From Lance C McGannon Sent Sun, Jun 28th 1998, 06:30
A few more for you. More on the way too. . The Modernist: Orange Colored Sky 12" (Eat Raw) I've been a huge fan of J Burger's previous stuff as The Bionaut, Burger Industries, and The Modernist, so i was excited to get this one. It doesn't disappoint. This 4-track ep starts with a robotic sounding minimal tech-houser complete with crisp studio 1-like percussion, robo-sounding synths and brief vocoder vocal lines. The a2 sounds vaguely similar to the previous track with more of a melodic house flavor to it and minus the robotic & vocoder effects. The next track is a unique minimal 4/4 tech-houser with punchy staccato synths that are synched with the beat. The ep finishes with a lush tech-houser with several layered synth lines over crisp studio 1-like percussion. Fans of the Profan, Eat Raw, Harvest, New Trans Atlantic stuff will enjoy this one. Also deep tech-house fans may check this one too. More quality=20 music from stuff from J. Burger. 9/10 . Common Factor: In to Horizions 12" (Planet E) Planet E is a favorite label of mine. Almost everything they have released has been gold to my ears. So it's a big occasion to me whenever Planet E has a new release. This=20 new release is the debut ep by producer Nick Calingaert. It features four tracks of varying styles. The a1 is a detroit=20 techno track with a shuffle percussion, bouncy bassline, a light spacey synth, and lots of unique sounds thrown in.=20 The a2 is a very funky disco-tech track. which mixes funky=20 KDJ-esque discofunk with Carl Craig like detroit techno. The b1 mixes deep dubby basic channel-like bass with UR-like synths & jazzy percussion. The ep finishes with a nice melodic detroit techno track with jazzy percussion and layered synths. The winners here are the a2 & b2. A good first ep for Mr. Calingaert. 7/10 . Jega: Type Xero 12" (Planet =B5) After two Jega eps on Skam, Dylan J Nathan releases his=20 first record on Mike Paradinas's Planet =B5 label. This one=20 features four tracks in varying styles. The a1 is a dark squelchy electro cut with spacey synths and percussion that alternates between jazzy breakbeats & hip hop beats.=20 During the hip hop segments there are dark synth lines and=20 distorted vocal samples. The a2 is another dark electro cut=20 with more of a retro or old skool flavor. It starts with lots of building acid lines then adds some nice spacey synths. The b1 is a hardstep d&b track with dark electro-tinged synth lines and reverbed sound effects. The ep closes with a nice melodic autechre-like electronica piece that is more like a track off the first Jega ep on Skam. This is a good ep if=20 you like dark breakbeaty electro. If you're looking for the Jega-style of his first ep on Skam, you may want to avoid this one. 7/10 . Voiteck: Live at Your Mama's cd (Truck/Plug Research) Australian techno producer has been making waves in the techno community down under for several years now. He has well over a dozen releases to his name and he runs his own label call Truck Music. Voiteck recently received kudos worldwide with his excellent TD5 ep on the L.A.-based=20 Plug Research label. On this, his third cd, Voiteck delivers six of his live recordings made from November 1996 to December 1997. He has several techno dignitaries help=20 on these tracks including Luke Slater, DJ Randsom &=20 Ralph. The length of these tracks varies from two minutes to twenty-one minutes but all tracks are have a very live sound, continually evolving and changing. For instance, the second track, called voiteck vs td5: truck musik live is a twenty-one minute track that seemlessly evolves from minimal techno to chuncky dancefloor techno to tech- house to intelligent electronica then back to chuncky=20 dance-floor & minimal techno. The same evolution=20 happens on the other five tracks on this cd. An impressive release that really shows the talent of Voiteck as a live musician as well as a studio producer. 7/10 . Lexaunculpt: Resampler cd (unreleased cdr) I agree that the name is a little hard to pronounce but=20 Lexaunculpt is a name you'll be hearing a lot of in the=20 next few months. Lexaunculpt has eps due soon on the respected Isophlux and Orange labels i received a preview cdr of these releases. On this nine track cdr shows his mastery of the mechanical electronica sound that autechre, skam, musik aus strom, & markant=20 do so well. Lexaunculpt, like the aforementioned=20 producers/labels, crafts tracks that seemlessly mix smooth melodic electronica with electro, & hip hop and=20 just a touch of experimentalism. Because these tracks haven't been released yet i won't do a full review but, suffice to say, Lexaunculpt's upcoming eps on Isophlux and Orange are going to be huge for fans of Autechre, Funkstroung, Bola, Solvent, Markant. 9/10 BTW: Don't forget our Inaudible netcast every Wednesday from 9-11 pm Eastern Standard Time. Hear John C (Bent Crayon)=20 and I spin two hours of the music we speak so highly of... The show will be accessible by visiting http://www.wcsb.org every Wednesday from 9-11 pm EST. The show will be broad- cast in the AudioActive format (which is actually much better than RealAudio). You can download the Audio Active plugin for free at http://www.audioactive.com/player/ During the Inaudible show we will be giving away promo 12"s=20 and cds so yet another reason to tune in. -->-Lance--- p.o. box 450715 westlake, ohio 44145 united states