From gg2g4ink Sent Thu, Dec 11th 1997, 09:49
Guerilla*Gazette 11-12-97 TOP STORY: LANDSTRUMM LIMBERS UP; PADDINGTON BREAKS HIS SILENCE By GuerillaG2-G4 RealAlternative Press ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDINBURGH --- it had to happen. with all of the action focused on team No Future recently, Neil Landstrumm has decided to monkey around on the 'fungle-gym'. BUBBAH'S TUM vs NAVARIO SAURO - "Dirty Great Mabel" (PILL[XXX]007) 12" (1-12-98) Landstrumm wrestles with BT's wildly disarrayed beats (the original, from _Spunk Jazz_, is on the flipside of the record) and pins them down on a funky 4/4 framework. then he gets crazy with the chirps and modulations while those beats struggle valiantly to free themselves. Landstrumm has mopped up every drop of drum n' bass and stamped his unmistakably tracky fingerprints all over this "Scandinavia Mix." the 12" will be an extremely limited-release (eyewitness reports have subsequently confirmed that this release will be promo only) in January. the Navario Sauro treatment - along with mixes from BoC, DigiDub, and others - will reappear on a remix pacakge in March. LONDON --- a standout on Spymania's AVIT Allstars LP, Mr. Breaks 'breaks' with the pack to unleash his debut ep. PADDINGTON BREAKS - (Ill006) (mid-February '98) "Daytime TV" waddles in on a lizard-like bass groove, serenades us with a tipsy troop of caroling bullfrogs, and slithers out with the toothy grin of a crocodile. typewritten beats and a sustained minor-key electric piano solo give no hint of the funk storm which "The Dole Drums" unleashes. this too is just a distraction from the track's raison d'etre - a bath of hot and angry Acid tones which makes short work of the hapless rhythm, leaving only a puddle of fat. hand-raising House pianos are pumped full of barbituates and dropped several octaves on "Biztalk." when the drugs wear off, a quivering Skam-like contraptunal melody spreads its wings and takes for the skies. all to the accompaniment of a crisp but simple Downtempo tattoo. a blizzard of blunt beats and low-end growl introduces "Debt," whose all-engulfing rhythmic firebombing stakes out Paddington Breaks' own corner of abstract Eden without any notable debt to anyone. it almost sounds as though an acoustic guitar is being trampled underfoot, but that could just be a trick of the light. if you hear thunder booming from distant highways, that's no trick - it's just a reminder that "Red Cars Move In Packs." in military rank-and-file fashion, arrayed in neat rows, they roll proudly through the streets of Crooklyn. straight for the car wash, where they get soapy and all funked up. reedy hypno-synthdrone and scrambled-in-their-shells Latin-schooled beats fight it out for control of the airwaves on "Music One Skins." it's a back and forth scoreboard tussle. score at the end of the inning: Music: One Skins: One Listener: Ten final score: ******* 1/2* / 10x(*) ...and don't forget that nothing goes with steak and eggs like the kicky taste of Hind's A-2™ Sauce. ::: The ShortForm Blotter: A wrapup of this week's events around the globe ::: KOMET EXPERIENCING WINTER THAW CHEMNITZ --- second communications from Rastermusic's Frank Bretschneider find a more confident Komet busy in his workshop amid gears and watchsprings. while Bretschneider could easily be turning out clockwork dogs and cuckoo clocks, he dedicates himself instead to the vitalization of his uniquely organic spin on computer music. Bretschneider comments, "Komet guarantees ... a pleasant, relaxed flow between trip and electro --- abstract hypnotic pop." built with a concern for minimal construction and maximum effect. the warm tones found on _Flex_ [rastermusic cdr011] pop and burble, soft as the patter of raindrops or of a newborn colt's feet. rhythms spring from the unlikeliest places, the looped dots in Komet's pointilistic sprinkle connected with pliable ligaments forged from aerobass materials. any similarity between "Flex" and the music from television's long-running "People's Court" is purely unintentional. LIFE IN THE ABSTRACT FOR JAPANESE JAZZ TOKYO --- turning briefly from the pervasive beats of Japan's hiphop scene, the musicians behind Computer Soup and Weedbeats have crafted twin opuses of distinctly original jazz. both ensembles rebel quietly against the overproduction of similar projects. less concerned with atmosphere than with the color and depth of every note, Computer Soup's watercolor palette belies the profundity and beauty of their music. "We love the feeling of skating on "thin" ice or the "blank" feeling of falling asleep in shade of tree in the midnoon," muses Soup-Disk's Masaaki Hara. this sense of uncertainty and hypnagogia informs the vaporous spatial production of _Computer Soup_ (Soup Disk/Silver World 01), suggesting that the deceptively uncontrolled instrumental voices might derail into a chaos of disoriented jazz forms with the slightest concession to distraction. Weedbeats' freestyle appropriation of intuitive ensemble jazz is more extroverted. tradition is overturned in a maelstrom of attenuated alto sax, tempered guitar, dual bass expositions, and percussive tirades unaffected by the concerns of gravity. if less overtly radical, Weedbeats unorthodox approach actually relies heavily upon turntables and samplers. the seamless music heard on record bears the invisible stitches of post-production manipulation, making _Weedbeats_ (Soup Disk/Soup Street 01) a remarkable blurring of the lines between live performance and magnetic tape. several standards, including Coleman's "Broken Shadows" and Haden's gorgeous "Song For Che," are recast and invigorated by Weedbeats' iconoclastic interpretations. these often begin with the familiarity born of reverence, but the results are more post-mortem autopsy than wake. but Weedbeats are not displaying disrespect. quite the contrary, their fearless dismantling of formality and custom is the most appropriate offering to the spirit of invention which marked the brilliance of the original masters' work. SWEET N' LOW IN SWEDEN STOCKHOLM --- scientists have traced seismic disturbances in the capitol to the studios of Qom Laboratories, ground zero for the experiments of Dub mavericks, Pro-Seed. their low-end disruptions have blossomed from scattered compilation appearances into _Acoustic Agenda_ (RUCD 01), a smart and impressive debut for the young Recordings Under Construction label. in a show of pure musicality rarely seen since the heyday of Kingston's King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry, Pro-Seed's lively skank is carefully crafted before undergoing the expected echo-chamber atomization. '90s DigiDub know-how turns such numbers as "Warvulva" and "Dommatosk Full" into brainpan-rattling pinball tableaux. fanciful splashes of P-Funkiness add occasional vocals from Wire's Edvard Graham Lewis add even more color to an already vibrant neo-Rastafarian weave. might Recordings Under Construction be the next Midnight Rock or Black Ark? early investigations have uncovered several vinyl artifacts which, although they refute such findings, suggest a more likely kinship with Hull's Pork Records or London's Holistic label. The Mighty Kohn's (not to be confused with Roy Cohn, James Caan, or Leonard Cohen) "Droon"/"Smoov" (RUCED02) rolls out a chewy fusion track highlighted by ripples of outta-space synth and animated breakbeat drumming. the flip is a slow builder of a Downtempo drum n' bass grace which alternates microchip chatter with airy trumpet trails spun from a creaky Victrola. Pro-Seed's "General HP" EP (RUCED03) lifts two tracks from _Acoustic Agenda_ and entrusts them to RUC's Yod and Grand Nip. Yod un-dub "General HP" and reoutfit its slinky bass with patches torn from frayed electro lines. "Don't Mind Me I'm Brusle" receives an itchy n' feisty jungle overhaul from Grand Nip, whose own "Nip" 12" (RUCED01) was unfortunately unavailable for analysis. on Society's "Occult Diplomacy" EP (RUCED04), the breakbeats are as jagged as shards of Wedgewood. the restless rhythm of "Riding Her" sounds like it's being tapped out as a telegram or by an ancient dot-matrix printer. the melody - serene and Schulze-like, is a picture of comparative calm. as is the female voice which sighs operatically, but wordlessly, as the beats become a froth of white-water activity. a peculiar start/stop-step meter plays its erratic percussion against a similarly restful backdrop ambience. . . . . . .. keep an ear to the ground GuerillaG2-G4/ gg xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx