Cornershop enjoys a certain sloppy style. This is not meant pejoratively; rather, it speaks to the band's consumptive technique, its mode of digesting music and the world. It also expresses the band's playfulness in and with its surroundings, as if it picks up all the bright-colored blocks of music a
Radiohead's musical gestures are grand, even spacious, but they are neither airy nor light. Indeed, the space of this music is dense. Beneath the stupendous angst of their songs Radiohead creates a minute, complex texture, a flexible network of distortions and modulations. The band's angst turns in o
With a syrupy-sweet, breathy voice, Kahimi Karie whispers in our ears in a decidedly child-like way. But before we can dismiss her as cloying, she seduces us with hip, happy, delirium-invoking pop music. Of course, her beauty and unabashed sex appeal don't hurt. But don't be fooled: her music is as s
While no doubt enjoying a certain Japanese sensibility -- after all, that accent broadcasts their linguistic and cultural heritage -- Cibo Matto fancy themselves downtown New Yorkers. And it's true that the duo, composed of Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda, employ a minimum of the usual Japanese pop tropes