Notes on a couple things I hadn't heard before:
'Weirs' - Yuck, this is one ugly record. Manages to be boring and annoying
at the same time. Picture a 30 second Black Dog filler track, stretched
out over nine minutes, only without any further development, and you'll
have an idea of the typical track on this. There's one track that's just
the same two arpeggios repeated over and over for fifteen minutes or so,
with wanky analogue buzzing over it. I had discounted Jon's "Rephlex fans,
admit you've been duped" position before, since although I hadn't been
gaga over much of the stuff on the label, there were some good releases
(but a two-way tie between those two Mu-Ziq tracks for track of the year
'94? no way, jose), but after having seen some positive words about this,
I really have to wonder. Just terrible. Yes, I've only listened to it once,
but I refuse to subject myself to it again. It's that bad.
'The Trip Hop Test Part One' - Fuck yeah! I thought. A domestic comp with
the Dust Bros, Skylab, and Lemon Interupt's "Minneapolis." Turns out
"Minneapolis" is edited down to about five minutes (right when the guitars
come in), so it still isn't available in any worthwhile sense on CD (The
Twitch mix sped it up a ridiculous amount, which took away all its feel,
if you ask me). Anyone have Moonshine's address so I can bitch at them for
not mentioning the edit? It's not like there aren't tracks on this they
coulnd't have edited to save room for more LI (like the three-minute
synth intro to the Single Cell Orchestra track is totally necessary, I'm
sure). That said, having listened to about half the tracks on this, I
think I can recommend it. If the Dust Bros follow Underworld's lead (and
I guess it's not fair to assume they will just because they're both on
JBO), they will leave all those great single tracks off their forthcoming
album in favor of stuff that isn't nearly as good, so "My Mercury Mouth"
is most likely worth having on this. Anyway...
C.
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cspot@hyperreal.com (Chris.Hilker) ...electro-spiritual in composition...