Some of these are rekkids are kinda old, but you never know when some of
this stuff is going to hit middle America. Besides, by including them I give
you a point of reference for the other reviews. Also, WHAT I review should
give you a clue as to WHAT I'm into. As you'll notice, of late I've been
buying less Techno & Ambient & more TripHop & D&B (should be called Slow &
Fast Breakbeat, I'd say).
Sorry it's so long, I've been blowing this off for a long time, and I don't
have a webpage.
I'm not going to use this as an excuse to right bad poetry, just a
description and some general impressions. On with it:
BREAKBEAT:
Cujo - "Adventures In Foam" - Is it a Trip Hop album, or a D&B album? Trip
Hop w/ bits of D&B thrown in, which I'm beginning to suspect is the future
of Trip Hop albums, but hey I like it. This is a welcome change from the
usual Ninjs Tune Trip Hop by Numbers (I can't tell the difference between DJ
Food, HeadFunk, Up Bustle & Out, etc., which is ok, I like it, but starts to
sound the same after awhile. Still think Coldcut & Funki Porcini standout).
A few tracks have a dark edge to them, some are pretty jazzy. If you like
Trip Hop, do yourself a favor, track this one down. Has anyone heard any of
their other 12"s???
Amon Tobin - Chomp Samba (Ninja Tune) - More D&B than Cujo, Amon's mostly
triphop alias. 4 tracks, very dark, very weird breakbeat using what could
be Perez Prado samples for all I know. Looking forward to the full length,
which I just saw domestic (US), but passed on for...
Squarepusher - Vic Acid (Warp) - More madness from Tom J. This is some
really, really mad shit. I don't know if it's a soundtrack for
methamphetamine abuse, or a substitute for it. This is music that's sure to
annoy anyone with pedestrian tastes in music. Whassup widdese 14 minute
Squarepusher singles, though? Damn, everyone else seems to manage 30-40
minutes...
SquarePusher - "Port Rhombus EP" - Port Rhombus haunts me, phantomwise. The
melody lives in my head now, for the rest of my life. Couldn't tell you
about the other two tracks - they're ok, but no Port Rhombus. This EP is
TOO DAMN SHORT.
SquarePusher - "Plays" - Don't these damn Reflex people know about CDs? The
2 tracks that aren't on the 1st album are choice. Wish I'd bought the
Japanese version of:
SquarePusher - "Feed Me Weird Things" - Hideous packaging, as you'd expect
from Rephlex, the label with no visual taste and very little aural taste,
but this time I'm into the music. Mr. Jenkinson can't seem to figure out if
he wants to do very nice ambient D&B or cheesy 70's fusion "I can play
faster than you can" basslines over Buddy Rich on Methamphetamine D&B beats.
I like the former better than the latter (It's weird hearing an
honest-to-god bass guitar on a track, definitely gives it a different feel).
FOr the most part his beats are fresh and Amen-less. Still, the timewarp
factor is a bit disconcerting at times. I can't quite put my finger on what
he's drawing on, but he's definitely ripping off somebody bigtime. Maybe I
need to listen to more Jaco or something. So much for his vaunted
originality - plenty of people are doing D&B over jazz ripoffs - SqP just
happens to be biting somebody's style instead of sampling them outright. I
like the beats, though.
Photek - "The Hidden Camera" - also too short. Very jazzy, moody, minimal
D&B. A must have.
Spring Heel Jack - "Versions" - As the name implies, these are dub takes on
some of the tracks from "68 Million Shades". The D&B beats are few and far
between. The reworked tracks are mostly completely different than the 68
Million versions, except "60 Seconds Dub" and "Suspensions Dub", which
showed up on the "Suspensions EP", BTW. SHJ's take on dub is quite removed
from the reggae version, keeping the echoes, but for the most part missing
the deep dubby basslines that make dub appealing to me. Still, I like it
cos it _is_ a different take on dub. If you liked their first album, you'll
like this.
Neotropic - 15 Levels Of Magnification (NTone) - I find this to be a very
dark, tough rekkid. Tough with no hard edges, kinda like Sigourney Weaver's
character in Alien. Surprise, surprise - this rekkid is by Riz Maslen, a
woman. Weird samples with even weirder synth sounds thrown in. Very moody
not-quite-triphop, with a few bright spots (relatively, that is). Ya gotta
give props to someone who'd title a track "Aloo Gobi", one of my fave
dishes. It has my vote for weird rekkid of the year.
Haunted Science - Omni Trio (Sm:)e) - Rob Haigh's 2nd full-length. It sounds
like he traded in his cheesy piano box for some real synths this time. Too
bad he didn't lose the diva. Just about the time I'm really groovin' on a
track, a sample of "oooooh...yeeeahh" comes in. Totally ruins the mood.
Still, this disc is worth buying for just one track - Haunted Kind. This is
the kinda drop-bass that gets my pelvis goin'. Overall the album's pretty
good, in a TPower Lite kinda way.
Various - In Order To Dance 6 Session One - Drum-N-Bass (R&S) - I wasn't
expecting much from this 2xCD comp. I find myself liking it better than some
other D&B comps, including Logical Progression, mainly because it's light on
the diva action. It's also light on the Amen break, which, let's face it,
you can only do so much with. In fact, most of the tracks stray from the
orthodox D&B sound, which is good in my book. Then again, none of the tracks
really blow my mind, but none of them are what I'd call bad, either. Worth
giving a listen to.
Various - Breakbeat Science 1 (Volume) - 2xCD D&B comp. with the bad artwork
and cheesy bios we've come to expect from the Volume folks, but surprisingly
not the usual mediocre track selection. This is probably the best D&B comp
I have.
Various - Breakbeat Science 2 (Volume) - 2xCD D&B comp., not quite as good
as V.1, but that's ok, it has an exclusive TPower track, so I had to buy it.
Plus, it has a coupla pics of DJ Rap in the booklet. :)
IDMish:
William 0rbit - TheBestOfStrangeCargos (IRS)- a self-explanatory title. Who
should buy this? If you're not familiar w/ Mr. Orbit, this is an excellent
opportunity to acquaint yourself with his work. If you're a casual fan,
you'd be better off buying Strange Cargo 3, Hinterland, or the latest Torch
Song. If you're a trainspottin' fan, you have to have it for the ambient
treatment of the Psych Fur's classic "Love My Way". This is really, Really,
REALLY good - so much that I'd be willing to drop $15 just for this 2:36 of
bliss. I've been known to repeat this track for hours. Other exclusives
include remixes of "Ruby Heart" and "Silent Signals". There's also an
Underworld mix of "Water From A Vine Leaf".
FSOL - We Have Explosive (Astralwerks) - This track is definitely kin to
Stakker Humanoid, wouldn't you say? Good mindless fun. FSOL are perhaps
the most fascinating remixers in the business. Yes, the genetic material is
recognizable, but the offspring often bear little resemblance to the parent
tracks. Here we get 3 gorgeous reworkings by FSOL, 3 serviceable remixes by
Leon Mar, protege to FSOL in much the same way as Badfinger to the Beatles
(i.e. sometimes hard to tell apart), 1 by Kurtis Mantronik (what timewarp
has he beenstuck in, anyway?), and 2 by FSOL that are so close to the
original that you may as well skip them - I do. BTW, WORST cover art for an
FSOL release ever. I had to make some new cover art on the Xerox. Shame, shame.
FSOL - My Kingdom (Astralwerks) - Takes my least favorite part of the
BladeRunner soundtrack and does something worthwhile with it. 6 great
recombinant remixes; think Cascade & Lifeform EPs.
FSOL - Dead Cities (Astralwerks) - No surprises here, but none really
necessary - just the morphing FSOL soundscapes we've come to expect. Track
down the limited ed. booklet - it's worth every penny. 90+ pages of pure
eye candy.
Mike Ink - "Polka Trax" - I find Mike Ink to be pretty boring. I plan to
take an Xacto knife to the disc to render my own fucked up version of it.
That's ok, I didn't buy it for Mike Ink, I bought it for the T-Power &
Autechre remixes. The T-Power mix has sub-bass with D&B beats filter
sweeping in and out, very nice. The Autechre mix features a beat that's a
bit plodding until it takes on a D&Bish character, at which point it gets
pretty interesting. Classic Autechre-style mutating repetition, with subtle
changes in the percussion tracks which your usual IDM idiot won't pick up
on, because they're so focused on the unchanging background melody/texture.
Their loss.
Nu-Era - Beyond Gravity - I know I've reviewed this before, but it's been in
the CD player a lot lately, so I've got to mention it again. Back in 1994,
Mark & Dego served up a classic disk of understated Detroit style Techno,
which has sadly gone unnoticed. It starts off a little brash, but
everything past the first minute is smoove sailin'. For me, Mono
Concentrate is as good as it gets - especially when it breaks down to
bassline, chords, and a single handclap per measure. I could listen to this
all day. Do yourself a favor, bop over to www.cdeurope.com & get them to
dig ya up a copy.
Eric Serra - The 5th Element Soundtrack (Virgin) - a step in the right
direction for film soundtracks. If I hear one more Hans Zimmer score, I'm
gonna puke (I suspect I'll be puking all summer). Not really IDM, but
should be enjoyed by most of this bunch. First the music - an interesting
mix of styles. Lots of ambient soundtrack, a reggae tune, a middle-eastern
flavored piece (brilliant pick for a car chase), opera, techno opera, and a
coupla beaty pieces which are somebody's idea of futuristic music, like the
disco piece on the Outland soundtrack (remember that?). I think they would
have been better off with Squarepusher on those two. Lots of variations on
the simple Leeloo piano theme to tie everything together. The piece "Five
Millenia Later", played as Leeloo is on the ledge, is a fantastic groove,
love the melancholy piano & soaring strings, though it could have used the
sound effects from the movie, and it ends oh so suddenly. Ruby Rap is the
entire Ruby Rohd bit from the spaceship boarding sequence, complete, just
fucking brilliant in its crassness. And what can I say about the Diva Dance,
except that it's too short? That's one of the greatest pieces of
choreography/film editing that you'll find outside of a Jackie Chan movie,
but with better music. If you haven't figured it out, I love the movie, and
have seen it 5x already. Oh, there's also a bonus track with a funky beat
and samples from the movie. Mindless fun. Now, about the packaging - the
songs are out of order. I HATE when they do this on movie soundtracks. At
least they didn't mix between tracks like on BladeRunner, so a programmable
CD player can fix it. Plus, it begins and ends with that shit pop tune that
bedevils the credits in the movie. And, the picture booklet sucks bigtime -
no pics of Milla Jovovich.
Various - The Deepest Shade Of Techno I&II (SSR) - This 2xCD compilation of
downtempo Detroit Techno was put together by Dego & Mark, who possess
ecsquisite taste in addition to their own music-making abilities. I bought
it for the new Nu Era and AGCG tracks, but I was pleased to find out it has
a couple of Underground Resistance tracks. It also has tracks by John
Beltran, Claude Young, Dan Curtin, Eddie Flashing Fowlkes, Josh Wink, Morgan
Geist, and others whose names I don't recognize. 3 tracks I can't listen to
due to vocals, but otherwise a very nice selection. Oh yeah, Gerald
actually goes back to his techno roots on his track.
Various - ALT.FREQUENCIE$ (Worm Interface) - I've gotten pretty selective
with my compilation purchases, and I only bought this for the Gescom track.
I was pleasantly surprised. Also tracks by Tom Jenkinson (2), Freeform, and
others. If you want to impress your friends with how fucked up your tastes
in music are, this is one to get. The standout track for me is "Zero" by
Coma, which sounds like Damon Wild meets SquarePusher. The Replicant track
sounds remniscent of something on the New Electronica compilation from the
100% Pure label. It's a weird eclectic mix, but I like all the tracks, which
is rare for me with comps.
Various - Foundations (Feedback Communications) - a 2xCD charity comp.
compiled by the Black Dog himself. Essential for Black Dog trainspotters
for tracks "Four Friends And A Microphone" and a remix of Radiohead. Also
features exclusive tracks by Orbital, and A Guy Called Gerald, and tracks of
undetermined availability by 808 State, Underworld, Fluke, Bomb The Bass,
Ultramarine, Scanner, System 7 (a Jacob's Optical Stairway remix), Bandalu,
Future Loop Foundation, Massive Attack, Leftfield, and Moody Boyz.
Qualitywise, I find it less listenable than your typical Volume compilation.
If you think 808 State couldn't get any worse, well, listen to the track
"Mondays" on this comp. I only play about 1/3 of the tracks, but the AGCG
and JOS tracks are great. Tough call - I suggest listening to it and
factoring in your need to have everything by an artist before buying.
BTW anyone want to place bets on how long before some GenX restaurant worker
goes postal on his/her Boomer boss for playing "Graceland" too many times?
Chill
Che