(313) Recoreviews, pt 45...

From Lance C McGannon
Sent Wed, Aug 5th 1998, 17:50

Some long-overdue reviews for you. Many more coming 
soon...

. Mr. Hazeltine: On the Avenue 12" (Plug Research/pr14mh2)
The latest Plug Research 12" is another one by the 
everybusy Mr. Hazeltine aka John Tejada. On this three 
tracker Tejada fuses classic funk samples with his rich 
tech-house sound. The a1 starts with a whiny looped 
synth then several funk samples, breaks, and synths are 
thrown in. Shortly thereafter thick muted percussion 
and a deep baseline kick in. The track continues on with 
different elements of the mix being highlighted. The a2
starts with a deep funk baseline and an even deeper 
percussion. Then comes the disco loop. All these 
elements combine to give this track a nice KDJ deep 
house sound. The ep finishes with the b-side which
is the Mannequin Lung remix of the a1. The remix
starts with a shuffle-percussion then the funk samples
& breaks are added giving this track an uptempo-hip-
hop-with-a-twist sound. Another great record for Plug
Research and a bit of a new sound for John Tejada.
8/10

. Porter Ricks: Trident 12" (Force Inc)
Thomas Koner and Andy Melwig return to their 
Porter Ricks guise for a new two-tracker of deep 
murky techno much more in
the Biokinetiks style 
than their previous few releases. The a-side starts 
with deep bubbling synths then build with a deep 
4x4 baseline and slowly adds intermittent acid lines, 
metallic percussion noises and melodies that give the 
track a somewhat chaotic sound. But the real winner 
is the b-side which is a long deep filtered bc-esque 
techno track. It starts with a gurgling synth line then 
kicks in with the signature deep muted baseline and 
spacious-droney synth beds. Similar to the bc-stuff, 
the track pretty much stays the same from there. The 
b-side is a real gem. Good to see Porter Ricks going 
back to the deeper sound of their earlier releases. 7/10

. Stacey Pullen presents Black Odyssey: Sweat 12" (Black Flag)
The first ep on Stacey Pullen's new domestic Black 
Flag label is a storming three tracker by Stacey himself. 
The a-side is a melodic funky filter tech-houser with 
excellent builds, shuffle-percussion, deep 4x4 baseline, 
intertwining synth lines, and female vocal samples. The 
b1 is a remix of the a-side with more predominant vocals 
and thicker filters. The b2 is basically a short snippet of 
percussion, supposedly it's a teaser of the next Black 
Flag release. I really like this ep and will be playing 
both versions of Sweat for some time. If you like the 
heavily filtered tech-house of Daft Punk, DJ Q or the 
possibly the Swag guys you'll dig this one. I look 
forward to the next Black Flag label release. 8/10

. Urban Tribe & Moodymann: D2000 12" (MoWax)
Sherad Ingram, Carl Craig and Kenny Dixon Jr, three of 
Detroit's finest, team up for some funked-up detroit house 
on this limited one-sided ep. The track starts with the 
signature KDJ crowd noises under heavy bass and a crisp 
synths & percussion. The crowd noise and bassline 
continues throughout the track. Midway through the 
track the percussion alters somewhat and a lush synth line 
drops in for a bit but then it goes back to the original track. 
Imagine a KDJ track without the gritty sound and you'll 
know what this one sounds like. Good, but i expected 
something more from the people involved. 7/10

. Max Brennan: Alien To Whom? 2x12" (Sublime)
Max Brennan, aka Fretless AZM & Maxwell House, 
delivers this superb album of uniquely jazzy house & 
electronica all with odd arrangements, time signatures 
and tempo changes. This one features eight tracks, all 
of which are excellent. My particular favorites are the a2, 
b1, c1, and d2. The a2 starts with a nice jazzy melody, 
adds some shuffle percussion, a groovy baseline, and 
some spacey synths. Max then adds some light funky 
acoustic guitar to finish out the track. The b1 features 

a funky flittered baseline over crisp jazzy percussion and 
several intertwined synthlines. Halfway into the track 
Max really starts going off & funky on the baseline. The 
c1, which i've played on the inaudible show several times, 
starts with a funky synth & baseline then quickly goes into 
a looped base & percussive loop then switches back to the 
original funky synth & baseline with a little light guitar & 
synth solos over the top. The d2 starts with a mutated 
synth melody then quicky adds jazzy percussion and a 
latin-sounding piano loop. Later comes another distorted 
synthline. Midway through the track starts in with an 
entirely new synth weird lines and adds some guitar & 
horns. After a minute the original melodies & piano loop 
drop in to accent the horns. Again on this album Max 
Brennan excels at combining jazz, funk, house & 
electronica with his own unique style. Fans of artists like 
Morgan Geist, Daniel Ibbotson, or Clatterbox will enjoy this 
one. 8/10


BTW: Don't forget our Inaudible netcast every Wednesday
from 9-11 pm Eastern Standard Time. Hear John C (Bent Crayon) 
and I spin two hours of the music we speak so highly of...

The show will be accessible by visiting http://www.wcsb.org
every Wednesday from 9-11 pm EST. The show will be broad-
cast in the AudioActive format (which is actually much
better than RealAudio). You can download the Audio Active
plugin for free at http://www.audioactive.com/player/
During the Inaudible show we will be giving away promo 12"s 
and cds so yet another reason to tune in.


-->-Lance---
p.o. box 450715
westlake, ohio 44145
united states