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MIKE DRED (KOSMIK KOMMANDO)
Code Fcd: The First MACHINE CODES Compilation: 1993-1997
Machine Codes UK CD 1
[helta skelta, after the tears, my bassline is the melody, reach inside, face
the future
retrospective, wash the telly, monkey systems one oh seven, grrearra falcon,
marsh
mallow, down on marne avenue, modus vivendi]
He revolutionized Acid House and became the first and foremost 303 virtuoso.
Rephlex signed him on the basis of a single tape of demo
excerpts._Freaquenseize_ was the result, with Mike Dred proving that more
wasn't always less. a Twenty-Four Commandments of Acid, in every imaginable
flavour and speed, a forerunner of his Universal Indicator records. . . a
document which dismantled and rewrote rules, a book of lessons which spread
through the international underground like a flash fire.
Even Gonzi doesn't know who he really is.
and whoever does certainly isn't telling.
Rephlex, R&S/DiAtomyc, Axodya, Analog. then - in 1993 - MACHINE CODES.
Mike Dred was an innovator. Mike Dred remains an innovator. Techno might have
remained a mire of uninspired samples and predictably lame beats if Mike Dred
hadn't happened. his weapon of choice - the TB-303. *the* embodiment of the
Acid sound. but in Dred's hands, it became so much more. His 303 bassline IS
the melody, and it became the Mother of all music - an umbilical cord which
nurtured sundry permutations of Techno, Electro, and House with its caustic,
electric current.
Dred's Machine Codes label finds him as active as ever, pumping out (often
limited) 12"s which run the gamut from Detroit traditionalism of
"Retrospective" to "Wash the Telly" and "Grrearra Falcon" (with Peter Green),
abstracted pile-ups of metallic shards and Acid fallout which lurch like
top-heavy hybrids of Herbie Hancock and COIL. _Code Fcd_ collects most of the
Machine Codes tracks, and showcases the sound for which he is adored. "After
the Tears" is quintessential Dred, metronomic bass kicks and terse melody,
synth sighs, and a beat which careens from 4OTF rigidity into flashy displays
of programming genius. it's the sound which Black Dog Productions adopted and
sweetened with breakbeats, paving the way for the
Techno/Drum n' Bass experiments of TPower and Jacob's Optical Stairway. other
Dred-ivations are echoed in the caustic flailings of RDJ's early tracks. hold
_Classics_ up against "Face the Future" and decide who is innovating and who
is imitating. the Dred influence is everywhere - and Dred worship is often
blatant. In Sync Vs. Mysteron's recent album worships at the feet of Dred's
legacy. from Drop Bass Network to Surgeon, the call of Dred's effect on
electronic music rings clear and sharp as the 303 lines on (the prev.
unreleased) "Marsh Mallow".
_Code Fcd_ closes on Peter Green's eleven-minute classical opus, "Modus
Vivendi." he orchestrates strings, woodwinds, and thundering tympani with
Stravinsky-like intuition and force. No bland soundtrackiness here, no pallid
ambient (wishy)wash. nor is this mawkish posturing. It's an emotive and
dramatic composition which stands up favorably to comparisons with Webern,
Schoenberg, Copland, and Debussy. beat that, Richard!
... beat that, anyone!
SANDOZ (Richard Kirk)
God Bless the Conspiracy
Alphaphone UK CD 2
[lights in the sky, demonology, louisiana, levels, blow 'this mother up, the
moon rises]
the first Sandoz album in years, the first Sandoz album on RK's Alphaphone
label, and the first Sandoz record to show Kirk progressing beyond the House
experiments of the late Cabaret Voltaire. God Bless the Conspiracy_ is a
triumphant return to form for the talented - but sometimes lazy - Richard
Kirk. it seems that he was so impressed by the seeds of modern Techno which
he and Stephen Malinder had sown in CV that he was content to simply reseed
the plot repeatedly. his albums are always interesting, but his lengthy
tracks too often fall into the mindlessness, catatonia, or mere rehashing of
older ideas.
"Lights In The Sky" takes a step deeper into the global recombinations of
Kirk's Agents With False Memories and Electronic Eye projects. gentle
acoustic phrases and Cold Warrior-styled electronics form long and tangled
chains. Kirk assembles helical Techno armatures with these pieces, cementing
the structure with dollops of sticky funk. a contagiously cool bassline and
African percussion dig a deeper groove
with each revolution on "Demonology." the rapidly shuttling rhythms approach
Jungle at times - more of a bananas, poison arrow-frogs, and piranhas
'jungle' - but break up for bloopy electronics interludes and widening
funk-flavoured PWOG-ish trance/repetitions. "Levels" evolves elliptically
with touches of harp and swamp-boogie jazz incorporated into its centrifugal
path. an Indian motif surfaces, as does a playfully scratchy HipHop feel. the
main percussive framework of the track is tastefully repetitive, similar to
the accented loops of Seefeel's _Quique_. "The Moon
Rises" could be a landmark track for Kirk. he tries his hand at an all-out
Drum n' Bass number (de rigueur these days, no?), with promising results. he
loses his footing several times and includes an unnecessary wine-bar
piano/duck sound ambient interlude; but he charges ahead through
12....13.....14..... 15 minutes of breakbeats and full-force bass. Luke
Vibert needn't look over his shoulder, yet it does suggest new possibilities
for Kirk. and it's nice to hear some progression from the guy. we knew he
could do it...
UNIVERSAL BEING (Max Brennan)
The Archives
Holistic UK CD28
[desert breeze, beautiful fruit, deep bowl moovement 3, 17th night, harmony &
beauty through conflict, refracted rainbow, dance hall nirvana]
Released together with Fretless AZM's _Distant Earth_ (HOL26), _The Archives_
gathers previously 12"-only tracks from one of Brennan's more holistic
alter-egos. If F.AZM is galactic funk, UB is a channeling of Universal vibes
- with all negative spiritual energies filtered out. pure astral bliss
(water)coloured with Eastern mysticism. most of these gentle tracks are slow
and meditative, propelled by gamelan rhythms on wafts of Indian spice.
shimmering liquid bass inscribes tantric circles (see: Laswell, Makyo) which
spiral towards infinite nothingness. dance
hall nirvana definitely describes it. only two tracks rock the karmic boat,
and even these only do so subtly. "Refracted Rainbow" begins like a wayward
Fretless track but proceeds on an astrally funky trajectory. sitar trills and
corruscating electronics sprout along its path like blossoms, and it climbs
through the clouds like a magic beanstalk. and "Dance Hall Nirvana" is more
nirvana than dance hall. fluffy harmonics, mumbled voices, and pillows of
gospel/Spiritualized drone drift just
above the bassline. check the FLY site for my Fretless AZM review. should be
up and available by mid-week. (
http://www.fly.co.uk/index.dhtml).
GERD
This Touch Is Greater Than Moods
Universal Language UK EVOGD 03 CD
[first crisium appearance, nautiloidea, quare scent spangled arcanum, vulcan
princess (sensurreal new funk mix), carxan 7.1., carxan 7.2., century city
(sensurreal new funk mix), trendor vualda, austaris solalia (sensurreal new
jazz mix), osiris' starshaft]
From Universal Being to ... Universal Language, without abandoning that
gorgeous skyscape vista. Gerd (Gert-Jan Bijl from Sensurreal) has jumped
around from label to label, but he has picked the ideal landing strip. TTIGTM
feels like an extension of Reload's "Le Soleil et La Mer," or a textural
cross-pollination of the Jedi Knights' lewd electro-funk and Global
Communications' schizoid spectral ambient drift/groin-slammin' Deep House
moodswings. Gerd marks his own sound with intricate bass and beats, just this
side of 'artcore' Dn'B and inflected by Acid Jazz, HipHop, and the deepest
shades of Detroit and Chicago. the album has a cumulative effect, becoming
more attractive with every new track. two tracks co-written with Dirk-Jan
Hanegraaff
("Vulcan Princess" and "Century City") are the most immediate grabbers.
Gerd's basslines perform tirelessly throughout, like acrobats dazzling the
crowd with sweeping high-to-low-and- back uneven bar manuevers. "Austaris
Solalia" adds filtered Fender Rhodes and live bass (by Jarno Verhoeven) to
Gerd's lucent electric piano and synths. TTIGTM really does get better as it
progresses; and by the time "Osiris' Starshaft" rolls in, 14+ minutes long
and a glistening nova of extraterrestrially funked-up 'epic' House, it's a
pretty damn impressive album.
FREAKNIKS
Under the Sun
Scenario UK CD1
V/A:
LESSON ONE
Scenario UK CD2
Another new label - another name to watch. the Scenario crew falls under that
"Nu-Beats" category, joining Pork, Ninja Tunes, Jazz Fudge, Dust2Dust, Wall
of Sound, Ninebar, Pussyfoot, and others in the aftermath of what was once
TripHop. good riddance to outmoded labels, because this new sound is too
enticing and varied to be saddled with tags. Freakniks make every beat,
whether electronic or organic, sound like a celebration of life.
effervescent, exuberant, and bubbling over with warmth and creativity. maybe
the Beastie Boys started this whole thing - inadvertently, between failed
punk experiments and general rudeness - because their instrumental flava is
stamped all over these tracks. when vocals appear, they're generally of the
female Vadim/Tessa, Coldcut/Stansfield, Lascelles/Darby type - those sweet
nothings which are more texture than philosophy, about as deep as rain
puddles but cooed with all the earnest passion of a turtledove. so don't look
to Unsung Heroes' vocal partner, Jennifer Stancliffe, for anything deeper
than an Archie comic. but do cue up their track, "Miss Thang," if you want
one of the best toe-tapping lite-a.jazz numbers since the Brand New Heavies
disappeared.
track 3 is a puzzler. credited to Vert, but not to Adam Butler - Bovinyl's
Vert. tho' there are props in the Freakniks' liner notes for Bovinyl! and
Vert (Laurent Reti)'s "Original Oddstep" is a Downtempo easy-roller
with frothy breakbeats like Snooze or Spacer. so are there two different
Verts?
Search and Soniq's deeply cinematic sample-heavy grooves could be riding the
coattails of DJ Shadow - or could be heading somewhere else. Search adds very
laidback rapping, but only in repeated phrases. there's some Howie B - goes
Dn'B action on "Cougar," but it's too early to tell where these two are
going, really. The Next Men have a sweet instrumental with "Slide Up,"
soulful and sunny. D.C.3's "Change of Plan" comes across as a lightweight
Skint track but takes plenty of
fun twists. finally, four Freakniks tracks - all non-LP remixes, all smooth,
and all of which keep the smiles coming until the end - esp. for the smokin'
jazz piano licks on Search and Marquez's breezy Dn'B mix of "Easy Alibi."
V/A
7 HILLS CLASH: DEEPER SIGNALS
DRC UK 1
From what i gather, four Sheffield labels are involved here: Earth,
Wholesome, 10 Denk, and Breakbutt. they share geography and, to some extent,
a sound. so i suppose this works best if considered a sampler of these four
labels' artists. nobody here is making Drum n' Bass by the numbers - they're
all finding unexpected ways to be weird. there's the locomotive Techno beat
of Rude's "Rude" (E), the bizarre mushroom-bass which both The Wad (E) and
Tocsin (B) use, and the way Bouncing Bomb (10D) slash the vocals to ribbons.
Tonka Toi (W) shift the balance
from drums to bass, Extra Breaks (B) shift it back to the drums, Mig's (W)
peculiar "Moonstomp" is nearly 100% tinny drum sounds and extra-fat bass.
Screwface (E), and I Monster and Fashion for Convenience (both 10D) appear to
be making Dn'B the Edinburgh way, with nervous technoid twitches and metal
wind-shears. Obeah's (B) "Chickenfoot" moves like the Swamp Thing - when it's
not blowing Popeye-like toots on a hollow pipe. Which leaves us with Celsius
(W), whose track uses a stabbing stuttered-synth riff which is closer to
Kosmiche space rock than it is to any conventional strain of D&B. but, then
again, nothing on _Deeper Signals_ is conventional.
just one critics biased opinions.
by all means, decide for yourselves.
BR[VII] / bloodrush7@aol.com
GuerillaG2-G4