IDM TIMES YET AGAIN GEEZ DON'T I EVER GET BORED OF THIS 2.10
Here at the newly refurbished IDM Times Kitchens in Ogunquit,
Maine... we do the listening so YOU DON'T HAVE TO!
African Head Charge: (In Pursuit Of) Shashamane Land
On-U Sound ON-U CD 25
82 4:34 Heading To Glory
96 3:53 Pursuit
80 3:33 One Destination
126 6:14 No, Don't Follow Fashion
70 5:29 Animal Law
66 6:17 Learning
92 4:54 Fever Pitch
54 3:30 Somebody Touch I
90 3:33 Mama Shante Garden
69 3:16 On The Off Beat
92 4:56 Fever Pitch (Raw Cut)
126 5:48 No, Don't Follow Fashion
118 4:20 Kumasee
African Head Charge is an incredible amalgamation of ancient trance
ritual drumming, chants, reggae and modern technology. Only a classy
outfit like On-U Sound could pull this off without sounding gimmicky.
A thin guitar plucks a forlorn melody while a sitar-like synth drones
and weird techno sounds whoosh around the place, then the singers
start a chant and the Iyabinghi drummers weave some complicated
counterpoint around the whole package. What you think is a chorus of
live singers turns out to be a manipulated tape when you hear it
screech to a stop. Sound artistry in the highest degree! Hard to
pick favorites, but "No, Don't Follow Fashion" could easily be a
dancefloor track with the quick tempo and the highly processed
drumming. And depending on your dancefloor, some of the other tracks
might make it too. But really this is dance music for the mind.
Enjoy.
The Universe Compilation
Moonshine M 50089-2
138 6:46 The Hypnotist: Pioneers Of The Universe
139 4:34 CJ Bolland: Spring Yard
139 3:49 AFX: *215061
138 4:54 Suburban Hell: List 2
138 6:59 Illuminate: Tremora Del Terra
139 4:29 Two Thumbs: Virtual Reality
139 3:08 Dr Fernando: Jojba
137 5:04 Skyflyer: Flying Deeper
138 3:30 Resistance D: Cosmic Love
139 3:46 Laurent Garnier: Virtual Breakdown
138 6:51 Sequential: Sequential
132 4:34 Dave Angel: 1st Symphony
8:12 Sven Vath: Barbarella (irresistible force remix)
A compilation of rather old hard trance repackaged for Americans by
Moonshine. Too hard for me to really appreciate and too old for me to
really care. The best track is the Irresistible Force remix of
Barbarella, but for some reason, it sounds like it was recorded into a
cheap sampler and played back at 8 bit, 25 K sound quality. The
original on the Harthouse CD single sounds great, so I don't know
what's up with this one. Avoid.
This Some Bad Weed Volume 1
Skunk Records POO CD 1
120 7:44 Mojo Risin': Dances With Fire (chief mojo's club mix)
110 6:48 Aardvark: The Return Of Rasputin (mad monk on a dub tip stylee)
123 7:22 Soundcraft: The Movement, The Message
126 8:18 The 3rd Alternative: Sinister Footwork (part 1)
124 6:11 Blood Runs Dry: All Of Your Mind
125 6:39 Aardvark with Wonder: Out Of My Paradise
105 8:41 Vu 2: Chant 4 Freedom
129 6:10 S.U.L.O.: Won't You Cry
88 5:29 Babyfox: Fox On The Cut (hard guitar mix)
134 7:53 The 3rd Alternative: No Apologies (part 1)
128 11:10 The Paingang: Slider (tweeky 303 mix)
142 3:56 Molara: One Love (radio edit)
118 8:27 Vu 2: 20,000 Feet (club mix)
130 7:17 Soundcraft: The Wibbler (club mix)
128 7:09 The Paingang: Slider (pad mix)
123 6:01 Soundcraft: This Some Bad Weed
Given the label and compilation title, I expected this to be a lot
more of a head trip than it actually turned out to be. On the first
disc, only "Return Of Rasputin" and "Chant 4 Freedom" really reached
that cerebral spliffed out level, with nifty bass hooks and lots of
pingy dub production. So with trepidation I plunked in disc 2 and
found it to be much better! You've got Skip McDonald of Tackhead
turning the Babyfox track into an On-U dub thrash, "Slider" giving
Hardfloor a run for the money in the "303 orgasm" sweepstakes, Vu 2's
semi-industrial house music, and "The Wibbler"'s tribal house for
starters. The rest are all at least decent, excepting Molara which is
bad pop garbage... but anyway, some really great stuff in here when
you prune away the deadwood. And the cover art is really funny. I
like it.
House Of Limbo Volume 1
IRS 27270-2
128 7:39 Havana: Schtoom (slam remix)
130 5:50 Mukkaa: Buruchacca (apollo 440 remix)
128 6:55 Ritmo De Vida: Taboo
125 6:38 Gipsy: I Trance You
125 7:15 Stealth Sonic Soul: Stealth Sonic Soul (apollo 440 remix)
126 5:25 Sublime: Transamerican (new york mix)
130 6:31 Mukkaa: Neebro (floor federation mix)
126 6:17 Strawberry Bazaar: Bingo Specs Boogie
135 5:38 PG1: Jazz Energy
129 7:13 Havana: Shift (stuart crichton & ready for dead remix)
124 6:10 Harri: Skelph
126 6:22 Ready For Dead: Ready For Dead
When you're making a compilation of stuff that's been out for a long
time, you have two choices. 1) wait for a REALLY long time before
putting it out, thus ensuring that your tracks are "long lost
classics". 2) fill it with new remixes of the old classics hoping to
snare newbies and collectors alike. IRS has taken approach #2 here,
and I'm not sure if I like it all that much. All I know is that when
I hear the familiar riff from Buruchacca poking thru the Apollo 440
remix, I really wish the original had been included instead. Well, at
least the original version of "I Trance You" is included. But where
the hell is "SkinnyBumbleBee"?? They're probably saving that one for
Volume 2. Oh well, I'm running out of time here so I'll just say:
poppish prog-house-esque stuff with catchy melodies and nice
dancefloor hooks... If you like that kind of stuff, it's nifty.
Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Volume II
Warp RTD 126.1670.2
7:15 pretty chords and vocal samples
6:21 discordant chimes
7:28 mushy pads
4:28 ominous string
8:44 hand drum and flute
3:24 tum tum
8:34 arpeggios and plinks
4:58 electro beat
6:39 beat and subbass
9:40 sweeps and shimmers
7:03 delayed plinks
2:38 rumbling, talking, tubular bells
7:17 blue calx
7:55 eno pads
5:29 distorted beat
4:39 resonant squirty noises
2:02 delayed pretty melody
7:14 flutey ascension with percussion
5:51 muted melody with medium beat
4:08 windham hell
7:03 massively reverbed speech and whispers
7:25 buzzy growl
11:22 slight dissonance and laughing
5:39 majestic soundtrack
Funny. I was prepared to hate this. But it's not bad. Mind you,
it's not *great* either and anyone who seriously thinks that Richard
James has created anything strikingly (or even vaguely) new or
innovative here needs a *major* lesson in industrial culture, but hey,
it's pleasant enough background music.
Dub House Disco The 3rd ("It's A God Eat God World")
IRS 28790-2
126 8:10 Spooky: Little Bullet (high velocity mix)
128 5:24 DOP: Here I Go
122 6:40 Matter: Underground (sub level one mix)
136 7:29 Lemon Sol: Aquamarine (deep blue mix)
119 5:09 Supereal: Blue Beyond Belief (steel blues mix)
94 7:34 Billie Ray Martin & Spooky: Persuasion (original version)
130 7:46 Abfahrt: Come Into My Life (hart fab mix)
69 7:05 Code MD: Higher (in dub)
130 6:11 The Chameleon Project: Columbia
133 6:53 Tenth Chapter: Prologue (initial dub mix)
123 6:44 Shape Navigator: Solar
3:44 Billie Ray Martin & Spooky: Persuasion (slight return)
Guerilla is really fucking the US over in terms of compilations. They
have stuff on their singles that is so much better than 90% of what
IRS winds up putting out over here. I don't know who picks these
tracks but they need a good talking to. Preferably with a stick.
Anyway, out of the 12 tracks here, only three really float my boat in
any major way (Spooky, Supereal and Code MD for trainspotters). Most
of the rest are pleasant enough background noise but far from
engaging. Ah, whaddya gonna do.