quoted 2 lines What, no endless posts on Lunatic Harness? Or did all you jaded> What, no endless posts on Lunatic Harness? Or did all you jaded
> people get tired of your advance copies already.
Well, I'm not tired of my advance copy yet (why does the Astralwerks promo
say "Street date July 1st"?) ...
I pretty much have mixed feelings about it. It's clear that no Mike P.
record will ever have the same impact on me that "Tango n' Vectif" did,
because that record was all-new at the time, and you can only get floored
once usually by an artist when they're new like that. And it won't have
the same impact as "Bluff Limbo", which despite being "Tango n' Vectif++" in
its own way, also has some incredibly beautiful tracks on it that I don't
think he's made since (like the last track, which is one of the most
hauntingly beautiful things I've ever heard).
I seem to be one of the few people on the list who liked "In Pine Effect"
quite a bit, it was a change from the first two albums and it was very
stylistically varied, which I liked. "Lunatic Harness" reminds me of "In
Pine Effect" in some ways. There are some really beautiful melodies in
places that nobody but Mike (or Richard) can do. At the same time, the
chaotic Drum n' Bass percussion (a la some of the stuff on the "RDJ" album)
is interesting in places, and annoying in others. I feel like some of
the beautiful melodies would be better matched to other beats than the
chaotic D n' B rhythms that often accompany them.
In short, I think it's a solid release, a "return to form" of sorts if you
wish; but it didn't blow me away in the way that "Tango" did, or to use
a more recent example, when I finally got "A Collection Of Short Stories".
I've found it interesting to see how I feel about records in the context
of the backdrop of what they're surrounded by. I've been listening to
"Lunatic Harness" in the same batch of new purchases as the Boymerang,
the Carl Craig "More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art", the Skampler,
and an excellent, excellent hard Trance (yes Virginia, thank god someone
still makes this kind of music) compilation (the 3rd Reload label comp.).
I'm sure the way I hear "Lunatic Harness" is also influenced by these other
releases ...
- Greg