.. . :: reviews, reviews

From marsel
Sent Sat, Mar 3rd 2001, 19:59

soon up on forcefield

Nu Era - Broken Techno ep - 12" - Archive - doc9
After some silence, one of my favorite labels return again, with the 
anticipated new Nu Era twelve inch. Nu Era is Mark Mac, who is together 
with Dego mostly active as 4Hero. Nu Era is the pseudonym for the more 
techno oriented output. The twelve takes of with raw 909-programming, 
together with some nice twiddling synths. 1979 brings some more nice 
freestyle jam. Side b goes further into the deep. Fragile strings, go with 
raw beats in Titonton/Nubian Mindz way. Very funky. NIce and smooth goes 
last track Cydonia, in a very fine blueprint techno way. Gorgeous stuff all 
together.

Blaze - Elevation - 12" - Lite Line - ll-1014
An absolutely perfect example of the fresh sounds of Blaze. The track comes 
in two versions, Shelter vocal and Dub (instrumental) one. Especially the 
vocal mix brings an exotic mix, which hardly can be called just house 
anymore. Lots of percussion, fine strings, organ stabs and most of all some 
smooth uplifting vocals. All with a very smooth life feel to it. House 
live? Shouldn't be too difficult anymore in a Blaze way. Very, very fine.

Moodymann - NMYwagon - 12" - Peacefrog - pfg003
Almost togther with his absolutely wonderful album, this new 12" comes. A 
nice analog twiddling mix of Don't you want my love? is on it. And 
furthermore two new tracks, one untitled goes with very fine lofi beats, 
smoothly and softly jammin' house. The other is more raw, with a strange 
vocal sample in it. Very fine housey tunes, but that's probably already 
known. Smooth stuff.

Blaze - Productions - lp - Playhouse - play30
Two full lenght albums by Blaze are coming at the same time, both on German 
labels, this one on Playhouse. Blaze hardly needs further introduction, 
around since too many years and responsible for too many gorgeous music. 
Again with this album, house as basic sound, but that's somewhat too easily 
said. With their exotic mix of vocals, percussion and lots of other 
ingredients, it goes far beyond. Very relaxing, warm music.

Millennium to Millennium - Timeline - 12" - UR - ur2001
Fourth in episode of the ' .. ' to '..' sersies, after Nation2Nation, 
World2World, and most wonderfully Galaxy2Galaxy, with the real start of the 
new millennium comes this new 12". Side b brings a to me somewhat 
dissappointing remix by 4Hero of Amazon. Somewhat too leightweighted. Side 
a brings Timeline, a real beautiful track in the best Mad Mike tradition. 
This is technosoul at top with the uplifting string chorrds, along with the 
twiddling funky synth lines and spacey beats. Very, very fine!

Quiet Daze - Viewing a decade ep - 12" - Transmat - ms-24
The Transmat label stays alive although it's pretty in slowmotion. Quiet 
Daze is by Ian Pooley and his twelve inch brings us two more dancefloor 
cuts, and twice more experimental techno. November is still known from the 
smooth Time:Space compilation, and gives nice synth twiddlings. Being Quiet 
sounds pretty much like CiM, very nice, fragile electronica all around. 
Coming Full Circle is a straight in your face techno slammer, with a not 
too orignal bassline. Last track takes the things most smooth. Deep 
strings, very dreamy, in a very Carl Craig-way. Nice twelve inch.

Slam Mode - Clouds - 12" - Spiritual Life - slm378
And how is this to be called? Ambient NY House, maybe? Well, whatever, but 
Joe Clausell and Kamati Pinkston drop down these fine sounds. Mostly fine 
is Stratospheric Mix, on side b. Deep long ambient strings, along with very 
slow rolling percussion make it a beautifiul journey. The Atmospheric Mix 
goes some more down to earth. Very nice record.

Boards of Canada - In a beautiful.. - 12" - Warp Records - wap144
Michael and Marcus of the Boards of Canada finally return after their album 
'Music..'. They continue in the same dreamy, sweet way as they left us. 
Four tracks, Kid of Today is mostly a thick pack of strings, coming very 
nicely. Second track goes more minimal. Personal favorite is on side b, 
with the more uplifting title track. NIce use of vocoder makes them almost 
sound like Air. All very beautiful.

Common - Geto heaven remix - 12" - MCA - mca13860
A very typical remix 12" with five versions which pretty sound the same. 
And of course the original is nice, but most lovely on this record is the 
instrumental version, which goes in deep dubby downtempo house mode, think 
of Theo Parrish, somewhat more cleaner and you're there. Lovely stuff.

Various - Did you see? - 12" - Defocus - foc361
The UK deFocus label is around for a year, and celebrates this fact with 
the compilation album Did you see? At mid-range price some of the 
hightlights come by. Nice cuts by Lackluster, Aphelion, +One, CiM, and 
more. Also very nice are the intervals by CiM, even presented as tribute to 
Transmat. Fun! Another nice year to come, from this nice and sweet 
electronica label.

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