minutes
This is along the same style as Ben Folds.  You know, that heavily catchy witty pop that’s like a punked up Rod Stewart or something.  It has a lot of piano based instrumentation with a band on top.  Really slick sounding, but still fairly addictive & (for me at least) reminiscent of Radiohead on The Bends.

Six by Seven – The Way I Feel Today
2002 Mantra Recordings, 11 tracks 41 minutes
The boys took it up a notch.  I'm really confused why they aren't huge enough that i need to pretend not to like them to keep my air of coolness.  This is a beautiful record.  I wouldn't say you can call it much of anything besides rock & roll or possibly even (& I don't mean this slanderously) pop music.  I mean they still have some hard rockers on here like "Flypaper for Freaks" & "Bad Man," but the "love song" singles on here are just incredible "So Close" & "I.O.U. Love" & "American Beer" are so flawless that I don't even know if I'd want to hear them attempted to be played live.  When I did the interview with Chris Olley about their last record he said that this one might be their last because they might have perfected the band's sound on it.  Maybe they have.

Uros Rojko – Kammermusik
1995 ARS MUSI CI, 19 tracks (6 pieces) 71 minutes
Rojko studied under Ligeti.  But somehow he’s even more Ligeti than Ligeti.  He writes classical music that is often based on finding new sounds & tones in instruments like violin & accordion.  Pretty fantastic.