I was lucky enough to find my 3rd Clear promo at the weekend, this
being a copy of the new album from Mike Paradinas, AKA Tusken Raiders,
AKA the unprintable U-Ziq. Now he debuts as Jake Slazenger, and in the
process, "Makesaracket"
The overall Impression I get from this LP is that Mike has been having
_fun_ , playing about with sounds that no-one "in their right minds"
would consider placing before a "sophisticated" 90's audience. But in
fact much of the music on this long player, is very sophisticated,
combining as it does elements of 70s trash, 80s Breaks and electro,
90s techno, and more still.
For instance a track which for the most part sounds like early Aphex
played at 33+8 through speakers with blown tweeters ("Flod") will
surprise the listener with "disco" stabs in the closing moments. A
track with Booming funky breaks, Xylophone and "Roy Castle" style
trumpet ("Gary's Birthday"), absolutely stuns with a wild portamento
synth line in the latter half.
Beats range from industro-funk ("erp") through pre-electro B-Boy
Breaks ("Spry Bat"), Massive Electro ("Stupid Wanker") to metallic
clanks and Kraftwerk-style zaps ("Wyatt") or funky Detroit clonks
("Five alive")
But that is only half the story. Above this whirl demented bleeps,
buzzy basslines, U-ziq's trademark sofly singing synths, Hammond
Organs and God-knows-what-else. "Feet" reminds me of the old "Grange
Hill" theme with its plastic bouncy funkiness. "Acid Pope" is slow and
funky, yet topped up with pure 90s techno noises and a twisted vocal
sample. "Daytime Kiss" is pretty, lush and melancholic until a silly
70s Hammond Organ doodles in part way through
There is to be a single from this album ,"Megaphonk". According to
the listing with my promo, this is the 12th track, a combination of
trashy synths and a distorted "Get Up" sample. Trouble is, track 14
is supposedly titled "get up" so I suspect a cock-up, in which case
"Megaphonk" could well be the Funky-as-F*ck Hammond Organ and Break
"Feet to the Beat" (??) sample studded track from the end of the LP.
But then again, that could really be "feet", meaning "megaphonk"
really is the track referred to above as "feet". God knows.
Note that the CD will be short of 2 tracks and sports a completely
different running order from the LP, the latter supposedly being:
bolus
spry bat
acid pope
flod
five alive
daytime kiss
lux
Gary's birthday
erp
wyatt
stupid wanker
megaphonk
feet
get up
Cat no CLR410, and release date was supposedly this Monday, 12th June.
Anyone else got one yet??
I don't really know how to sum this up, but it is excellent (4/5) in
my opinion, though its a long way from yer average "techno" music, or
even most of "idm". Approach from a safe distance with a broad mind
and open ears.
J
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steady-J@firefox.co.uk