CD Kings?
Have we ever discussed CD vs Vinyl here before? He he heee. ;-)
Well, I think CDZ like these three are high cards in a full house.
Kings even. Diamonds, spades and a club. You hold the heart.
MAX404 - love & mathematics (Eevo Lute Muzique - eevo CD4)
Royal trainspotters will ponder the correct position of this in their
catalogs. Ambient? Techno? Rare groove? In my ears, it's all very
clear. File under E for Eevo Lute Muzique. The word eclectic
characterizes this essential piece in the everlasting puzzle which we
are slowly distinguishing as IDM. Eclecticism can though, lead an
album askew. The miring of sounds into confusion or creation of
stylistic competition can bogg down a listening experience. Alas, Erwin
van Moll commands the kingdom of the EMAX II and Atari with a pristine
clarity and majestic musicianship rivaled by few. The preferred
moments of this disc are the passages of blowing breezy melodies joined
by live whirled instrumentation. Yes, at times, very Caronesque, but
never a stranger on the Terrace tip. Metaphorically speaking, this
King's solid gold beat crown is encrusted with shimmering diamond
techno, smoky opal jazz, and passionate ruby spirit. (You thought I was
going to say slippers. ;-) There's no place like LOW, there's no place
like LOW. There's no place like....Eevo. 4/5
sp@sms - fuzzy logic (DJAX Records - DJAX-UP-CD10)
As varied as King Erwin can be stylistically, his fellow LOWland owner,
King Arno Peeters concentrates his eccentricity on a collection of
diverse yet homogeneous sounds. There are no beats here, rather pulses
of strikingly familiar sounds, warped far beyond their original
landscape and shaped into a dizzy cacophony of machine heartbeats. "I
was hypnotized to forget." Each occasional dubby rhythm is wholly
electronic, resoundingly human, and pleasantly foreign. "Get down to
earth." The disjointed ambient sample experiments of the AWAX tape
bandits coalesce the sonic void which manifested around the time of the
demise of the Double Bummer days of Bongwater. "We may be sending him
to a clinic." Right up to your face and test you! ...on your
tolerance for the avant garde. All the while never leaving the comfort
of techno surroundings which we call home. Home on the DJAX-up-beat
range with the ghost of Eugene Chadbourne. 4/5
Kid Spatula - Spatula Freak (reflective -CAT NO. REF CD 5)
I sit here and shake my head gripped in joyous disbelief. Mike
Paradinas is BACK and standing ear to ear with the Limbo man. As we've
been told, this is a collection of works which the artist considers, in
reference to his own timeline, old school. That's ballistic news for
the planet mu geezers like me. You see, well before the world confused
this bright minded musician with the words electro or jungle or (gasp!)
trip hop, Mr. Mu-ziq was simply an eclectic electronic crack head
addicted to his pipe organ and drum set. Mutating his bedroom into a
wheezing, thrumming shoe box of inspirational future techno jazz. I
mean, really, what else can you call the drawing together of cello
strings and my machines freewheeling breakloops? From the extremely
tangible evidence in each precisely structured *song* (there's that key
IDM word again) to the unmeasurable spirit in his driving solos, talent
on the palette is engulfingly lucid. Yes your Majesty. 4/5
My heartfelt thanks to all the artists involved and those wonderful
people that test drove my new PO box.
Doei!
Teep
on now: acen - the life and crimes of a ruffneck (.99 cent CD)
Promotion is a bitch, but it has to be done. Apologies to the digest
crew. Dates to keep open on you're calendar - November 2 (Beyond the
QE2 spins up in support of the Mass College of Art undertaking, 77%
Meat.) Also coming on strong, erm, soon, transmission from the
acidplanet via 90.3 WZBC, Newton 1am till 3am on a Saturday night in the
future. (Watch the HOTTmix!) and of course, get your pen and pencil
AMP PO Box 581 Cambridge, MA 02142.