From cg Sent Sat, May 1st 1999, 19:30
From cg Sent Sat, May 1st 1999, 19:30
here are some review sort of things i felt like writing-- turned out to be all compilations. beware that i am critical and not easily satizfied.=) V/A: Map One: Contaminated by Technique (Subconscious Geography) Borrowed this from a friend. A bit of it is filled with boring and unoriginal shite but there are some good high points. We've got several basic ambient exercises and those sustained synth wash with distorto beats in front tracks that dont do anything for me. The Heatsink tracks are pretty nice ambient though. The highlight is the first Horse Opera track. The Qwerty tracks are not bad either-- oldish (simple) synth and not-too-distorted percussion. The first Qwerty is the other highlight I'd say. They have a feeling to them anyway, the Qwerty ones, nostalgic i suppose. Siliconvortex tracks are nice on the melody too-- Black Doggish for comparison sake, although perhaps a bit more synthetic. Lots of delays going on there. Jowonio Prods are a bit interesting, their 2nd track is the only one that interests me; i really like the "vocals" or maybe it's a theremin sort of thing in the 2nd half of that track, but the drums are horrible. Cool for one of the first cd-r things last year and many idm-list-members taking part but I don't think I'd buy it for just the 2 tracks that I'd want to keep. It's probably about as available as my own ass is for anal sex tho anyway, eh? V/A: Enter the Monkey (Mad Monkey Records) Another IDM list member deal, this time pressed. Opens with one of those boring tracks with lots of high synths that you might find at the "emotional" part of a popular movie. Then the old contrast: for track 2 we've got a nice crunchy digital distorted drum beat with echoing datafile "hihats"... but hmm this beat goes for 4 minutes and nothing happens. The filter changes a little now and then. Ooh more Qwerty next! Something original, nice! Anyone who knows the first Qwerty track from Map One, this one seems like it takes that little bit of quirky bleepy thing that was used occassionally and extends it, uses it more often, vocoderizes and filters it and has a nice melody to go along with it. There's one sort of rock-like part near the end I could do without. For the rest of the disc we have mostly boring one-trick tracks that either do noises or pick a beat and then can't figure out what else to do aside from repeating it forever or sticking a weak melody over it. The Heatsink track on this one is another ambient piece that is less than half as interesting as the ones i just heard on that last disc. The Kid606 one surprised me a bit because I was bored with some of the other stuff i heard by him but this does some really interesting things with the whole distorted skipping sound. The Saundart track is a reverbed building "chain reaction" (at least my impression of chain reaction--i've never heard it) sort of track, but not so repetitive. the beat changes and builds and some synth chords come in sort of chilling it out. Lesser picks up where k606 left off on the CD skipping front and does more interesting things. About halfway through he picks up a groove with the skippy stuff and adds a bit of jazz trumpet loop. Nice. "Disc" does the CD skipping again but its not interesting nor humorous. Marumari is Polish but more skippy stuff in place of the Pole crackles and no deep dubby bass, just some nice slow synths that dont try to be too C-D-E beautiful. Probably could be compared to Atom Heart sound. And we've got some sort of weird acid thing for the last track with atmospheric voc synth pads and a stupid drum loop you cant hardly hear and some oratory vocals about dynasties. So there are about 4 tracks I really quite like and 2 or 3 more worth hearing but dont develop into anything. So a little less than 1/2 of the disc is worthwhile to me. Not horribly bad for a compilation i suppose. Glad to have gotten a promo as part of a trade, thanks mr monkey. Oh and someone commented on the artwork being cool? Well this is a promo so I only got a 1-card insert, but it's pretty lame, and there's no on-CD-surface art at all. V/A: Plug Research and Development (Plug Research) Funky minimal tracks of Smyglyssna, dark-(b)ass Lustmord remix of Phthalocyanine, Low Res and his varied style in the digital domain-- here we have a non 4/4 boomboom yet thumping roller, the out-of-place simple beat cheesy Ravens Over Venice track with repeated wah-guitar sample, a classic oddly-rhythmed (and rumbly, noisy) Phthalocyanine track 'Warship' with some great melodic ideas, the funky but haunting Mr Hazeltine that uses some cool muffled noisy loops, and another Smyglyssna -- an ambient one that keeps my attention with very nice melodies and muffled staticky things. A nice compilation even if a few tracks don't go anywhere musically. The Smyglyssna, Phthalocyanine and Low Res tracks stand out, the Ravens Over Venice is funny, and the rest are sort of interesting. So I would pay for at least half of this compilation. This is what Plug Research is all about? I am borrowing this CD and have only heard Shadow Huntaz and Phthalo releases aside from this. Previously I had thought Plug Research released minimal techno/house stuff. V/A: Emanated compilation CD (Emanate) Borrowing this one too =). Lilianthal begins with a heavy melodic using strings / synth horns (if you don't like synth horns you won't like this -- someone commented on just that) and some skamish beats. Basically the artists on the CD are all pretty similar sounding, and the sound that they like is the whole melodic skam/mas one but with more reliance on synth horns/trumpets and strings like in old muziq / middle aphex. drums are slightly distorted but with res/cutoff filter, not so much in the way digital distortion. OST is nothing like on his Phthalo release. solenoid doesnt quite fit in with this generalization though. his sound is harder to describe.. dirty analog notes with choppy distorted drums in the first one and then later turns into a more melodic track but retains the dirty feel. his 2nd track has a heavy upfront industrial-style beat with heavy snare and all and some vocoded things about "time" and something else. reminds me of front242 for some reason. probably just the drums. not melodic. all in all a pretty cool comp! a couple classic tracks. i really like the 2nd sybarite one. it would be a close tie between this and plug research if i were to buy one of them. maybe i will. Also borrowing the Phoenicia Warp EP (Randa Roomet)-- this is great! can definitely see how these guys are much of schematic or chocindustr or whichever they are =). would like to hear that phoenicia mix of jake mandell one day. hey aarone give me back that jake mandell CD! =) well it's not on there but i want to hear jako (also jaakko of course) again. bye chris cgib g === _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com