INTELLIGENT DANCE MUSIC TIMES VOLUME TWO ISSUE FOUR
Hope you all had very merry appropriate seasonal festivities.
A Generic Non-Denominational Gift Giving Mythological Figure dropped
in on me and left some presents under my Co-Opted Pagan Symbol.
Survey says...
Dread Zone: 360 Degrees
Creation CRECD 162
135 5:04 House Of Dread
123 7:09 L.O.V.E.
125 6:09 Chinese Ghost Story
91 6:50 The Good The Bad And The Dread
140 7:06 The Warning
126 5:23 Dream On
128 8:22 Far Encounter
70 5:38 Skeleton At The Feast
130 7:00 Rastafarout
Twirl your dreads and break out a spliff the size of your leg cos this
is designed for all the closet techno-rastas in the area. Greg
Roberts, who is one half of Dread Zone, used to be in Big Audio
Dynamite - back when they were good. Now he's hooked up with someone
named Tim Bran (biographical info appreciated) and they've taken some
of the B.A.D. elements and moved them even further into the techno
arena. House Of Dread opens the proceedings on a strong note, with a
brief intro of sound effects before the bass 'n' beat kick in and kick
in hard. Lots of modern twirly synth effects over a classic dub
foundation. I have an irrational hatred of simplistic reggae melodies
- too often they interfere with the tranciness of dub (this is what
ruins a lot of Dub Syndicate for me), but the melodies at work on this
record are wonderful and compliment the trance element rather than
disrupt it! This is really one innovative and fantastic album from
start to finish and would have been a strong contender for my Best Of
93 list had it come out earlier. We'll just have to save a special
place for it on next year's list, that's all.
Sun Electric: Kitchen
R&S RS 933 CD
2:47 U.F.O.
133 5:20 Entrance
140 6:33 Pitcheon
127 6:20 Sarotti
145 5:35 :-) and :-(
5:17 R-Gent
118 4:58 Sonification
130 8:54 Up The Drain
130 5:09 Osram 509
130 5:27 Qwertz
102 5:51 Beauty O'Locco
3:01 Lichterfelde
I guess I'm a total Orb whore at this point. Despite the fact that
Sun Electric (Tom Thiel and Max Loderbauer) have absolutely no Orb
connection any more, I bought this incredibly overpriced CD. Well,
it's not bad, not by any stretch of the imagination. Nice, electronic
trance grooves with a generous helping of interesting sounds and
melodies to separate it from the large mass of faceless 909 acid
tracks. Of course, the track that inspired me to buy it (O'Locco)
appears here in a radically different version - "Beauty O'Locco" - but
it's still fantastic. So despite the fact that nothing is really
unpleasant about this disc, I still feel a little miffed that I had to
shell out *that* much money. Call me a cheapskate. It's worth
listening to, but not at extortionate prices.
Astralasia: Pitched Up At The Edge Of Reality
Magick Eye EYE CDLP 4
117 8:11 Celestial Ocean (Seven Seas Mix)
100 6:51 Unveria Zect
130 6:25 Ursa Major Cowslip
65 9:14 Jongle Kakano
115 8:07 The Truth
126 9:43 Boryss
7:46 Twilight World
110 9:04 Principles Of Pleasure
7:36 Sands Of Time (Desert Mix)
This is one weird mama-jama. I bought it on the strength of their
track "Twilight Whirl" which featured on the godlike "Feed Your Head"
ambient masterpiece (it is also on this album, although titled
"Twilight World"). But this is a whole other kettle of fish...
every time you think you have a handle on where one of the songs is
going, it surprises you. Take the opener - ambient electronic swirls
give way to a nice chunky drumloop with some technoish vocal gating
and bright synth stabs. Then all of a sudden this total cheezoid
house piano line comes in replete with disco string whirl and English
waif/girl oohing and aahing - it's like a William Orbit track gone
horribly wrong! And then it slips back into techno weirdness. And
then they play *both* themes at the same time. The rest of the album
is a similarly confusing blend of Enigma, Orb and Madonna. Very
melodic though, and that tends to carry most of it, although sometimes
the melodies are just a little *too* cheesy. Biggest disappointment
as far as I was concerned was the lack of spaced-out ambience that
they displayed in such fine form on "Feed Your Head" - I was hoping
for an album full of "Twilight World"s... Still, not bad.
Jon Drukman jdrukman%dlsun87@oracle.com
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This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence.