Picked up the new Skylab e.p. last week
& since no one has mentioned it i thought
i'd review it.
A1. These are the blues: starts off with some weird
muted synth noises & gradually introduces new sounds
(an older man coughing/laughin, muted female vocals,
string noises, drum). Strange, but peaceful; the
synths are the synthesizer of a twangy guitar.
A2. Beyond the breeze: more spacey synths, a piano &
a male voice "i'd like to imagine..." almost sounds
like the beginning of a Negativland tune and then
changes to a steady trip-hop beat w/ lite piano
& some muted noises in the background. variation
is slight & occurs infrequently. gets quiet
and then same theme continues this time with
an interesting violin melody (not quite melodic,
but not quite cacaphonic either).
A3. Red Light, Blue Light: opens with more quiet, muted
spacey noises; would work as background music to the
Outer Limits (the cover artwork is quite appropriate).
the spacey noises build, as does the muted fuzz-rock
sound that drives the song.
Think Cramps vs. Seefeel vs. Outer Limits vs. Muted trip-hop
& half-spoken, half-sung vocals by a drugged-up, out-of-tune rickie
lee jones.
B1. Indigo (sabres of paradise remix): more trippy muted
space beat stuff here for the intro, then a proper hip
hop beat starts. not much variation for a while. sabres
introduce new sounds slowly, not much recognizable
from the orginal tune & nothing to write home about.
B2. Seashell (Takemura mix): same bpm as the original, but
the beat is fuller. uses virtually all the samples from
the orginal though to a more muted effect. this one
reminds me of Tricky, w/out the vocals. Beat gets
a little monotonous after a while, but there is
much more variation in samples & sounds to make
this one more interesting than the sabres remix.