IDM TIMES V1.9
A quick 1 4 U.
Curve: BlackerThreeTrackerTwo
Anxious ANXCDS 42
90 6:24 Missing Link (Screaming Bird Mix)
70 9:21 Rising (Headspace Mix)
125 6:18 Half The Time (Honey Tongue Mix)
I've always liked the concept of Curve much more than the actual
music. It seemed that most of their songs were striving for a good
mix of electronic instruments and guitar noise but rarely finding the
proper balance. When I heard about this single, which features
remixes by (in order) Nine Inch Nails, Future Sound Of London and The
Drum Club, I was excited. But not half as excited as I was when I
actually got the damn thing and LISTENED to it! WOW. One big fucking
WOW. If you still think that IDM stands for Industrial Dance Music
and actually liked "Broken" by Nine Inch Nails, then the Screaming
Bird mix of Missing Link is for you - grungy and funky and tuneful - a
very good mix. But nothing you've ever heard will prepare you for the
full on aural assault of FSoL's Headspace mix... Definitely a
headphone-listening-on-drugs track par excellence - the Amorphous
Androgynous CD is a good reference point - this mix is filled with all
sorts of similar sludgy trippy booming strange noises but with a
healthy dose of squealing guitar samples and Toni Halliday's highly
processed vocalisings. Finally, The Drum Club provide us with a more
straightforward just-right-for-club-play 303-based remix.
Excellent tracks, all three of them. Best $10 I've spent lately.
We Are One: We Are One
Adrenalin ADR 90003
140 7:49 We Are One
137 7:06 Take It
140 8:02 I Slapped The Jack
135 13:18 Perpetuate
138 7:21 Land Of Dreams
139 7:26 Birds And Whales
This is a collaborative project between NY DJ Keoki and High Lonesome
Sound System (also known as Mike Kandel & Tom Chasteen of Exist Dance
Records). In fact, this sounds pretty much like a typical Exist Dance
trance workout most of the time. When I last spoke to Mike, he
confirmed that that is pretty much because Keoki's main contribution
was going out and drinking heavily while in LA. Despite all this, I
suspect that Keoki had some sort of influence on it because it's not
really up to the usual Exist Dance standards. The title track is a
great trancer, but "Take It" and "I Slapped The Jack" are pretty
repetitive with some not-that-exciting vocal samples. Best tracks are
"Perpetuate" and "Birds And Whales" which are, unsurprisingly, pretty
much Mike solo projects. The latter is a bizarre collision between
acid house & hawaiin steel guitar...
Horizon 222: Through The Round Window
DOVe CD222/39100252
120 13:33 Touch (Groovin' With The Tuvan)
142 11:16 Heart (Heat Of The Sun)
120 15:01 Spirit Level (Lost In Space)
65 9:17 Ancestor (Discarnate In Atlantis)
119 13:03 Quelque Minute (Don't Look Back)
120 11:21 Beyond The Horizon (Mother Of Everything)
INDUSTRIAL SHOCK HORROR: Zoviet France goes techno! ZF are known more
as an experimental industrial ambient band, and while this disc has
some of that, it is mainly a wonderful outing into layered, detailed
trance music. "Touch" kicks things off with an electronic throb and
some incredible Tuvan throat singer samples. "Heart" is a sort of
indian dub piece, if you can picture that (think Material I guess).
"Spirit Level" takes your mind to the outer limits and "Ancestor"
anchors you back on Earth with a solid reggae underpinning. "Quelque
Minute" sparkles in a UFOrb sort of way (only better) and "Beyond The
Horizon" finishes it all off with a slow trip to another dimension.
Damned fine stuff all around, with exquisite ambient links. You just
gotta plunge into it headfirst. No other possibility.