Well, the holidays doth approach yet again and I'm off home for a month. I'm
missing you already <sniff>. In the meantime...
--
Reviewed:
Disjecta : Clean Pit and Lid (Warp)
Various : Origins of a Sound (Submerge)
Kirlian : Chicken Wings and Beef Fried Rice (Disko B)
As One : We No Longer Understand (New Electronica)
Various : Mariopaint (Irdial)
Disjecta : Clean Pit and Lid (Warp)
Dark and dysfunctional. Mark Clifford, main Seefeel honcho, takes up
where _SAW2_ and _I Care_ left off. The beats are filtered and distorted
to unnerving, uncomfortable effect - as are the mistuned looping
melodies. Whilst it hits the spot if you're feeling paranoid and
isolated, the similarity to Richard James' work is at times worryingly
close - track three is a prime example with beats that sound as fresh as
they did on _SAW2_. However, the smilarities aside, Mark Clifford has
some good tracks on here. Track four is probably the highlight with an
inane but optimistic melody and a rolling, stuttering breakbeat - track
six is a Locust like experimentation of deep bassdrums and chinking
percussion - the end result is pretty close to Autechres _Rsdio_.
Personal favourite however is track nines plaintive melody and is the
track most like Seefeel on here. Mark Clifford has turned in a
vaguely interesting, if at times slightly repetitive and simplistic
album - the main problem here is that Richard James has done this style
to much greater effect already. However, Clifford does have his own
style, although the textured walls of sound that Seefeel peddled are
long gone. Worth checking but unfortunately lacking in substance to make
it another essential Warp purchase.
Various : Origins of a Sound (Submerge)
Pure electro techno from the homelands of Detroit. And all are killers,
from the sleek, oceanic spray of Drexciya's _Wavejumper_
to the searing old-skool electro tracks from AUX88 and the chord-led
uplifting, beauty of Mad Mikes _Deepspace 9_. _Twista_ by Mad Mike also
gets an honourable mention for the strident cutting up of a disco loop
and Juan Atkins's _Phase 2_ is a quirky but intense trip into precise,
otherworldly chords and biting analogue rhythmatics. It doesn't get much
better than this - this is pretty much the only compilation if you're
looking for pure emotional electro in that user-friendly shiny-plastic
CD format.
Kirlian : Chicken Wings and Beef Fried Rice (Disko B)
Mad. Don't bother reading the accompanying booklet that comes with this
garish LP, unless that is you like seeing pictures of men sat around
tables full of Chinese take-away. The music then - hard Pulsinger style
techno is the order of the day and whilst it slips up on the intricate
dynamics of Viennas finest, it still kicks quite nicely. There's lots of
analogue riff idolatry going on here - _P.O.W.E.R._ being the best in
head-nodding stakes and _Then After That..._ kicking in the *deep* bass.
Like Pulsingers _Porno_, there's a rather nice tr*p-hop workout and
Kirlian also delves into the abstract slow riffs of the Dum and Sahko
school of thought with _Hollywood Shuffle_. The rest of the tracks are
beaty workouts, all based around some of the warmest, crispest 909 four-
fours ever to grace my turntable. A big thumbs down then when Kirlian
marches tridently into Hardfloor acid territory with the strangely titled
_No You Can't Have It_. Despite this misnomer, if you're looking for a
bit of short-term European-style techno weirdness (although Abe Duque
hails from the US), you could do a lot worse than to pick this up.
As One : We No Longer Understand (New Electronica)
Oh yes - Kirk Degiorgio sometimes just misses the mark but the first two
tracks on this 12" are just fantastic. The title track kicks off and
it's one of Kirks finest moments on wax. Dark, sweeping formless chords
churn away over some beautifully engineered beats and the sudden
breakdown and buildup is forbidding and emotional - perfect for an
adventurous DJ. _Perspective_ is warmer and calm but it still retains
the intensity of most of Kirks work - the Hood-esq touch of bringing the
four-four in slightly off the bar switches the track nicely into a
comfortable thumper. There's a bit of a change on the flip though -
samba jazz anyone? Its quite entertaining but suffers from a lack of
development - _Fin_ aptly finishes the EP off with some detached
analogue ambience. Damn good stuff - the two A-side tracks are worth the
asking price alone.
Various : Mariopaint (Irdial)
Neat idea - sit the Irdial artist roster down with a Super Nintendo and
a copy of _Mariopaint_ with the mini-sequencer each and let 'em play.
The results are, unsurprisingly for Irdial, pretty bizarre. For the most
part it doesn't quite work although the journey into cheesy pop (sorry,
no artist/track names - its an Irdial black label) has a childish glee
about it and the acoustic guitar solo track is also quite pleasing and
twee. The main standout track is just a dark repeating, bass loop -
pretty dark and menacing for a kids mini sequencer. A nice bit of fun
then, if you can find a copy cheap although some of the tracks irritate
quite a bit. Personally, I like it for sentimental reasons - all of
the sounds remind me about how much time I used to waste playing _Super
Mariokart_. Thats good enough for me.
|| [CiM]
|| s.walley@uea.ac.uk
||
http://www.sys.uea.ac.uk/~u9323899/