Caesar Pink doesn't just sing in a rock band: he's a self-proclaimed "artist, musician, activist, and shaman of  The Imperial Orgy," an art collective and "open celebration of life, love, sexuality and rebellion."  Ambitious? Certainly.  Pretentious? Possibly ... but at least he's got a dream and a vision, and the charisma to attract other like-minded souls.  The Sexual Revolution is not Over! gives us the fruits of this Dionysian symposium... a mixed bag but never a boring one.   

Mr. Pink realizes that it's not a revolution if you can't dance to it.  He starts things off in a funky way with "Sexual Revolution," a crooned-word performance with one foot in the funky 70s and another in the naughty Aughties.  The syncopated beat here wouldn't be out of place at Studio 54, while the erotic energy evokes today's (some say soon to be yesterday's) Berlin/Williamsburg "Electroclash" sound.  As if that weren't enough, Pink gives us the alt.country stylings of "Happy Endings" and the hiphop-influenced "Rabid," along with a somewhat less successful cover of the Stooges' classic "Now I Wanna Be Your Dog."  Whatever else one may say about the man, no one can accuse him of playing it safe.  

If Pink doesn't stick to one sound, neither do the artists whose work is sampled on this CD.  Friction's "Father Knows Best" is poppy, danceable alternarock, while Clint Starr's "It Can Happen to You" is poppy, danceable triphop/house.  Both tracks are sweet sonic lemonade; not groundbreaking, but refreshing and enjoyable for all that.  With their deathmetal opus "Gabe Every I & II" Always is not Forever try to prove themselves the bastard children of My Bloody Valentine and Katatonia.  If they don't quite make it, they at least deserve points for trying.

Spoken word artists get their moment in the spotlight as well.  Vanessa Hidary's "Culture Bandit" is a spicy brag-shoutout about the author's mixed Puerto Rican/Jewish heritage, while Heather Milburn's breathy delivery proves that "Words Can Be Sex" indeed. Brother Earl's "Cornfield" strives for Barry White but ends up Chef from South Park - not that this is necessarily a bad thing - while "Joan of Arc" shows that Das Ubermensch wants very much to be Jim Morrison.  (Of course, so does Andrew Eldritch, and Das Ubermensch would probably be a better dinner companion).  

Any compilation CD, particularly one as wide-ranging and willfully diverse as this one, is going to be uneven.  Still, there are enough high points to make this one worth a listen ... and, besides, who do you know who's against a sexual revolution anyway?  Buy this one now and help keep up the fight.

1. Caesar Pink, "Sexual Revolution"
2. Heather Milburn, "Words Can Be Sex"
3. Stuck, "Sushi"
4. Koester, "The Blood Red Poppies of October"
5. Clint Starr, "It Can Happen to You"
6. Vanessa Hidary, "Culture Bandit"
7. Brother Earl, "Cornfield"
8. Das Ubermensch, "Joan of Arc"
9. Caesar Pink & The Imperial Orgy, "Happy Endings"
10. Caesar Pink et al, "Rabid"
11. Caesar Pink et al, "I Wanna be your Dog"
12. Friction, "Father Knows Best"
13. Tal Peretz, "Tied"
14. Frank Picarazzi, "Etude #2"
15. Always is not Forever, "Gabe Every I & II"

Imperial Orgy Website
http://www.theimperialorgy.com

Imperial Orgy on MP3.com
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/153/the_imperial_orgy_communit.html