Terre Thaemlitz: Fagjazz Super Best Collection
Comatonse/US/CD

Fagjazz is Thaemlitz's multi-dimensional "Fuck You!" to the evils of a marketplace blinded by homogeneity and a lack of meaningful discourse. That it's beautifully adn subversively packaged as a compilation, rather than a sublime collection of Loisaida and jazz influenced tracks released on Comatonse throughout the '90s by Thaemlitz himself, renders it even more provocative. To paraphrase Comatonse artist Ultra-red, "How reactionary can digital, non-lyrical music really be?" True enough, but as an adjunct to a critical examination of the overpowering forces that conspire to shove us into easily marketed little boxes with scant regard for ethnicity, gender and taste, Fagjazz becomes a mighty sharp tool.

Terre Thaemlitz: Interstices
Mille Plateaux/GER/CD

This 14th installment in Mille Plateaux's Queer Media series employs Thaemlitz's theories of framing and systolic composition to brilliantly sample a cocktail shaker worth of era-spanning genres, then remove or alter features to create an entity quite unlike its source in either a musical or sociopolitical context. By assigning peripheral roles to vocals, or eliminating them entirely, a new sound is created in the void left by removing dominant forms of communication... a process Thaemlitz likens to the discourse of identity politics inherent in sexuality and transgenderism. Loss and inclusion have never been so apt in Thaemlitz's continuing explorations of these little glitches we call gender roles.