There's nothing like good guitar effects: reverb, flange, chorus, delay, yum! Pile them on until it sounds like your guitar's about to go nuclear and blow the horsehair toupee off this town. This is what LDOE do on their second self-released album. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Analog is recorded entirely on, well, analog gear, it's mostly over-produced, a swirling mess of too many cool sounds, like a finger painting that started out in primary colors and was re-worked so much it became a disoriented brown. Which, actually, wouldn't be so bad, if vocalist/drummer Tristan Trotter's voice didn't waver unpleasantly off-key in parts. The energy's there; LDOE just needs to stop relying so heavily on effects and Trotter's voice to define their sound. JULIANNE SHEPHERD

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Cambodian Rocks
(Parallel World)
***

Cambodian Rocks is a collection of 22 songs in the "Circle Dance Music" tradition. In other words, the CD is a compilation of late '60s/early '70s Cambodian garage rock. For reasons not explained in the album's liner notes, none of the songs have titles or artist names associated with them--normally a detriment, but since this music is so incredible it only adds to the mystique of the thing. '60s Cambodian garage rock is an awful lot like American garage rock of the same era. On a number of these songs you can tell exactly what Western hit inspired them; you got your Cambodian "Black Magic Woman," Cambodian "Gloria," Cambodian "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," and so on. It's all in good fun and would make the day of any Nuggets fan out there. My only qualm is that the drums sound like they were added at a later date. Aside from that, everything else is amazing. I can't help but wonder how many of these musicians, if any, survived the Pol Pot's killing fields. With that in mind, Cambodian Rocks takes on another significance--preserving a possible lost era in a culture's music. MURRAY CIZON

GLUECIFER Tender is the Savage
(Sub Pop)
**

OK, I admit I'm prejudiced because I can't stand vocalists who talk over rock music. I want someone to sing, or if they are going to talk, their voice had better be like raindrops on a rooftop on a cool night after great sex. I'm not thrilled with Gluecifer's guy-who-smokes-three-packs-of-cigarettes-a-day sound, or lyrics like "I wanna make you creme, I wanna make you dream." I'm not saying Glucifer sucks or anything, I think the BAND provides some tight, almost-punk rock that would be excellent for dancing, but Jesus aren't there any decent voices out there? KATIE SHIMER