Due to reasons that I'm not at liberty to discuss (mainly because they
make me look kind of dumb) I have _both_ the vinyl and CD versions of
Madman Stand. If I had to place it in a rough hierarchy with the Armani
stuff I have, it would fall at the bottom. This isn't to say that it
isn't good; it's just not as rife with goodness as some of Armani's
other work.
There are a few good tracks, most notably "Secret Bass" (only on the
CD) and "Supermarket Sweep", but on the whole, it's an incredibly
monochromatic (not to say boring) album. Plus it's just too damn heavy
-- it's mastered _very_ loud and the kick drum in almost all of the
tracks is distorted. I'm sure the effect is intentional, but it makes
mixing with it somewhat rough, and also makes listening to the whole
album a somewhat abrasive experience.
In other news, if any of you ever find a used copy of the Armani
remixes on Djax, snap that ishwit right on up. Not only do you get the
classic Hardfloor remix of "Circus Bells" (as heard on X-Mix 2!), you
get mixes from White Delight (before he got so obnoxious), Armando,
Spasms, and Mike Dearborn. Damn fine stuff, and properly aged at this
point too.
Yes, I'm still alive, and yes, I'm still writing reviews. But now that
I've joined the Organic Online Conspiracy (world domination through
server pushes!), I don't have the time to devote to this that I once
did. Keep yr eyes peeled, though, because reviews of many fine and
sundry things is on the horizon. Oh heck, here are some capsule reviews
to tide you over:
Freddy K - Soundz (ACV) [ACV1040]
Freddy K - Rage of Age (ACV) [ACVDP008]
Goofy, weird acid housy techno. Lots of crunchy beats interspersed
with odd vocal samples and the occasional bit of synthesized flute. In
parts it's very melodic, but in a good, wonky way.
Leo Anibaldi - Block One (ACV) [ACV1044]
Leo Anibaldi - Canibald (ACV) [ACVDP002]
Fuck yeah! These records are great! Demented, fast, hard acid,
alternating
with creepy ambient moments. Yeah!
Robert Armani - Right To Silence (ACV) [ACVDP006]
Robert Armani - Madman Stand (ACV) [ACVDP007]
The first is _much_ better than the second, but I like them both a lot.
The
best way to describe Armani is as a really REALLY hard house guy. Some
of
this stuff would even count as hardcore, but there's an overriding house
aesthetic guiding it all. It was worth getting "Right To Silence" just
to
have the original version of Road Tour, the Adam X remix of which is
one of
my all time faves.
Emmanuel Top - Acid Phase (Attack) [ATT-V-94 003]
Emmanuel Top - La Pipe A Eau (Attack) [ATT-V-95 001]
Emmanuel Top - Radio (Attack) [ATT-V-95 002]
Ooo boy -- everybody needs at least one Emmanuel Top 12". These are some
of the best fucking trancy techno records I've ever heard. Loopy, deep
bassy, and slow (~120-135 BPM). All kind of samey sounding, but that's
all
right, because it's a great sound. Acid, echoey bleeps and, the
occasional
bit of deep, pounding coliseum-style old-school rave madness.
H&M - Tranquilizer (Axis) [AX-001]
Inner Sanctum - Inner Sanctum (Axis) [AX-003]
Jeff Mills - The Purpose Maker (Axis) [AX-011]
Millsart - Humana (Axis) [AX-012]
X-103 - Tephra (Axis) [AX-013]
Good stuff, but it's all kinda weird. Slower and more laid-back than
most of
the stuff I've bought recently. It's taking a while to sink in, but I
think
it's the kind of music that I wake up months later with a burning
desire to
hear. That Jeff Mills guy, he's a character! X-103 is particularly
arresting, if only because the remix of Tephra is much dancier than the
original.
Insider - Enter The Electra World [World 1] (Bonzai) [BR95084]
Insider - Enter The Electra World [World 2] (Bonzai) [BR95093]
Amazing hard techno with lots of bleeps and heavily reverbed kick drum.
Somebody really got into those poundy old-school tracks that had the
crowds going nuts when raves first started, for sure. There's a lot of
boom on these slabs of vinyl.
"Blue" on _World 2_ is perhaps the only song I've ever heard that
qualifies
as deep hardcore -- it has that warm, enveloping feel that good deep
house
or trance has, but it's fast and has abrasive flanged noises at the same
time.
System 7 - Alpha Wave (Butterfly) [BFLT25]
If you buy this on vinyl, get the Butterfly version, because Butterfly's
pressing is about twice as loud as the Astralwerks version. Plus the
sleeve looks cooler. I was actually surprised by how good the System 7
mixes were. Normally, System 7 sucks the big one (too much guitar
wankery), but these mixes walk the line between progressive rock and
deep
techno (!) nicely. Plus the crowds do go apeshit for the Plastikman
mix,
yes indeed. Sad but true.
Oxidation - Icicle Gun (D*Fusion) [DFR12004]
More quality funky bizness from D*Fusion. Lots of pretty trancy chords
over
the top, but not overdone. Plus some of the beats are just too cool for
words (all stuttery and shit). Rhythmically complex and upbeat, yet
non-dorky. Cooooool.
Emmanuel Top - Emmanuel Top (Dance Opera) [DO 420]
Not as good as the other Emmanuel Top stuff, but still lots of fun. Very
fast and ravey, with the old-school rave breakbeats thrown in. I kind of
like this, kind of don't. I think most of my disappointment stems from
the
fact that it didn't sound like "Radio", which is one of the finer songs
I've
heard in a long while.
Robert Armani - The Remixes (Djax Up-Beats) [DJAX177]
Two words: Hardfloor remix. The Hardfloor remix of Circus Bells is one
of
the greatest classics of the rave world ever. Acid, cool sireny noises,
and
more acid. Lotsa thump. Hardfloor. Need I say more? The doublepack also
has
cool songs remixes by White Delight, Mike Dearborn, and other cool acid
house folks. It was worth what I paid for it, no doubt (don't even
_ask_).
Suburban Hell - Shell Shock (Djax Up-Beats) [DJAX159]
I've been looking for this record ever since I first heard "List 2" on
the
World Techno Tribe compilation. This is great, crunchy techno. It
doesn't
sound like it's three years old at all. Some of it is _really_ weird
sounding, too. A treasure, and also worth the price. I was pleased but
unsurprised to discover this 12" was by Edge of Motion, who has been
cranking out the quality Dutch techno for quite some time now.
Jammin' Unit - Flower Swing (Djungle Fever) [DF012]
A pricey little tune ($16.99 for the 12"), but it's on yellow-orange
vinyl
and it's fucking WORTH IT! It's got some of the creepiest intro samples
I've
heard in a while: "There's you, me, and a dead girl. Let's see what
happens." Plus a funky, skittery rhythm loop and ominous sounding
thumps and
scrapes in the background. The other tunes are quality Khan fast acid,
with
lots of unusually techno-sounding stuff in it.
Woody McBride - Balance (Drop Bass) [DBN013]
Ahhh, great shit on Drop Bass. Acid. Deranged acid, but acid. There's
really
not a whole lot more you can say about Woody, but that this is really
fucking fun to DJ and to dance to. The Midwest Hardcorps knows how to
have a
good time.
X-Trax - DJ Tim & DJ Misjah (Fokuss) [X-002]
X-Trax - Special Acid Edition (Fokuss) [X-005]
X-Trax - X-Connection (Fokuss) [X-006]
X-Trax - Volume 3 (Fokuss / Aura) [SUSSX021]
Like the Emmanuel Top stuff, this is excellent deep trancy (BOOM BOOM)
techno. There's some surprisingly housey sounds in what is otherwise
bass-heavy, ominous trance. It works, though. These tracks aren't very
intelligent sounding, but they _will_ completely fill the floor, have no
doubt. "Deeper inDeeper inDeeper inDeeper inDeeper inside myself..."
Cerpent - Pacific / Mark V (Growth) [GTH104]
Very very VERY melodic trance, but in an off-kilter way. The whole
record is
deeply soaked in reverb and echo, which keeps it from being bright and
jolly. It sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of the ocean, but
still
is plenty danceable. Cool label art, as well.
Bandulu - Fight The Oppressor (Infonet) [INF20T]
Bandulu - Now / Non-Stop (Infonet) [INS001]
Fight The Oppressor is good, but Now / Non-Stop is just
plain strange. Very very loopy and kind of funky in an odd way. I don't
really see it working on the dancefloor, but it's fun listening and it
would
work wonders on the floor if you built it up right.
C.J. Bolland - Starship Universe (Internal) [LIARX22]
I REALLY REALLY like one side of this three-sided EP, like one side,
and the
other side, eh, it's all right. The good side just slews all over the
map,
though. CJ Bolland has been making rave soundtracks since before there
were
raves (almost), and his expertise shows. Yeah, tracks like this
manipulate
the crowd somewhat (wait! Here comes a snare roll! Let's see those arms
up
in the air!), but the musical quality more than compensates.
Stripped-down,
fast techno, with acid farts and samples from Highlander.
Robert Hood - Moveable Parts Chapter 1 (M-Plant) [MP304]
This EP caught me off guard. I was expecting the same loopy, housy
techno I
usually get from Robert Hood (who used to be Underground Resistance's
MC, is
still good buds with Jeff Mills, and collaborates with him on a lot of
the
Axis records), but this is a beast of entirely a different breed. Yes,
it's
still a very repetitive record, heavy on the loops, but it's also darn
fast
and abrasive. Although it's not really hard, it would work well in a
hard
techno set. See how I reduce everything to DJing?
Cristian Vogel - Beginning To Understand (Mille Plateaux) [MPLP8]
Well, maybe not, because this record is definitely targetted at the home
listening audience. I don't even think I can describe Cristian's sound
to
someone who hasn't heard any of his stuff. Abrasive beats, nothing
really
approaching a traditional melody, and heavy experimentation. You'd
either
have to be exceptionally creative and/or sadistic to unleash the
majority of
the tracks on this album on a dancing audience. Even the acidheads would
have difficulty getting inside this music whilst bopping about. Great
stuff,
but weird.
Consolidated - Brutal Equation (Nettwerk / IRS) [V13822]
Consolidated - Consolidated (Nettwerk / IRS / Zoth Ommog) [W1-6308]
Classics. You're shit if you don't own the Consolidated EP. The phattest
industro-hip-hop beats EVER. Just my opinion, of course. :)
The Mover - The Final Sickness (PCP) [PCP932]
White Breaks Frankfurt - Volume 1 (PCP) [WB01]
The Mover & Lunatic Asylum - Frequency Surfer (PCP / Dance Extacy)
[DE2025]
Heh heh heh. This music is eee-vil. Take an old, beat-up 909, a Casio
SK-1
and a piece of shit old analog keyboard and record it straight into a
cheap,
old ghetto blaster. Make sure you do lots of drugs and are in a really
bad
mood before you start recording, but keep in mind that people
(preferably
skinheads on crystal meth, wearing black leather over their entire
bodies)
will want to dance to it (preferably in really big stadiums at 3 in the
morning) at high volume. It helps if none of the songs are over 3
minutes
long, because you're going to be cramming them 5 on a side onto a 12",
or as
a 45rpm side of a 10". Have fun! Go wild!
Mescalinium United / Aphex Twin - We Have Arrived Remixes (R&S) []
Same as above, only now make sure you're in a REALLY bad and/or sadistic
mood, because you're the Aphex Twin. Fucking brutal, man. Maybe that's
why
it's one of my favorite records of all time.
Sonic Solution - Arab Girl / Bagdad (R&S) [RS93004]
Perhaps my opinion of this track is colored by the fact that the tape I
first heard it on also featured Moby's "Move" played at 45 rpm instead
of
the customary 33. At +8. Perhaps not. Good, solid old-school techno by
CJ
Bolland and Steve Cop. Bagdad has lots of neat samples from the
old-school
classic, "The Horn Track". Heavy on the straight-ahead kick drum. It's
actually pretty stripped-down stuff for 1993, when it was released.
The Source Experience - Synesthesia (R&S) [RS95055]
All right. I love this guy, but he seems to be getting more boring over
time. I like the most recent album, but hardly ever listen to it
because of
its sameyness. With that caveat, the b-side of this 12" is very good,
in a
traxxy (read: very directed towards the dancers) sort of way. But he
better
start getting more interesting, or he'll lose his coveted status as
ozymandias' Favorite Techno Artist.
Tournesol - Moonfunk (R&S) [RS95074]
Blarrgh. Every so often I have to buy a loser, just to stay in shape.
Bad
hip hop, bad jungle, pointless ambient. I have something else by these
guys
that rocks ass, but this don't. In fact, it sucks. Avoid.
Locust - Weathered Well (R&S / Apollo) [AMB3929]
Locust - Natural Composite (R&S / Apollo) [AMB4935]
Ahh, more like it! This is ambient music with class. It also isn't
really
ambient, but don't tell Mark Van Hoen that. Lots of very fast, skittery
beats underneath menacing synthesizer washes. Occasional vocal snippets
drift in at random moments just to show that Mark cares. It's very
discordant and spooky, and is it any surprise that I think that's a Very
Good Thing? Completely unplayable as dance music (don't tell me that,
though, because I'm going to try to use it on your hapless selves at a
convenient point in the near future), but a lot more interesting than
most
of the garbage that gets called "intelligent dance music". Most of
_that_
only qualifies under the M of the name.
Accelerator - Accelerator II (Reload) [REL95205]
I really like the Accelerator records, but I'm somewhat at a loss to
describe them. Take the hard bits of Jeff Mills' Waveform Transmissions,
smooth them out a bit, make them a bit more moody, and add some really
haunting and beautiful synth washes, and you have Accelerator. There's a
sterile kind of funk at work here which keeps the music from being
hardcore. Let's put it this way: I really like this 12", and it fits in
_extremely_ well with the music I like to spin to the crowd. The fact
that
it is actually quite intelligently put together is only a bonus.
Kinesthesia - Volume 1 (RePHLeX) [CAT 011]
Kinesthesia - Volume 2 (RePHLeX) [CAT 014]
Ummmm... hmmm... About half of the tracks on these two EPs are hideously
weird and nasty hardcore tracks, and the other half are very pretty
melodic
techno. The hardcore tracks move from place to place without settling
down
and evince a very relaxed attitude towards structure (which is about the
only thing about them which is relaxed). Sometimes I think that that's a
good thing, sometime's I don't like it very much at all. The pretty
songs
are very pretty, which again leaves me feeling ambivalent. Overall, I'm
very
glad I have these two EPs -- they're experiments, and as such are worth
cherishing.
Chelsea Grin - Animal Factory (Sabrettes) [SR021]
These girls are _mean_, and they're obviously out to make a point (the
songs
are titled "Slicing Machine" and "Piggies"). I think the point is lost
on
Americans, who as a whole are much less up on the whole animal-rights
movement than the British, but maybe I'm too pessimistic. Anyway, the
dark
mood of the makers comes through strongly in the music. The beats are
_very_
distorted, and are pretty much all that make up the song. There are
muffled
and tweaked samples in the background, along with a hint of acid, but
that's
all. Good for when you need to clean the goo out of the speakers and
you're
just not feeling very happy with the human race. Strongly recommended.
Just
owning it makes me feel better.
Innersphere - Out Of Body Remixes (Sabrettes) [SR024R]
This 12" surprised me. The original "Out of Body" is basically ambient
dub,
and the two remixes here are pretty radical reworks. The remix by
Innersphere ditches most of the original elements of the song (ahh,
those
are the best kinds of remixes! :) and turns the song into a tense
hardcore
number that's so crunchy it's almost unplayable. Sabrettes seems to
specialize in that kind of music. The other side is an Orb remix. If
everything the Orb has been doing recently has been this cool, I need
to pay
closer attention to them. Their mix is some rockin' ambient. I like it
lots.
Pyrex Detox - The Bells of Induction (Sabrettes) [SR017]
Smooth, trancy techno with cleverly-used samples. The title track (well,
actually, the whole EP has a title, but I'm too lazy to look it up right
now) uses bell samples so subtly that it took me a while to even figure
out
what they were. Dark without being ominous, and crunchy without being
very
hard. This label has some serious class.
Sapiano - Spike It! (Sabrettes) [SR010]
Sapiano - Mark 1 / Pound Flesh (Sabrettes) [SR022]
Hmm... perhaps the titles give a hint as to what the music sounds like?
Pretty generically hard techno, but with enough twists to keep it
interesting. It's worth mentioning that this stuff is _very_ minimal,
which
makes it good stuff to mix. Plus the B-side of Spike It! is solid dark
ambient stuff. I swear, there's very little difference between ambient
techno and ambient industrial at times.
Turbulent Force - Distorted Fantasy (Sabrettes) [SR026]
I can see why Sabrettes stuff doesn't fly off the shelves. It takes a
very
particular kind of aesthetic to appreciate it. This is a fast, minimal
techno EP that sounds much like the above Sapiano stuff, but which also
has
its own distinguishing moments. Sorry I'm not more specific, but it's
not
particularly describable music. I like it, but I know it's not
everybody's
cup of tea.
Winx - How's The Music? (Sorted) [SO20091]
Josh Wink may be an egotistical fashion victim who cranks out the cheese
whiz tracks, but there's a reason for his popularity. I love this
record,
and have loved it ever since I discovered another copy of it hiding in
Tobin's crate. Although I strongly prefer the "Original Philly Mix",
with
its repeated "how's the music" samples, I also like the other mix on
that
side of the EP. The two mixes on the other side are pretty tepid (like
most
of Josh's stuff), but the a-sides are classics. Minimal without being
boring, somewhere between house, trance, and techno, and dark without
being
brooding. It's amazing that he can put records like this one, and then
go
crank out cheesy crowd pleasers like "Higher States of Consciousness".
Felix Da Housecat - The Chaos Engine (Touche) [TO9514]
Heads up! Felix is in da house! The reason Felix Stallings is my very
favoritest house artist is that he completely fucks with every
expectation
you might have about house and techno. His music sounds like both at the
same time, without the lack of quality that the merger of the two sounds
normally implies. I also think that Jamez and Dobre (nee Tata Box
Inhibitors) are the last saviors of trance -- they make it interesting
to
me. So when they remix Felix, I'm bound to be interested in the result.
Which is perfect -- it's nothing that would stand out from the crowd,
but
it's an effortlessly breezy house / trance / techno track that builds
and
fades. It's packed with cool, smooth sounds and blurs dance music
categories
to the point of meaninglessness. The b-side tracks are cool as well.
Tata Box Inhibitors - Protein (Touche) [TO9512]
The single most perfect trance 12" produced in 1995. This is one of the
few pieces of music I can think of that make me trance out every time I
hear them. Jamez and Dobre are unsung geniuses. Subtle keyboard washes
and relaxed acid lines come together to make a set of songs that
simultaneously remind me of :zoviet-france:, Speedy J, and I don't know
what else, but it's a good mix. A must-own piece of vinyl. Beautiful.
Transcendant. And stuff.
Tetraflux - The Untold Story (Touche) [TO9509]
Take a soap opera theme song. Polish it a bit, but stay heavy on the
piano. Filter it some. Let it build and develop a bit, and then drop a
rhythm track under it. Fade it out quickly, and then bring it back just
as
fast, only with a big beat underneath it. There you go, that's "The
Untold
Story". I like it, but it's sort of a goofy track. The b-sides are a bit
housy for my taste, but sometimes I get into them.
RAC - Double-Jointed (Warp) [WAP61]
A good review to end with. This is bad music to listen to with a
hangover. The rhythms are clattery and loose, the acid is thick and
bass-heavy, and this could be more electro-influenced, but not without
trying really hard. I was surprised by how fast and abrasive it is
(considering Warp's generally more sedate reputation), but not in a bad
way. In fact, I think I like this even more than the last RAC EP I
bought,
which I liked quite a lot.
You can probably tell that I originally wrote these for another friend
of mine and as such they aren't as polished as I normally like, but
hey, they're reviews, right? Hopefully I'll polish some of these up and
get them out over the next few weeks, along with some of the other
stuff I've been harboring for a while. Talk to y'all later.
yrz,
ozy
ozymandias G desiderata ogd@organic.com Tomorrow's Web Sites Today
(415)284-6888
http://www.organic.com Organic Online