northern state : Releases >>
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Very Best of Desert Island Discs >>
The BBC's desert island--subject of this three-CD compilation--must be a bit crowded by now. Sue Lawley has packed 550 people off with their gramophones and eight discs to meet the hordes despatched by Roy Plomley since the programme started in the 1940s. In her note, Sue Lawley writes: "to hear a piece of music that youlove, linked to an experience that belongs to someone else creates a link between you and the person who's chosen it". The BBC is evidently less impressed by this notion, since it does not let us know who chose what. The other odd thing about this selection of 30 of the anonymous castaways' choices is the lack of that familiar signature tune--not a seagull to be heard. But what you do get in the value-for-money set is three and three-quarter hours of some of the pieces you would probably have chosen for your turn on the island. There are no great surprises--you wouldn't expect to hear much Birtwistle blasting out from behind a palm tree--but there is certainly great potential for arguing over how to whittle down the 30 to eight for your own game of castaways. --Keith Clarke
Jeux d'enfants >>
Can I Keep This Pen >>
All City (Clean Version) [Us Import] >>
Dying in Stereo >>
Northern State are no ordinary set of hip-hop MCs. Guinea Love, Hesta Prynn and Sprout are three white college-educated Long Islanders whose debut mini-album Dying in Stereo references Dorothy Parker, the Beastie Boys, Gus Van Sant and a whole myriad of topics in between. Cristal, clothes and self-aggrandising claims to greatness are replaced by tales of everyday life as relayed by three funny, witty, urbane women. Over old-skool and resolutely pre-Timbaland beats, Northern State's closest musical compadres would be the laid-back and cool Luscious Jackson. Attitude wise, Dying in Stereo could well be the ensuing result if the Donnas had grown up listening to the Sugarhill Gang instead of the Ramones and read the Bell Jar instead of Kerrang!. First single "At the Party" surfs the current garage-rock revival with fuzz-guitar riffs stomping messily over their minimal, back-to-basic beats, while title track "Dying in Stereo" is a lazy, soul-inflected ode to musical greatness. Liberal, pro-choice sassy female hip-hip trios aren't exactly two a penny, and even if they were, Northern State would eclipse them all. --Suzannah Brown
The Classic Love Album >>
The Classic Lovers Album [CASSETTE] >>
Musical Fun & Games >>
At the Party >>
At the Party [12" VINYL] >>