IDM Mailing Archive

Sugatis & Co are at it again (oh no!)... this time, due to lack of time, our "reviews" shall be kept breif (yay!)...

quoted 1 line Mike & Rich - Expert Knob Twiddlers (LP)

>Mike & Rich - Expert Knob Twiddlers (LP)

The arrival of this in the mail a week or so ago was the only force strong enough to knock "Feed Me" off the Sugatis Stereophonic Sound System, and it has been doing quite a good job of holding its position, even in the face of the new "Port Rhombus". Initially, my impressions of this album (beyond the positively hilarious and inventive cover artwork) were somewhat sour... as I thought this sounded like a Mike record (where was the Rich, I gasped), and a somewhat overly cheesy one at that... something that would, in short, only be good for a laugh or sixteen and thereafter become borrrrrr-ing. After all, how many times can belching as a beat (Upright Kangaroo) be funny, before, like 99% of all American sitcoms, the premise just wears thin and one is left with, well, crap? Thankfully, my second (and thorough) listen revealed something very inspiring beneath the thin coating of cheese... a truly great album, filled with simply wonderful _music_. Aphex's influence is very apparent on this record, though it seems to be rather subtle, relegated mostly to the beats and timbres and occasionally a mutated 303 here and there, with Mike's pop-savvy, keyboard soloing / pitch bending, and sense of melody filling in the rest, making this album sound much like an electronic jazz/funk/instrumental 60's Moog pop thingy, but a very, very good one, incidentally. Mike and Rich seem to work very well together in this context. Mike lends Rich his nifty pop melodies, whilst Rich's beats (which is usually the part of his music I enjoy the most anyway) replace Mike's typically thin, tinny percussion with the thick, unmistakably Aphex styles I so love. The AFX effect, i.e. the noise/strange timbres of the Aphex instrumentation seems to dominate this record, making me wonder whose equipment ended up being used. All the tracks are killers, nothing hard or fast, just mid-tempo breakbeat, but all super-funky. Standouts include Mr. Frosty and The Sound of Beady Eyes, both of which feature strange, wah-wah keyboards I really dig, and the last track, bu bu bu ba, which is perhaps the wierdest thing either Mike or Rich have ever done, with a meowing tomcat, whistling, singing (just "bu bu bu ba") and some very SAW2 woodwinds toward the end. Like all other Aphex projects, there is noting else out there that sounds like this album, so for that reason alone, it is worth it. Thankfully, though, it happens to be really good to boot.

quoted 1 line Keoki - Caterpillar 12"

>Keoki - Caterpillar 12"

Haven't heard this one, and currently have no plans to. But, hey, you know, that Keoki guy, well, he's such a superstar and everything, so...

quoted 1 line Jake Slazenger - Nautilus

>Jake Slazenger - Nautilus

I haven't been too impressed with any recent Mike stuff when compared to his awesome Tango N' Vectif, but that's just due to my personal tastes, I guess. Still, the last Slaz album was very good, and still gets regular play around here. I expected some more heavy cheese-o-funk from this single, and when I revved it up, what I heard was a smoother, silkier side to Muziqyjakeyslazzymikeyparadinas than I had previously encountered. The harshness of the digital distortion in most of his releases which give them their unique flavor that I dig, but also somewhat limits how long I can stand to listen to them in a given sitting, seems to have been toned down a bit. However, the impact I felt from stunning peices such as "Hectors House" is also missing from this release. The first track, "Nautilus", is a good example. It isn't really jungle, recalling "the Box" in some ways... just a somewhat fast snare-based breakbeat track. The chords are nice and sunny / happy, but the sound is very "thin" somehow and doesn't hold my interest. The second cut, "Slaz Thing" is yet another take on the "Metal Thing" theme. This one is pretty good, sounding more melodic than the others, with some squiggly Slaz keyboard dealies toward the end, but I still prefer the one off Kid Spatula over this one. "The Penultimate" is Probably my favorite here, featuring a bass-heavy, digital sounding "electro" drum sequence, a sample of a rapper or something, which adds flavor, or, excuse me, flayva, and a full blown Slaz keyboard solo that I just live for. "Marks Made in China" somewhat reminds me of "Bluff Limbo"... it's done in a somewhat similar style, pretty, melodic, soft, with some strings in it and everything. Overall, I'd say this isn't neccessarily a bad release, but it just didn't move me or send chills up my spine or anything because of the thinness of the sound. Hopefully the album will be much better; can't wait to get it. Sorry, that wasn't exactly brief, now, was it?