NOVEMBER 22, 1999: 

** The Hippos HEADS ARE GONNA ROLL (Interscope)

Somewhere between pop-punk romantics Green Day and ska-punk pranksters NOFX, with a touch of Rentals new wave, the six young lads in the Hippos make feverish music that's a little misplaced: it's either lagging behind the most recent ska/punk revival or attempting yet another one. The lyrics aren't as challenging or wacky as NOFX's. They are, however, a perfect accompaniment to the happy, major-chord guitar-and-horn riffs that drive most of the album. The CD's surprises are the new-wave synths and relatively detailed arrangements -- the Hippos are up-tempo but take their time for intros and bridges, infusing it all with unabashedly '80s-sounding synths. The intent is hardly experimental, but it's appealing in its complete lack of pretense. Their romancing of radio music recalls the Buzzcocks, and the influence of their idols (like the Police) is pleasingly transparent. The Hippos may actually want to be a Green Day for the year 2000, but for now they're in no danger of being taken too seriously.

*** Pet Shop Boys NIGHT LIFE (London)

Far from their origins as West End guys, urban and lonely in London, Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant now sound dreamy in love and very very Broadway. They're New York City boys now, oddly freaky at times -- in "Vampire" (a deeply coded, Mylene Farmer-like piece of disco gothic), "Boy Strange," and "You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk" -- but less odd than formerly. Night Life, in fact, is the most peaceful, contented music they've ever made. Big bosomy melodies, nervy Eurodisco riffs, choruses of female angels, and layers of orchestration ornament Tennant's theatrical singing. And the album's 12 tracks tend less to commonplace insecurities of romantic disconnectedness -- the Pets' signature drama -- than to sweet goodbyes ("I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Anymore"), tender moments ("The Only One"), and storybook endings ("Happiness Is an Option") full of rhythmic sentimentality (for the light beats and string-section scents of classic disco) and a synthesized think-I'm-in-love nostalgia ("Radiophonic," "Closer to Heaven") that doesn't sound bygone at all thanks to Tennant's dry voicing of delirious matter of fact.

*** One People FROM WITHIN (One Records)

The Boston-based multi-racial reggae band One People have been tearing up clubs in the Northeastern states for almost 20 years. Singer/guitarist Mark Jayaprasanna, who came to Boston from Bombay, founded the band in 1981, and after almost a decade of personnel changes, they settled down to the current quintet line-up that includes Japanese percussionist Nori Ikegami and singer/songwriter/guitarist Daddy Marc. Inspired by reggae's first wave, One People have remained true to the roots-rock reggae sound of the early '70s, though they have expanded their palette over the years to incorporate the diverse influences of dancehall, dub, and modern club beats.

From Within kicks off with "Soaking in the Sun," a tune that leaps from ska to dancehall with an intense postpunk energy, compacting the entire history of Jah music into three blistering minutes. Other standouts include the heavy-metal ska of "Pop the Top," a roots-rock reinvention of Sly's "Everyday People," and a medley that combines Bob Marley's "Work" and Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" into a dancehall jam driven by frantic jungle rhythms and splendid four-part harmonies.

*** Nobukazu Takemura SCOPE (Thrill Jockey)

Remixer of Tortoise, Steve Reich, Roni Size, and Coldcut, Nobukazu Takemura is loosely branded an acid-jazzer. That's apt for his Kool Jazz Productions, DJ Takemura, and Spiritual Vibes incarnations, but not for Scope's minimalist aesthetic, which is miles away from acid jazz's sashaying rhythms and ornamented arrangements.

Scope recalls the pastiches of digital distortion, CD fast-forwarding rushes, ring modulated dial tones, found sound bits, and short-wave radio interference on labelmate Oval's synthetic tour-de-force Systemisch:. Owing far more to Pierre Henry, Iannis Xenakis, and Morton Subotnick than to any jazz-hop collective, this is a process recording, interesting as much for what one suspects is behind it as for the resulting music, which is nevertheless pleasing. The cover art -- austere line drawings toying with perspective, plane, repetition, and movement -- recalls Douglas Hofstadter's "whirly art" from his classic Metamagical Themas, which Hofstadter thought of as "metaphorical music."

Scope's opening track, the 22-minute "On a Balloon," is metaphorical geometry; it's about not melody or rhythm but distance, duration, speed, and the intersection of lines and planes in direct opposition. The Steve Reich-like "Kepler," with its harp, xylophone, and vocal samples, is like remixed gamelan music. And everywhere there's the digital blip, the ungainly sound of a CD "scratch," which in Takemura's hands becomes somehow beautiful -- electronic music's equivalent of letting the paint drip savagely off the canvas.

** Máire Brennan WHISPER TO THE WILD WATER (Word/Epic)

As lead singer of Clannad, Máire Brennan found her husky alto bathed in a soothing ambiance. That voice was an integral part of the gentle formula that made the Celtic band a new-age favorite. And it would have been easy for her to continue on in that tradition as a solo artist.

On Whisper to the Wild Water, she tries to resist that temptation, in part by working various African and Latin clubland rhythms into the mix; the result occasionally has a harder, more radio-friendly edge than Clannad would ever have been comfortable with. Unfortunately, Brennan got religion a few years back, and, like 1998's Perfect Time, this one suffers from the same case of the mystical blahs that marked much of Clannad's work. There are bright spots: "Whisper" could be an outtake from Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, and Brennan's harp and uilleann pipes give "Mary of the Gaels" an earthy, traditional feel. But for the most part, Whisper to the Wild Water finds Brennan following in the footsteps of her sister Enya, floating her perfectly enunciated vocals on lush synthesizer textures that won't disturb shoppers when this CD oozes out of the sound system at your local new-age bookstore.

*** Joe Louis Walker SILVERTONE BLUES (Blue Thumb)

"Don't need no more than a guitar and a harp," sings bluesman Joe Louis Walker on Silvertone Blues. And he's one artist who definitely practices what he preaches. Walker can be something of a blues renaissance man, a guitarist/singer/producer who isn't afraid to push past the boundaries of blues into gospel and rock, creating amalgams driven by his brittle guitar work and heartfelt shout. On last year's Guitar Greats, he faced off with a heady roster of guests, including Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.

But here Walker strips his music down to the acoustic heart of the country blues, striking gold with dazzling guitar and slide work, stirring vocals, and cameos by just a few well-chosen friends. Harmonica giant James Cotton, young guitar maven Alvin "Youngblood" Hart, and pianist Kenny Wayne -- who has an excellent album of his own out on the tiny Real Blues label -- are just about all he needs to launch this batch of original variations on familiar blues themes. It's the veteran Walker's most basic -- and maybe his best -- release in quite some time.

** Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young LOOKING FORWARD (Reprise)

Looking forward's a fine thing, but this reunion after an 11-year break doesn't pay enough respect to CSNY's past strengths. It was explosive four-part harmonies, great songwriting, and pithy-but-burning guitars that made albums like 1970's Déjà Vu and '71's 4-Way Street rock classics. Here only two songs, the bookends "Faith in Me" and "Sanibel," fully employ their mile-wide blend of voices. The writing's mostly laid-back and unmemorable. "Sanibel," despite its vocal grace, sounds like one of Jimmy Buffett's middle-aged slacker anthems. Only Young's "Looking Forward," Crosby's "Dream for Him," and Crosby and James Raymond's "Stand and Be Counted" measure up. The latter's especially potent, with a solid vocal hook and its rekindling of the political spirit that seethed within the culture that birthed the band. The guitars? They take a back seat in the overall scheme, bubbling just behind the drums in the mix of songs like "Seen Enough" when they should be pressed to the fore. Disappointing.

*** Brokeback FIELD RECORDINGS FROM THE COOK COUNTY WATER TABLE (Thrill Jockey)

Musicians often become so closely linked with a particular instrument that we can hardly imagine them playing anything else. Such is the fate of Chicago-based bassist Doug McCombs. Through his work with Tortoise, Tortoise's various spinoffs, and his latest project, Brokeback, McCombs has solidified his rep as the best-known practitioner of an obscure ax, the Fender six-string bass. Although an array of Windy City all-stars make appearances on Field Recordings (including members of Tortoise, Isotope 217, and the Chicago Underground Orchestra), McCombs's spacious and moody instrumentals bring the Fender six-string and its unique tone -- both hefty and slinky, deep and twangy -- to the fore. Embellished by samples of trains and birdsongs, slowly creeping tempos, and folky melodies that recall the Midwestern jazz of Charlie Haden and Bill Frisell, it's a sound that conveys the ghostly atmosphere of the prairie, or at least an urbanite's imagination of it, with beauty, simplicity, and grace.

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