PEACH HEAD

Natural Calamity

Ideal Records

Just as the music accompanying Austin Powers as he dances around London suits his style, so too does the new album Peach Head fit a certain style. Only the style is "life in the slow lane." The album comes from Natural Calamity, a band The Japan Times calls "Tokyo's best-kept secret." The record brings guest vocalist Stephanie Heasley together with the original members of Natural Calamity, Shunji Mori and Kuni Sugimoto. The result is a "peachy" sounding record with some great moments, but some listeners may find the peach a little too soft.

Natural Calamity's melodic bass line, vocals and drum accompaniment dominate its sound. Secondary are its guitar and keyboard effects. Together, the album's layered music makes for a laid back, chill sound. Along with Heasley, guest musicians Kyoici Shiino on drums, K-U-D-O on electronics, Neville Marphie for percussion and Genichi Tamura on petal steel guitar join Natural Calamity. The songs for the album were mixed in various studios, and a couple forms of two of the songs appear on Peach Head.

"As You Know" is the outstanding song. Two versions appear on Peach Head, the original ("anything can happen") version and the Dust Brothers Remix. The remix is almost a link between the "regular" electronic sound of today and the unusual spin the Natural Calamity puts on its version of electronic pop. The lyrics of "As You Know" also seem to say what Peach Head is all about. Lines such as "As you know/it's the middle of the 90s/forget about the mainstream" and "We all know that anything could happen" show why Natural Calamity is more concerned with expressing their natural musical style rather than conforming to optimize their chances at success. On this subject, Kuni Sugimoto said, "As long as I can do the things I want from my own stance, it's Okay whether success follows or not."

Whether or not that success will follow depends on the reception of this rather short and sometimes bland album. While the sound is quite unique, it may be perceived as a little too much of the same thing. Monotonous tracks like "Jessica" and "That's the Way Love Goes" really begin to drag. The record is also rather short; the 10 songs are only about 45 minutes long in all. The disc ends with a 15 minute extra track that kills any of the excitement that Peach Head had created. Then again, Natural Calamity never claimed to be exciting, but instead let "anything go." If you are out for a change of pace to the slow lane, Peach Head is for you-ideal music for "floating into space" as the lyrics of the first track "Dark Water & Stars" say.