IDM Mailing Archive

can someone recommend any albums of comaprisonto Global Communication 76:14. This album is worth it's weight in gold.

quoted 2 lines can someone recommend any albums of comaprisonto Global Communication 76:14.

>can someone recommend any albums of comaprisonto Global Communication 76:14. >This album is worth it's weight in gold.

It certainly is! There's not much I can compare it to. The first thing that comes to mind it 'Pentamerous Metamorphosis,' the "retranslation" that Global Communication did of Chapterhouse's 'Blood Music.' It's five tracks, just over an hour long, and excellent. I haven't kept myself up to date on its release status, but it was out of print for quite some time (it was first released in late 1993 as a bonus disc to BM, then was released seperately the next year). I seem to recall hearing that it'd been repressed lately - can anyone confirm? Richard Kirk's 'Virtual State' on Warp has kind of a similar feel, in my opinion, although it gets a bit more uptempo at times. It's still hard to beat tracks like "Lagoon West" and "November X Ray Mexico" for ambient merit. Another reference point you could look into is Tangerine Dream - tracks 7 and 8 on '76 14' are a cover of TD's "Love on a Real Train." My favorite album of theirs is the live double CD 'Poland,' although different people have very different opinions regarding what work of theirs is best*, so it might be best to pick up the 'Dream Sequence' compilation which covers some of their more fruitful lineups. * Everyone agrees they've been crap since at least 1986. Others: The 'Apollo 2' compilation on R&S has quite a bit of good ambient material on it, including one track from '76 14' and another rareish GC cut (and mu-Ziq's sublime "Sick Porter (Remix)," surely one of the most beautiful tracks ever recorded). Global Comminication's remix compilation 'Remotion' is also worth checking out, although they have some remixes extant that are much better than what's on it. C. -- cspot@hyperreal.com (Chris.Hilker)

On Sun, 2 Jun 1996, Chris.Hilker wrote:

quoted 4 lines might be best to pick up the 'Dream Sequence' compilation which covers some

> might be best to pick up the 'Dream Sequence' compilation which covers some > of their more fruitful lineups. > > * Everyone agrees they've been crap since at least 1986.

For some reason I feel compelled to admit this rather shameful bit about myself...I like TD's album "Optical Race" and I find that their earlier albums are nothing more than pointless excursions into analog wankering, knob tomfoolery and filtered monkey business. In fact, early TD is nothing more than a hideously mutated prog rock band in which the nasally singer and posturing guitarists have been replaced by sentient ARP 2600s oscillating their own damn selves. But what is newer TD? Nothing than new age drivelyou might argue, emasculated elevator music that deserves to be filed with Kitaro and JM Jarre. OK fine...But this point was to remind you that not everyone conforms to your hip,sophisticated, rebellious,ear to tha mudafuckin' street sensibilities. Er..now as a matter of damage control I offer this idm acceptable query: Has anyone picked up that white label four-tracker by New Electro Sound of London? Who are these guys, and what else have they done? khannan suntharam kxs28972@bayou.uh.edu

<breakz>

quoted 9 lines From: sugatis@inreach.com (Sugatis & Co)

> From: sugatis@inreach.com (Sugatis & Co) > Date: Thu, 30 May 1996 13:40:45 -0700 > Subject: Re: (idm) Amen breaks and Stuff. > > >Jungle is cutting breaks, but there are some who will add machines in the > >mix or sample a self-programmed loop and chop that up. > > You can also use live drums that you yourself play and chop those up too. > Isn't that what Square Puhser does?

I dunno. I've heard the breaks on his records before. I recognise his normal sytle break and the one on the last track of Side 2 of Feed Me... I think he triggers samples from his drumkit and sequences them afterwards, but who knows. PS have you read the RDJ text on the Squarepusher LP!

quoted 14 lines From: Mark Kolmar <mkolmar@ccs.nslsilus.org>

> From: Mark Kolmar <mkolmar@ccs.nslsilus.org> > Date: Thu, 30 May 1996 16:30:37 -0500 (CDT) > Subject: Re: (idm) Amen brother > > I have not listened to almost any Jungle or Drum'n'Bass. I'm not familiar > with the much-loved Plug 1 & 2. But I do understand the general idea. Is > it common for programmers to cut up and break and paste it back together > to make one new beat? Or do the programmers generally slice things up and > piece them back together in numerous combinations? > > I often do the latter (though not really in a d'n'b context), however the > most common complaint from others is the tracks are too complex and hard > to follow with the beats and everything changing and shifting around all > the time.

The latter is preferable in most jungle tunes now. The former endless looped breakbeat style is what hardcore originally was. Breaks lesson no1 1)Imagine the break as a string of letters ie abcdefghijk 2)Cut the break up into bits ie abcd ef ghi jk 3)Assign each sub-break onto a key or set of keys on the sampler 4)Trigger samples in any order via MIDI sequencer to form different break combinations ie the original abcdefghijk can become efabcdejkjk jkabcdghief or any combination of the above cut ups in (2) Ta da!

quoted 9 lines G >Also I was wondering if anyone has tried constructing d&b tracks by cutting

> G >Also I was wondering if anyone has tried constructing d&b tracks by cutting > G >up MIDI sequences as opposed to audio files? It seems like a cool way to do > G >breakbeats either by deconstructing/rearranging pre-existing MIDI > G >sequences and then assigning drum patches to the beats > > Anyone who does interesting Drum and Bass will be doing this anyway, not > simply laying down breakbeats, but making new breaks with individual > drum hit samples sequenced with Cubase/Logic etc. Of course, there's > always LTJ Bukem to cock up this theory..

:-) I know exactly what you mean! Mr Lazybreak strikes again. <EBTG>

quoted 3 lines Kind of funny

> > Kind of funny > realizing that Ben Watt is actually doing jungle drum programming now.

Err, I think you'll find that their jungle stuff was actually written by the excellent Spring Heel Jack and (sadly) not Ben Watt.

quoted 4 lines Likethemes (LM-003) is one of the highlights of 1995!

> > Likethemes (LM-003) is one of the highlights of 1995! > > Reishi is the sweetest idm track you've heard. > > I got Likethemes for UKP1.99 in a Virgin sale rack. Lucky me!!

Yeah, there were tons in Manchesters Virgin Megastore!

quoted 1 line For all those who like the art/b12/stasis/blackdog style of things.

> For all those who like the art/b12/stasis/blackdog style of things.

Lush...

On Wed, 5 Jun 1996, graham.booth wrote:

quoted 5 lines Kind of funny

> > Kind of funny > > realizing that Ben Watt is actually doing jungle drum programming now. > > Err, I think you'll find that their jungle stuff was actually written > by the excellent Spring Heel Jack and (sadly) not Ben Watt.

Actually, Spring Heel Jack wrote only 1 of the 4 or 5 jungleish tracks on the new EBTG LP. Ben Watt appears to have gotten much more deft with his drum machine programming. I know there's one EBTG song where the highhats run in straight 16ths throughout the entire song which leaves me a bit loony by the 32nd bar. The first track on the LP is one of my favorite D&B tracks for the way the synth line works with the drums. Of course, Jungle purists will probably be disappointed in that he's not using the Amen break, rather, he's just been influenced to do "Junglesque" beats. I'm sure the cynics will say that EBTG is just trying to cash in on the latest craze, but I sense that they're just trying to keep from getting stale. I read in an interview that they were enormously influenced by their work on Massive Attack's "Protection". I for one am quite happy that they went in thsi direction. My wife plays _nothing_ but EBTG, so at last there is a CD that we can both listen too. Che