My mailer screwed up badly today so if anyone mailed me or anything, I
haven't been able to reply or read mail or anything; sorry.
[Quk4]
Some more 'quickie' reviews (as they seem to have been called at
Hyperreal...) of _Objets d'art_ and some intelligent jungle (whatever
next; intelligent gabba? :-)
V/A : Objets d'art (New Electronica) ELEC 9LP
Yikes; a 4LP repressed package of the early, limited to 1000 copies,
ART EPs! And it all comes in a gorgeous gatefold pack with intelligent
liner notes too. Are we spoiled rotten by these New Electronica guys
or what? This compilation gives us the chance to hear the early
Future/Past, Balil, Carl Craig (and more) material we've all dreamed
about. Okay, if you have the ART/RePHLeX _Philosophy of Sound and
Machine_, you will have heard most of these tracks before but even so,
the other tracks _alone_ would be worth the asking price. Put simply,
this compilation is one of the best ever of intelligent dance music.
The music is faultless; mechanical rhythms that ooze emotion from
the Black Dog guys, tight controlled techno from Kirk Degiorgio,
distant electro ambience from Carl Craig; I could go on and on and
on. And despite the fact that the tracks were originally released as
separate EPs, as an album it works brilliantly. The tracks all seem to
share the same feel resulting in a brooding techno moodiness. I
haven't heard music this emotional _and_ danceable (if you really want
to), not even on the AI series. If you get a chance to buy this
album, do so, without hesitation. I haven't seen many copies around
(in fact, only the one I'm listening to now) so it might itself be a
limited edition release. If so, this really is a shame. If anyone asks
me what IDM is, I'd like to be able to say "Go buy _Objets d'art_" and
let them find out for themselves.
4 Hero : Remixes (Reinforced)
I don't know how old this one is; its another second hand buy I'm
afraid. Having heard good things about the techno/jungle obsessed
4 Hero, I was quite looking forward to giving this one a spin. The 4
Hero remixes themselves come off worse though with some dodgy sound
quality. Interestingly enough, they sound like I'd thought they
would; Detroit sounding chord forms against clashing breaks. The flip
side is a real gem however. The first remix is by Goldie and it
fucking kicks. Some nasty timestretch effects dismember the rock hard
breaks; its the aural equivalent of an Uzi. The R-Solution remix opts
for a techno approach and is smoother and cleaner. If the Goldie mix
is an Uzi, this one is a Super-Saturator; rather pleasant. All in all,
a rather natty 12"; no cries of "booyaka" either.
Goldie Presents Metalheads : Inner City Life (ffrr)
This seems to take a more conventional 'expected' appraoch. The breaks
aren't _too_ hectic and the chord and vocal breakdowns work well in a
dance context. Despite this, Goldie still manages to get in a fight
with his breakbeats and leaves them sounding all hissy and angry. Its
intelligent enough, but a tad too formulaic. _Jah_, on the flip,
features more pissed off breaks and some bizarre high-pitched sounds.
Nice but not essential.
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