COLESLAW
Teratism (Pot Roast)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Former Cosmik Debris graphic artist coLeSLAw is at it again, creating what is probably his twentieth CD but only the second he's allowed the public to listen in on. You know those articles in Readers Digest called My Most Unforgettable Character? Mine just might be Slaw. There's no way to define him in less than a dozen long chapters, so just know that he sees what you miss, hears what you hear but knows what it means, has the intelligence and ability to do everything in complex and confusing ways and the wisdom to keep it simple instead.

Much of Teratism is minimalistic. Low frequency hum carries you into coLeSLAw's funhouse like a people mover. You're greeted by harsh blasts of a second low frequency that nearly shove you off balance at any volume, but you stay on the hum, moving deeper into the darkness toward the tribal drums and farther still to the discordant house band and them. Them... The voices. They come and go so quickly you find yourself muttering "what did you say?" Very clever, Slaw. Last CD, you snuck into my brain with your infomercial huckster and now you want back in.

To make a long story short, it's no contest. coLeSLAw moves in and around your mind at will. His electronica trances you out, puts you in the proper state. His acoustic piano fills the air with lush, beautiful music, perfect and fine and you follow until he's ready to throw the switch, and then there it is; the impossibly painful chord that makes all of these perfectly placed pieces disperse and leaves you with both gloves down, wide open for an overhand right.

For those who are sick to death of electronic music that is in constant motion for motion's sake, the BPS never changing, and nothing ever really happening, coLeSLAw is your tonic. The tempo changes, the scene changes, the mood changes, changes change. coLeSLAw is always going somewhere and it's never in circles. A Teratism is a congenital malformation or anomaly. By the book of electronic music, this is a malformation. Here's to malformation.

[Send e-mail to coleslaw@serv.net for details on Teratism or to buy a copy of your own.]

© 2001 - DJ Johnson