Breezy and fun Electro/Rock from the E.U. strikes into territory somewhere between Fatboy Slim and Arling & Cameron, with the ghost of T. Rex leading the charge. The freshness and naïveté of these mostly 3-minutes-give-or-take sample-rich cut-and-paste pieces, is kind of Coburn playing the innocent, drunken college freshman coed to A&C's detached, grad-school irony. Hilarious segues like "Matured Sinner" and the smarmy interlude "10,000 Leagues" do well to frame main tracks like the rocking "I Get My Kicks" (track 11). Track seven, the lovely 2-chord vamp "Beyond Dawn", is nearly ruined by too much clever hacking and slashing; but right after comes "Give Me Love," a somehow acceptable makeover of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love," if not quite as sophisticated. The warmed-over-Prodigy hip-hop moves in "Sick" and "We Interrupt This Programme" by rappers Solid State and Princess Superstar are not nearly as convincing; but the most bizarre re-working of all is to be found at the center of the disc: "Tallulah," from the child-acted '70s movie Bugsy Malone (in which the original was sung by none other than Jodie Foster, pre-Taxi Driver, people!). The amazing 40-second interlude toward the end, "Metro," deserves to trade places with the last track, "Erase," and be developed into a full song. This CD is in desperate danger of being dragged down by slower tracks in its second half, like the Portishead-ripped "Edge of a Knife", and needs all the party nitro it can get its nervous hands on.

This duo, Pete Martin and Tim Healey by name, are -- bless their little hearts -- consciously doing their damndest to keep their techno out of generic hell, and deserve good marks. Their saving grace is their rock moves -- the initial Coburn line-up had originally been as a garage band, before collapsing again into a 2-man unit. Singing on "Tallulah" and five other tracks on here is Heidrun Björnsdottir, providing the obligatory, sleazy Eurotrash lilt you'd expect to accompany a couple of hard-partying lads such as these. Previously working under the name Slide & Healey, they took their present moniker from legendary movie actor James Coburn for extra attitude. Not a bad move, if you ask me. This début release of theirs will definitely do the trick as soundtrack for your next topless love parade.

With the best of intentions, self-proclaimed "new age music composer" Brett Branning of Abandoned Toys lays out what is meant to be a 9-course feast of melodious shadows in this instrumental, piano-driven Dark Classical disc. Immediately, however, it's clear that the piano in the opening track, "Within A Lilac Clutch," is either un-practiced or un-quantized, and it does not bode well for the rest of the CD. Luckily, the piano-predominant songs alternate with some nicely treacherous, wicked, haunted landscapes of more-than-Tolkienesque splendor, so all is not lost. In a vein belonging to Current 93, creepy female chorale-voices crescendo very well at the end of track two, the "Prelude" to the title cut. The brief track seven, "Spiraling Into the Sun," too, works best at redeeming the shakiness of this oeuvre.

As a composer, Branning is capable of many good turns of phrase, yet since he also claims film soundtrack experience on his website, it's all the more surprising that he'd put down so many pieces in need of tighter rhythm. Although he is ably assisted by a guest violinist on track five, "Flickering Embrace," the accompanist still can't find where to sync up with the choppy piano. Even with all the other scary, cool sounds to his credit on this release, it looks like Branning could stand to make better use of his toys for the next go-round.

Earnest cut-up noise collage artistes Thick Wisps' debut CD has a lot going for it in terms of texture and stylistic range, although a bit undefined around the edges as to both composition and performance. The music itself is an all-instrumental, arrhythmic atonal wash of static drones, hums, random clicks and pops, and arcs of flanger and phaser sweeps that bespeak the infrastructural howls and rumblings of the innards of New York, and particularly Brooklyn, where this duo, made up of Giancarlo Bracchi and Juan Matos, is based.

The first and last of the seven tracks, the long "Organ Acumulator" [sic] and "Deluvio," were recorded "live" in-studio, without editing, which is a virtue any way you slice it in this ProTooled day and age. Overall a good first effort ? not yet up to the kind of gritty, witty electronic nihilism that the Wisps' New York predecessors Suicide were first known for, but then again why should everyone be required to even keep a beat (or have a "singer") in the first place? Put this on to hear the roar of a thousand long-gone Manhattan basement furnaces, or feel the inter-borough subway trains cut across your mind's eye.

Florian Fleischmann and Axel Hirn, who form the Berlin-based duo Noiseshaper, turn in a deft and playful collection of self-produced dance singles that fold Reggae/Dancehall/Dub vocals and influences into conventional Electronica sensibilities. This CD, which has Adrian Sherwood on dubs and overdubs, and the legion of guest singers and toasters also include Beans & Hawkman, G. Rizo, Juggla, Jackie Deane, Vido Jelashe I, Wayne Martin, MC Shureshock and Jahcoustix. Accordingly the CD has a pleasing balance of numbers, songs of many different tempos, which are hard-hitting or gentle as called for, and uniformly well-produced.

The featured themes of the disc include both those of "conscious" roots Reggae and the much-heralded violence certain parts of Jamaica are known for (referenced in the very first two tracks, notably). The second of these, "Me Done" (featuring Ari Up of the Slits as the featured toastmaster), is armed with Chemical Brothers-style dance flavor -- you can hear the same grinding, groovy bass line that propels the Chems' "Leave Home" from Exit Planet Dust. Curiously, in track 4, pumping bedroom piece "Love to the Rhythm," the refrain is clearly saying "Sla-a-a-ave to the rid-dim..." -- not even the plantation is forsaken on this cruise. "All A Dem A Do," track 10, opens with lovely guitar arpeggios, and evolves into and out of a kicking drum line that would make Groove Armada proud. Track 13, the TVS remix of "Walls of Silence," recalls some of the sample-y weirdness of Sherwood's earlier associations with Tackhead and African Headcharge, but with less of the spontaneity and more of an eye for the dance market itself.

To the orthodox Reggae fan, it may sound as though Fleischmann and Hirn are taking some liberties with Reggae music's various genres and sub-genres, but from here it seems to do more good than harm. Although by now this compilation of Noiseshaper's singles can't hope to sound anything close to groundbreaking, it has the function of exposing one to a surprisingly broad range of Reggae styles -- and simply shoving a much-needed Reggae/Electronica stone into its proper corner of the Dance temple.

Spare, no-frills, 13-track space-music techno CD from this Tokyo-based artist comes on in retrograde, in the form of thudding, vintage-drum-machine-sound, early Rave done up in sad, melodious Ambience. Many of the treatments and sounds bring back fond memories of The Orb's U.F.Orb in particular, but these are no longer the glory days of '90s techno. Only track 2, "I Can Feel It Tonight," makes any effort to bend the boundaries of convention.

There's nothing really wrong, here, it's just that the pounding, tribal rhythm paired with the lush chimes, echoes, uniformly-chorded synth progressions and offbeat scales makes for a puzzlingly incongruous blend. If you happen to be a more forward-thinking member of the musical populace, as far as Inner Galaxies is concerned you may wish for there to be more to the story. On the other hand, although Auer's intentions may be otherwise, this CD could be the perfect soundtrack for the world's loneliest rave. But seriously, this is not to knock it, because it's the kind of universe any number of folks could enjoy getting lost in -- you never know.