Hey, all! It's been a good few months for me, IDM-wise. Here's
a couple reviews. I'm feeling lazy, so there's no track timings. Deal
with it.
Plastikman - Sheet One
Novamute / +8: NMCD 3015
1. Dre
2. Plasticity
3. Gak
4. Okx
5. Helikopter
6. Glob
7. Plasticine
8. Koma
9. Vokx
10. Smak
11. Ovokx
File under "Bad Acid." Not bad as in crappy, but Bad Acid as
in "mind-warping head-phuqing weirdness set to a beat," with lots of
Richie Hawtin's creative misspellings to boot. Though this isn't as
different from FUSE as I had hoped, this is still very innovative and
shows Mr. Hawtin's almost complete dominance over Roland equipment.
Plus, the bass on this is more phat than any other +8 stuff save Gary
7's "Let The Circle Not Be Broken" and Cybersonik's stuff.
My faves on this are the last three tracks, which form a deep,
spooky trilogy. Layered acid and heavy rhythms manage to make the
somewhat cheesy science fiction dialogue sound actually ominous. Does
anyone know what movie the samples came from? Eon sampled the same
source for the whacked-out "electromagnetic radiation" sample in the
song of the same name, and it sounds pretty good, for '50s genre
science fiction.
I also really like "Plasticity" for the thick bass and cool
taxiing plane noises and "Okx", a spoken word piece, merely because
the words are cool and I like the effect they used on the vocal.
Overall, I'd recommend this disc to anybody interested in spooky
acidic stuff or any of the +8 bands. It's dark, deep, and innovative,
and features one of the coolest covers I've ever seen (I won't
describe it, except to say the three people have licked it on the off
chance that it might do something nice to them).
Novamute Version 1.1
Novamute: NMCD 3013
Disc 1:
1. System 01 - Drugs Work (3 Phase remix)
2. Spawn - The Thinking Man
3. Unity 3 - The Age of Love Suite
4. Spirit Feel - Forbidden Chant (Hight Lonesome Trance)
5. Doof - Gift of the Gods
6. Karl Axel-Bissler - The Gateway
Disc 2:
1. Compufonic - Brand New Day
2. Death Before Disco - Ministry (Exploding Plastic Inevitable Mix)
3. Scubadevils - Celestial Symphony (Angel Delight Mix)
4. Juno Reactor - High Energy Protons
5. Plastik Man - Spastik
6. 3 Phase vs. Pulse - Rota
Okay, let me just put my prejudices up front: anything that
has both +8 and Tresor artists on it, as well as being almost all
trance, is going to have to be pretty damn godawful before I'll say
anything bad about it. Plus, I seem to own the entire Novamute US CD
catalog (including GTO's "Love Is Everywhere", which still gets stuck
in my head occasionally, despite its cheesiness. It's those bullfrog
noises, I tell you!).
I really really like this compilation. Oh, yes. I like it
bunches and bunches. It features really good work by all involved, and
just begs to be put on a dancefloor. It's also got lots of neato
textures and sounds that make it a lot of fun to listen to.
High points: 3 Phase manage to remix System 01 into the first
Clock DVA-related song that I've thought was worth listening to. Unity
3 makes a track that owes a lot to Jam & Spoon while having nothing to
do with them and updating the sound considerably. Plastikman is yet
another really good Hawtin track. Exist Dance does their trademark
work on the Spirit Feel, and produces yet another acidy trance
monster. And the Scubadevils remix tones down the cheese present on
the Trance Europe Express version of "Celestial Symphony" to tolerable
levels, letting the bouncy little riffs in the song really shine.
Okay, so this is only borderline intelligent, but I like it a
lot. If recent trance has left you yawning, give this a try. Just
remember: +8 and Tresor.
Just for Inhuman ;) I'll say that everybody needs lots of
Muslimgauze. Cheesy world music they are definitely not. They take
Middle Eastern percussion and subtly (but with innovation) process it.
The result is very primitive and trancy, and somewhat otherworldly.
It's no accident they're often mentioned in the same sentence as
:zoviet-france: (see the entry on :z-f: in the techno.stanford.edu
Ambient Survey -- I would write an entry for Muslimgauze, but I don't
feel like I own enough of their music to do them justice. Anybody?) --
both put out very primitive, processed, droney music. _Intifaxa_ and
_United States of Islam_ are my favorites, though many people like
_Zul'm_ lots.
Isn't it interesting how many industrial / experimental
artists are now producing good techno? Front Line Assembly with
InterMIX; Greater Than One with GTO, Church of Ecstasy, and Signs of
Chaos; :zoviet-france: with Rapoon and Horizon 222; and Coil's recent
stuff, just to name some examples. Hell, FLA and GTO are much better
at techno than they _ever_ were at industrial!
enough DISCO-nected ramblings,
AladdinSane / ozymandias