:::Artificial Intelligence II: more electronic listening music from Warp
1. Mark Franklin : Release To The System
Good stuff. Nice use of female vocal samples that Im not usually too
keen on. Nothing in particular I feel I can say about this track except
that it all works together very nicely.
2. The Higher Intelligence Agency : Selinite
A nice chirpy little track backed by one of those easy "idm" beats.
3. Link : Arcadian
Link is another work by the Pritchard/Middleton duo behind Global
Communications. An airy track with some nice ambient segues which
break between the shuffley beats. Good stuff.
4. B12 : Scriptures
This one carries that distinctive sound held throughtout B12s
Electrosoma album from the first series. More of the same - perhaps a
little more upbeat.
5. Autechre : Chatter
For some reason im not quite clear of, I love this track. It opens with
some nice squirty acid sounds which continue throughout - but then, out
of nowhere, comes this wicked shuffley beat. Builds up a little with some
ascending and descending tones and finally comes to a halt after close to
seven minutes. Two thumbs up.
6. Speedy J : Symmetry
More good stuff from Jochem Paap who brought us one of the highlights of
the first series. An airy piece full of reaching chords that build up
into a huge amount of colour. Very uplifting.
7. Beaumont Hannant : Utuba
My Beaumont Hannant experience has really only been limited to his remix
work, most recently with Autechres Basscadet remixes. This is a nice
little track with some sharp beats and a nice construction which
works very effectively.
8. Richard H Kirk : Reality Net
A slow sounding, sluggish track kept alive by an interesting melody and
repetative warbling tone. Works very well, its very smooth.
9. Balil : Parasight
My first thought was "wow, this is Balil?" A nice upbeat acid track
from the boys at Black Dog.
10. Seefeel : Spangle
As I mentioned before in a previous review, this is one of the few
Seefeel tracks that I really like. It has a very chidlike chime melody,
and when that high pitched vocal sample comes in it becomes quite haunting.
11. Darrel Fitton : Blipsalt
A long track which works itself along over waving spacey synths.
12. Polygon Window : My Teapot
To be honest, when I first heard this I was very dissapointed. On a
first listen it sounded like a poorly structured, plodding mess of sound
but now im not so sure. Its along the same lines as "Phlid" in many way
using the same or similar farty samples. Ive listened to it many times
now though and I get the get feeling there is genius behind this madness
- its awkwardnes is beginning to make sense in my mind. The only thing I
can really say is to take a listen for yourself.
:::Summary:
This is a battle of the idm heavyweights and one of my favourite releases
of the year so far. Its a good sampler to get to know many of the
musicians who are talked about so frequently on this list but, on the
other hand, I wish Warp had introduced us to more new faces so we could
expect more of the forthcoming releases. This vinyl version appears to be
a better pressing than previous Warp pressings, and came with a free 12"
which I shall review at another time. More bonus points for using the
thread on the first artificial intelligence compilation which was
cross-posted between idm and the uk-dance mailing list in the artwork.
Buy it.
_______
(__,-, \
/ /\ \ Alan M Parry <finger me for PGP key>
/,_) \ \
(/ \\ fluid@hyperreal.com :65 FD F9 9F F2 23 F8 CF:
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