From Kent Williams Sent Mon, Dec 14th 1998, 15:08
Thanks for a decent review that captures a lot of what's going on in Slag Boom Van Loon. All I can add really is that there seems to be a lot more of MP than JP in aural evidence in these tracks, kind of like Muziq with a Kurzweil K2000 instead of the Roland D50 and Casio FZ-1. All of the tracks have an improvised feel to them, which can cut both ways. Jazz musicians spend their lives trying to perfect their improvisation. Electronic musicians tend to regard the actual NOTES played as secondary to just getting all the gear running at the same time. Once it's all humming away, they are content to noodle, rather than go somewhere with it. On this record there are moments (SPC-CH-PN in particular) where you really do hear two people improving together in a mindful way -- listening and interacting musically. Those parts of this record where there is some live interaction are superlative. The ones that are noodly are all the more frustrating because of the effort put into sound design -- it's like the job is half done. I've not really followed Speedy J that much, after his first long player struck me as rather safe and boring -- perhaps unfairly, but it is hard to overcome first impressions. Maybe it's time to go back and see what I've been missing ;-) And the cover art made me want to go back to Rotterdam for Indian food ;-) kent williams -- xxxx@xxxxxx.xxx