(continued from part 1)
Shuttle 358: optimal.lp
CD, 12K, 1999
The only disc I've even found tolerable on Taylor Deupree's microsound
label 12K to date turns out to be a great one: the debut of Dan Abrams
(after the only tolerable track on the .aiff compilation). While the ambience
on this one is fairly shallow, that in no means compromises it: Abrams
lets us drift into the murmuring, elusive ambience, and as all great
ambient pieces do, each track forms a skyscape, with beautiful hooks
and focal points drifting by, floating, morphing and reforming again
before our ears with an altered sound and new purpose while our
sweet, sweet constancy stays in the still evolving backdrop, which
moves forward in life, but at a slower pace. This album is probably
the best pure ambient LP of 1999: ultimately more solid and
more edited than the more acclaimed Vrs Mbnt Pcs by Jochem Paap.
Abrams' tracks have no dead weight: the length works, the sounds
all work, and the tracks never grow dull or meandering, which is
so, so difficult in ambient. A refreshing lack of onanism and a
beautiful knowledge of sound interplay and gentle, breathing
aesthetics top off one of the almost unrecognized monuments of 1999.
Thug: Isolated Rhythm Chock
CD, Aural Industries, 1999
Debut full-length from Thug, a homegrown IDM list member,
after a slew of compilation appearances, demos, et al. and it
is quite good: after Dettinger’s Intershop and possibly
B. Fleischmann’s Music For Poploops it ties with about four
other records in the home listeing arena.
The closest reference point for Thug’s sound is in
the classic 313 and UK 313 area: elements of Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Black Dog, Nuron or MK are all present on this disc, but the reason
this album is strong and one of the notable releases of IDM’s
most fruitful year (in terms of quantity) to date lies in Thug’s brilliant
updating of the existing systems of programming and sound.
The music is replete with gorgeous soundwaves and upbuilding,
detailed rhythm sequencers, and has that nice quality of running
both uptempo and downtempo at the same time. The album on the
whole reminds me of B12’s Electro-Soma, from the ambient intro
(albiet a shorter, faster one) through the danceable 313 to the
moodier, introspective pieces to the eventual unification of both.
Where Black Dog is jazzy and overly mystical or where Redcell
is too abstract or where Red Planet borders on the line of cheese
Thug stays firmly in the emotional, but not in your face portion of
aesthetically pleasing IDM. While I wouldn’t say this album is the
equal of Electro-Soma, Bytes or certainly not Red Planet (my
problem is the sounds aren’t varied enough, at times the
overlying beautiful sounds are too slow and wafting and ultimately
the album is not as smooth in transitions or unity as the best
Detroit or UK tracks), it is absolutely worth listening too and in this
modern age (1997-2000) of total Black Dog or Autechre
cloning a triumph for individual interpretation. After all, how many
producers can
even be mentioned in the same breath as the legends without
cracking a smile, and for Thug to do it on his debut speaks
extremely well of the potential he holds for his next release, a
well which if tapped, could place him in the Western techno canon.
Dettinger: Intershop
CD, Kompakt, 1999
Oh my. I’m trying to find a way to describe this record without
drooling all over it. Here’s a start. It’s my favorite record of last year,
out
of the high triple-digit amount I bought in 1999. It’s better than anything
I’ve ever heard out of Cologne, and aside from Basic Channel the
best thing I’ve ever heard out of Germany. When I revise my top 100
of all time list, this will probably make the top 20. I would mention this
record in the same breath as Aphex’s Selected Ambient Works II or
Tetsu Inoue’s Ambiant Otaku in terms of ambient style (more on that
later), and it is the first record I’ve heard to truly incorporate ambience,
minimalism, tech-house, 313 and IDM together into a rousingly successful
package, and this record makes everyone’s favorite record of 1998,
Boards of Canada’s Music Has the Right to Children, look played.
Well, I failed: that’s pretty much all drooling. Ultimately this record is
an ambient one, but unlike FAX or SAW V.2 (our benchmarks for ambience)
it incorporates the bold innovations of Gas or Burger/Ink: namely burying
the kick drum under a thunderous, meandering wall of reverb and echo.
The best tracks (#2 and #5 for me) reduce the listener to a cathartic,
fetal ball of emotional overload, and the music’s power and effect is just
magical. Take the best aspects of German tech-house and Inoue or
Namlook, drop the rest, and mix gently, and you have Dettinger’s
Intershop, one of the only recent albums I would place up there
as (just about) universally essential.
- And now for the classics....
As One: Art of Prophecy
CD, Shield, 1997(?)
I wanted to mention this one, as it is a relative favorite of mine,
and I think one of Kirk's most underappreciated and forgotten works.
Released on the obscure (to us) Shield label out of France, this is
a total departure from Kirk's smooth A.R.T.y past which would
later move into another complete departure in the form of the
Planetary Folklore CD on Mo'Wax (which I'll attempt to forget
about). This one is a funk/dancefloor monster: apply all of Kirk's
production skills and tricks from co-existing with the best producers
the UK has ever had to a catchy, Parliament Funkadelic mix and
you have Detroit techno with funk licks as well as funk sensibilities.
The tracks are catchy, provide the physical response (dancing, shaking,
foot tapping, head nodding) and should just about tear the roof off
if you play them out live. I've really, really been getting into this one.
No, it's nothing like "Reflections", and perhaps not as emotional or
indelible. But for a rare good-time, Kahlua-drenched excursion by one of
aesthetic techno's master producers, you'll love this disc.
Reload: A Collection of Short Stories
CD, Infonet, 1994(?)
Reload/Global Communication is a name slowly being forgotten
by people newly introduced to techno. While in 2000 people are
not being introduced to the Black Dog or Beltran or B12 _that much_,
Reload seems almost entirely forgotten, just a name that occasionally
comes up among us old hands as one of the acts that just "got it right".
Part of Reload's obscurity comes from having fathered almost no
influences. This disc is furiously intimidating: it will tolerate no
half-assed
or haphazard clones, nor will it accept any unskilled labor to sully its
reputation. It sounds nothing like Bytes or Reflections or Objets d'A.R.T.:
it is a dark, brooding entity, each track completely different and yet
inseparable from that which precedes or follows it. Going from almost
pitch black industrial to sublime electronic highs to minimal, tense
interludes, it seems to be a comprehensive summa of all electronic
music, taking in all the influences and styles of the time, and yet
crushing them into an almost unrecognizable pulp. This disc is almost
unclassifiable, and destroyed Reload's future in the same way
Citizen Kane did Orson Welles': how could they possibly top this?
How could anything of less magnitude or towering authority be
tolerated? This is probably IDM's best album ever, one that will not
bend to the ardures of repeated listening, one that refuses to be
accepted on anything but its own terms? On first listen you will
probably be blown away: you are taken on a musical journey no
one else has yet provided - this really is a continuous quest through
uncharted waters. This is what this music is all about, the peak
of what IDM has accomplished. While Detroit or Germany provides
classic track after classic track, IDM deals with the concept album,
the work as a consistent whole, and I haven't heard anything be
half as successful as this. You'll probably want to throw 90%
of your music out the window after you hear this.
That's all for this time. The next installment hopefully will
come in the next week. All comments/discussion on the
above wholeheartedly welcomed and encouraged! I'm happy
to defend my position or to analyze and reflect on yours
at some length. Peace,
Matt
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