various/alt.frequencies.3/worm interface/cd
oh ho, this was a bit of a surprise. a.f.2 was abstract and cerebral in a
way that i found easier to admire than love, and here comes #3 in its funky
duds, shaking booty. well almost. after jake mandell's slippery opener,
"untitled 27" (not sure if i prefer, phoenecia rmx on "midwest"), we are
treated to the japanese (i think) jumping full square on the drill'n'bass
tip. soo '97 eh. baraki's "wa to yoni" comes off slightly better than the
more established himuro, mainly due to what appears to be an intro based on
a 23skidoo sample and less of a pull out all the stops hamfisted everything
but the kitchen sink all at once approach. gescom's "leritue (gibber mix)"
crackles, stutters and glows with warm static washes, in a slowly halting
yet totally engrossing fashion. this marks the point where a.f.3 'the second
half' confusingly heads down what can only be described as old-skool-idm,
freeform goes kinda early sabres on the funky and flutey "mish" and baraki
(again) weighs in w/ "whisper 2" sounding frighteningly like orbital making
an appearance on one of the first two ambient dubs. er, in a good way. in
between all this fun and games, rook valard unleashes the tightly coiled and
lovingly distorted textures of "crowslish". everybody now, "fahn fahn fahn
auf (den?) autobahn"
-martin