Jimi Tenor - SugarDaddy / Take Me Baby (WARP) 12"
If you haven't heard Jimi yet I urge you to buy this single! Everyone
of my friends who has heard "Intervision" (his WARP album) has
immediately made a note to buy it or demanded a dub. Absolutely
irresistible - this man deserves to be enormous it will be a tragedy if
he does not.
10/10
Freeform - Heterarchy (Worm Interface) CD
Being lazy, I am going to say nothing more than "read Aaron Gregory's
review in idm v1 #1141", that track 10 is entitled "Relocation" and is
amazing, and that overall I give the album
9/10
Hal featuring Gillian Anderson - Extremis (Virgin) 12"
Skip the lame pop-goa A-side and head for Download's mix which has a
strange triphop/d&b rhythm beneath it's filmic ambience and Scully's
muttering, and could certainly work well alongside yer afx/U-ziq/^2p
mutant breakbeat tracks, as it breaks down a bit of a storm at the end.
There are a bunch more mixes on the CD which I can't comment on, but as
this was only UKP1.49 I can't complain about only getting 2 versions.
7/10 (for download mix)
Higher Intelligence Agency / Pete Namlook - S.H.A.D.O (Fax) CD
I've always had a soft spot for Fax, but I managed to kick the habit
after about 40 discs. Now my purchases are few and far between. My
pusher (Record Shop owner) offered this to me, and after a quick listen
I was hooked. The usual cool, smooth sound is accompanied by some
fairly complex Autechre-ish rhythms (though without Ae's mutations),
and Namlook's favoured sub-bass makes an appearance of course. I
suspect it's a bit too "nice" for many, and there's often a slight
craving for "something more" after hearing a fax disc, but this one
gives me a mild, enjoyable hit.
7/10
Broadcast - Work and Non Work (WARP) CD/LP
Not really idm, but of interest to idmer's as it's on WARP. Available
at mid-price, this seems to be a compilation of previously released
tracks, based on some rathed obscure info on the sleeve, and some
comments I have read. And what does it sound like? Well, a less-funky
Portishead, with jangly indie-pop leanings, is about as close as I can
get. "Accidentals" gets off to a good start with muffled jazzy
shuffling and muted honey-smooth vocals, but a bontempi organ does its
best to break the mood. "The Book Lovers" is way to indie for me. There
follows a lush mellow interlude before "Message from home", a buzzing
shuffler with more appeal to me - even some mildly Joy Division-ish
touches in the percussion here. "Phantom" is a sweet, if odd,
instrumental piece which is rather pretty, but the stuttery beeps get a
bit wearing. "We've got time" works well - smooth and sweet. Weedy
vocals and more intrusive bleepy noises clash on "Living Room" and
"According to no plan". "The World Backwards" does little to improve
matters, though "Lights out" at least rounds things off inoffensively.
Not my kind of thing I'm afraid - a bit of a mixed bag, but I really
can't tell how good this album is. After all if I weren't such a sad
WARP trainspotter I wouldn't have gone anywhere near it. Also I had to
EQ the treble down about -5 to stop myself going spare listening to
this.
5/10?
Cylob - Diof 97 (Rephlex) 12"
4 tracks (plus bonus interludes) of mutant madness from a Chris
"Formerly known as Kinesthesia" Jeffs, who is rapidly becoming one of
Rephlex's staples. "Diof 97" and "Hopscotch" feature the kind of crashy
breakbeats and, let's face it, broadly-(but-not-quite)-aphexy synth
melodies that we know and love, but these tracks don't do wonders for
me. "Space Skramble" changes the pace, being a crazy electro workout
with plenty of twists and turns, and "Divided Loyalties" is muted funky
roller with the trademark dipping-and-diving bass of "Someone Else", or
Tom, as we call him. Between the 2 is a sweet little piece with a
definite old-school flavour to the electro breakbeat and synth sounds -
a pity it doesn't last longer.
7/10
Diesel M - M for Multiple (Choci's Chewns) 12"
Dunno what happened here but one of these turned up in one of my local
shops, original blue vinyl, so I snapped it up. There are 4 mixes of
this noisy distorted stomper on here, 3 of which feature a 4/4, and the
final "Mango-n-Vectif" which bizarrely slows things right down to an
unrelated tempo. All though only 2 of the mix titles indicate U-ziq
involvement, all tracks sound like U-ziq. Soundwise it fits in very
much along the lines of Aphex's "Digeridoo" or "Xylem Tube" though
generally less fast and exciting (the AA side's "Seagull Mix" being
potentially the most dancefloor-friendly)
6/10
Freeform - Glob EP (Musik aus strom) 12"
Four more new tracks from Simon Pyke. "Flyplate" Takes a neat little
"dwip" scratch sound and a bumpy electro-ish rhythm and adds wads of
not-quite-melodious synths and a host of little noises to build
something quite engaging. The second track, possibly entitled "hey" or
"hoy" (the label artwork is so deliberately disfunctional it's hard to
read), follows in a similar vein, with a nice atmosphere, but it
meanders somewhat and just ends up sounding pleasant. On the flip,
track 1 appears to be the title track, and takes a more upfront
approach with the percussion, immediately standing out as the strongest
track yet on the EP - funky in a uniquely fake-fur lined way. The final
track, possibly entitled "it" combines exquisitely constructed
polyrhythms with snappy production and some of the coolest noises
around. Stuff like this demands to be listened to - I can't just leave
it on and let it rock - I miss all the action - but sitting down to pay
attention reaps considerable rewards.
8/10
(Squarepusher) - Crot EP (Rumble Tum Jum) 12"
4 pieces of hard fast militant acid. The first and last are fast
banging marching music, the second takes the Labworks acid style, and
the third sounds like a Universal indicator track (the best track on
the EP by a considerable margin). Of limited interest.
5/10
Various - Alt.frequencies (Worm interface) CD/12" sampler
A varied CD, kicking off with Dunderhead's "Doditsu", a dubby Massive
Attack-ish affair with a bizarre vocal. Tom Jenkinson's "Vogon & I" is
a slow aphexy piece with fat crunchy beats, distorted acid and muted
synth melody. Freeform's "Dice" is a funky little piece but one which
ultimately fails to engage me.
Gescom's "SKFL2" does without the completely twisted and distorted
sounds that are now part of most Autechre tracks, but the structure of
the track - 7/4 time, bizarre rhythm changes, mutating melodies, and
indeed the integration of the melodic and rhythmic sides of the
composition, remain intact. A definite high point.
David Kristian's "ooohville" is a strange piece of drum-n-bass with
easy listening samples and a variety of breaks. TJ's "Happy Little
Wilberforce" is a bass-heavy breakbeat workout which at time sounds a
bit like someone electronically emulating human beatbox sounds. It's
undeveloped melody does not add much to the cleverly constructed rhythm
track. Coma's "Zero" is another d&b track with lush instrumentation and
a rolling break, kinda non-formula logical progression. Very nice - a
real pleasure to listen to if not amazingly innovative, though
something about this track gives the impression that it is gradually
getting faster.
Replicant's "Analiz" is another high point for me - a tapping ambient
dub epic which harks back to those old comps on Beyond and Apollo which
I remember so fondly. "Aleister's Requim" by Further is a gorgeous
filmic ambient piece, Bladerunner meets Twin Peaks.
Plasma Lamp's "Lounge Lizard" is a rather irritating bleepy ambient
affair with surging bass and odd beats appearing about half way
through. And finally there's a little noodly shuffling bonus track at
the end - rather nice.
Inevitably my favourite track is probably the Gescom contribution, but
overall my conclusion is that the tracks on here which I enjoyed the
most are the least innovative or experimental.
7/10
MASK 02 EP (Musik Aus Strom/SKAM) 12"
This has already been reviewed at least twice, but I just have to say
that this is one of the best IDM purchases I have made. The track
featuring Colonel Abram's "Trapped" is an absolutely amazing headfuck
of a piece of music, while the rest of the EP is high quality idm of
varying styles.
10/10 for "Trapped", 7/10 for the rest.
u-Ziq - My Little Beautiful (Hut) 12"
At last! Mike Paradinas actually releases something which relates to
the live show he delivered while supporting the Aphex Twin on tour. The
retro lounge jazz of Gary Moscheles and the disappointingly weak d&b
efforts of "Urmur Bile Trax" have failed to live up to expectations
raised that night, but three quarters of this EP pretty much does. The
energy of <ahem> "real" drum-n-bass has actually been retained on its
way through the mutation process this time, and the chopped breaks and
trad whistly organ u-ziq melody line of the title track make a very
promising start to the EP. And hey, it's not too long either. A 3-note
ASDIC line, "Megaphonk"-style bassline and plastic synths introduce
"Hanky Pokery", which sounds like a refugee from "DIEGBJ" until the
ridiculousy fractured break kicks in. I remember being taken aback by
the half/double speed rhythm programming at his live show, and this
track comes close to reproducing that. "Jiggery Panky" keeps up the
good work, kicking off with a strong breakbeat, not exactly something
you'd hear from the junglist massive, but something more rather than
something less. Some of the programming seems to be a bit "for the sake
of it" a la Plug, rather than evolving naturally out of itself like
Squarepusher, but the overall effect is quite strong. This is quite a
fragmentary track with various breakdowns a snippets of melody. Only
the final track "Worcester" disappoints due to its oddly dissonant
chords and sloppy rhythmic feel (probably intentional but it doesn't
work for me) There's a really nice funk break buried under there, but I
can't really listen to this. For the first 3 tracks, then
8/10
Sun Electric - Eya (Apollo) 2 12"s
With distinctive "Aye Eh...Eyaa. Aye Eh...Ayee" vocoder sound
appearing in all versions, the first of two 12"s kicks off with the
"Authentic Mix", an Electroey kinda IDM-ey thing with plenty of buzzy
energy. Thomas Fehlmann's "Flow Mix" is an excellent tight blippy
techno bouncer with some Basic Channel-ly dub hints (though none of the
fuzz, this is clean as a whistle). Finally the "Green Velvet Funk Mix"
is a rather ploddy house affair which goes on too long and doesn't do
enough to satisfy these ears, though the funky bassline, restrained use
of elements from the original, and general production are all fine in
themselves.
The second 12" available separately contains three drum-n-bass mixes of
the tune. The "Pro Plus mix" by Skage + Smokes is a restrained techstep
kinda flavour with a dubby feel and clinical production. Future Forces
Inc. contribute two contrasting versions - the "Hardware mix" which is
a full-on techstep assault and the "Cityscape mix" which is a lush
dreamy jazzy rolling epic.
The artwork on this btw is a DR variation on the Chiastic Slide/Envane
theme.
7/10 for each.
dnb coming...
J
^
__________
________.__/_____ _||_/ James Skilton aka Steady J
_[]/_____________[.__\____-_ DJ and Party Animal
| | Part Time Hedonist
|____________________________| Full Time Technohead
|__|-' '-|__| jamess@ftp.com
Autechre and SKAM discogs:
http://subnet.virtual-pc.com/~sk393820/