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After enjoying the reissue of Teenage Filmstars' (aka Creation Records Executive Ed Ball) 1992 album Star - an album made directly in response to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless - I was excited for this two disc set reissue of the next three albums spanning 1993-1999. Unfortunately these albums aren't nearly as compelling, as Ball's goal was no longer about writing good shoegazing songs, but rather experimenting with just how far he could push the limit of shoegazing noise and disorienting effects pedals. 1993's Rocket Charms comes the closest to having "real songs" but is also almost impossible to listen to because everything is backwards. Yes, you read that right - every instrument and vocal on the entire album is backwards. This is not a mistake at the CD printing plant. 1997's Buy Our Records Support Our Sickness doesn't have any songs as creatively constructed as the album title, mixing the shoegaze songs up with some uninspired electronica. By the time 1999's Bring Back The Cartel was released, Ball seemingly had given up all together, with an album full of scattershot electronica collages. The "songs" seem to have been constructed rather hastily, and with titles like "What Ever Happened To Richard Boon" and "Did Geoff Travis Really Look Like Art Garfunkel" the project had devolved into an inside joke lost on anyone that didn't work for a UK indie record label.
DAVID MANSDORF
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