Various Artists
BEYOND THE SUN
D.A.P. LP 1
Triple Vinyl Version
TRACKLISTING:
Ross 154-'fragments'
Wild Planet-'electron(eurosync mix)'
Mundo Musique-'empire'
LA Synthesis-'agraphobia'
Yennek-'serena x'
Shiver-'illogical'
Beltram-'drome'
Air Liquide-'psy 9'
Terrace-'7th city(filtered dub)'
Eon-'spice(lo power mix)'
Black Dog-'pillars & mirrors'
Whoo Whoo-'whoo whoo'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After listening to first half of this comp., I was getting ready to get
rid of it, mainly because of the godawful remixes of otherwise powerful
original tracks(as well as some material I already have on the original
12''. The spotlights, though, are 'empire', with its "grand" sounds
flashback 1991-92. I missed a lot of the Mundo Musique material on R&S, and
i'm feeling it now!(except for the fabulous 'vortex' w/ Beltram & Richie Hawtin)
'agraphobia' was just as good as expected, but what's so good about the
Kenny Larkin remix? This is the same case as with the rerelease of
'strings of life', and the Ashley Beedle remix--"why fix something that's
not broken?" Very melodic & anthemic. 'illogical', and 'psy 9',
excellent acid-driven tracks, and both are very dj-friendly from
beginning to end!
The only thing that kept me from disregarding
Beltram's 'drome' is the melody near the end. Beltram often does a good
job of making hardcore dirtiness into something melodic & mixable. Want
an example? Listen to Evil AD:The Destruction EP on Syntox Records,
particularly a track called 'existence'. I still want to get the warp
12'' that 'drome' came off of, though.
I thought i'd mention it, but Juan Atkins remix of 'spice' is fairly decent,
giving credit to the original, but it didn't put me on a "higher level".
Sorry, Juan. I remember debating in '92 about getting the 'spice' remixes,
I wasn't dissapointed in not getting it! 'pillars & mirrors' is just "cool",
and "hip", but how did it get onto the FURTHER SELF EVIDENT TRUTHS album? Is
this Black Dog's take on triphop? The track sounds like it might be
taken from the recent PARALLEL album, rather than their usual happiness
tracks from SPANNERS...
6.5/10
Derek Jordan