(idm) some brief reviews

From Rodney Perkins
Sent Tue, Apr 13th 1999, 15:58

I'll make myself useful and post a few capsule reviews of independent 
IDM-type stuff I've heard:

Johnny Ether - Free Radical Generator (Clockwise)

Heavy, ethnic-flavored drum and bass + dub. Tablas and sitars are present
but the tone is more 50's Tangiers than Anokha. If you like the newest WE
album, you will certainly like this.

Fascia - s/t (Clockwise)

Deep, deep beat-oriented ambient with live drum kit. There are some more
fine drum and bass and dubby tracks here but the real stunner is the opening
track. My Bloody Valentine meets FAX? Dunno but it had me by the chest.

V/VA - Enter the Monkey (Mad Monkey Productions)

Really diverse comp with a nice balance of familiar names and unknowns.
Being a conservative, my tastes predictably gravitated towards the tracks by
Lesser, Kid606 & SCSI Bear, and those of similar ilk. Its all good stuff and
the IDM list artists have some strong tracks. Temporary favorite (for
unknown reasons) is the ham-fisted Disc track. It sounds like an art
brut/Sesame Street version of Oval.