Teep wrote:
quoted 3 lines Infonet: Usability Now Infonet> > >Infonet: Usability Now Infonet
> >
> > can someone direct me to a review of this, or even just a track list?
Mark Turner wrote:
quoted 2 lines This is a rather pedestrian techno comp on Infonet.> This is a rather pedestrian techno comp on Infonet.
> If you like the first Bandulu album, you may like this one.
I have to say I disagree with you, Mark - this certainly was my favourite
compilation in '94. As on Infonet's previous 'Beyond Machines' collection,
many of these songs were penned by Bandulu under their various guises. This
one was published when Infonet was still Creation Records' sublabel, but as
I have heard lately, they have switched or about to switch their label
to somewhere else.
For anyone interested, here's an excerpt from the review I wrote for the
Finnish dance music magazine _ex_ last April (as a rough translation from
Finnish, hope you can forgive me my crummy Anglais - and the more pathetic
bits :-).
"Typical for all these songs is the dark, brooding, jagged-edged and acidy
(as in to burn) sound, which turns the echoing warehouses of rave parties
to seedy catacombs. If you were into Reload's 'Collection of Short Stories',
you just have to love this collection.
This compilation is subtitled 'The Interaction of Man / Computer / Machine',
and we are talking about the paganistic alliance of Man and Machine, and
not necessarily for the good of the former.
NOTHING EVER CHANGES PROGRESS IS A MYTH, declares the CD's inner sleeve.
In this music one can hear the desolate industrial sites covered by fog and
the cold stone walls of concrete blocks, which give no hope for their
inhabitants.
There's no future of love and happiness for the shiny happy flower children
on this record. Not that you'd expect any future at all after having kept
your eyes and ears open for the last ten years worth of news of global
overpopulation and the threatening eco catastrophe. These things are
something to which inevitability we have all grown accustomed to. But maybe
there's a way to get used to the chaos, maybe to turn it to your advantage -
'Usability Now'.
In twenty years time people may have to wear protective clothing to keep
them safe from the radiation and acid rain. People will have build dams to
keep at bay the water raised by the molten arctic glaciers - and by this time
no one gives a damn, because all this will be accepted as given.
The ecolocigal pessimists would deem these ideas immoral, but as we know,
man is an animal prone to adapt. The record is concluded by 'Hometown' by
New Adult, which already offers some lighter shades, like sunshine shyly
peeking from the cloudy sky darkened by industrial chimneys."
Sorry if this was a bit angstful (the Finnish springtime always does this
to me :-) and strayed a bit from the actual music, but I hope this gave you
the idea of the very _mood_ this compilation expressed to me. Maybe someone
else could tell us more about the songs, as I feel the technical details (the
use of 808s, 303s, etc.) were never really my cup of tea :)
Radiatingly Happy New Year to everyone :)
ERkki
OnNow: Beastie Boys - Check Your Head