Well, I saw this at Best Buys of all places and picked it up. Mostly cos
of the slight fuss the list was making about it. ;)
Here's a track listing, I haven't seen one yet:
the orb - tower of dub [ambient mix]
the future sound of london - papua new guinea [dumb child of q mix]
caustic window - joyrex j9 ii
luke slater - dreams of children
mandragora - earthdance [washouse mix]
aphex twin - ageispolis
ready for dead - ready for dead [ambient mix]
seefeel - minky starshine
sun electric - o'locco [hyperfloral mix]
alien mutation - alqa
the sunkings - galapagos
jumpin & pumpin cdtot12
well what can i say? this is all stuff that's been around the block a good bit,
except it's the rarer stuff that never quite made it to cd. sound quality
is iffy on the orb track. it isn't too much different from the original with
maybe a more ambient beginning and some really bad samples used in it. i
dislike the 'redneck cop pulls over a hippie' schtick, it's irritating.
the fsol track is virtually the same as the beginning of the song as on the
album. i already had this version on the single, doesn't doo much for me.
the caustic window is the really thick dubby one, and yes, the track is at
45 speed on the cd, not 33. discussion solved, eh? a good track, i already
have joyrex j9 (trading it away though). the mandragora would be a nice track
except the guitars used make some really whiney annoying sounds which irritate
me. the luke slater track is a real favorite, the first i've heard from him.
the aphex track is from SAW 85-92, you've prolly heard it. the rest is pretty
decent ambient material, ambient in the current use of the word. the final
track is VERY good.
ok, so jumpin and pumpin dig thru the old archives and bring us a handful of
classics mixed with some new stuff. sound familiar? well instinct does it all
the time. except jumpin' and pumpin' choose rare, vinyl only trax that everyone
is looking for. they really know what's up on this one. instinct will offer you
'blue calx' by aphex and 'belfast' by orbital and 'stella' by jam & spoon
which are found everywhere. instinct folx, i know you are reading. learn from
this cd, ok?
i'll give my opinions on one more:
bill laswell/pete namlook - psychonavigation
psychic and ufo revelations in the last days
angel tech
black dawn
subharmonic sd 7005-2
if this cd had been a single or an ep presenting some tightly produced trax
properly mixed and edited to proper lengths, such as, oh, 7 minutes? 10
minutes? you might just have a really awesome cd. but this is namlook, the
material is raw and probably done with very little production, maybe even
done live in one take. i think pete and bill just sat down and wanked about
a studio for a while, done some ganja, maybe some acid, and came out with
this.
the first track is 40 minutes long. for a while you get nothing but total
synth washes, it's obvious pete is just wanking around. beats float in, float
out, in, out, in, out...a bass line comes in, out, in, out, while the synths
wash on for the duration. bill is obviously the beats and bass guy, nice
job but i think they are just loops. thatbass line is still very catchy though.
the rest of the tracks stick to the same pattern.
so does it suck? hell, no. i love it. it's a total submergence into another
world, all this sound whooshing past. sure it's raw, sure it's simple, minimal
and prolly has very little in terms of musical value, but sod that, this is
ambient, this is music to listen to and to not listen to. this is music to
fall asleep to and music to sit at the edge of your chair listening in total
concentration. believe me, it's that good.
so should you get it?
only if you like this sort of stuff. to anyone else this will be utter and
total crap. only buy it if you like noise more than music.
...
perhaps just a taste of stuff to come. i'm still trying to get my review
project fully going!
more to come...