Welcome to the Archives of Velvet Magazine! For those of you who might not know, Velvet was Prague's first city magazine and sadly published just a few issues. I, Jeffree from Think Magazine, designed the very last issue of Velvet, which was killed the day it was to go to press... and thus, I turned my attention to making Think. A lot of the contact, adresses and business information here is too old to be useful, but why not take a walk down memory lane and enjoy yourself?

By Michele Legge and Matt Welch

C l u b / D a n c e

Bjork
Post
(One Little Indian/PolyGram)

On her second album, Bjork displays a wide range of contacts within the British trip-hop scene. Nellee Hooper, Graham Massey, Howie Berstein, and Tricky from Massive Attack all contribute, making Post a diverse album. From Big Band kitsch ("It's Oh So Quiet") to dark grinding trip hop ("Enjoy"), Bjork exudes an impishness that appeals directly to one's pleasure center.

Earthling
Radar
(Cooltempo/Virgln)

Earthling are the latest trip-hop band to emerge from the British city of Bristol, which also reared Massive Attack, Portishead, and Tricky. Infused with more jazz, more moodiness, and more rap than Massive Attack, Radar is packed with ripe material for clubbers searching for new dance tunes and senseless repetitive lyrics like this one: "I've got a little biscuit tin / to put your panties in." Radar is already big in Britain's more progressive dance clubs.

R o c k & P o p

Soul Asylum
Let Your Dim Light Shine
(Columbia)

The American melodic rockers are scheduled to appear in Prague in September. After their last big hit in '93, "Runaway Train," one would've assumed Soul Asylum would have progressed to producing stadium anthems. They haven't yet fully succumbed to commercialism, but there are enough of the bob-your-head-up-and-down-to-the-beat rock songs to keep their fans happy. Overall, the material is as strong as Gravedancer's Union, their last album.

Buffalo Tom
Sleepy Eyed
(Beggars Banquet)

More acoustic American pop songs dwelling on unrequited love, the sad progression of time, and unfulfilled dreams. Appropriately named, Sleepy Eyed captures the raw sound of three well-rehearsed musicians jamming together sweet and simple rock in an old church-turned recording-studio in Woodstock.

Ugly Kid Joe
Menace to Sobriety
(Polygram Records)

On their follow-up to the double-platinum debut LP "America's Least Wanted," the suburbanite pop-metal drunkards from Santa Barbara, California force you to confront their peculiar, embittered world of Satan-pondering and suckerdissing by skillfully failing to produce a hit single. The album is dominated by fresh takes on old Sabbath riffs and by bad boy Whit Crane's vain attempts to destroy his voice, delivered in a sound more clean and polished than "Nevermind" on a good day. That and two slower Stonesy songs might make "Everything About You" fans worry that their boys have lost their sense of humor, but fear not! A satanic version of the oompa-loompa song and "Jesus Rode a Harley" maintain Ugly Kid Joe's status as the best, if not only, practitioners of California frat-boy devil metal.

H i p - H o p

Funkdooblest
Brothas Doobie
(Immortal/Epic)

A three-man L.A. rap crew with a thing for crass lyrical references to female genitalia. If lyrics like "pubic hairs long itch my dick" don't grab your attention, "pussy lips drip" might. Profanities aside, the music is raw hip-hop with hard rhythms. DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill mixed most of the album's 13 tracks. A must-buy for any serious rap fan.

H a r d R o c k

Silverchair
Frogstomp
(Murmur/Eplc)

Think Offspring and Nirvana, and you'll approximate this Australian rock trio's hard American grunge fuzz sound. The single "Tomorrow" climbed to number one on the charts in Australia, supported by the national alternative radio network, JJJ, and should be received similarly by Czech equivalent, Radio Jedna. Appealing to mosh-pit habitues.

Therapy
Infernal love
(A&M)

These Irish lager louts unleash loud bangs that sound all-too-similar to the successful tracks on their last album, Troublegum. Originality in songwriting is not exactly the album's strong point, This lyrical beauty rings of Nick Cave: "You poured Eros maggots down my throat / until I choked." Buy it if you're in need of a blast of angry noise.

S o m e t h i n g D i f f e r e n t

Natasha Atlas
Diaspora
(Nation/Mute CS)

For some, she is the sound of the British band Transglobal Underground, who play a combination of traditional Eastern instruments infused with techno beats and rhythms. On her solo project, she concentrates on melodies, relying on traditional inflections of Arabic singing and lyrical references to Eastern goddesses. The result is a mystical yet accessible Eastern experience.

C l a s s i c a l

Geoff Smith
15 Wild Decembers
(Sony Classical)

Fragments of poetry taken from Emily Bronte, John Keats, Elizabeth Siddal, and Percy Bysshe Shelly set to modern classical music. 29year-old British composer Geoff Smith blends gentle keyboards with the hauntingly beautiful soprano voice of his wife, Nicola Walker Smith. Listen, dream, and romanticize.

Cover credits

Volume 1, Number 1
August 1995

Editor and Publisher MICHAEL WAYNE JR.

Executive Editor CHRISTOPHER HOLLAND

Senior Editors
WALTER R. DEVINE, JOYCE-ANN GATSOULIS

Associate Editor
SUSANNAH ROSENSTOCK

Editorial Assistants
HELENA SIPKOVA
MAURA GEDID

Contributing Editors NICHOLE ACHS
OMRI BEN-AMOS
MATT WELCH

Contributing Writers RADHA BURGESS, LOU CHARBONNEAU, DAVID FREELING, JOHN HECK, MARKETA JIRASKOVA, ANNE RENAHAN, JENNIFER TORPIE, LAURA ZAM

Creative Director GERMAIN E. DESEVE

Senior Designer
CLARE MANIAS

Production Associates STEVE ROWLAND
D.A. STRUBLE

Staff Photographer ZUZANA OPLATKOVA

Contributing Photographers
SEAN GALLUP,
AHMED RAHIM

Publicity
MICHELLE LEGGE

Advertising Director CHRISTOPHER LOVERING

The Prague Review s.r.o.

CEO: NICOLAS R. PERKlN

CFO: DAN ROSE

COO: MICHAEL WAYNE JR.

Main Offices:
Velvet Towers East
Zitna 30, 120 00 Prague 2

Editorial: 24 22 29 37
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Voicemail: 430 430 ext. 82

Velvet is a publication of the Prague Review, s.r.o. (c) 1995, The Prague Review, s.r.o. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited by law.