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