Dimension Mix "Dimension Mix (The Music of Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson)" – Crazy cool compilation of children songs done by some great contemporary artists. All songs originally written by Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson and recorded on the Dimension 5 label. Song styles range from cute pop, to bloopy electronica, to funky and laid-back, to cut-n-paste weirdness. Lyrics are at times fun and educational and at other times very weird and kind of drugged out sounding. All the songs are fun and worth checking out. Wow! FCC clean (come on, these are children's songs).
My Picks: 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 14
Katie P. 9/26/05

1)Fades in with slide guitar and laid-back slow midtempo drums. Simple piano and the bong bubble noises are a nice touch. Kind of spacey with spoken/sung lyrics from Beck. Trippy.
2)Uptempo with bloopy electronic noises. Droning organs at times that sound very typical Stereolab. About 2 min. in it slows with female vocals added. Spacey cinematic feel with chopped electronic bits on top. Picks up tempo again towards the end.
3)Uptempo percussion. Fun and happy with abrupt stops where kids all yell “Bruce.” Fun clips from some of the original songs (I assume). Driving percussion has that persistent feeling almost like Brazilian drums but cuter. Wow!
4)Starts with a kid laughing and goes into a poppy country western tune. Cute little cover of “Little Liza Jane” that is a bit on the weird spacey side.
5)Midtempo drum machine with simple keyboards. A bit quiet and creepy. Really cool and at least semi-educational song about spiders. Very chill and the lyrics are great.
6)Bloopy electronic loops with clips from the original song. Nice cut-n-paste music. Midtempo.
7)Fades in slowly with quiet drumming. Snake-charmer/belly dance feel to the music with yelled male vocals and sung female vocals. Fun.
8)Uptempo percussion with electronic bouncy beat. Slowly builds with more and more percussive/rhythm instruments and keyboards adding a little extra on top. Occasionally monotone voice says “robot music”.
9)Fades in with weird noises and eventually falls into a solid midtempo pop number. Simple guitar strumming, handclaps, cute male vocals singing educational lyrics about catfish.
10)Drum machine starts it off. Lowdown bass line with cool bloopy keyboards behind. Female spoken vocals on top telling a story of Walking Eagle. Ends abruptly.
11)Indie rock/pop tune. Midtempo with a bounce. Male vocals with funny lyrics. Fades out slowly.
12)Funky and trippy with clips from Esther & Bruce (I think) telling kids how to meditate/relax. Laid-back groove. Wow, this is so drugged out and trippy.
13)Nice solid drum beat with a cool bass line and handclaps. Kinda funky groove with cute organ and nice rhythm guitar.
14)Creepy intro, then silence for a few seconds, then back to male vocals and sounds of the shore. Keyboards come in, but still minimal. Lots of field recording sounds in the background. This is cool, and pretty weird.
15)Animal noises then into a casio keyboard beat. Bloopy and pretty lo-fi. Male and female vocals.
16)Fades in with guitar strumming and some spacey sounds. Male vocals are a little processed. Guitars have a very slight country feel to them.
17)Repetitive simple beat with spoken vocals behind. Then suddenly rain and suddenly into a dreamy midtempo tune with male vocals and bloopy keyboards. Fades out with guitars and bubbles.
18)Solid midtempo drum beat. Funny male falsetto vocals. Whoa, gets kind of crazy with tons of layered instruments.