IDM Mailing Archive

1997-07-31 23:34Oblique HostilityWhat, no endless posts on Lunatic Harness? Or did all you jaded people get tired of your a

From:: Oblique Hostility <kent@inav.net>
To:: intelligent dance <idm@hyperreal.org>
Date:: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 18:34:29 -0500 (CDT)
Subject:: (idm) MuZiq Lunatic Harness

What, no endless posts on Lunatic Harness? Or did all you jaded people get tired of your advance copies already. After more or less constant listening for the last two days, I'd have to say that I'm in love. I can cite all the ways in which it's not innovative or a new frontier in sound design (squarepusher sampler tricks in the breaks, the same patches from the D50 and DX100 he's been flogging for years, the pads-through-cheap-reverb), I can bitch about the overmodulation distortion that adds nothing to the tracks, but at the end of the day none of that matters. What matters is his genius for melody, or not so much melody, as harmonic lushness, the way that the energy level in the tracks ebbs and flows, and the way he's not afraid to make left turns without signalling. Hasn't he had his kid by now as well? Life is good. --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Psyche manifests as psychic through something we call 'winding', because it twists, and puts things that were far apart next to each other, complicatedly, taffywise." -- winona on channel 78 Kent Williams kent@inav.net -- http://soli.inav.net/~kent

1997-08-01 02:24Greg Earle> What, no endless posts on Lunatic Harness? Or did all you jaded > people get tired of yo

From:: Greg Earle <earle@isolar.Tujunga.CA.US>
To:: <idm@hyperreal.org>
Date:: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 19:24:25 -0700
Subject:: (idm) Re: MuZiq Lunatic Harness
Reply to:: (idm) MuZiq Lunatic Harness

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

(idm) Re: MuZiq Lunatic Harness