Best CD you NEVER Heard!

Yesterday I was listing a CD in my store, Windhamearl's Black Lodge, one I wasn't completely familiar with. Usually, there is some frame of reference for even the most obscure CD albums but not this one. The name of the band is MUSEUM and the album's title is 'LOST'. It was originally released in 2000 on an obscure label called Noria. The only description/review I could find of it was on Amazon, and that brief little paragraph just wasn't enough for me. The CD is out of print now, and difficult to find. Apparently any reviews or discussion of it on the net have long since evaporated or have been relegated to 'lost' discussions on message boards buried deep in archives where even the web spiders fear to tread.

After listening to it, I gave Museum's Lost CD a brief but reasonable item description in Windhamearl's Black Lodge, but I still feel that I didn't do it justice. Besides the Nine Inch Nails (musical) and David Sylvian (vocal and musical) comparisions, there is also an element of David Bowie in the vocals. The first six tracks are on the raucus side, driving and hard-edged. The second half of the CD is more laid back, but still as dark as the first half. You can't call this Goth, or Industrial, or really even Alternative, when consider what most 'Alternative Rock' is these days. It might fall vaguely into the 'Art Rock' category, or even slightly 'Progressive'. The music is totally eclectic, the kind that just isn't being made anymore.

The band consists of Michael Danke (lead vocals, programming), Toshi Yanagi (guitars & violin), Chad Rafferty (keyboards & backing vocals) and Tim Santen (bass guitar). The band has a Museum website where there is hardly any information about them at all, except for the mention of a forthcoming album. This is really odd; you'd think a band that was this good (and possibly still active) would have at least some kind of following or condsidering all the musical cheezos out there who have TONs of people writing about them.

Be that as it may, this is one of those CDs that if you have an ounce of ecletic taste in your musical soul, you're going to fall in love with. Danke's vocals are deep, powerful and achingly emotional. The music is extremely well done and the songs are in a word, FANTASTIC! I tend to be somewhat jaded about new music I haven't heard, since I buy and sell so much, and also write music reviews. A lot of crap passes my way. But Museum's 'Lost' is the very exceptional 'once in a great while' album that defies convention. Not a single bad track on it. I strongly recommend you buy it ASAP. You won't be diaappointed. Even if you don't buy it from me (and I only have ONE copy), this is one you defineitely need to add to your collection.

And it makes me wonder, how many other CDs are there that I've never heard, that could be this good, but never got the push they deserved...