First, your useless trivia for the day. The Black Dog had an
album entitled "Mbuki Mvuki", right? Turns out that means "to strip off
one's clothes in order to dance frantically" or something very much like
that, in some Central African language. Cool, huh?
Now, two reviews. I plan to archive these and all the rest of the
reviews I have planned at my web site (
http://www.duke.edu/~jds19), but
that's under heavy heavy construction, so give me time. I do have a for
sale list there right now, if you're interested.
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Orbital -- In Sides (FFRR 697-124 087-2)
The Girl With The Sun In Her Head 10:26
P.E.T.R.O.L. 6:21
The Box 6:28
(part 2) 6:01
Dwr Budr 7:57
Adnan's 8:42
Out There Somewhere? 10:43
(part 2) 13:28
Well, uh, wow. After the disappointment of _Snivilization_, I
really wanted this to be good. Really good. Like, as good os the _Brown
Album_. The problem with releasing stunningly good albums is that people
keep expecting more of the same. Well, _In Sides_ never disappointed me.
It's good enough that I haven't even listened to the bonus disc yet.
What they do here that they didn't do with _Snivilization_ is
simple. Orbital's strengths lay in the precise construction of their
tracks, where every sound falls into the rhythm. Instead of hitting a
listener with lots of layers of noise, they pick their sonic material very
carefully, layer it up and serve it out. This gives their work an organic
feel to it, even though the spirit of the music is in its ability to be
both lush and minimal.
They're back. This album has the same sense of completeness and
flow that _Brown Album_ did. The tracks build into one another, carying
you along. The thing that strikes me most about this album is the sense
of quiet power it gives. These tracks build and sweep you along with
them, but they never crest and break. They've got a lot of momentum,
without being unstable.
A couple of the tracks are sunny and pastoral, airy without being
light. A couple are almost cinematic. The highlight is the last (two?)
track(s), "Out There Somewhere?". This is a beautiful, precisely crafted
work of art, reminiscent of "Lush", but without the pyrotechnics. It
lopes along, carrying you happily, then opens up, then concludes in a
sweep. It's very easy to listen to this album, sit back, then listen to
it again and again.
Precision and momentum and use of empty space. Definitely check
this one out.
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Subtropic - Homebrew (Reflective REFCD 6)
Maurauding Mo 5:58
On The Verge 6:16
Tilt The Frequency 6:02
Ectospasm 5:18
No Pain No Gain 5:47
The MHT 6:09
Sauce 7:13
Narcotic Fuz 6:21
Blue Shades Of Dark 4:28
Heaven 6:48
This was recommended to me as "intelligent jungle". It seems to
me that whenever I hear something described as "intelligent [genre]", it
means "inaccessible [genre]". A lot of the intelligent jungle stuff out
there seems more concerned with subverting jungle into their own style
than using jungle as a style in of itself. A lot more of the intelligent
jungle out there just plain stinks, both as jungle and as intelligent
music. (Yes, I'll back both those statements up, in later reviews.)
This album doesn't sound especially intelligent to me. It sounds
*good*. (Of course, idm has been defined as "the music people on IDM-list
will talk about", so...) This could be described as jungle, or as
trip-hop, or as breakbeat ambient. It's the sort of thing I'd like to
hear on a warm summer night, sitting out on the porch and relaxing with a
cold drink. There's jungle beats, but they're warm and soft, never
treble-heavy and spastic and frantic. They use the jungle beats and
rhythms as *tools* to do what they want to do. The best comparison I can
make is to some of the stuff on A Guy Called Gerald's _Black Secret
Technology_, though that album is so good as to defy rational comparison.
It's laid-back and warm and friendly without being boring. It's
kinda funky in places. It's pleasant to listen to. It does have a very
annoying sample in "No Pain No Gain", the same one Revolting Cocks used,
but the next track makes up for it by sampling Eric B. & Rakim. If you're
looking for something easy on the ear without being insipid, give this a
shot.
---
"See Jackie Chan fight with sticks!
See Jackie Chan fight with swords!
See Jackie Chan fight with women!"
-- those nutty Chinese
Jesse Stricker jds19@acpub.duke.edu