Recently I have purchased a few items from my local record
store....miraculously, they do come through for me from time to time...
If I can recall the order in which i found these....hmmmm...ok..
The first one was...
From Here To Tranquility Volume II...
This compilation is far better than the first one...though it does
contain a few groups i would consider to be gothic more than ambient,
but the tracks themselves fit the label...
As usual for me on this list so far...I do not have the disc in front of
me so i cannot list the tracks and times...sorry...but i did find the
album as a whole to be very good...as i said before, it was far better
than the first one...the tracks were deeper and in some instances darker
than those on the first collection...though in a sense they were not
truly ambient as i recall an individual remarking in regard to the first
collection...they were more in tune with what I WOULD consider to be
ambient...though on that argument....if it were TRULY ambient, it would
lose all dance music caracteristics...so if it were to be judged solely
on a dance music set of criteria, i would say that it is quite the
ambient collection....
in comparison to the astralwerks compilations (The excursions series) it
is not as high quality...but as music standing without interindustry
comparison...the only thing really missing is the big named
producers/remixers...no orb guys...no psychick warriors...just straight
tracks...and in and of itself i give the disc a B+...why not an "A"? and
why not a "B" or even a "C"...first of all because I liked it and i think
it is better than that...but secondly...because there was music crammed
to the edge of the disc...total length around 80 mins...quite
packed...also...the folks at silent records have dug deep into their
collection of artists and come up wioth a selection of some of their
lesser known groups...as well as the bigger names...legion of green
men...cirrus minor...etc...it is an interesting combination and it is one
where you probably will not see the same groups over and over on various
and sundry other comp[ilations...which seems to be the techno curse...i
dont know how many times i have had to put up with repeats of joey
beltram, the klf, two unlimited, and the like...the selection of groups
is one you are not likely to see on all the compilations on the market...
also...this particukar compilation...even thoiugh it is ambient...has
shorter tracks so that there are more artists to hear...i am a fan of the
very very long tracks, but this is a good collection because they
llimited the lenghths to around 6:30 to 8"30 in length...there may be a
few longer ones...but on the whole they are reasonably short and there
fore, you not only get good music, but you are exposed to more groups so
thaqt when you see the singles in the store you are not unaware of what
it is exactly...
In the end...i recommend the purchase of this collection to all..
The second thing i found was Prototype 909...acid technology...
The title hits it on the nose...
it is indeed acidic...reminds me of the l;ate 80's when the music was
trancey, but hard...but not so har taht it becomes psychotic...it is an
ep release i think...it has 8 tracks total...most of them are around 7
minutes...and all contain tha essential get-off-yo-butt sound...the sound
described by one of my pals as "worms"...the acid sound...there are also
some synth underlays that come off quite nicely...'
If you are looking for a fool proof mixer or you are looking to hear a
good trance/acid album just to soothe your
ambient/enigmafiednerves...check it out...but dont buy t to hear anything
new...its retro 89.....the same thing was on a 2lp (vinyl) i got in 1989
called acid house vol 3...the basic review is a "C+"...because of very
limited originality...but as a dance/trance disc...i would have to give
it a "B+" as well...
Other things that have come my way are:
The Baramundi Sampler ...from astralwerks...
Seefeel...quique...also an astralwerks release...
if you want my opinions on these let me know...but i am tired fo typing
now and i will be retiring for the evening...
later,
jasonosaj.
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