Hola!
Santa brought me some really neat stuff over the holidays (actually it
was my S.O. in an imaginary red suit. Managed to finally find a copy of
3LUX-2. I've had 3LUX-3 for a long time and loved it. I was anxious to
find out if the trance model was as good. Have only had time to watch
about half of it. WOW. Fairly good visuals, and music that is just
heavenly. Definitely worth the money. Nice and long too at 70+ minutes,
just like nearly every CD these days.
Also picked up XMIX-3. Finally something I'm totally impressed with from
Richie Hawtin, even if the only thing he did was pick out some of the
music to play on the video. Some of Hawtin's stuff is pretty cool, but
much of it is quite dull and lifeless to me. Spastik falls right into
this category. A definite low point on the tape. I think Mark Gage's
stuff is much more interesting. Getting back to the video, the visuals
are stunning, to say the least. Very shiny, I like that. I've never
seen chrome-ized computer visuals before. They're quite nice. A lot of
interesting stuff, rather than the usual pictures of some robot walking
or flying through a desert. A treasure to behold, again and again. If
you've got the 3D glasses, put them on and light a fire for this one.
Found Future Shock too. I wasn't all that excited to get this one since
it was only 45 minutes for 20 bucks and I already have most of the music
from it. A very nice surprise though. I think it's awesome to see
computer visuals mixed with live action video, a'la FSOL's Papua New
Guinea. The only other tape I've seen this on is the Orb's Patterns and
Textures. Some people thought it was kind of cheesy, but I liked it
mighty fine. "Papua" never scared me to listen to, until i saw the video
for it on this tape. Yikes! "In the Path of the Whale" is the only real
weak video on this tape. I get so sick of seeing fish, dolphins, whales, etc.
(except the striped dolphins on the motion video, and even they get old).
Very cliche'. Eno's Fractal Zoom is wonderful. He's got a thing
for half- and fully-naked women, doesn't he? Great visuals, regardless.
The Banco de Gaia and HIA sounds are this side of Heaven when combined
with the video. Basically, the whole tape is really cool.
Also got The Gate to the Mind's Eye. Haven't gotten a chance to see most
of it yet, but parts look quite interesting. Much better than the
previous thrown-together, cheesy robot garbage from the first two Mind's
Eye releases. Even Thomas Dolby's soundtrack doesn't sound half bad,
especially when compared to Jan Hammer's Miami-soundtrack. I like all of
the space visuals. Anything with some decent space stuff automatically
gets a decent rating from me (I'm a starchild, born in the spaceyear 1969).
I was quite relieved we didn't waste 20 bucks on this one.
Finally, one you all may have not heard of yet, but QUITE noteworthy.
It's called "House of Usher-Malice in Renderland." There's a whole
pretense of this band's (HOU) sounds and samples being passed down from
the elders to the youngins. "Their hobbies are slave-trade, witchcraft
and drug abuse." I would have dated one of them, only they're probably
all either dead or 90 years old by now. Anyway, the whole story is on the
box. This tape rocks! The video is all over the place. EXCELLENT! The
music is really heavy trance (precisely my cup of sweat). Together they
add up to a total mindfuck, without even having to get wasted. I had to
take the 3D glasses off after a few minutes because the whole thing was
so overwhelming, it have me a headache. For that matter, it's still
completely freaky without the glasses on. I'd say that qaulifies for a
rating of 4 stars out of 4. The song, "Shades" originally was on 3LUX-2,
but it's about the worst one on this tape, if you can actually say
anything negative about this tape. The visuals are very unique,
especially some of the "tentacles" among other things you see. Only 30
minutes, but all I can say is "WOW!"
Also saw Fractasia and Fractal Experience. I'm still a bit afraid that
these ones are going to look like one of those 3D books or tapes where
you have to stare at them for 2 minutes and cross your eyes to find out
what the hell the picture is. Anybody have any clues as to whether these
two videos are worth having, and what they're like. RSVP!
I'll give a further review of 3LUX-2 and The Gate in the coming days if I
find they are different or even cooler (or totally stupid, for that matter)
than my first impressions.
Signing off.
Kathy, mistress of 3D!
Ontheheadphonesrightnow>TEEX3, disc one. "There are at least three people
from another planet living on earth righ now."