From Chris.Hilker Sent Sun, Aug 16th 1998, 06:24
I've put up RealAudio samples of all the Global Communication albums up at ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/cs/cspot - a representative ten-second excerpt from each track that's longer than two minutes on a given album. Hope this is helpful, I'll leave them up for a week or so. The really essential GC releases are 76 14 and Pentamerous Metamorphosis, with the edge going to 76 14. Very much an "if you haven't heard this, you aren't living yet" record. It's one of those deceptively simple works that, as you keep coming back to it, you notice more and more nuance and detail and craftsmanship. You can certainly enjoy it from your first listen, but you'll appreciate it more over time. 76 14 is not out of print, at least not in the US. It was reissued as a midprice item (!) on Dedicated/BMG late last year. Pentamerous Metamorphosis was out of print for several years but was reissued with new cover art in the first half of 1998. You want both of these, ASAP. New School Science is a much better album if you skip the weaker tracks toward the middle of it. The last three tracks are excellent. A Collection of Short Stories by Reload has stretches of greatness but parts of it haven't aged well. Theory of Evolution is a mixed bag of some older stuff that's really dated, some older stuff that's timeless, and some very good newer stuff. I agree with the poster who said Remotion has a bit too much overlap with other items that are present in a well-rounded IDM collection. I'm really being harsher than I should on this stuff. I mean, it totally smokes everything I've heard from Skam, Rephlex, etc. In the words of the master: You want ALL this. Wishmountain is not GC, it's Matt Herbert. They did co-produce one track with him, "The Cough," which is on some old Evolution 12" and was reissued this year on the 'Wishmountain Is Dead' CD. It's an excellent track and an excellent disc overall but as a few people have pointed out, the WM sound isn't to everyone's taste. Check out his tracks on Theory of Evolution; if you like those, get the Wishmountain disc. C. -- Chris.Hilker (xxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx)