From Steven Center Sent Sat, Sep 26th 1998, 15:38
From Steven Center Sent Sat, Sep 26th 1998, 15:38
in an effort to increase the amount of posts that acutely contain some musical content, i decided to write a review. imagine that. i picked up the (fairly) new 'japaneese homegrown beats' compilation cd at a tower records the other day. it seems that some fella associated with tower records in japan compiled this cd, and then the chain produced them in japan and imported them, just to sell them at a domestic price here in the u.s.. not a bad deal, really. i picked it up just because it includes a track by nobukazu takemura, since i've loved his remixes of skylab and roni size but couldn't bring myself to pay over $30 for any of his cds. as it is, the takemura track is not at all what i expected. very mellow and layered with an intriguing melody and shifting time signatures. some of the instrumentation sounds like children's toys, and that always makes me smile. no mad drum programming here, but it's good nonetheless. very soothing. the comp is quite varied, with way mellow trip hop from ryu (dj krush & fellow turntabalists dj hide & dj sak), mad cartoonish drill & bass from some cat named geodezik, and funky disco influenced house from sublime records signee captain funk. plus, audio active throws a wicked dubby head tune at you entitled, what else, 'weed specialist'. there's also a track from electronic collective cycheouts, that i believe is what atari teenage riot would sound like if they weren't so pissed. It's not all incredible, such as this band called kirihito that consists of a drummer and a guitarist/vocalist that plays a casio with his feet. the liner notes claim that they are japan's most original band since the boredoms, but i just don't get it. there's also a source direct remix on there that goes absolutely nowhere, but if you like your jungle with guitars, it may be for you. i'm also not sure why they included a track by so.cal's simply jeff, even if he is japaneese, since it is so mediocre. so, i'd give it 7 out of 10, mostly because i got it at a domestic price. steve.