Here's some quick reviews of some stuff that has come out on FAX recently.
There have been excellent reviews posted of From Within, I.F., Datacide,
and Orange, so those will be ignored. If you're really not into FAX, you
might not want to read this post. Oh well, here we go.
World Label:
PW10: A New Consciousness
Pete Namlook/Charles Uzzel-Edwards
1 Environment (twosevenzero) 19.01
2 Tabletop (foursixone) 9.19
3 Golden Gate (fivefourone) 18.24
4 Tea With Ivor Cutler 13.50
First some questions. Who is Charles Uzzel-Edwards? I don't really
know, but Jonah from STC thanks him on the Interdimensional Communication
CD, so I guess he's also in with Anarchic in San Francisco. What do those
numbers written out with the titles mean? I don't know. Who is Ivor Cutler?
I don't know either. Boy I'm stupid.
Anyways, Environment starts out sounding just as its name implies,
then works up a slow rolling beat and a high pitched choppy melody. A big,
low bassline stays throughout. A big synth comes in to round it out and it
takes flight. Eventually everything winds down and comes back to the
normal environment.
Tabletop is lots of strange scraping metal on metal sounds. At times
it even gets a little harsh.
Golden Gate starts with what sounds like a guitar plucked bassline
that gets old after being looped for about 5 minutes. Percussion swirls
around it and a pounding beat comes in. It alternates with a slow bubbling
interlude until that plucked guitar thing comes back in. Kind of repetitive.
Tea With Ivor Cutler basically sounds like some kind of discussion
where the words are heavily processed and echoed with other strange noises in the
mix. I guess you could make out what they were saying, but it's really
difficult. I understood the phrase "A New Consciousness", but that's it.
Main Label:
PK 08/86 Replugged: Best of the Chill-Live-Sessions at XS, Frankfurt
1 Mario Hana 14.35
2 Chill Out Possee 15.03
3 Deep Space Network 23.09
4 Namlook 14.43
Excellent CD from what must be an unbelievable club. These chill
sessions are hosted by Dr. Atmo. Mario Hana's set is very ethnic, with
lots of flutey melodys over a droning low background. At times it almost
moves toward new age territory, but stays far away enough to retain
credibility.
Chill Out Possee (Mark N-R-G & Nino Tielman) feature a kind of
commercial ambient sound, with an accessible melody and rhythms, and go
over quite well.
Deep Space Network are much better here than on their Intergalactic
Federation collaboration with Dr. Atmo. On that CD they were cold, with
no melody or feeling. Here they warm up with some great sounds. It almost
reminds me of Reload but not as accessible. Has anyone heard DSN's CD
Big Rooms? I saw it but didn't want to pay the big bucks.
Namlook (of course) is the star on this one, with an Air 'Coda'
that fits perfectly on the first Air CD. Very melodic and emotional, a
fitting end.
PK 08/85 Air II
Travelling Without Moving 60.00
Undoubtedly Namlook's best yet. Here he opts for a more down to
earth sound. The astronaut on the cover is supposedly visiting different
places through his thoughts, relying only on his feelings. Is these
11 different "trips", there is a very strong "tribal" feeling as there
is a lot of ethnic percussion, chanting/singing, even a didgeridoo (which
feels kind of ubiquitous right now). Even so, this CD is very varied and
probably the most *musical* album Namlook has made yet. Highly recommended.
PK 08/87 Escape
CD 1
1 Escape to Earth 8.24
2 Escape to Mars 5.42
3 Escape to Neptune 6.41
4 Escape to Polaris 6.41
5 Trip to Mars 5.39
6 Trip from Mars 5.28
7 Atmosphere Processor 17.52
8 Trip to Polaris 7.59
CD 2
1 The Futurescape 57.46 (parts 1-9)
Escape is Pete Namlook/Dr. Atmo. Escape to Earth is the most
interesting dance song on here, but not too great. Escape to Mars is much
too fast, as is Escape to Neptune (very repetitive). Escape to Polaris
sounds like N-Joi. Trip to Mars is ambient and quite boring. Trip from
Mars is the same thing backwards. Atmosphere Processor is pretty boring and
*way* too long. Trip to Polaris makes up for it with some cool spacy ambient
that sounds at home on a Silence release.
The redeeming aspect to this release is the 2nd Cd, the futurescape.
It, kind of like Air II, is a kind of audio journey, where different melodies,
rhythms, and vocal samples drift in and out. Dr. Atmo and Namlook seem
pretty sarcastic, but hilarious, where vocal samples such as a young kid
saying "I wanted to go to space so I could stay at home all day" (or something
like that) and then another sample (presumably from Atmo/Namlook saying,
"Is that right?". Other vocal samples come in, only to be echoed by "Is that
right?" Pretty funny. Very good, but not as good as Air II.
I just realized that this is *way* too long and I apologize for the wasted
space. I will send a separate post soon featuring recent releases on the
sublabel.
Thanks for your time, (if you made it this far)
Jonathan
eabu751@orion.oac.uci.edu