Greetings!
Yup. I'm back to my reviews. But for those who don't remember (I bet
that is close to 99% of you), I used to do reviews a long long time ago
in a galaxy far away. They are somewhere on Techno.stanford.edu, and
should be available via gopher and maybe WWW.
IntelliNET - The Story So Far (US: Intelli 001)
1. for your head :
the acid didj-fred; sleeps with the foxes-mazdaratti; at first
light(version)-sysex; koma-plastikman; ginger-speedy j; gravitational
arch of 10-vapourspace; krell-c sphere; n428-utu; analog:heaven(dreaming
of 82)-born under a rhyming planet; salacious-giannelli; the wipe(3am
synaptic)-teste; dimension intrustion-fuse; drone um futurisma-cusp;
cr-acid trax I-sysex; v shape-vroom; elektrostatik-plastikman; red
alert-cybersonik; phreak-dbx; bleep-dbx; something for your mind-speedy j
2. for your feet:
you like that(page 3 mix)-states of mind; out on the dancefloor(piled
witch mix)-dance fever; u can dew(j acquaviva's white leisure suit
dub)-the stickmen; do da doo(j acquaviva's flare for disco mix)-robot
man; never(karl's krispy dub)-robot man; a woman in love(a freak in
dub)-dance fever; worship(que divina!)(jetstream's ruby fruit jungle
mix)-las america's; worship(que divina!)(david's family dub)-las
america's; boogaloo(david alvarado and lord sadat's mix)-tpm;
yesu-biotrans; house for all-blunted dummies; jazzy for you-the captain;
liferaft(stickmen dub)-juicy fruit; work it(crawlspace dub)-p j; feel
ya(crawlspace mix)-p j; release the tension(relase the tribal)-mr
clubman; day of rest(lava lamp dub)-harmony house; afterglow-it's
thinking; the acid didj-fred
What is this? lotsa stuff from +8, Probe, Telepathic, Accelerate,
Definitive, Malego, and Stickman Records. Each track is about 39 minutes
long, putting the cd at about 78 minutes. The first track, "for your
head", is very IDM'ish, bending on the trance and acid sides. "for your
feet" is generally more housey.
The mixing is excellent! This cd flows VERY nicely. But who did it?
Hmmm... "all mixes digitally structured + manipulated via vapour space +
mark gage". WOAH. No wonder. Although this isn't like music that
you'll hear when you get to heaven, it would be nice on the way up. 9.5/10.
Kenny Larkin - Azimuth (UK: Warp - Warp CD20)
1. Hello
2. Azimuth
3. Track
4. ESP
5. Funk in Space
6. Harmonics
7. Tedra
8. Doppler
9. Wires
10. Q
11. My Travels
Detroit! Too bad I had to pay a bundle for this on import, when Mr.
Larkin probably lives less than 4 hours from me. Kinda hard to review
this disc. I really like it, but it's very Detroit 'minimalist' I
guess. Excellent IDM either way.
Hello is a very bleepy tune. The main attraction here is a synth pattern
that appears to be saying "Hello" over and over. Very neat surreal
effect. Azimuth is a trancy bleepy tune, with a keyboard vocal sample
that sounds like "stop that" or something similiar. Track has nice left
to right fading synth lines, slowly building up... over and over, kinda
repetitive, but nice. ESP is minimiliast, reminiscent of Jackpot by
Speedy J. Very electronic, bleepy, left to right beat, then boom boom.
Nice track. Funk in Space - spacey, squiggly, weird vocal samples, then
nice trancey beat. Lite on the ears. Harmonics - LFO without bass.
Nice wavy synths, then beat. Trancy melodic. Beautiful. IDM at it's
best. Tedra- Very lite. ambient-ish. A nice beat line develops, and
then fades out to the ambient, back to beat, then more ambient. nice
nice. Doppler - vocal sample of "doppler". Decent 303 acid work.
Kinda short it seams. Wires - Bleepy. Q - OOO! Lovely beat mixed with
synths. Dancey, not fast paced, but definitely workable. My Travels -
Kinda dark spacey. Beat, but it's SLOW. However, very relaxing.
So how many times did I say 'bleepy' and 'nice'? Probably too many. I
really like this disc, but describing it I find kinda difficult. Detroit
techno. It's nice. 8/10.
Spicelab - Lost in Spice (US: Planet Earth Recordings - P 50097-2)
1. Cold Chillin' 16.57
2. Spicelab 17.02
3. The Spirit of Fever 9.10
4. The Last Supernova 17.12
5. Lost in Spice 14.58
Oliver Lieb, a Harthouse artist domestic. Nice...
Cold Chillin' starts off spacey, delves into a nice acid line,
'cymbals', percussion, then bass. Nice tune. Harthouse sound - thump
boom thump boom, with the ever popular acid. Nice nice nice.
Spicelab begins with a dark continuous bass line, and some higher
synths. Car sounds fading left to right and right to left, then beat!
Parts of this track may work in real nice with a moderatly hardcore set.
But this song has a nasty swabby synth sequence that just burns my
ears. Too high and fast. But it's only in a part of the song, which
makes it bearable. Right smack in the middle, the beat stops, turning
into a spacy ambient-ish tune. The acid picks up, beat, and we are back
to the tune! Nice transition, Mr. Lieb. And the track ends on a spacy,
bleepy note, with the cars again.
The Spirit of Fever standard 4 on the floor heavy house beat, with wavy
synths over the top. Lotsa bleepy synths in this one. I find it kinda
boring, as it's repetitive and doesn't really go anywhere.
The Last Supernova - Begins with fake radio noise, turns into wavy
synths, then beats. Fast beats. Fast. Weeee! Definitely up-tempo.
Kinda reminiscent of some of the early hardcore, as it splits into a
nifty breakbeat. This track is done rather well, in shifts, flowing
from the breaks. Flows very well.
Lost in Spice - beautiful!!! Spacy, bleepy, and picks up this nice
Black Dog-ish beat half way through. Dark synth line with the standard
cymbals above it. Lovely! I definitely can get lost in this track.
Although kinda repetitive, it's enough to keep my attention and my head
bobbing in the Intelligent genre. And it ends with fake cricket noises.
Lovely.
I really like this cd. 8.5/10. Definitely need more Harthouse...
Falconer - Falconer (UK: CMV - CMV 08-5510)
1. earth rise
2. dream scape No. 1
3. studio (a day in the life)
4. eye of buddha
5. the aurora shrine
6. dream scape No. 2
7. voyager
8. last moment (first breath)
9. primary
10. final transmission
11. Provincial perspective
Andy Falconer. Seen his name in conjunction with Orb mixes and such.
But a yellow balloon on the insert of this cd claims he is "ex The Orb".
Oh yeah? Hmmm... Never knew that The Orb consisted of 3 (or more)
personages.
As can be expected, this disc is very ambient dub-ish. And at just
under an hour, it's not bad listening material. I find it very
pleasent. But different from The Orb. Sure, similarites abound, but to
me, it's obvious.
Extensive use of vocal samples, from reggae-ish to old movies. Space
ships to birds. Crickets to water. Chanting to babies. Pianos to
classical music. Very very nice.
This cd may not be for all. It's kinda all over the place. No track
stands out from the others. They are all pretty equal in terms of
quality. This is one of those releases that you drop in the cd player
and let it go, only to realize that it's there when the cd is over.
I give it a 8/10. Your mileage may vary. I'm a big fan of ambient dub...
David Sylvian and Robert Fripp - "Darshan"
(UK Virgin SYLCDI 7243 8 39380 (25))
1. Darshan - Translucent remix by The Grid
2. Darshana - Re-contructed by The Future Sound of London
3. Darshan
Ok. Sylvian/Fripp. Progressive rock "legends". Remixes by The Grid
and FSOL. Wow! This has to be good, right? Wrong. I was not very
impressed with this release *at all*.
The Grid mix starts out surprisingly spacey, until 3 mins into the
track. At that point it explodes into the standard Grid progressive
house beat. This mix sounds neat for the first 4 minutes. You'd be
suprised how dull this can get as you listen to basically the same
series of loops over and over for 13 minutes. Same thing. Very
repetetive and kinda boring. The sample "To Graceland" sounds like Bono
of U2. Go figure. 16:07 in track time.
Ok. Track #2. The FSOL mix. This re-construction as they call it (and
it is, because it doesn't sound a thing like the original) is very
Amorphous Androgynous like. Spacey, wavy, translucent. piece-meal
beat. 10:13 in track time. Kinda repetetive. Sounds like _Tales of
Ephedrina_ out-take. Not very noteworthy, but definitely IDM.
The original version is heavy on the progressive rock guitars. Shuffly
beat. Kinda funky, but very repetitive. Too long. Boring. Dull. 17:17
in track time, this sounds more like a extended studio jam than a real song.
So, despite all the names on this cd5, which was kinda high priced, I'm
not impressed. Nothing really noteworthy on this release. I do like the
Grid track, but it's just too long. And the FSOL track doesn't sound
much like the better FSOL stuff. If you are considering buying this,
definitely give it a listen first. It may not be your cup of tea, and
your mileage may vary significantly. 6/10.
Orbital - Peel Sessions (UK: Internal - LIECD 12 / 857423.2)
1. Lush (euro-tunnel disaster '94)
2. Walk about
3. Semi detached
4. Attached
No, these aren't on Orbital 2. Well, they are kinda, but as with other
Peel Sessions, these different live versions are very very very well
done by the Brothers Hartnoll. Clocking in just under 30 minutes, these
4 songs flow together extremely well. If you liked Orbital 2, no doubt
that this cd will attract you. Well done, sounds great, flows like water.
Track 1 and 2 aren't split. A break occurs between 2 and 3.
Semi-detached starts out very slow, but builds up into this lite
trance. Beautiful. It has this beat near the end that reminds me of
the beat in a Nitzer Ebb track. Can't put my finger on it
, but don't get the impression that this Orbital is body music.
Semi-detached does a nice fade into Attached via some radio/tv vocal
samples. This is pure ear candy. And it's great to cruise to in the
car. :)
It was first broadcast Sept 9, 1993. Why no word on it until this
point? I wish the Peel show was carried locally. :) I'd have to get a
electrical timer for my cassette player.
Now the catch here is that some of these tracks will be out domestically
(to the US) on the Diversions ep. Which ones will be on it? I don't
know. But I can't wait, and am really enjoying this cd. 9/10. But if
you have doubts, wait for Diversions.
***************************************************************************
Andrew
--
Andrew Bennett "When the going gets weird, the
abennett@phoenix.aps.muohio.edu weird hold out for bonus incentives."