Ursula 1000 - Here Comes Tomorrow

76%

Ursula 1000, American DJ Alex Gimano's alter-ego, has been producing funky, quirky, sample-heavy electronica since his debut in 1999. Now on his 5th release on Thievery Corporation's ESL Records, Ursula attempts to emphasize his strengths while broadening a bit as well.

A sense of humour is needed, as instantly demonstrated on the album opener, "Kaboom!" (featuring Izumi Ookawara). There are cartoon sound effects and an Austin Powers impression and so on. For some, this could be annoying, although others will no doubt enjoy it. This song in particular struck me as a little too much, especially after a while of listening to it. However, for the most part and for most people, this album manages to stay away from annoying pretty deftly and pretty consistently.

The album strongest point may be Ursula 1000's penchant for craetive breakbeats and other percussion. Guest vocalists abound, mostly basically lyric-less (for example, Barbara de Dominicis vocals on Boop consist entirely of made-up noises), and they come off as mainly unnecessary in some sogs.

About half the songs are instrumentals. The best of the bunch is probably the most original one, the Two Tone Ska-inspired "Two Tone Rocka." Not a lot of people are putting Ska music into their Electronica, but Gimano does so and does so very effectively.

A few songs seem entirely skippable ("Hello, Let's Go to a Disco", featuring Dougee Dimensional), but they're a minority. Others, including most of the instrumental songs, go by with a lot of interesting touches and sounds, but in the end, they aren't the most memorable pieces of music. These are probably best fit for a party setting, where one can enjoy them, dance to them, and have fun, even if at the end they dont stick out. The last type of songs feature guests and truly stand out as very good songs even if they aren't being danced to.

The first song like this is "Descarga en la Discoteca", featuring everybody's favorite Latin Funk / Acid Jazz group, Los Amigos Invisibles. A truly funky guitar riff and a catchy chorus make it a real winner. The second song like this is "Arrastao" featuring Kojak (the Brazilian rapper, not the TV dectetive). The song fuses Hip-Hop/Electronica beats and synths and some good flute work with a very nice Bossa-Nova-informed guitar. Kojak raps mostly in Portugese with a little English mixed in for the whole song, and this as well as his voice goes along well with the Bossa-Nova/Hip-Hop backing track.

The album has a strong concern with the 70's and a quirky, sometimes almost cheesy (but in a "so-cheesy it's good" way) sound. However, the album manages to find plenty of eclectic influences - Bhangra, Electro, Ska, Funk, Latin Dance, Disco, Rock (almost Hair Metal, even), etc. The line between charmingly quirky and just plain annoying is thin, but luckily, Ursula manages to stay away from overdoing it most of the time. Personally, I dug the more adventurous wold music stylings than the Disco/Funk, especially since these came off as more original, but both seem to be excuted fairly well.

There is enough variety so that there is something for pretty much everyone. This may come off as a little kitschy, but that's really not a problem. If anything, that's the sound Gimano was looking for and it works for the most part. At it's best, this album has to be danced to. It's fun, even it has its missteps.

-Luis

Pony Up! - Make Love to the Judges With Your Eyes

69%
Because I outgrew my infatuation with Baby Spice around third grade, I very rarely hear girls sing about their “boy problems”. I constantly hear the reverse. There seems to be a lack of strong female voices in the Indie Pop realm, and acclaimed indie female voices like Neko Case, Leslie Fiest, and Amy Millan… well they’re grown women. I don’t see them whining about boys not kissing them.

Girl bands have a tendency to feel gimmicky (The Donnas, The Like), but if the music is good there’s nothing wrong with a good audience draw. On Make Love to the Judges With Your Eyes, Pony Up! stumble around with a few impressive pop concoctions. Guitarist and part-time lead vocalist Sarah Moundroukas’ “The Truth About Cats And Dogs (Is That They Die)” is a charming cutesy pop song, and it is some of the most impressive Indie Pop I’ve heard all year—the melody won’t leave my head. Unfortunately, large portions of the album fail to give the listener the feeling given during “Cats and Dogs”, and a lot of the lackluster performances fall under the songs sung by Laura Wills"

"Possible Harm" drags on for what feels like forever and half way through it I can sense no end. It’s strange that a nondescript piano Indie Pop band writes a majority of their songs to flirt with the five minute mark—and even odder for a band whose gimmick is cute girls with cute voices. Wills’ songs are unimpressive slow builders instrumentally and melodically (see: “The First Waltz” and “Dance For Me”) which is disappointing because she’s arguably a better lyricist than Moundroukas

Still they’re a clever and artier bunch then they were on their debut EP. The band has moved on from juvenile sexual frustration humor to heartfelt sexual frustration melodrama. “Pastime Endeavor”, the most impressive track next to “Cats and Dogs”, is a rehashing of the feelings from famed EP track “Shut Up and Kiss Me” put more eloquently.

Pony Up! has matured with time together as a band and they’ve clearly come a long way (a lyrical except from the self titled EP: “My brother and sister are going to beat you up!”). The potential is there, and I’m not making any kind of predictions towards it being tapped. I’ll just say this: I am anticipating their sophomore effort.

- Marlon Frisby