Mush Records Tour

Mush is a Los Angeles indie label specializing in electronica deconstructionists, all with names that sound like overnight FM DJs. Among the acts on the Mush Tour lineup, Her Space Holiday comes closest to having conventional song structures -- Marc Bianchi's whispering delivery will spook out Elliott Smith fans waiting for some posthumous news. Daedelus, hailed as a genius for his juxtaposition of ancient acoustic piano samples and gurgling synth sounds, achieves a noir feel that stretches from the original dark days to present, with occasional chipper strings or a toy piano thrown in. Octavius works in darker and trippier hues, having honed a kind of movie-thriller-gone-downbeat mood that Tricky might still sound like if he wasn't so goddamned happy. And unlike that other Beck, Thavius Beck approximates the sound of two televisions and a washing machine. His "(Music Will Be) The Death of Us All" implicates Sheena Easton, Kenny Loggins and Olivia Newton-John -- all toxins we're in no danger of being exposed to at dangerous levels in 2004.