VNV Nation Future Perfect Metropolis The Strokes This is it BMG Music JJ72 JJ72 Lakota/Columbia By Mark Rose Say hello to DJ Niki, Prince George’s only female club DJ, perhaps the only female club DJ in the province. She plays at the Metro, in down- town Prince George So how does one become a club DJ? For Niki, it started when she was 14. Music was an outlet had always been an outlet for her, and she wanted to get more involved. She was largely influenced by her Se Originally formed in 1990 in London, England by Ronan Harris, VNV Nation began as a collage project of orches- tral, electronic, and sound- track inspired pieces designed for the electronic dance scene. The name VNV Nation stands for “Victory Not Vengeance;” a motto that means that one should strive to achieve, not just sit in bitter regret. VNV Nation’s latest What is there left to say about the Strokes that every other reviewer in the first world hasn't already said about them? They’ve been hyped to the ends of the earth, so we'll start off slow with some information. The Strokes are five close friends who began assembling together at the Music Building in New York City sometime in 1998 to lay down the founda- Not far out of their teens, the trio of JJ72 has been win- ning international acclaim for their music, including the Best New Band award at home in Ireland, and gold record status. It can general- ly be said that JJ72 is repre- sentative of a movement within the unique Brit scene to get their rock back to its roots. They accomplish this with a “Travis-esque” melan- choly lo-fi guitar sound that is DJ NIKI: Prince brother, who creates music. She became aware of the need for original music, and learned to respect the amount of talent and hard work it takes to create it. Early this year january, she found an employee wanted ad for a job at the Metro. Résumé in hand, she applied for it, and that night, she received a phone call telling her she had the position. She quite enjoys her job, effort, Future Perfect com- bines melancholy — vocal efforts with highly danceable beats, all wrapped up into a goth mixed with electronica package. Above all, VNV Nation strives to get your rear in gear on Future Perfect, and they succeed well providing plenty of upbeat tunes to dance to. This is good because what VNV Nation wants to do is provide addic- tive dance music that might tions of a rock ‘n roll band. They dress as if the 1970's and 80’s fell into the same laundry hamper and their sound is the result of frantic living, and the late nights and early mornings they’ve spent making their music in New York City. But what exactly does fran- tic living and late nights sound like? The whole album makes you feel like your back in 1979, catching a punk becoming all to rare in these days of effects and diverse synths. While the entire trio pulls the band together, the most prevalent of the three seems to be Mark Greaney (guitar/vox). He is able to move from a mesmerizing dialogue to what have been described as “red raw sonic assaults” in seconds. JJ72 all got together more or.less by accident, bumping into each other at gigs in their just make you think once ina while. The music is simple and catchy, but every so often VNV Nation injects what sounds like “canned sympho- ny” which actually works to break up the CD so it doesn’t grow repetitive. Overall, Future Perfect is a good CD to dance to, per- haps not as cerebral as it sets out to be, but that probably works for it, not against it. show at CBGB’s downtown. The Strokes are writing rock with old school pop sensibili- ties, echoing the sounds of the formative punk years when rock and roll decided to spare itself of all the crap that it had been gathering. Simple, catchy and different. That's the strokes. ' —Kathleen hometown of Dublin. What's the secret to the success of JJ72? They want to make music, not money. Maybe they are still too young to have been marred by to real world. “What it comes down to,” claims Mark, “is that you just want to make a great, great song... and you realize that the whole world can change during a three minute song.” Not surprisingly he often has some _ critical remarks for Dublin’s associa- George’s Musical Femme Fatale but it’s not without its chal- lenges. At first, it took a while to learn the library of cds, but that is to be expected. Also, one has to be good at multi- tasking, since one has to be thinking about the song to play next, talk on the mic, and be generally entertaining all at once. It’s also an alcohol environment, so one has to be patient. She contributes her suc- cess to ability to speak and that she has no fearas she’s “willing to make of myself.” Another trick to the game is playing what people want to hear, but also keeping the music fresh. She does this my mixing up a bit of Top 40, new stuff popular in the lower-mainland, and remixed versions of well known hits. People tend to dance more to stuff they are familiar with. Thankfully, her employers are younger guys, and they VNV Nation’s Future Perfect will be available in stores on Tuesday March 5th 2002. —Kathleen DO YOU WANT TO WIN A COPY OF THE STROKES? CHECK OUT OUR CON- TEST ON PAGE 12. tion with manufactured bands. So JJ72 did something about pop’s continuing alien- ation. They made songs that get back to Brit pop roots. Not quite the 80's, rejecting the 90's, JJ72 is what listen- ers are looking for in a more complicated world which surely can only add to their already burgeoning success. —Kevin Milos allow her a lot of freedom to try new ideas for theme nights, contest and daily prizes, etc. In the future, DJ Niki is eventually hoping to move away from cds to vinyl. In the meantime, she invites everyone down to have a good time.