author: Indie Music Stop
Across the dorm hall from me lived Kane. Whenever I was going on a beer run, I would stop and see if he needed anything, His room was always dark, the TV was almost always on with the sound turned down and he always listening to something interesting - Throbbing Gristle or Bongwater. Sometimes he wanted to come along, but other times he would say quietly, "You know what, I think it would be better if I was just alone right now." If Kane were still in that dorm room, the music seeping under the door along with the incense smoke would be Used Alien Mind's new album The Placement Aside.
Used Alien Mind is basically the project of Mike Leporte. However, on this UAM's second album, he's drifted away from the harder sounds that dominated the first album to a hazier place and brought along musicians like Jon Wohl, Robert Wohl, Pete Weiss and Katie Beckman to help decorate this sound collage of an album.
I usually like my soundscape music freaky - Mr. Bungle or John Zorn's Torture Garden freaky and although Leporte claims Coltrane as an influence, he's much more Mingus - less spiritual, more funky. The Placement Aside has a wheeling eclectic sound clearly influenced by the Velvets as well as bands like Swervedriver or the Catherine Wheel Track 2, "Splashes of Color", has a calliope rhythm section and hazy stoned vocal creating a hypnotic and innocent sound that sucks the listener in
This time around, Used Alien Mind is coming from a different, hazier, maybe even a little darker place. It's not party music and it's not stoner music, but it would make great stoner party music if you follow what I mean. That's not meant to diminish the accomplishments of The Placement Aside. It and the chances Used Alien Mind takes with their music grow on listeners pretty quickly. "I wish somebody else would experiment once in a while," whisper-sings Leporte on Track 5 "People of Earth/The Arrival". So do I guy, so do I.
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author: sleazegrinder
Well, they've done it. Eureka. I mean, you name your band Used Alien Mind, you better cough up the mind-freakery. And this shit is freaky, Jack. Imagine Love and Rockets locked in a haunted funhouse all night. And then they all get slaughtered, and all that remains is a tape of their impromptu jam session early on, when they were getting high and sorta vibe-ing on the spooky atmosphere. That's this CD, exactly. Will drive paranoiacs to the asylum
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author: Readjunk.com
Eclectic-but-lengthy sci-fi tinted soundscapes is not an easy thing to pull off, but Used Alien Mind figured it out. The music - which ranges from whisperingly soft lo-fi to clangy art-funk to space-jazz to trip hop is all pleasantly warm and accessible.
Of course, you need the patience for it first. If you wanna be ROCKIN LIKE DOKKEN, stay far, far away. This is late-late-night music, when the party's winding down and only the drunk-back-sober diehards remain, staring hazily down into the bottom of a pipe and into dreaded morning.
Used Alien Mind is hardly well-known, but they're a real standout in combining various styles with ambient. I have no idea where this music is trying to take us, but I'm enjoying the trip.
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author: Mmhm Music Zine
We have been told that Used Alien Mind has a distaste for all that is mainstream and thank the gods that this album reached our office. Now we have something to review. Cheeky as that sounds, I did kick back and listen with my hearts content. 'Your Sad Eyes' sucked me in as once did Daniel Ash from Love and Rockets. It is no surprise that you wouldn't get down to this single just as you would with 'Soul Hit One Time'. For cardiac control I preferred 'People of the Earth' and 'Translucent Kate Pill'. We must thank Zonked Records for this album because Mike Leporte's spacial journey has definitely left me zonked similarly with Primal Scream and Spiritualized.
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