From Peter Hollo Sent Sun, May 10th 1998, 07:34
From Peter Hollo Sent Sun, May 10th 1998, 07:34
Well poor old Andy Coleman seems to have copped some flak on this list
for I don't quite know what. Just being another drill'n'bass person I
guess, and Peter Shapiro is leading the "drill'n'bass is loathsome" type
thing from the pages of the Wire.
Anyway, I think he does have something different musically to offer.
Apart from the beautiful soluble ducks (on the Ninja Tune album "designs
and mistakes"), I particularly like his first track on the Spunk Jazz
comp ("Hate Me" I think, which is funny because the fantastic American
Jewish pianist Anthony Coleman has a group called the Selfhaters on (New
York Jewish legend) John Zorn's Tzadik label. But I digress...)
Anyway, the title track (I think - they make it so hard to tell these
days with 12"s) on Joyless Fade Impeller (out on Ninja Tune sublabel
NTone) is just as fucked-up-funky and fuck-up-jazzy as that one is.
Superb. Track two (Capital Boothwork) confirms that this 12" is at 33
1/3 RPMs - high-speed breakbeats that at 45 RPMs would be absurd and
many people would consider them absurd at 33 :) Not me though, I enjoy
the frenetic activity over quasi-Mu-ziq quasi-classical slowmoving
lines. The only thing I find with a lot of these drill'n'bassy types is
that the drums are mixed somewhat too loud. That's cool on some tracks
but gets a bit much on others. [The Dot label is perfect because they
pay so much attention to stuff like this...]
Other side then: first track (All Done) is VERY Mu-ziq. What I like
about this stuff is that there is a progression during the pieces. Of
course there's repetition, but the pieces go somewhere, beats come in
and out in some musically meaningful fashion (even in Mu-ziq sometimes
the way he pulls the beat out and sticks it back in seems a little
arbitrary). Again you might find the general level of the drum-beats a
bit excessive, that's my main objection. Final track (Turn Away From
You) is shockingly melodic over super-fast breakbeats. Nice sounds and
whatnot, but damn those drums are loud. If only...
Nevertheless, I enjoyed this release and anyone who *is* open-minded
about Andy Coleman ought to check it out.
Oh yes, his somewhat slower track (as Andy Coleman) on State of the
Nu-Art is really cool too, and his DJ-Vadim remix is great too.
By the way, this is the first double-B side I know of, on which both
tracks on each side are numbered "2". Reminds me of an even more
perverse version of the Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy, in which each book is
Number 1, and each part of each book is also Part 1.
Peter.
--
Peter Hollo xxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx http://www.cia.com.au/raven/
FourPlay - Eclectic Electric String Quartet
http://www.cia.com.au/raven/fourplay.html
"Of course, dance music can be a music where you lie on your back and
your brain cells dance" -Michael Karoli of Can, quoted in Wire mag.