Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 13:44:08 +0100 From: nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK Subject: Re: seely I love Jack, like Hefner and the Volume All Star single "Alpo Boy" is one of those things that sticks in your head for weeks. The album's not bad, either - it isn't the sort of music I'd usually listen to but it's OK. "Alpo Boy" has a couple of mixes which aren't on the album "Close Encounters of the Bump and Grind" Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 17:12:23 +0100 From: David Thorpe Subject: Re: Scala!!! As far as I know Volume All*Star are from Seattle, and their LP <> on Too Pure wasn't exactly what I was expecting after the over-cutesy single release. It's sounds like a lazy hip-hop record - lots of sampling of telephone calls, twangy guitars and snare drums. Sounds like fairly typical alternative pop music (a la Sneaker Pimps, etc) so far but I admit I haven't played it enough to work out whether it's a good or bad thing yet. Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 17:41:53 +0100 From: dan hill Subject: Re: Volumn All*Star Volume All*Star Close Encounters of the Bump & Grind Too Pure A great record. (But another truly appalling punning title.) Straight outta Seattle, there's little in common with the grunge-heavy tradition of that city, other than an abrasive grittiness to some of the samples. This is somewhere between hip hop and electro-pop, featuring the requisite "fuck'd up beats" (ahem) but smartly avoiding the obvious clich=E9s, mainly by employing a slightly wider range of references and the attention of detail this kind of music-making demands. It's also pretty funny. Yet more to-die-for B-movie/Cold War/70s TV vocal samples (Coldcut's "Atomic Moog 2000" meets "Smokey and the Bandit"), some very tasty slo-mo scratching, and a carefully engendered attitude of sounding as if no-one could give a shit, whilst putting a lot a effort in. Too Pure's Volume All*Star are Steven N. (bass, keyboards and samples) and Lady Mallard (vocals), who has an attractive disinterested drawl, sounding for all the world like Laetitia and Mary out of Stereolab if they were forced to go live in a trailer park and watch QVC all day long. There's a hint of the Beastie Boys or Money Mark in places, but Volume All*Star reject any frenetic mayhem in favour of their cooly laid back (virtually horizontal in places) beats and spacey analogue loops. Very nice indeed. Seattle is dead, long live Seattle? http://www.state51.co.uk/motion/