From Brad Shelton Sent Wed, Oct 28th 1998, 21:24
From Brad Shelton Sent Wed, Oct 28th 1998, 21:24
Here are some quick reviews of a couple of recent acquisitions, more on the way soon. Scala - Compass Heart I'm really like Seefeel. I like Scala enough to keep buying their releases. This one is alot like 'Beauty Nowhere' all over again-- as the cover would seem to indicate, as the two releases share the same style/fonts/general color scheme in packaging. Half the tracks are instrumental, half are not. Mark Van Hoen (Locust) gets co-writer credit on all. Interesting- since Sarah Peacock is not involved with the instrumental tracks, they (6 of them, I think) are a kind of sequel to the Aurobindo release that came out a couple of years back. Musically they're alot like the instrumental tracks on 'First Light', some interesting, some good, some unmemorable. The noninstrumental tracks are generally good, but the only ones that stood out as more than that are the first, which hearkens back a bit to 'Time To Find You', and another.. I think it's 'Happy In Her Skin'. Whatever the title, it's a re-recording of a track from 'Beauty Nowhere'- which isn't that surprising as 'Beauty Nowhere' was I think a collection of demos and sketches, a warmup for a proper Scala release. Here the track is fleshed out a bit, amounting to a 'First Light' style light drum-n-bass mix. Solid release for Scala- it's great to see these three still making music together. (Justin Fletcher is not credited on the release at all, and incidentally was replaced by a new live drummer when Seefeel performed at Blech last October.) I think part of the appeal is that it keeps hope alive for a *recorded* Seefeel reunion. Warp: Any news on Mark Clifford, or any reunion recording plans? I ask because the last I heard (after last October's Blech show) they had performed three new tracks (which Mark thought were better than 'the old stuff'), had no deal to record them, but Mark was hoping for a deal. At what stage did these good intention fail? Please enlighten us! In the meantime, if any one out there has a copy of said live performance, and is seeking ways to perform random acts of kindness, please e-mail me, I can help. More Rockers - Selection 2 I got the Smith & Mighty DJ Kicks CD a couple of months ago and was really pleasantly surprised. In addition to some great vintage Smith & Mighty, there were a number of very interesting drum-n-bass tracks thrown in. Generally with reggae/dub underpinnings and in many cases great vocals. Which is where it's at for me- I like alot of different kind of drum-n-bass, but my favorite are the tracks that recognize the dub foundation of it all. The stuff was good- it was really easy to listen to, really grooved, but without sacrificing certain fundamentals of production quality and sound choice. Which is what the word intelligent means to me re: music.. the More Rockers have that. So when this title came up on a preorders list I jumped at it. It's exactly what I was hoping for, the tracks I liked from the DJ Kicks CD and many more besides. It also enlightened me to the fact that More Rockers is an offshoot of Smith & Mighty, involving some of the same personnel.. that explains a thing or two, mainly the high quality of the music. If you like myself you would not be adverse to the following - very few instances of that tired, chunky amen break (I think there are couple, but they're subtle, used along with other breaks) - no diva vocals- but some soulful vocals, and some reggae- style vocals. - no drill-n-bass - dubby - with positivity then I urge you to own this disc. I'm sure those of you in the know already have lots of this stuff on vinyl- but I've never heard them spoken of on this list. If it's not because of obscurity, but rather because of preconceptions about what constitutes IDM and what doesn't, then in this case we're off mark. Again IMO- this stuff doesn't "just" groove- it really is well produced and well programmed. Works fine in the armchair, on the road, or at the office. On the other hand, there are a couple of tracks on here that are completely off the scale, bombastic, energetic, fit for dancing like a mad fool. Check track 3, let it play as the intro builds, turn the volume up, and let the beat drop at 1:21. - Brad