INTELLIGENT DANCE MUSIC TIMES VOLUME TWO ISSUE FIVE SPOON
Insert witty prefatory remarks here.
Global Sweatbox Remix Album
Nation Records NR015 CD
125 7:37 Uzma: Yab Yum (Andy Weatherall/Sabres of Paradise)
123 6:03 Tribal Drift: Like This (Spencer Williams aka S1000)
101 7:40 Space Cadets: Stotinki (Trans-Global Underground)
122 5:47 Pulse 8: Radio Morocco (Youth)
125 8:28 !Loca!: Timbal (Fabio Paras)
127 7:19 Pulse 8: Radio Morocco (Well Hung Parliament)
125 6:34 Invaders Of The Heart: The Unspoken Word (Drum Club)
126 5:52 Uzma: Yab Yum (Nation Productions)
113 6:01 Tribal Drift: Like This (Aki Nawaz)
124 5:33 !Loca!: Timbal (Kakoulli/Greenwood)
119 6:31 Pulse 8: Radio Morocco (Adrian Sherwood)
151 4:53 Invaders Of The Heart: The Unspoken Word (Jah Wobble)
This is an amazing compilation! Lots of tribal/ethnic grooves remixed
into dance floor stompers by some of the top names in the business. I
like just about everything on this, but here are some standouts:
S1000's remix of "Like This" which reminds me of Herbal Infusion;
Trans-Global Underground's take on "Stotinki" with a nice slow swanky
groove, some deep deep bass and spacy female ethnic vocal samples on
top for that etherial touch; the ever-reliable Fabi Paras' percussion
frenzy on "Timbal"; Nation Productions' indian flavored remake of "Yab
Yum"; Aki Nawaz' digeridoo all over Tribal Drift; and finally the
desperate Arabic singing and crushing dub bass of Jah Wobble's
Invaders Of The Heart. Big thumbs up for this, an outstanding
collection of world dance music.
Vapour Space: Gravitational Arch of 10
FFRR 697-120-004-2
35:05 Magnetic Gravity Arc Suite
Original Version
Telepathic Gravitation v2.1
J's Anti Gravity One
Telepathic Gravitation v1.3
+ Energy > Magic
J's Anti Gravity Two
The Vapour Treatment
5:56 Radio/Video Edit
Home grown techno that can finally give the Europeans a run for their
money. The Magnetic Gravity Arc Suite is 35 minutes full of trancy
techno grooves, with all varieties of techno trance explored by Mark
Gage and remixers Fred (of Psychic TV), John Acquviva (of +8) and Mark
Ryan (i don't know). Unfortunately, it's all run together as one big
track which makes it hard to tell which bits belong to which people,
so I can't really get too detailed. I'll just say that for the price
of a domestic CD single you can send your brain to Pluto for a half
hour. Can't beat that, can you?
Muslimgauze: Veiled Sisters
Soleilmoon SOL 20 CD
24:55 Shamal Aquabah/PLO Flag/Veiled Sisters/Dust
22:51 Submit To Shana/Qasidah Murmur/Lebanon
14:38 Oil Field/Mohajir
18:46 Shaitan Verse/Cholera/Katyusha/Ingreswallah
23:11 Hindunation/Fiefdom/El Minzah Kiff
24:10 Pasha/Farouche Charpoy/Halal/Sadu/Zupol
I've come under fire for publicly denouncing the Warp AI Series as a
load of overly hyped rubbish that merely romanticizes the old while
not offering anything new. Well, honestly, I couldn't think of too
many people who were doing anything new with the techno form. So it
comes as a great shock to me to find that Muslimgauze, who I've always
thought of as a very organic musician, has come out with this
incredible double CD odyssey into the future of techno. Where Black
Dog's gratuitously difficult time signatures always sounded forced to
me, Muslimgauze lets incredibly complex polyrhythms weave in and out
in such a natural way that you can't possibly imagine dancing to
straight 4/4 ever again. Sinuous Eno-esque tones dart around sparse
electronic rhythms with the occasional touch of human percussion. A
brief babble of radio voices intrudes. Atmospheric, wonderful and
very seductive. Priced right, too. Be warned that this album is
definitely NOT what you expect. But it is a work of genius.
Human Mesh Dance: Hyaline
Instinct EX 261-2
1:08 Smooth Sea, Clear Sky
113 5:09 Sunflower
123 5:06 Dahlia
131 4:10 Counterglow
137 5:42 Transient
163 5:23 Signs Of Life
128 5:22 Moonflower
107 12:05 Goodbye
Taylor 808's other outing on Instinct (first was Prototype 909
reviewed in V1.11) finds him in a chilled out vein. That definitely
gave me a little hope since I wasn't into P909's headbanging techno.
Unfortunately, this disc is filled with every ambient cliche known to
man. Astronaut samples, babbling brooks, that damned Emulator
shakuhachi, pan flutes... it's all in there. When the tunes are good,
this isn't as much of a setback - "Sunflower" explores familiar
Enigma-esque territory but does it with a certain style that gives it
a little lift out of the mundane. Sadly, there isn't much else on
this disc that grabs me. "Transient" is filled with neat sounds but
there isn't much of a melody to go with them and overall, despite the
sonic touches, the track is completely unmemorable. "Moonflower"
tries to work the 909/303 groove in a mellow way but is too harsh for
a relaxed listening track and not straight-ahead enough for a
dancefloor. A step in the right direction, but not far enough. Next
time, perhaps?
Jon Drukman jdrukman%dlsun87@oracle.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence.