From Nuutti-Iivari Merilainen Sent Fri, Oct 24th 1997, 12:48
From Nuutti-Iivari Merilainen Sent Fri, Oct 24th 1997, 12:48
As I am recovering from my yearly excursion to the wonderland of electronic music (England, that is) I am simply too blatant not to be publicly excited by the records that I managed to obtain during my sixth visit to London. I will desperately try review at least some of the forty vinyl releases and ten CDs that I tried not to lose in interairport travel. Bear with me, please, since I found so many records that I had been looking for a long time and I wish to write up at least a few lines about each one though they might be somewhat dated by IDM "standards". Good music is ageless. The first A13 full-length CD was released in 1994. "Experimenta", as it is called, features tracks by various excellent electronic musicians including Ed Handley and Andy Turner (as Tura), Dave Angel, Steve Pickton (Stasis) and Mark Broom (who runs A13 amongst other labels). Full track listing is as follows: Various: Experimenta (A13, AA001CD, CD, UK, 1994) 1 Drax Two: Middle Earth (Thomas P. Heckmann) 2 Connective Zone: Amecia (Simms/Button) 3 Terrace: Intervalid (Stefan Robbers) 4 Tura: Letter (Ed Handley/Andy Turner) 5 Stasis: Clank (Steve Pickton) 6 Kape Ill Musier: Gaspar (Mark Broom/Steve Pickton) 7 Plasma: Formation (Danny Taylor) 8 Dave Angel: Artech (Dave Angel) 9 Mono Junk: Another Acid (Thomas P. Heckmann) 10 Tura: Soft Key (Ed Handley/Andy Turner) 11 Kinesthesia: Speng II (Chris Jeffs) 12 Edge Of Motion: Memories of the Future (Edge of Motion) Most of the artists included in this compilation are still very relevant to and much discussed on IDM, and rightfully so. "Experimenta" collects some early highlights of A13 like Kape Ill Musier's "Gaspar" (released on A12001) and Connective Zone's "Amecia". "Gaspar" is the jewel of the crown on this record, bringing forth a luscious string melody accompanied by a detroitish beat and bass. Later in the track a simple TB-303 pattern accentuates the song nicely, giving it more edge. If this track had been played to me before I knew whose it was, I would have certainly voted for B12. With the release of Plaid's "Undoneson" and "Not for Threes", mentioning the Tura tracks should arouse interest. Exclusive to this compilation (as far as I know), "Letter" and "Soft Key" are in no way similar to the melodic and highly emotional "Reishi" (from "Likethemes", LM03 on Likemind, UK, 1995) or the new Plaid material. The featured Tura tracks are rough and percussive dance tracks - angry, compared to most material on "Experimenta". Steve Pickton has been mentioned in a few occasions lately, and I believe he will get even more attention with his new Stasis release on Pure Plastic (PP013, I will review this later on). "Clank" is a very danceable track as well, with a pounding bassline and delightful string overlays. Though I purchased Paul W. Teebrooke's (another Steve Pickton alias) "Connections" before my visit to London, I will review it later on as well. Kinesthesia's "Speng II" is an interesting track with Chris Jeffs' usual squeaky lunacy. Bleep, bob, ping and clonk would be approppriate onomatopoetic expressions to describe this licensed track (RePHLeX 1994). "Artech" is a standard Dave Angel track, hilarious techno in the vein of other releases on his own Rotation label. Sliding between fast house and trance, like anything you might found on Rotation. Plasma's "Formation" is an unusual percussive grinder with a low murmur of TB-303 and occasional ululation. Basically a gets-on-your-nerves-at-first track, but with a few listens it starts to have a good form. Mono Junk's "Another Acid" is definitely the most aggressive of the lot, a simple thump thump thump ass-kicker of a track with your standard Roland-engineered bassline. Drax's "Middle Earth", Edge of Motion's "Memories of the Future" (also found on New Electronica ELEC7T and ELEC8LP) and Terrace's "Intervalid" are good examples of smooth Lowlands electronics. They offer no surprises but are fine tracks anyway, very approppriate for this compilation. Samu Mielonen commented a few yers back that "..[i]t's very hard to pick out a stand out track from this one. Just buy the damn thing!" I agree on the second count, but for me, the track that makes this compilation one of the best in my collection is Kape Ill Musier's "Gaspar". Absolutely fantastic track which I will never grow tired of. Four of the tracks on the CD were also released on vinyl, AA001. The tracks are Tura's "Letter", Plasma's "Formation", Dave Angel's "Artech" and Terrace's "Intervalid". Currently, both the CD and the EP are very hard to find, but I wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone after good electronic music. More reviews/comments later when I have the time. -- nuutti-iivari meriläinen -> xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx : diversion communications technostructuralist + information architect + media designer