From Tom Millar Sent Mon, Oct 18th 1999, 16:01
From Tom Millar Sent Mon, Oct 18th 1999, 16:01
Okay, so I'm kind of out of the loop these days, having not even got my h= ands on a copy of "Programmed" yet. But I did come across some records that we= re new to me, and probably new to at least a few of you, so here goes: Albrecht Kunze: Testarchiv (Disko B) Bisk fans are required to purchase on sight. Kunze and the Bisk guy sound= like a case of twins separated at birth to me- same twelve-tone taste in harmo= nics, same rolling, spastic percussive elements, right down to the unorthodox-yet-effective sound sources. Big long schizophrenic collages created from a kitchen full of every beep the world has ever seen and som= e jazz samples thrown in for good measure. Surprisingly enough, Kunze also = seems to have an ear for melody when he gets around to it- a couple of tracks actually might rate being called "songs" (Oh, good one, start THAT argume= nt again). Some figures are also similar to Cristian Vogel's last album- lay= ers directly on top of one another instead of point-counterpoint as in Bisk. = As you can see, this is a record that lends itself to copious dry analysis- = I do want to say, however, that it made for a great driving score on the way b= ack home after seeing "Fight Club." Future Pilot A.K.A. Versus A Galaxy Of Sound (Sulfur) Future Pilot AKA is Sushil K. Dade, an East Indian composer type. "A Gala= xy Of Sound" is the title for all the folks he got to collaborate with him, in studio or through the mail, for this 2CD set. Aside from the annoying Macintalk voiceovers at the beginning of several of the tracks, most of t= his is quite good, especially the Scanner and Two Lone Swordsmen stuff (preac= hing to the choir here, aren't I?). The best from the comp, however, are four = works by Dade and some fellow named Bill Wells- "Pink City", "Pink Money", "Pin= k Returns", and "Pink Prophet", all of which are based on the same gorgeous= melody while shifting instrumentation and style around. That being said, = there are also some tracks here that don't have any melody, instrumentation or = style to them that I'd care to recognize as such, other than to categorize it a= ll under the heading of "wank". Certainly not an album for the purist or the= person who demands D in their IDM, meaning I probably shouldn't have boug= ht it, but hey! Branch out! James Bong: C'est Tres Bong (2 Kool) I have no idea how old this one is, but I'm willing to bet it might be as= ancient as 1996. To Hell with fashion, I like this stuff. This record rem= inds me a bit of Luke Vibert as himself and as Wagon Christ, though a bit more= minimal and stretched out. That might seem like it would be dull and unlistenable, but unlike Luke, the James Bong guys have discovered the lo= ng lost art of transition, so that nearly all the epic-length tracks on this= album start one way and end completely differently, with many different stopovers in between. Some of this stuff is really creative and unexpecte= dly smart- unfortunately, James Bong seem to bog down in seemingly random cut-and-paste exercises in between the good stuff, probably the reason I haven't heard of anything from this pair since. Either that or they were exiled from France for doing music that couldn't be described as "chunky,= " lately an apparent requirement for electronic musicians in that country. = Not that the Cassius album is bad or anything, you know. That's all for this week, just keeping in shape for when I have money aga= in and can afford to pick up the new stuff in a timely fashion... Tom ____________________________________________________________________ Get free email and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=3D1