Picked up a whole lot of new electro, techno and idm. Here is the pick of
the litter.
Electro.
Freddie Fresh and Friends-Analog Space Funk-Neuton dist. Germany
Some of Freddie Fresh first stuff on cd, this is a good place to pick up if
you don't do vinyl. 14 tracks, a few duds, some pretty good ones, and 3 of
which are waaaay killer. Being a hardcore Freddie Fresh spotter myself, I
am pretty sure that these 3 tracks are not on vinyl! Shit, I want those on
vinyl! Anyway the three tracks that make me moist are Warp 9, that good old
electoflair, and space funk. When I first heard that good old electroflair
the hair on my arms stood on end, I almost lost total bowel control. It may
be kind of a simple track but it has all the elements to rip. Even Bob
Doyle would be rocking out to it.
Eon-Phaze Test-Electron Industries
This is spot on. Two mixes of wicked experimental electro with some heavy
effects. Lots of flange, wicked echoing voices, a synth that sound like a
bug zapper, and a haunting string melody. Go to the head of the class Mr.
Loveday.
Bass Trip-Volume One-Pandisc
4 tracker from Miami, 3 tracks weak dj Icee commercial crap, one track
called Crunchie F@#! that sounds just like it's name. Lots of distortion
and a lot of bassy electro beats.
Live Better Electrically-Rush the Soundsystem-Shewey Trax
A four tracker from California, with only one track that makes the 12" real
wothwhile. The song is called Rush the Soundsystem (Electro Drum Journey)
and it starts out with an old retro almost wax trax sounding beat which
takes a while to become anything real nice. About half way through the song
is where the magic begins. A syrupy synth reminisant of Hashim or Octagon
Man mixes with a lot of bass beats. The epic melody sounds almost too
familar, but it does get the emotional juices flowing.
Backyard Brew-Volume Two-Backyard Brew
3 tracks of techno house and one electro piece. The electro cut is a
minimal Plastikman style drum workout. Good stuff if you don't mind the
minimal side of electro.
Grumptronix-Nightmoves e.p.-erotic city communications
Looks like a new label from Detroit? (Area code 813). Scratched in to the
runoff of the record it says "bringing the funk to gentleman's clubs
worlwide." With songs called "waterhole", and "pocket rocket", one might
wonder who these perverts are. The sound is perverted electro, reminasinant
of Drexciya. Good shit!
Trip Hop
Techno Animal-Unmanned-Chrome records
Noise fest. Dubby deep sometimes harsh almost industrial noise and
electronic doodeling with some hip hop beats. More low end than Roseanne Barr.
Telekinetic Soulmate-Break the Sticks ep-Defective records
4 tracks of mellow ambient trip hop and a bit of electro. Deep and moody.
Synapse-Get the Freaks and Get Some-Serotonin records
4 tracks of various styles of techno, mostly funky. Some of them don't
really work to well for my taste, the best seems to be Cosmic Connection,
which is a mellow electro number that is pretty damn smooth. The end of the
record even has some voice bits that sound like the same voice effect afx
used for ventolin.
Acid
Emmanual Top-Sperique-Nova Mute
Good bleepy acid that avoids the cheesy cliches (ie the drum rolls and build
ups). Nothing groundbreaking, and similar to his other records, but still
good.
Acid Kid-Back and Foward-DAP records
4 tracker of very retro sounding acid house circa 1988. Very cool though.
Make it Funky vocal mix features a deep male vocal with some wacky effects
and some gurgling acid, that takes a lot of turns without being too
formula. Sounds a lot like Essit Musique, which is not too suprising since
they are on the same label.
techno
MLO-Plastic Apple-Aura
Wow! This has some pretty intense stuff on it. Lot of styles on here. A
tripple lp with mixes by Wagon Christ, T Power, Boymerang, Dave Angel, and
Claude Young. Some detroit techno, some synthy dancefloor stuff, some
Jungle, not a bad package. There is also a 7 inch that came out a couple
weeks before it that is really cool. It is called "Sonic Soup" mixed by Dj
Food and it goes from trip hop to acid techno to jungle and ambient all in
less than 5 minutes.
Nitrate (Freddie Fresh)-Acid Stucker-Labworks
4 tracks ranging from 4 on the floor all out analog assaults with some wild
effects, to one track called Dust Bucket that has a funky break mixed with a
real wacked out melody and tripped out synths that grabs my attention.
Jungle
T-Power-Symbiosis-S.O.U.R.
Don't really know why I like this, cause the kind of stuff doesn't usually
tickle my fancy. Complexification is an very futuristic sounding piece of
detroit inspired electonica. It has a cold Kraftwerk feel to it. It
reminds me of something the Sprokets might clean house to.
Detroit
Jeff Mills-The Other Day ep-Axis 15
This is awesome shit. Sounds like something Bandulu would try to do. This
is one of the best Jeff Mills records I have heard in a long time. You know
the style, pounding repetitive trancey power techno, and trippy jazzy techno.
derek