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Review: Cosmik Debris
Name: Violet
Label: Wine & Vinyl Records
Title: We Both Know It's Out There

Meredith Minogue could bring you to tears singing wordlessly and a cappella. Just as a boxer must register his hands as weapons with the police department, Minogue should have to register her voice with the Association Of Psychologists, who will be sweeping up the broken hearts of those who fall in love just hearing her. Her partner in crime, Jim Barry, creates the perfect musical surroundings for her every utterance, be it a powerful rocker with jagged edges or a serene and sleepy confection with miles of space between each instrument. To do this, Barry employs a stack of instruments, including electric and acoustic guitars, mandolins, organ, lap steel, harmonica, bass, finger cymbals, glockenspiel, tambourine and a little relic of the early 80s called the E-Bow (actually an effect that, when run over the strings of an electric guitar, does some wild things). Hey, he even put a Tibetan bell on this wonderful CD. It all ends up sounding so perfect you actually believe nothing else would have done. "Yes! Yes, of course, Tibetan bell! I might have screwed up and put a Moroccan drum right there!" And I would have totaled the track. Am I being sarcastic? No, my friends, I'm being impressed and marking "We Both Know It's Out There" on my clipboard for consideration come Top Five Picks Of The Year time. At the moment it has a pretty good shot. I'm a sucker for the ethereal, but this is something special.

-- DJ Johnson

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