From The Rare Guy Sent Thu, Jun 18th 1998, 05:01
From The Rare Guy Sent Thu, Jun 18th 1998, 05:01
Game Program/Hillie is out of slumber and doing reviews again :) In the
following blurb I review the new WagonChrist EP with full force.
WagonChrist: 'The Power of Love' EP
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At first sight, this looks like some 1960's/70's record. The sleeve is
designed with some typical things that appeared on very old vinyls. With the
words Personal [ stereo ] appearing on the lefthand side in a column that is
coloured differently from the rest of the sleeve.
The whole thing looks like "revival of the hippies," as Wagon Christ is
written in a kind of hippish logo..
At first listen however, I was skeptical as to the quality of this, but
after a few listens I've changed my mind, at least about a few tracks.
Anyhow, the 12", which I believe is to be played at 33 1/3 rpm, has 4
tracks:
-A1- RENDLESHACK
-A2- BREAKAGE No.1
-B1- BREAKAGE No.2
-B2- FILTHY DRUMMER
This contains some more of the usual funky breaks to be expected from Luke
Vibert. Some jazzy hints of melody strewn in and about, but here is each
track in depth:
_Rendleshack_: Rendleshack starts out with some quick arpeggios before
totally getting down to funky breaks, virtual backspins and sound cutoffs
and voice-in's, very much like Ninjatune's style, except there's not a
shitload of scratching present. Quite a chill track, a little fast for
triphop, though you might still call it that. Totally chilled out, and nice
to listen to after a day's work or whenever. There are some really wicked
sounds on here that sound like videogame sounds strewn about. This is
probably my favorite track on the 12". Around the middle of the track, a
delayed melody comes in, in addition to the jazzy piano rolled chords. The
videogame sounds kindof sound like the Pacman-eating-a-ghost sound put
through reverb and extreme amount of delay. Colourful lo-fi synthpads
surround the latter part of this track and envelop it with a certain
atmospheric quality.
_Breakage No.1_: This track starts out with some broken, chopped up breaks.
Some vague repeating beeping sounds occur in this track, then some lo-fi
repeated synthpad samples (you can hear where the loop starts and ends quite
clearly) come in with some strange bass samples. This track has a feel of a
real drummer playing it.. but other than that, it's about all I can say for
this track really.. Luke Vibert seems to play around with the pitch of drum
sounds in this track a bit. There's some cymbal rides, and other things.
This is certainly one of the worst tracks on the 12".
_Breakage No.2_: This is probably my second favorite track on the EP, and
it's quite a weird track too.. It starts out with a very jazzy feeling, a
trombone-like sound playing an offbeat melody that is looped, and then from
out of somewhere a rising piano roll comes in and here's where the track
turns eerie, scary and generally weird as shit :) and it's totally awesome.
There's like some "bloody strings" in the background. Not quite psycho
strings, but somewhat close, this sounds like "theme from haunted house
(jazz interlude mix)" or something. Some jazzy triphop beats over this
scaryass music. This track seamlessly comes in and out of "horror film" mode
to total jazz infusion mode, and it does it without you noticing, which is
really interesting.. Changes the whole mood of the track back and forth.
It's safe to say that IMO this is tied with Rendleshack as the best track on
here, coz I really don't think putting this one behind it, although this
track gets a bit boring in the last few bars.
_Filthy Drummer_: This track starts out with a really atmospheric melody
with a filtered sweeping bright sound, and a pretty cool bassline, very
jazzy. The drums come in, with more of a hiphoppish feeling. This is where
the track tends to get a little boring. Everything stops for a drum solo
which requires a bit more, then another really cool bassline comes in, and
the melody comes back. There's cut up vocal samples of some deept throated
guy saying "yeah." Then there's some reverse snares that wash up on top of
the beat, and the old bassline comes back. This track has some very nice
elements but it just doesn't do it for me that well. It's too boring at
times, but it is okay I guess. Some really nice elements. Towards the end
there's some roboticised samples put through heavy flange of some guy
rapping about something. The track ends abruptly after a few bars of this.
Overall "The Power of Love" is a pretty good EP. Only 1 track which I find
totally repulsive, 2 that are damn well brilliant, and one that is not quite
there, but still pretty decent.
.auddplte <-- ehm. WagonChrist. the power of love ;))
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