Website compilation brings nothing new

It has its interesting moments. Starting off with a Make Up song is always a good sign. But here it sets up the disc for a fall. Almost all the songs in this collection are readily available. Cductive touts itself as a place to find tracks you can't dig up elsewhere, but there's hardly a one on this CD-R. There's a Mercury Rev song from a David Bowie tribute disc, but that's it for worthwhile rarities.

The prevalent material is familiar stuff; old stand bys or tracks off of groups most recent albums are the rule. And while Helmet's Born Annoying, King Missile's Jesus Was Way Cool or Servotron's Phonetic Lecture are good tracks, they're not worth a look to the preexisting fan and they somehow fail to gel on this random amalgam.

Listening to Audio Ambrosia is exhausting, and not in a good way. It's way too jangly, and its good moments are drowned under the crush of the uninspired. For every interesting and new-to-the-listener band like the Giraffes or the Junior Communist Club, there's two Pete Krebs or Danielle Howles ready to suck the fun out of listening.

Cductive might actually be doing this on purpose, daring the listener to go to their site and make their own, better comp. The bad news for the label is that CD writers are becoming more and more common and cheap and soon anyone with a computer will be able to do their thing better and at home. The good news for them is that the day of the omnipresent CD writer isn't here quite yet, and even when it is the ability to sample bands you don't own yet will still be relegated to companies like Cductive. Even so, don't let them assemble a compilation for you today; you could certainly do a better job.

11-30-99