*** The Bells

THE ULTIMATE SEASIDE COMPANION

(Hit It!)

Don't be fooled by the innocuous band name, or the new label affiliation: the Bells is former Ministry/Revolting Cocks affiliate and ex-Wax Trax recording artist Chris Connelly -- collaborating, this time, with Gastr del Sol dude Jim O'Rourke and former Ministry drummer Bill Rieflin. You can't blame the Scottish-born singer for wanting to distance himself from his aggro-industrial past, particularly in light of his newfound appreciation of subtle melodicism and soft acoustic mellow dramas. The disc's title does maintain the nautical theme of his last Wax Trax offering (Shipwreck), and as usual, Connelly sounds as if he were swimming in a sea of Bowie, somewhere between the Isle of Hunky Dory and the rise of Ziggy Stardust. That despite his obvious desire to refer to, as the press bio points out, Nick Drake and the Tindersticks with haunting folk-rock arrangements and surrealistic poetry (nautically themed, of course). He can't help it if he sounds like The Man Who Sold The World -- so much so that The Ultimate Seaside Companion is probably the best Bowie disc since, hell, Scary Monsters.

-- Matt Ashare