Yeah, you're right about Rephlex's contrasting releases, I think they
really do care about what they release so much that they're like releasing
these 'red herring' or 'joke' releases so as to look like they're not up
their own arse like a lot of labels end up doing which is not cool
really... that Ovuca 'King Stacey' is a belting release, but then I know
that the release or so after that will probably be taking the piss like
that Bodenstandig 2000 pile of shit which I just never listen to, same goes
for that L'ektrogirl - now that must be a spoof, funny though, you've got
to see the funny side though. There seems to be a pattern forming... In
the early days of Rephlex all the releases were consistently brilliant, now
they're few and far between, shame. Waste of money. But I still buy their
stuff... they know that the 'completists' among us will buy it, so they use
that to their advantage. Maybe Rephlex will realise this and hopefully
change the pattern again when it starts getting predictable...
<PMR>
quoted 38 lines Ensemble -- Sketch Proposals (Rephlex CAT101)>Ensemble -- Sketch Proposals (Rephlex CAT101)
>
>Rephlex is a label that by turns amazes and frustrates fans. For every
>Bogdan Raczynski there's a DMX Crew (or Like A Tim) -- brilliant state
>of the art stuff contrasted with prankish silliness. It's like they
>really don't give a fuck -- which is interesting with respect to
>using conceptual art as a business model, but annoying when you've dropped
>your entertainment dollar on something that's unlistenable.
>
>All is forgiven when they give us something as musically emotional involving
>as the new Ensemble record. Ensemble seems to me to pick up several threads
>in electronic music and fuse them into something wonderful.
>
>>From Pole/Oval/Etc they've incorporated the glitch aesthetic of percussion.
>>From Seefeel/My Bloody Valentine they've picked up the torch of sad,
>vibrato-free female vocals. In fact when listening to Ensemble there are
>times when it seems like that My Bloody Valentine album that will never
>happen -- pop music that celebrates vagueness and lateral discursion.
>
>And the assymetric lurching melodicism balanced against broken-radio
>breakbeats seems to me to deliver on a promise that Oval never did, of making
>an actual connection to the listener.
>
>Which isn't to say that Ensemble is derivative, except in the sense that
>no music occurs in a vacuum. They've just managed to synthesize their
>influences into something that works. It is music that I'd love to see
>performed live, really loud, even as it's overall impact is of quiet.
>
>I'm hoping that they have a long career with Rephlex as they seem
>to have plenty to say ...
>
>
>kent williams -- kent@avalon.net
>
>
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