From Iain H. Sent Mon, Feb 9th 1998, 16:47
From Iain H. Sent Mon, Feb 9th 1998, 16:47
GusGus - Polyesterday cd1 ---- Polyesterday (Radio edit) - One of the best tracks on the gusgus album finally gets a single release. This track is somehow infectious - big drums move the hips and a close vocal wroks to keep you with the song 'til the end. Just nice, perhaps even well suited to the charts, who knows? Polyesterday (Carl Craig Shot In The Leg Vox) - Uptempo bass thump, acid-sounding bass, with a slowly rotating synth chord surround the original vocal which drops in and out nicely. About 2mins50secs into the track the bass starts into a different pattern and filter setting, and detroit (what else!) cymbals and percussion (including handclaps) start taking the track to a nicely different place. Polyesterday (Bix & Ottar mix) - No clue who this is, perhaps some of the collective themselves? Funky bass and clattery cymbals back up the vocal and it changes latterly with the addition of some filter sweeping. Sort-of ordinary, but not entirely unpleasant. Purple (Sasha V The Light (Edit)) - Uptempo and very pop indeed. Very reminiscent of the current crop of 'techno' chart tracks taking over the UK, though not the most unpleasant example of such. Lots of stopping and starting and building toward different climaxes, it'll work on a club dancefloor I suppose. Polyesterday cd2 ---- Polyesterday (Radio edit) - just as above Polyesterday (Amon Tobin Remix) - I'm not exactly sure how much I like this. It may grow but currently it's just not clicking with me. This is a fairly organic, very Bricolage (but NOT like the more drum and bass tracks) sounding, mid-tempo workout. There's a low, pitch shifted, electric bass sample (a changed snippet from the bass of the original mix) which has some nice drums and vinyl surface noise added but it seems to lose its way somehow. There's some chord stabs and muted trumpet, and an affected reprise of the tracks original vocals, but it just cycles away adding and subtracting sounds without grabbing much attention for some reason. Gun (Schizoid-Man Remix) - This is nice. I've not a clue who Schizoid-Man would be (except maybe that he's 21st century [sorry, a bit of an obscure reference... ;) ]) but this is a slow-burn hip-hop mix. Nice machine drums and tremeloed fender rhodes back up a vocal that's high in the mix and, as the track progresses, strings and scratches are added with aplomb. Why? (Remixed by DJ Vadim for Jazz Fudge Delicacies) - This is the stand out track here. Solid slow and low bass, gorgeous slow drums and minimal no-attack, slow fade out, keys back a lazy, sensuous, vocal from the (apparently very young) female member of the gusgus collective. Toward the end the mix changes to beautiful vibraphone sounds and a strange laugh sample along with what sounds like someone going crazy with sandpaper way in the background, before a funk track of some sort fades in and out quickly right at the finish... Rubyjune. ---- <http://www.rjune.demon.co.uk/>