Reviews of two new releases   Recoil Liquid Mute Records Of related interest: Depeche Mode, Massive Attack, Tricky Poor, poor, poor little Alan Wilder. All right, so maybe "poor" isn't quite right--he made millions as the shy-smiling, keyboard-wrangling ringer of Depeche Mode. But while makeup-slathered 15-year-old chicks have swooned over the Mode's mopey synth-pop for years, few of 'em give a rat's ass about Wilder's own music as Recoil--despite the fact that, in many ways, it's far superior, dumping DM's occasional pop clichés for unpredictable (and defiantly undanceable) sonic pathology. Much like 1997's Unsound Methods, this new Recoil peeks into the shady umbra of the human psyche, trip-hopping across the dark side of the mind. It's bookended by "Black Box," a creeping two-part instrumental inspired by Wilder's first-hand witnessing of a plane crash. Not a chucklefest by any means. From there it's straight into paranoiac spoken-word psychodrama, courtesy of NYC's Nicole Blackman, who lays down three disturbing songs about the power dynamics of sexual relationships over subtly clipped semi-funk synths; Samantha Coerbell also drops her own gutsy street poetry on two cuts of machismo-chastising righteousness. But the album's apex comes via a pair of post-industrial gospel trax: "Jezebel" (featuring the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet) sings the electro blues with amazing Southern grace, while "Strange Hours" stars the incomparable Diamanda Galás, crooning a warbly, warped-record hymn to the cloudy heavens. Startling, yet sublime. John Graham     Tomás Svoboda Piano Works, Vol. 1 North Pacific Of related interest: Tobias Picker, Leos Janácek, Trio Spektrum Recorded in Prague in September 1997, these solo piano recordings by Svoboda are welcome listening for anyone interested in the composer's work or contemporary classical piano composition. Before he began his 30-year teaching association with Portland State University, Svoboda was one of the finest young composers in Czechoslovakia. On the disc's earliest work, "Bagatelles in a Forest," we instantly hear why. Composed in the mid-1960s as a farewell to the Czech landscape, the five bagatelles have a sweep and grandeur that fits his natural theme. With Old World charm and modern fire, Svoboda shows a brilliant talent for developing bittersweet themes that stay with the listener while rarely stooping to the overly cerebral or gratuitously dissonant. There are moments here when the music has the timeless resonance of his musical ancestor Janácek's monumental "On the Overgrown Path," a rhythmic subtlety and lyrical freshness that sets him apart from most of his contemporaries. The disc closes with "Autumn," as Svoboda changes focus from the Western tradition and, in true Oregonian spirit, looks to the East, creating a piano arrangement from Japanese koto themes that truly speaks to the sense of natural wonder in the Pacific Northwest. Bill Smith - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published May 10, 2000