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Purely CD Reviews Again

Album: Revising the Text Picking Up Where We Left Off

Artist: Roads To Shiloh

Label: Independent

“There will be no rain, and . there will be no harvest. And there will be no grain for empty mouths. And this carries on rightfully so, because the tie that binds is the tie that chokes.”

Too sweet. Roads to Shiloh play blistering, epic, hardcore, with excellent breakdowns, _ perfectly orchestrated melodic interludes, mul- tiple layers of screaming, and the most tasteful use of sung vocals I have encountered in this vein of hardcore. They sing exclusively about agricul- ture and how humankind’s attempts to distance ourselves from the earth and exploit it with hi-tech machinery has led to our current state of woe. For those of you unfamiliar with said state of woe, we are steadily exhausting the earth’s potential to support life, raping and devastating the land, air and water, and ultimately sealing the fate of people and animals only a few gen- erations down the line, and it is prob- ably your fault.

“This cerebellum is a gift and a curse. The problem lies in the impli- cations of the application... This tech- nology has outstripped us, and this technology will outlive us.”

(rockin _out@hotmail.com) -Jonah CAMPBELL

Album: Dejame Entrar Artist: Carlos Vives Label: Virgin

I love the Gypsy Kings. I find them to be a group that I can enjoy fully without having to know how to speak a word of Spanish. Carlos Vives, though good, isn’t really the same thing. Words are a lot more important in Vives’ songs than in Gypsy Kings songs. This album sounds great, so I didn’t want to dis- miss it out of hand just because I know

SF Sax * e# FSS ss &

[t4])

YAS aS eee DEX ES

no Spanish. So I utilized Alta Vista’s translating services, and voila! Carlos Vives es mucho accessible!

Dejame Entrar is a_ great album, chalk full of the kinds of sounds that make you wish you were kicking up your heels on the streets of Bogota. It’s... very..~. uplifting: Accordions, piano, flamenco guitar, horns, calypso: this is a very busy sounding record. And it certainly maintains its Spanish flavour.

As for lyrics, it has two speeds: romantic and more romantic.

That the heart is exploded to me when I touch the core and the skin melts to me with your enamored skin.

That a kiss takes us to the sky flying in your feelings that a caress expands shouting to four winds.

That I love to you with despair like New Moon crazy person that when you are not with me the Earth is accel- erated to me

He: wee

Of course, something is defi- nitely lost in the electronic translation, but you get the idea. Vives began his career as a soap star, then moved into singing, and now has his eye on a North American breakthrough. With minimal English on the album, it isn’t likely to make him the next Ricky Martin or Mare Anthony. Which is good, right?

Fantastic album.

-Joel MEGGS

Album: Searching for Chin Artist: Searching For Chin Label: Independent

This four-song mini-CD con- tains a few songs soon to be released in vinyl form by Sounds of Revolution and One Eye Records respectively, and exists only so that they’d have something new to peddle on their Eastern Canadian tour this. year. Presumably it will become a collec- tor’s item at some point. Anyhoo, I

find it difficult to review this CD hav- ing just seen them live a few days ago, as their live performance displayed a power, sincerity, and intensity which

‘any recording would be hard-pressed

to capture. In any case, this recording did not capture it. I mean, it’s damn good, and I’m sure if I’d heard this CD before hearing them live I’d have a much more favorable impression of it, but so it goes.

Searching for Chin play accomplished technical metalcore, somewhat akin to such bands as Luddite Clone or Dillinger Escape Plan (although with much less pro- nounced jazz elements) but with defi- nite emo influences (ie: emotive melodic guitar riffs) and amazing screamed vocals. Unfortunately, the main vocalist comes through very dif- ferent recorded, much more low and growly, than he does live, and it gives the music a somewhat different over- all feel. Their guitarist however, screams his fucking face off, to the point that he was entirely audible even in the midst of all the thrashing metal insanity. Boo yaow. Um, so yeah, get this, or better yet, see them. Oh yeah, and shit, this release was limited to 24 copies, and it’s damn well worth hav- ing for the design alone... The CD and booklet comes in one of those little plastic envelopes you get from the bank, and includes a sleeve made from an x-ray of their drummer’s broken collar bone. Grand, I say. Simply grand. (www.searchingforchin.tripod.com)

-Jonah CAMPBELL

Album: Cara Dillon Artist: Cara Dillon Label: Rough Track Records

Cara Dillon has one of those voices where you almost stop enjoy- ing it because you’re so envious. She certainly is a talent, and it quite under- standable why Rough Trade Records would think her a commodity worthy