"Plant it this afternoon" by PMSE

Latin-America hasn't seen a band like PMSE in years. They're hot, they're goodlooking and they were able to convince the critics.

PMSE is the first so-called boys band that plays their own instruments, they co-write their own songs and are responsible for their own styling. And it's a huge success.

Meanwhile the whole of Europe and Asian is eagerly waiting for the boys to come over. As soon as all the fuzz in South-America calms down they'll tour the world, but with this album the hype will only increase. I guess we'll have to have patience and wait, listening to (and "watching", ladies!) the new single " That's why I love you", their follow-up to the millionseller "Plant it this afternoon".

"Plant it this afternoon" by PMSE

"A thought without accepting it" by Wingspan

Albert Collins named his band after a Wings album, I only wish he wouldn't stick to the mellow folk orientated pop songs like "Mull of Kintyre". After a few songs the style gets worn out. The discography by his idol McCartney is so much richer than some soggy ballads.

"Blackbird" (by the Beatles) surely has his charms but lacks energy and power. So why use it as the main inspiration for the title track "A thought without accepting it"?

The whole cd is a bit too mellow and too easy.

If Collins only would listen to albums like "Ram" and "Band on the run" his albums would have more spirit and punch.
Now it is not bad, it's ...let's say: nice. And isn't that the worst discription an album can get? Just "nice".

"A thought without accepting it" by Wingspan

"Everything you can imagine is real" by Choaspes

She's barely 17 but her success doesn't seem to stop. 

Kids adore her and she sells albums by the million. Every Spanish speaking grandparents has at least one record by Choaspes at home because their grandchildren like it so much. Yeah, right.

Choaspes is just a cleverly marketed money machine and when she gets too old she gets dumped to make room for another lolita. You don't need a lot of imagination to understand that...

"Everything you can imagine is real" by Choaspes

"All men walk on higher ground" by Morinda

Morinda doesn't choose the easy way. They're a swing orchestra with 14 people and they play jazz standards with a rock attitude. Brian Setzer and Roger Beaujolais have done it before. Even Joe Jackson tried it, but none of them sold enough copies of their albums to continue playing swing jazz.

"All men walk on higher ground" is a brave attempt to bring some great tunes back to life and it's a very energetic record but will it be strong enough to convince a big audience?

"All men walk on higher ground" by Morinda

"The Erotic Compilation -The Female Version" by various artists

As you might know, every now and then I make music compilations for myself to enjoy. If you want to hear them too, you can find them here. And for every cd I compile I design a cover too. Mostly I use my own drawings, which can be found here.
Next weeks compilation will be a collection of songs about sex, sung by women. The cd will feature vocalists like Nathalie Cole, Macy Gray, Queen Latifah and Karen Young. The collection as such is ready. The only thing is: I still need a cover.

And you can help me picking one. Therefor I made 4 versions. I would like you to tell me your preference.

Please put your remarks and favorite design in a comment. Thank you in advance.

Next week there will be another Erotic Compilation, Then it will be a male version...

"A Gift from within" by Gmina Stary Zsamoc

For more than 20 years the album "A Gift from within" by Gmina Stary Zsamoc wasn't available anymore. But finally this classic Polish album has been re-released. The underground scene has eagerly been waiting for this gem.

This groundbreaking LP is the bestselling album in the history of East-European music.

The band split up years ago but every punk rock fan has to have this CD in his collection.

This is your chance.

"A Gift from within" by Gmina Stary Zsamoc

"Into hot water" by Cookie Time

Judging by what I hear on "Into hot water" by Cookie Time I would say they just finished a written coursre "How to play a musical instrument". Somewhere there is a piano and an acoustic guitar present on this album but the thing that catches your ear first is undoubtebly the exotic voice of Ozgur Zarifi. She was born in Turkey but spent her entire life in Germany. The Bavarian geek Dietmar Schoenberg asked her to sing his simple songs. And the result is this very weird album. Makes you feel uneasy. But it's certainly revolutionary because of his charming and unrestricted dilletantism.
Cookie Time can only get worse by getting better.

"Into hot water" by Cookie Time

"Do not dwell on dreams and forget to live" by Eva Heir

Eva Heir is one of a kind. Like the act Lady Gaga performs on stage, this is a played  role of a very good singer. Only thing is: nobody seems to know who she is. She dresses up in gothic-like doll clothes, she wears wigs and has a shoe fetish.
Young teen girls love outrageous dress up acts and like to forget that there is a singer underneath all those clothes. And simular to Lene Lovich or Gwen Stefani all this wardrobe wizardry does distract rather than accentuating a style.

"Do not dwell on dreams and forget to live" by Eva Heir

"Wealthy and Dead" by Polytomous Rasch

"Wealthy and Dead" is the third album by Polytomous Rasch, and although there's nothing wrong with Southern rock, I'm glad they finally realised they had to do something about their sound. The debut album was a fine album. Yes, sir.
But the second one was exactly the same. The songs sounded as if they were leftovers from the first CD.
This album shows slight references to ZZ Top and even to British hardrock from the eighties. And there's nothing wrong with that either, is there?
As far as I'm concerned they can drop the "and dead" in the album title.
Sumptuous and scrumptious.

"Wealthy and Dead" by Polytomous Rasch

"A Thousand words" by Zuh Jin

I don't need to emphasize the fact that I love making CD covers. And that enthusiasm must have cought my son's eye. So he started this silly game too. Just for once. And he had bad luck. He got the worst photo you can get, and the most dreadfull name that one could come up with.
This is what he made: the album "A thousand words" by Zuh Jin.

But looking at the sleeve I asked myself what kind of music this so-called Zuh Jin would make. And should that genre be made clear by the design of the cover?

So I tried these four styles:
• seventies disco
• old school hiphop
• euro pop trash / Italo dance
• singer-songwriter / country folk
And I cheated slightly. (I had to! Really!) I cropped the photo, used details and even took the background away. And still it's a poor design. I have to admit that you can't always come up with an appealing  design.
Not with such a photo or such an artist name...

"A Thousand words" by Zuh Jin

"One day at a time" by Mutua Madrilena

Maybe one single, maybe two, ...that's how long this Spanish pop duo Mutua Madrilena will survive. Their album "One day at a time" is fresh and frivolous - it sure is. But I bet you can still remember the girls from Las Ketchup or The Cheeky Girls... But how many of their songs do you still know?

This too is one in a long and neverending row of charming pop duo's but these two girls from Madrid will be banned to the back of your head long before summer has ended.

"One day at a time" by Mutua Madrilena

"All progress depends on the unreasonable man" by Marg Downey

She hates men. She kicks them, bites them and throws them out of the house. She spits on them, terrorizes them and stalks them.

But she can't live without them.

This album is full of strong songs about weak men. Marg Downey keeps fighting against what she call the supremacy of men, but she can't leave the subject alone. Every song is a cry for help. And she sings as if she could die any minute.

It takes a couple of spins before this CD convince, but after a while you'll start to love Marg Downey. Only... don't come too close. She bites.

"All progress depends on the unreasonable man" by Marg Downey

"Eaten by the Dog" by William Doe

It's urban and it's funny. But it's a bit too much. Over the top. Bigger than life.

You could call it emo. I would call it parody.

The strong aspect about William Doe (this is a band by the way, not a singer!) is that everything stays a mystery. No liner notes on the booklet. No names on the record and no category available to put this act in.

It's hilarious, it's loud and it's contraversial. Although it sounds like glamrock and looks like disco, it's nothing you've ever seen or heard before. Love it or leave it.

"Eaten by the Dog" by William Doe

"What you say" by Cameroon Sunbird

Cameroon Sunbird is a tough bird. In her appearance she uses elements of Nina Hagen, Toyah Wilcox and Pink. Her music is a delicious melange of Siouxsie & the Banshees, Mylene Farmer and Sharon den Adel (from Within Temptation). That should sound like dynamite. And it did on her first single "What you say", but on her debut album with the same name she sounds too often like Kate Perry: wannabe-tough. Too commercial, too mainstream...

I wonder where this leads to in the future. For now she has the benefit of the doubt...

"What you say" by Cameroon Sunbird

"Waiting to be released" by A Writer's Life

On the CD Cover Meme on Flickr Eat the scroll (some people have the weirdest nicks!) wrote: "I was wondering if some people could design a few covers.... I would love to see what people can do with the same picture, band, and album! (...) I have absolutely no ideas. I think it would help me to see how many different designs can come from these limitations.... (...) I have trouble coming up with any ideas... "

How hard can it be? Here are four variations on the same limitations...


"Waiting to be released" by A Writer's Life

"The sun grows old" By Type 100

Spanish urban music. Not precisely everybody's cup of tea...

Until you listen to Type 100. Spanish can be very convincing as a rap language. I remember one of the first rap albums I bought (in 1990): "Hispanic causing panic" by Kid Frost. That was strange and unusual too. And Type 100 brings back to memory the Fun Loving Criminals as well.

This album is a mix of jazz orientated rap, hispanic flavoured hiphop, Sepultura-like rock and Olodum-inspired capoheira. But in every song there's influences by Grandmaster Flash and Ice-T. Does that make it oldschool or retro?

So put all your prejudice aside and thouroughly enjoy this album. 

"The sun grows old" By Type 100

"It is bad luck to be superstitious" by Osterberg

Osterberg is German, so it's decent and reliable. But.

But there's a twist to it. Where other heavy rock bands stick to the idiom of a singer/a lead gitarist/ a bass player/ a drummer, Osterberg adds a lot of exotic influences, like Hindoo chants, African rhythms, South American beats and once in a while female vocals.

And on every song of the CD "It is bad luck to be superstitious" there's at least one guest musician. The guests aren't always famous, but every single one of them is excellent in what he (or she) does, be it playing sax, cello or vibraphone, be it grunting or rapping, be it playing percussion or handling computers...

Osterberg uses path where others don't dear to tread.

Buy this album! Now!

"It is bad luck to be superstitious" by Osterberg

"Dream as well as act" by Fines Herbes

Fines Herbes is defenitely a band with a vision. They named themselves "Fine Spices" for a reason. The French word "Herbes" means spices, seasoning and taste too. They wanted to add a special flavour and seasoning to lounge music but with good taste and sophistication. That's why they used a  sophisticated language.

And with a singer from Singapore they even add a dash of oriental exotism.

The title of the debut album "Dream as well as act" refers to rationalism but at the same time it is a request to keep your dreams alive.

"Dream as well as act" by Fines Herbes

"Nobody was home" by Rootcap

Rootcap achieved to become immensely popular with very simple music. The band has a singer, an acoustic guitarist and a bass player. That's it.  How much more "unplugged" do you want it?

Their album "Nobody was home" combines the best of Jack Johnson with the vocal excellence of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, but with the bite and fever of Brian Setzer. Rootcap is the living proof that you only need good songs coming from a warm heart to touch people...

"Nobody was home" by Rootcap

"I don't know which half" by Frans Ceusters

Although he's Belgian, he moved at a young age with his parents to South-Africa. He grew up with the music of Johannes Kerkorrel and started to sing when he was seventeen.

His political blues didn't work at the early eighties because Ceusters wasn't mature enough to handle subject as apartheid and racism.

But as soon as he switched to African flavoured pop with intelligent lyrics his career took off and people started to compare him with Johny Clegg. No surprise, considering the colour of his skin...

And now the whole of Belgium is proud with this record "I don't know which half", the first album by Frans Ceusters to be released internationally.

"I don't know which half" by Frans Ceusters

"Greatest Hits" by Celine Dion

I consider the Canadian singer Celine Dion to be one of the dullest artists ever. Of course you don't have to share my opinion but try to see a driven, modern and energetic artist in this (existing) little sleeve. You'll need a lot of imagination...

So I tried to pimp miss Dion's style. After all this blog is about fake covers.

    ...what would a record sleeve look like if she was an r'n'b singer? Would her Greatest Hits album be simular to the first picture on the left? Maybe she would even translate the album title into her mother tongue French.
But what if Celine Dion were a rock artist? Would she wear attractive red dresses and act more outspoken and lively? Like on the top right cover...
It doesn't take a lot of effort to image her as a country artist with an appropriate styling, like on the third cover.
But I think I would like her most as a soul artist...

What's your opinion?
Do you think she would be a convincing gothic singer or a hot tempered salsa star?

"Thinking absurdly" by Paracantha

Paracantha started as a joke. Four students founded a mariachi & texmex band.
Who would 've thought that this kind of joyfull music would be picked up by young Europeans on the search for the newest hype?
It's been done a numerous times before and with less succes. Doug Sahm, Freddy Fender, Linda Ronstadt and Los Lobos didn't have internet at their time to give a boost to their efforts, but the Paracantha-boys do everything they can to sell this mediocre record.
For the real thing, go to Los Super Seven.
But if you've been drinking you'll probably easely sing along with this simple songs...

"Thinking absurdly" by Paracantha

"So you can meet girls" by The Moonshiners

The Moonshiners is the next big thing, according to the NME. I already forgot what last weeks Flavour of the Week was, and I don't care what next week will reveal, but The Moonshiners might be here to stay. 

The Moonshiners is actually a one man band by Gary "Gazza" Rochdale. He knows perfectly how to manipulate an audience by using YouTube, FaceBook and Twitter, but he knows how to write energetic songs too. He doesn't like to be compared to Arctic Monkeys or Gorrilaz but the influences are clear. After hearing his first album "So you can meet girls" you'll have to admit that The Moonshiners is an extraordinary talent.

"So you can meet girls" by The Moonshiners