From Che Sent Tue, Nov 11th 1997, 11:54
From Che Sent Tue, Nov 11th 1997, 11:54
Spring Heel Jack - Busy Curious Thirsty (Trade2/Island) - Thankfully, Island has their shit together & released this US domestic almost simultaneously with the UK release, because I probably couldn't have waited. If my copy of "There Are Strings" were on vinyl, I'd have worn it out by now. BCT is a return to form for SHJ, after good, but not great outings on 68 Million Shades & Versions. Most of the sounds on BCT are infused with interesting distortion, which gives SHJ a whole new sound. The beat programming is more complex than ever, and intertwines with the melodic elements to good effect. A couple of the tracks on here sound almost like avant garde compositional pieces - Galapogos 3 & Bells 2. All in all it's a very fresh sounding record that stands far apart from the D&B crowd. Various - Pierre Henry/Michel Colombier - Metamorphose (FFRR) - This is one weird remix CD. 4 classical electronic music tracks from Pierre Henry - "Psyche Rock", "Too Fortiche", "Jericho Jerk", and "Teen Tonic", are reinterpreted by the likes of Coldcut (2 versions), Funki Porcini, Tek9, William Orbit, and Fatboy Slim. I previously reviewed the Coldcut & FP mixes, but I'll restate that the Porcini mix is not to be missed, and the Coldcut mixes should be picked up by any Coldcut fan (especially the 2nd). The Tek9 mix is good, taking a little time to get started, but working its way up to one of those breakbeat workouts that characterised early Tek9, with lots of strange electronic sounds thrown in. The William Orbit mix is the strangest thing I've ever heard him do. 10 minutes of noise, done in a very unOrbitish way. That isn't to say that it's not cool, because it is, it's just that your typical William Orbit fan is probably in for a shock. As for the rest of the mixes, well, I guess it all depends on what you're into. I think the Chateau Flight mix is good, and the rest just so-so. The Ken Abyss mix is so bad that it's deleted from my playlist. God I love programmable CD-Rom drives! So, to summarize 6/12 of the tracks are worthwhile, 50%, the low end of the scale for me & compilations. Various - Joint Ventures (NineBar) - Amon Tobin fans should run, not walk to the store to snag a copy of this. 6 collaborations between AT (as Cujo) & many names I don't know. All 6 are excellent, as are most of the other 6 collaborations. The Cujo tracks are mostly dark drum&bass, . gg?whasisface gave an excellent review of this disc a few weeks ago, which I heartily agree with, so I'll pass on the blow by blow. The Funki Porcini collaboration is the only time 2 musicians who I appreciate (& not named Eno) have actually managed to live up to the hype - better yet they've exceeded it. I'd love to hear a full-length from these two. Photek - Modus Operandi (Science/Virgin,Astralwerks) - I feel cheated, as should other Photek fans. I picked up "Hidden Camera", then "Ni-Ten-Ichi-Ryu", which had a measly 2 tracks. Why not include the tracks off "Wipeout XL"?. Then "Risk Vs. Reward" came out, which would have saved me $10, if only I hadn't bought HC & NTIR when they came out. Now MO comes out with yet more duplication - "The Hidden Camera", "KJZ", and "The Fifth Column" were already released, giving us just 7 new tracks. 4 releases for 1.5 CDs worth of material. This really sucks. Why not license & release the Photek records material on CD? (I guess something to this effect has been announced for next spring from Astralwerks, but I'm not holding my breath as to whether they'll include all the tracks from PHTK1-6.) Ah, the vagaries of major label mismanagement, where the MO seems to be "How little can we get away giving them, and how can we do it in such a way as to make them shell out the most money?". Oh well, on to the music. On "Aleph1", RP tries to out to be more melodic than atmospheric, but comes off sounding repetitive because he just doesn't have enough elements to play against each other, and keeps doing the same thing over and over. I had the same problem when I first started writing music. What RP is best at is creating an introspective, forboding atmosphere, as he does on "124", "Axiom", & "Modus Operandi". "124" is essentially an ambient postscript to "Aleph1", using the same ambient chord progression as a seque into a very laid back Unfortunately, RP doesn't really do anything new on this album, and for some reason, it doesn't have the same tension or nervous excitement that his Studio Pressure 12"s tend to have. The bassline of "124" is reused on "Modus Operandi". Also, you can hear sounds from "The Hidden Camera" recycled on "Trans 7". Come on, find some new sounds, dude! I also could do without the gun samples - the lock & load, the cartridges hitting the floor, etc. I think that maybe we're expecting too much from Rupert. Yes, the beat programming is amazing, though no more so than Tom Jenkinson, and with a lot less going on melodically than TJ, and more annoyingly, less variation from track to track. I think the main disappointment is that it doesn't sound like he's evolving as quickly as Squarepusher, TPower, or Spring Heel Jack. I thoroughly enjoy all of Photek's music, but it seems like I have to pay a little too dearly for what I get. While I'm bitching about Photek, I'd like to point out how "Photek" is not an ideal keyword for websearches - a typical inquiry will generate dozens of hits related to a camera equipment maker named Photek. It'd be a snap to search for "Photek" minus the word "camera", only he had to name a track "The Hidden Camera". Sigh. While searching, I did find this gem of a quote from Mr. Parkes: "Anyone who can't hear emotion in a drum beat suffers from a lack of understanding of what's going on in dance music and they need to hear more." Amen brother, amen! However, great drum programming is no excuse for being lazy with melodic development, sample selection, and bassline composition. If you want to write drum only music, great, but don't add other elements unless you're going to work them just as hard. Che