Hi Folks,
Presented in the spirit of peace and understanding (and in atonement
for any flames I accidentally fanned yesterday) here are some glowing
reviews of stuff I heard recently. Mainly back catalogue that others have
written about before but...
Atom Heart - The Techno Evolution Continues
Atom Heart under a number of guises (and sometimes in collaboration
with others) exploring various styles though its mainly gritty lo-fi
techno. Makes for an excellent walkman tape.
Lassigue Bendthaus - Matter/Cloned/Render/Render Audible
The music of LB is what we used to call 'Electronic Body
Music'. Hard rigid beats with tek-fetishist lyrics. At its best, as
on 'Cloned', it sounds like Skinny Puppy with its distorted
whispering or like the cold-funk of Caberet Voltaire in the
eighties. The industrial acid of the 'Render' remixes is the one
I'll be coming back to.
D'Arcangelo - EP
Late contender for single of 1996! One side is
skull-crunching industrial-folksongs-type powertool techno. The
other is charming, melodic lo-fi noodling techno. It's funny that
both sides sound typically RePHLeXual. Comes in the *best* cover as
well: featureless, shiny gold. Superb.
Red Snapper - Prince Blimey
The new birth of cool? Actually this LP wasn't nearly as good as I
hoped it would be. There is too much laid back stuff and, though this
will seem ludicrous to those following the jazz phase I'm going
through, it is too 'live' sounding. What I mean is that downtempo is
a largely programmed music, jazz is a mostly live music and I think
that in their attempt to meld the two they have got the balance
wrong. Still, some standout tracks like 'Get Some Sleep Tiger'
Rhythim is Rhythim - The Beginning
Reissue of classic Derrick May on Kool Kat. B-side features Salsa
Life, a kind of rough cut or remix of Strings of Life. Just oozes
genius. The best thing about it is that I got it for 40 pence in a
junk sale! I've seen the original on sale for 15 quid!
Strider, B. - Bradley's Robot
Top-notch melancholic, minimal, trancey techno. Very good use of
"organic" sounding noises throughout like string plucks and
aphex-like noises-of-insects-chewing. The final track is the real
peach. It features some excellent bongo style patter percussion that
is so well programmed that it doesn't sound programmed at all,
despite being as rigidly 4/4 as anything else on the EP. Utterly
hypnotic. The best thing though is the Xmas present from RePHLeX
that it comes packaged in: a 3 foot by 4 foot, silver and green
poster of the RePHLeX records logo! Smart!
David Toop - Pink Noir
Unnerving ambient collage music from the writer of Ocean of Sound.
Toop manages to slot together ambient field recordings with stuff
taken from all kinds of genres into a seamless whole. Jazz, world,
techno, its all in there. One of the most interesting records I
heard all year.
I also have mini-reviews of a few Miles Davis lps I've been listening
to, mail me if you are interested.
Love, Grumpy Rob ;-)
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'Drum Machines - hell, you just programme the motherfucker,
press a button, you got that "bim, bam, boom" twenty four
hours a day if you want it. You want it to stop? Press
another button! Synthesizers too. I love 'em!'
- Miles Davis, 1986