OK, I went record shopping with Tamara this afternoon, and she brought along
the infamous Selected Ambient Works 2 promo tapes, so I got to hear all of
the first tape and the first two tracks on the second. Some comments:
* No track titles. Don't know if this will carry over to the commercial
release, but all we have to go by for the time being is times.
* Only 23 tracks. The "24 tracks, 25 on vinyl" may pan out yet, but it
should be noted that only 23 are extant so far.
As for the music, this is the most ambient stuff we've heard from RDJ. I
liked quite a bit of it quite a lot, but "let's put the D back in IDM!"
types will be disappointed for sure - most of the tracks I heard don't
have any percussion at all, and none of them were danceable in the least.
It seems to me that RDJ has been listening to :zoviet-france: some; there
were moments on the tape (particularly in the last and first two tracks
on tape one) that reminded me of 'Shouting at the Ground' (which is the
only :z-f: I've heard, so take that with a grain of salt). Also, the
first track on tape two will be familiar to those of you who have the
Rephlex/ART comp, on which it appeared as "Blue Calx." At least I think
so. I haven't listened to that comp in ages. But I'm sure I've heard that
track before, and "Blue Calx" is all I can think of. Anyway, this is
all very atmospheric stuff, the comparison to Eno that Ben made a while
back is about justified: I won't be selling 'On Land' anytime soon, but
SAW2, or at least what I heard of it, establishes James as a serious,
mature composer in his field.
As for record shopping, I picked up the Infonet comp 'Usability Now' which
is really good stuff, all the people who love the Bandulu album will like
this.
C.
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(Chris.Hilker) cspot@netcom.com