From nd Sent Tue, Sep 15th 1998, 21:18
From nd Sent Tue, Sep 15th 1998, 21:18
I'd like to do a short review/plug of an idm comp. I received. *Subelectronica chapter 2 (Betaform, BF3002) Betaform is a division of Disturbance, an italian label that hosted some of the darcangelo releases before Rephlex (and still publishes their Monomorph stuff) plus other interesting stuff. The genres covered in this comp. are quite varied, and not all the stuff is excellent in my opinion. -Kicks off with an ambient track by italian act KU, recorded live. Quiet 808 and some reverberating guitar are what make it a good track. -follows Maurizio Landini: vocoder samples swirling around on a cool digital groove that owes quite a bit to Ae. -Servovalve, french act, quite dark and with confused french speech + noise -then follows some not very imaginative SAWII soundalike, grating stuff -Noir Overlaps: dub with some good distorted sounds and a trip hop feel to it. The guitars make the track sound like an outtake of early Red Snapper stuff. -A 034 the Insider: starts with haunting wolf-like sounds and some congas (never a good sign...) but then a bass drum comes in and after a bit the track changes quite a lot. Cool groove, lots of reverb. -hi tom: I cannot comment on this as it's me and my mates track (yes, that's where the SHAMEFUL PLUG comes in, :-> ) -Strek vs Atmo: Derrick May's Innovator stuff gone wrong, with someone deliberately playing an out of tun-ish melody over it, trying to be cheesy but not really succeeding (and no one will ever out-Derrick May Derrick May in pithcbend abuse...) -Worm: rock. imagine the Prodigy in italian... 'nuff said -Activitoity: the sound of a printer, then many sound of the same printer overlapped. Sounds like '70s experimental stuff. This might suggest a small thread: I've been working in factories in the past few years, and I always thought that some of the routine noises the machines did would make great drumbeats and sequences. I never actually sampled any, though. Have any of you found/done the same? -Septima Legio: industrial, w/some Kraftwerk soundalike samples. Not great. -:Zero - see Worm, but without the Prodigy -L.A.A.S - same as above -The Evidence: french act, a very melancholic ambient track with acoustic guitar and loads of reverberating vocals in the background. With KU, one of the best tracks and a good ending to the comp. Overall it's not a bad comp., some things are quite good, some are terrible though. 7/10, maybe more for people who like the industrial side of electronics. I don't know about its availability in shops, anyway I have a few copies I can sell or trade and I'd like to hear other people's opinions about it (on our track especially...). It should be available through Disturbance, too: http://www.matson.it/disturbance Ok, the plug is over. Thanks for the attention nd PS: if any of you have the comp. already, please take note that hi tom's e-mail address on the cover is out of service and has changed to xxxxx@xxxxx.xx np: plug-d'n'b for papa <xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xx> Table Homepage <http://www.tinet.ch/table> music etc.