Re: (idm) Recoreviews, pt 46...

From johnb
Sent Wed, Aug 5th 1998, 18:35

> . Lithops: Turbino 7" (Static Caravan Records)
> This is the sickly limited ep by Mouse on Mars member
> Jan St Werner under his Lithops guise. Two tracks on
> this clear-vinyl 7" both in the ambient experimental style.
> The a-side starts with a looped synth line then slowly
> builds with a squelchy baseline, muted percussion,
> a heavily filtered guitar melody with a bit of  reverb
> giving this track a very dubby Mouse on Mars 
> Vulvaland-era sound. The b-side features a beatless 
> looped melody with random distorted noises throughout 
> the entire track. This is my first Lithops record but if
> they're all this good then it certainly won't be my last.

Yeah, both of those Lithops LPs are impeccable, a bit more out-there
rhythmically than MoM but all in all, the same fuzzy/creaky/twisty effects
that get me every time.  The new MoM LP seems to be a smidge disappointing,
though -- I've just listened to one side so far, and it didn't really make
an impression.

On a side note, I've always thought it was cool that jazz artists could
record so much quality material in a short span of time (my two favorite
Jimmy Smith LPs were recorded on the same day [!]), so it's nice to see the
same thing coming from MoM; a bit like Mike Paradinas during 1996-97, minus
the cheese/quease factor...


.John.

BTW: Why do I just know that the Lithops CD release is going to have the
tracks from the seven-inch?  Oh well, I haven't been burned lately...