KRISIUN 'The Great Execution' 2011

I really like Krisiun a lot. Brazilian death metal power trio. I've seen them twice, own a few of their CDs and a T-shirt. Their live performances are true to their album sound. With the exception of a song where there's a vocal sung by hardcore punk band Ratos de Porão vocalist Joao, this release doesn't stray from their formula or offer anything new. I still like it more than the past 2 albums, but they've yet to surpass the "Assassination album I think. I like the fact that their albums are 'human' albums and not just studio trickery when it comes to the drums, but there are so many songs they have that follow a set pattern.

JUNIOR VASQUEZ 'Generation Next' (2010)

If my memory serves me correctly, between the years 1998 and 2002, I'd heard Junior Vasquez DJ at various clubs roughly 75 times or so. When he was ON, he was a mind melting turntable master and remixer that blew us through the stratosphere week after week after week. And yes, a lot of drugs were in the mix too. When he was in a bad mood for whatever reason, he made a lot of terrible noise on purpose to clear the crowd out. I got off the boat when he started screwing over his fans and contemporaries in 2002. I figured that he just faded into obscurity since other DJs started musically kicking his ass all over and his appearances were to empty clubs. But this 2010 disk is a pretty good representation of what he MIGHT have sounded like if he still cared back then. Pummeling beats and top notch tracks, vocals and music. He's since retired and his career never seemed to recover after his rise and ultimate crash in the mid 2000's.

SPACEHOG 'The Chinese Album' (1998)

Made it through half the album, stopped, and then went back to the rest later hoping to pick up on what this band was trying to do. It's classified as 'Glam Rock' but I'm completely lost on this one. Nothing cohesive for me, so maybe I can't identify glam rock. Michael Stipe is featured on 'Almond Kisses' but even that escaped me. And that is probably the best or worst cover art ever. I need to give the Brits a rest.

UNDERWORLD '1992 - 2012' (2014)

I was first introduced to this UK electronic duo a few years ago when I heard their most excellent track 'Dark Train' (Dark and Long mix) when eMusic was a decent source for music and didn't charge so much money to be able to experiment with PURCHASES. And though they'd formed in 1980, looks like they'd compiled a 10 year best of. Their house-ier, 4 on the 4 floor stuff comes up much better than the 'electro' sound of the mid 2000's that I do not like. And since I'd started listening to house music in 1997, I'd never ever seen or heard them on a beatmixed show or stream, but some of the music on this collection could be placed in a folder with New Order. 3 x set here.

808 STATE '808:88:98' (1998)

On a Spotify radio shuffle, I was pleasantly surprised to be reminded of a terrific track called 'CUBIK' that was remixed for house music by DJ/producer legend Victor Calderon back in 1998, which was a brilliant year of discovery for me as far as house and electronica. This band's contemporaries (Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Groove Armada, Faithless) had me buying 12" wax aplenty that year. Finally coming around to discovering what fell through the cracks as far as this groups full length.'Cobrabora' is the immediate 2nd single that I'll be playing in a shuffle regularly. Not too many break beats on this album and it comes across pretty smooth. I would definitely make 1998 one of the years I could relive if I could.

THE ENID 'Invicta' (2012)

Strictly because my favorite keyboardist Mark Kelly (Marillion) lost out to The Enid's keyboardist Robert John Godfrey in this years prog awards, I had to find out what this band sounded like. Oh boy. This band is soooo prog that they make Marillion sound like the Ramones. These are not songs here. They're classical compositions. A lot of orchestration, no chorus and basically nothing to grasp onto unless you read the lyrics in which I tried and which only 1 song on this album held my attention 'Who Created Me'. Bio states they've been around since 1975 and I seem to remember seeing a review of 1 of their albums in Kerrang! magazine out of the UK. I have no idea under what circumstance I would ever want to listen to this band again since other than Marillion, Rush and Genesis, I am not a big prog fan.

ULTRAVOX "The Very Best of..'

'Dancing With Tears in My Eyes' may be the big hit, and a very good one, but I don't think that this 'Very best Of' album holds my interest too much. It's a collection of mediocre songs. I think even more novelty bands like Devo did this synth/electro sound better. Granted 'Best of' albums are almost always a farce since record labels almost never get these things right. I don't think I have enough energy to seek out a more respectable and memorable list right now. Next...