The Domestic Bumblebees

Bring It On!

(Enviken Records)

Joyously evident is that these swinging Stockholm strutters dig the natural fact of roots-musics' shared gene-pool. Many are the Blues bents jumping in fresh glad-rags. Such is the breadth of their appreciation that Eddie Curtis and ELO salutes rub shoulders in their catalogue. Bring It On! is the stage-blazing trio's latest, and ends their nearly decade-long absence from studio circumstances. By the moment these words are read, European barnstorming will be underway.

Recommended: "Will You Please Leave," "She Turned My Smile Upside Down," "Bring It On," "It Should Have Been Me," "You Turn Me On," "Come On," "Hold On Tight"

Video: "Will You Please Leave"

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VELVETEEN VISIONS: DD Sparks "Maximus Aquarius" review

DD Sparks
"Maximus Aquarius"
(Magic Cabinet Records)

reviewed by
DC Larson


(That DD Sparks, creator of the "Maximus Aquarius" character, is my brother in no way impacts the below judgements.)

Craft is the thoughtful choreographer of creative impulse. Lacking it, one has only unfocused spark, unproductive energy.

But braced by craft's intuitive calculatings, virginal musings assume perspective.

On each action strasse here located, one upturns treasures alurk: Shadow-draped glacial movements, fizzy percolations, spectral intonations -- each distinct shard locks into unseamed correspondence. (And while head may be above-clouds, feet are maintained to terra firma by trenchant six-string coloration and reassuringly familiar sax testimonies.)

About, one spots splinters of Roxy Music, T Rex, and ELO. But only splinters. Influences are subservient to Aquarius's own striking demeanor. At once darkly sagacious and wit-flecked, the observational time-trifler character -- a technicolor pastiche of Victorian elan and fantastic consciousness -- imprints the whole with uncanny lilt and commanding presence.

Craft revels in its peculiar reward.

RECOMMENDED "Cutting In the Blue," "Beloved Nemesis," "trick of the light," "dangerous angels"

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