Angie Reed

Angie Reed has been a busy woman since her debut album The Best of Barbara Brockhaus with Music for the Lazy and Not the Bureaucracy 2003. While touring the past two years with her solo show, Reed has also had her animations exhibited in Barcelona and Rotterdam, and has lent her voice to various radio and audio plays, in between acting roles on stage and film. Her second CD, XYZ Frequency, is a soundtrack to an in-the-works animation project by Reed. Its mix of punk-peppered garage rock, electroclash and techno does a fine job of showcasing Reed’s talent and taste for experimentation. Her voice — a cross between an artfully out of tune cross Gwen Stefani and Cindy Lauper — assumes characters within various songs, which range from straight-up acoustic guitar and vocals to dissonant rock and disco-laced techno. Her voice lends itself well to the wide range rhythm and noise she has going on, and by the end of the disc, while it does feel a bit like being hit by one woman techno-fied rock opera, it possesses a quirky charm that arrives with the rare stamp of originality.