Starfish ***1/2

Stellar Sonic Solutions

Trance Syndicate

You might confuse Starfish with a lot of other bands out there right now. They play rather fast, poppy, punk-like songs. The vocals are split between the male guitarist and the female bassist, respectively listed as Jason and Ronna. And the songs rarely last longer than two and a half minutes.

Stellar Sonic Solutions, the group’s first effort, contains a large number of songs that could almost be called … riffs. There isn’t much done to many of these songs to make them seem a bit more complete. Most of the songs have strict repetition of the same thing.

But I do like this album. For one, the riffs are good, even if that’s all the songs are. The rhythm section of Ronna and drummer Scott play concise beats at a breakneck pace (example: “KliffOrDave”). And the vocals are clear and intelligible, which is somewhat of a rarity.

There are some odd moments, such as the use of the chorus from the Beatles’ song “Magical Mystery Tour” in their song “Supercool.” Also, the songs “Sticker” and “Princeton Reverb” were recorded by Jason and Ronna on a four-track recorder, giving them a raw feeling without ruining them.

Because it’s on a small label, this disc may be hard to locate. But ask your local music store owner for it; you will be happy that you did.

Stereolab ****1/2

Emperor Tomato Ketchup

Elektra

The band with one of the coolest names in the business has unleashed a 13-song attack on the senses with its new album Emperor Tomato Ketchup.

A rather hypnotic rhythm dominates the first track (“Metronomic Underground”), which is nearly eight minutes in duration. The bass line remains constant throughout and the vocals stay in the same pattern as well. The ambient style is anything but boring.

The bass player is kept busy on this one, as songs such as “Percolator” roll along at a very rapid pace. This song features a Doors-like keyboard sound with some brass coming in at the end. Very nice combination.

The guitar is not left out of the mix. “The Noise of Carpet” probably contains the most use of that instrument, as this three-minute ditty rocks along without the regular keyboard or bass line leading the way. They seem to be equally capable of playing the six-stringed instrument as well.

Check out this U.K. band and its wonderful techniques as soon as you can scrape up the money.

Killing Joke **

Democracy

Zoo

I didn’t realize these guys were still around. I remember seeing their T-shirts in magazine ads from places like “Rockabilia” during the mid-80s. I figured they had faded away, but I guess when you stop reading Circus, you forget a lot about the bands that are talked about in there.

So anyway, here’s Democracy. The music seems pretty mellow, relatively speaking, which was a shock to me. I was expecting my stereo speakers to be suffering from the high levels of guitar playing and “skin poundin.'”

But the vocals are what did it. It’s one thing to be a hardcore screamer, but to do it on every damn song gets a little repetitive and annoying. One of the more quiet songs, musically speaking (that being the title track), has probably the closest thing to a harmonious chorus, but that is a stretch of the adjective there.

I do think the guitar playing is pretty good on here, along with some other aspects of the music. But I just can’t get past that harsh voice. Hey, imagine my surprise when the lyric sheet didn’t read “Blarg! Ahhhh! Yowwww!” It’s a lot like that.

Brian Setzer Orchestra *

Guitar Slinger

Interscope

Yikes.

Setzer, formerly the frontman of the Stray Cats, has surfaced with an album full of your favorite lounge music. It makes a Stray Cat reunion sound better all the time.

The title of the album isn’t totally ironic; Setzer still gets some use out of the guitar on this. But it sounds like he’s trying to be some great blues guitarist, and all he achieves is perhaps a decent parody of such a player.

There are Setzer originals on here as well as some cover tunes. The songs Setzer penned don’t sound all that original or inspiring, aside from “Rumble In Brighton,” which seems to lose most of the corny sounds that most of this album contains.

Why they covered Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “The House Is Rockin'” is also beyond me. Setzer doesn’t lend much of his own style to this number (which might be a good thing), nor does he do the number any justice by playing it anywhere near as well as SRV.

A weird career move by Setzer doesn’t seem to pan out on here. If it sounded like it was supposed to be a parody, maybe I wouldn’t be quite so disgusted. But Setzer doesn’t seem to be laughing at anyone on this; he leaves that for the listeners to do (in his direction).

Brian Setzer Orchestra: coming to a Vegas near you.

Local H ****

As Good As Dead

Island

This two-piece (yep, two) from Zion, Ill., has released its second album, which just hit stores less than a week ago. Its full sound will surprise many and impress all that listen to the album.

Scott Lucas, the band’s vocalist/guitarist, has his guitar equipped with a bass pickup, giving the bass sound to the band without using the extra member it normally takes to get the low end.

There are no holes in the music, as the song “High Fiving MF” will plainly show. This song deals with the jerks that come to their show and ruin the crowd’s atmosphere. Lucas sings about how these guys have names for their monster trucks while the music drives along at a booming pace.

“Eddie Vedder” is a song that features a rather melodic chorus, showing that Lucas has some soft tones to a voice that can reach a loud scream as well. His vocal textures are mixed on here, which prevents getting stuck in a rut with one style of singing.

These guys let it all go on this album, which leads to an honest disc that most people can appreciate. Buy it. Listen to it. Tell me how right I was!