Jade Tree's second volume in its' Location Is Everything (JT1094) sampler series provides the perfect overview of the label's most recent and upcoming releases, featuring 21 tracks by beloved Jade Tree artists STRIKE ANYWHERE, DENALI, CHALLENGER, ESTER DRANG, THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES, JETS TO BRAZIL and more. The CD also features bonus tracks of unreleased, live, and demo versions of songs from PEDRO THE LION, FROM ASHES RISE, ONELINEDRAWING, PAINT IT BLACK, CEX and STATISTICS.

Tim Kinsella, JOAN OF ARC'S lead man, has amassed a collection of songs culled from a variety of sources - sketches begun on his computer at home and collaborations with kindred spirits from coast to coast - and given them life. Further gussied up with help from a plethora of fellow Chicago luminaries, this is a career culmination of JOAN OF ARC'S musical meanderings and genius in a concise, focused, and mature realization.

While this EP uses the same template as JOA's "The Gap", it has a thoughtful distance that gives it a more direct impact and appeal than it’s predecessor. Imbued with the same captivating and clever approach to song craft that has defined JOAN OF ARC'S previous recordings, "How Can..." (JT1057) also has a personality and refinement that embraces the lesser heard human side of the band while still remaining quietly just left of a definable boundary.

Juxtaposing more traditional acoustic arrangements against artificial future sounds, JOAN OF ARC has created The Gap (JT1053). Going way overboard and exhausting every option, with up to 100 tracks on certain songs, "The Gap" bears witness to a band evolving and crafting beautiful new territory. Use headphones and close your eyes.

It's not really a live album, but it's certainly an experience. Four months of studio time culminate in thirteen interwoven tracks that ultimately find Tim Kinsella's inceptive lyrical style and primarily acoustic backdrop breathing comfortably alongside the band's well-documented fetish for electronic embellishment. And the album artwork? Let's just say that we'll probably never meet another group of artists who are committed enough to rebuild the sets and reenact the scenes of an obscure foreign film for the sake of an album sleeve.

Hardly a singles album, the second full-length for this Chicago avant-rock troupe is a diverse collection of material that brings the band dabbling in electro-ambient and finding new inspiration in the studio-as-instrument concept. At the same time, we'd deceptive if we neglected to mention that certain tracks - like the startling "This Life Cumulative" and "God Bless America" - just plain rock the old fashioned way. But we wouldn't want to spoil your preconceptions.

The first of several high-flying conceptual works to come from the JOAN OF ARC compound is a eminently eclectic affair - organic and electronic, ironic and earnest, familiar, yet wholly irregular. It's a balance that allows this Chicago-based group to walk on the fringe without being swallowed by it. You'll feasibly end up scratching your head as much as you wind up nodding it, but if you didn't, you'd probably be missing the point.

It's not every day that you come across music as innovating as it is pleasurable, but Chicago's JOAN OF ARC - as art-damaged as they are endearing - manage to accomplish just that with this three-song EP. Acoustic guitars, diffusive recording techniques, and computer tricknology lie underneath former Cap'n Jazz ringleader Tim Kinsella's clever wordplay and wholly distinctive vocals to comprise one of the most engaging debut recordings we've ever had the pleasure to work with.