The Rubber Room column is a weekly look at recent and notable releases that don’t fall into the rubric of traditional reviewed material—namely 12”s, EPs, and MP3 only releases.

Black Dice
Miles of Smiles 12”
[DFA, 2004]
{6}

Tossing aside the rhythmic impulses (and the drummer) of the “Cone Toaster” 12” in favor of chirping crickets, hissing snares, chiming bells and an explosion of brass nonsense towards the end of the titular A-side, the Black Dice to seem to remember one thing from their previous 12”—to put the superior track on the b-side. “Trip Dude Delay” is gorgeous ah’s and heavenly guitar chimes that eventually erupt into an ocean of white noise before rolling back gently onto the shore by track’s end. Looks like eYe may need to show the group how the whole hardcore-punk-to-ambient/noise transition is done once again.
[Andrew Unterberger]

Kevin Drumm
Impish Tyrant (CS, Edition of 50)
[Spite, 2004]
{8}

The physical copies are long gone—blame “collector scum” (*snicker*) at the recent No Fun Fest—but the miracle of file sharing will allow Drumm’s most vicious solo outing to enjoy a long and fiery afterlife. Side A is a tripartite slab of ugliness that compresses demented Iron Maiden riffing, sputtering reactor core waste, and the stragglers from Land of Lurches into a tape-withering chunk of still-smoldering coal. Side B finds Drumm at his most sadistically monomaniacal, choking the last feedback-soaked gasps from prepared guitar while a sickly analog synth dry-heaves in sympathetic response. Playful and perverse—and the pleasure won’t cost you a thing.
[Joe Panzner]

Scenic Railroads
When We Say Re-Mix, We Mean Rip-Off
[Gameboy, 2004]
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Joe:

Decided not to go ahead with reviewing your first release (with Mike) for the site. It’s probably unprofessional enough with one person writing for the site, but two? In any case, I think we may be privileging this Erstwhile cathode ray minimalism thing too much, anyway. Which is a compliment, because the A side (are there sides to free MP3 releases?) does remind me of that Rowe/Nakamura disc quite a bit. B-side seems to be a bit too choppy at the beginning to be described the same way, but it’s gorgeous (especially the very drony end) also. Hope you see my point. Take care.
[Todd Burns]

Anne Mccue
Ballad of an Outlaw Woman
[Messenger, 2004]
{8}

Outlaw blues that’s not guns blazing/raised middle fingers, but a weary feminine resignation at those things. How does she do it? Juliana Hatfield vocals sans the “I’m a girly girl” meme with lyrical debts to Harvey’s honesty and Cash’s narrative sense. Don’t get it twisted: “Ballad of an Outlaw Woman” owes to Delta Blues but doesn’t revel in it, instead marrying itself to a sheen of contemporary production. Richie Sambora take note: this is how to do ballsy swooping slide solos.
[Scott McKeating]

Evol
Punani Shell (3” CD)
[Scarcelight, 2004]
{3}

While its first thirty or forty seconds get off to a thrashing good start, this second 3” offering from Mego-ite laptop wranglers Evol rides its one-trick pony way the fuck into the dust and then some. The single sonic device? Imagine a gummy superball ground against a window at a million miles per hour, flopping in endless stereo circles from channel to channel with singularly pointless momentum and an aversion to consequence. Just because a hefty chunk of processing power went into this exhausting personality-free 21-minute fidget fest doesn’t mean you shouldn’t save your Mego money for the contemporaneously released and considerably hotter Gert-Jan Prins EP.
[Joe Panzner]

Cylob
Music System Volume 1
[Rephlex, 2004]
{6}

Rephlex mainstay weighs in with latest 12” four-tracker of instrumental electronic funk. “Inseminoid”, inspired by a 1980s British sci-fi film in which an alien-inseminated female gives birth to a two-headed mutant, is a surprisingly laconic funky head-nodder. “Kyoto” lightens the mood somewhat with glistening glissandi, until Cylob’s glitchier side emerges to accompany the subterranean basslines and spacey synth effects on “Total Information Awareness”. Closer “We Never Said Goodbye” helps showcase a thread common to these tracks, Jeffs’ penchant for clever off-kilter, stop-start melodies that float in and out of key. A solid enough addition to the Rephlex catalogue, but hardly groundbreaking.
[Ron Schepper]

Snoop Dogg
Flashback Bounce (Mixtape Exclusive)
[Welcome to the Chuuch Vol. 7: Step Ya Game Up, 2004]
{6}

Amidst the superfluous skits from his spiritual advisor Bishop Don Juan that litter this tape sits the 2/3s thought out “Flashback Bounce”; the bud of a great Snoop/Warren G track. Beginning with a skippy beat and a live cymbal, this tight funk piece could have greatly benefited from a beefed up live string sound. Instead we get Snoop running through his familiar ‘I’m magnificent’ lyrical routines, about how he’s managed to survive the industry for so long, and how “It’s a vicious cycle / That’s why Tito don’t look like Michael”. Hopefully they’ll finish this up one day.
[Scott McKeating]