IDM Mailing Archive

re: the KLF project straight from the source. Mika Vainio mentioned this to me today. his words... "We [Panasonic] just did a remix for Einsturzende Neubauten... and another for KLF. They're making a spectacular 50-minute orchestral version of 'What Time Is Love?' and we did a remix of the brass version of the track (from _Acid Brass_?), and it will be released by Blast First." Vainio has two solo albums coming out; one (as Philus) on S?kh? (an album which, he says, is similar to the music released by Ryoji Ikeda. though he hadn't heard anything by Ikeda until after finishing the Philus recordings) and another - the first to be released under his own name - on Touch UK. both should be out in September. to answer an older IDM-L question... no TB-303 is used during live Panasonic performances... just an 808, a 101, and many custom-built (by a friend of the band, not by Vainio and Vaisanen themselves) synthesizers. PHOTEK Modus Operandi (Astralwerks ASW 6207) 1. the hidden camera 2. smoke rings 3. minotaur 4. aleph 1 5. 124 6. axiom 7. trans 7 8. modus operandi 9. kjz 10. the 5th column Waiting patiently for Rupert Parkes to unleash his debut LP has paid off. "The Hidden Camera" sounds better here, although it's identical to the 6:47 version on the single. Parkes is to drum n' bass what Kirk Degiorgio is to Detroit Techno (it's all too appropriate that Photek has released a 12" on OpART); they use the traditional sounds of their chosen forms in a way which is at once both classic and unconventional. "Smoke Rings" and "Trans 7," for instance, are fantastic pieces of Techstep. they have all the trimmings: compressed snares and monstrous undulating bass stabs, vocal samples which have been drained of the 'human' factor, and a sleek metallic edge. but these are also so much more than 'just another Techstep track' excursions. the emotions and atmospheres are palpably dark and visceral. Parkes strikes you in the gut without resorting to clich?d gangsta samples or cartoonish 'badness'. there are incredible breaks just before "Smoke Rings" hits with its hardest action. what sounds like an elevator rising up from the bowels of Hell pauses and leaves you wondering what could possibly be lurking behind those steel doors. when the doors open and the beats (beast?) make a leap for your jugular, they're even more feral than anything your imagination could conjure. most of the album's tracks inhabit this dark and hyper-futuristic comic book setting. lightness of the earlier Aquarius cuts and the Studio Pressure series seems to have diffused. you can hear hints of it in D?ppeler-effected reareview mirrored bells and chimes ("Minotaur"), bue even here the sounds are threatening and shadowy. if _Modus Operandi_ has an overall sound, it's one of extreme paranoia. there's a feel of technological menace, a continuation of the 21st century voyeurisism of the "Hidden Camera" EP. breakbeats could just as easily be gunshots echoing in the tensed air of a shootout. "Aleph 1" uses light (almost electro) synth bleeps and stalking bass in a way which recalls the film _Runaway (that early Michael Crichton techno-potboiler with Kirstie Alley and Gene Simmons(!)) and its world of ridiculous, but sophisticated, robotic weaponry. the hazy synth patches and the presence of that electro-melody put "Aleph 1" in the same class as Jacobs Optical Stairway's experiments in Detroit/Drum n' Bass fusion. these patches and the blunted Detroit-isms (handclap percussion, brooding synths, a peppering of breakbeats) carry over into "124." the whole album actually sounds 'mixed' and works best as a single 70:13 Jungle 'epic'. "Axiom" is one of the most interesting tracks on _Modus Operandi_, employing an eerie repeatedly-triggered sample (which sounds like bickering Martians), great gusts of wind, a forlorn single-violin string sample, and rolling stacatto breaks. combinatining "Modus Operandi" and "K J Z" (Kirk's Jazz) is brilliant. the title track is the album's one breath of untainted air. a double-bass line and electric piano tinklings - very cool, very mellow - are linked to the earlier tracks by an unsettled string patch which hovers overhead. otherwise it's a respite from the menace, falling into a darker Fretless AZM groove somewhat reminiscent of both the incidental music from 70s' cop-shows (especially one set in San Francisco) and the low-slung swing of Mo' Wax or the Wu-Tang Clan. "K J Z," a much more uptempo excursion which uses the same elements but augments them with fiercely creative effected-breakbeats, falls into place perfectly. the upward shift in momentum pulls the album towards a fitting conclusion: "The 5th Column," that mystically enlightened sword-clashing, gong-bashing, breakbeat-pounding, wall-shaking companion to "Two Sword Technique." So what has Parkes done that few (if any) other pivotal junglists have not? he hasn't thrown together a collection of singles and outtakes and passed it off as an album. the time taken with _Modus Operandi_ shows in its seamless execution and coherence. Photek's album is also a classical 'junglist' opus. it illustrates the rift between Parkes and the "funglists/" the artists using breakbeats in avant-garde fashion (the Mego posse, Bisk, ?-Ziq, AFX). breakbeats are not the main attraction in Photek's album... they're actually used with incredible restraint. there's nothing gimmicky about this music - no timestretches, no puffed-up samples, no failed desperate attempts to be clever and play too many cards at once (a fate to which artists like Tom Jenkinson and the Spymaniacs occasionally succumb). _Modus Operandi_ is clean, elegant, and impeccably produced. it's studio-perfect but not overdone. it's the album we've expected Parkes to make, and he has not disappointed us. 9/10 there's a collection of Source Direct singles coming out on Astralwerks. i'll post the track listing as soon as i have it. and Luke Slater's _Freek Funk_ LP his first for NovaMute, should be hitting the streets on 10-21 !!!!! ... will post a review as soon as i can cheers! GuerillaG2-G4 gg2g4ink@sprynet.com np: Rising From the Red Sand cassette #2