From henrik str0mberg Sent Sun, Oct 11th 1998, 00:49
"freestyle files 4 - crackers delight" (!K7) for all of us that don't spend all of our time hunting 12", this is an excellent 2CD collection of IDM/jazzy triphop/techno. artists include: andrea parker, pole, kreidler, depth charge, gentle people, ryuichi sakamoto/rare force, pan sonic & alan vega, leila, drum island, max 404, etc. not all the tracks are good, but when did you last hear a 2CD comp with all good tracks? talvin singh "O.K." (island) while it is much as i expected it to be - loads of indian tablas and such mixed with mellow drum'n'bass - it does hold some surprises. there are even some IDM-ish sounds on here. and, most importantly, it's rather good. grooverider "mysteries of funk" (higher ground/sony) i was expecting this double CD to be harder than it is, considering grooveriders and opticals respective previous work. but the radiofriendly "rainbows of colour", the almost ambient "starbase 23", the jazzy "c funk" and "time & space" are all quite mellow and melodic, and form a desired contrast to the harder tracks. certainly, two hours of grooverider can be a bit too much, so i usually listen to the CDs one at a time only. (there is also an single CD release, with almost all of the tracks of the 2CD, but most are massively truncated.) you should get this album if you're at all interested in drum'n'bass. yoshinori sunahara "take off and landing" (bungalow) only semi-recommended, this. early 808state-ish techno, hawaii-calypso triphop, and loads of other stuff. only japanese artists mix-n-match in this way. in the long run there's way too much calypso on this album. but the art of noise-sampling techno of "no sun" is brilliant. other stuff this month: mu-ziq "brace yourself" (astralwerks) one half "girl/boy"-style aphex twin, one half "feed me wierd"-style squarepusher. do not add personality. jonny l "magnetic" (xl) 12 new versions of "piper", just what we need. boring. electric music s/t (spv) karl bartos on his own: a german version of english pop. avoid at all costs. fatboy slim "you've come a long way, baby" (skint) the most dance-inducing record yet this year. loads of "rockefeller skank" sound-a-likes. a few good tunes, actually. hs _______________________ what actually happened?