From henrik str0mberg Sent Thu, Apr 1st 1999, 18:19
From henrik str0mberg Sent Thu, Apr 1st 1999, 18:19
some singles, reletively recent...
speedy j: ieee mitten menu (12", novamute)
only got this today, but i like already. this is more remenicient
of the harder tracks on "public energy no 1" than the diversity of "slag
boom van loon", almost dancey. the a-side feels a bit too repetetive and
boring, but the two tracks on the b-side makes up for it. hard crunchy
beats and metallic sounds with just a scattering of treated vocal samples.
the patented speedy j melodies can be faintly heard in the background.
sounds promising for the next album.
autechre: peel sessions (cds, warp)
what can i say? autechre as they sounded circa "garbage ep". it's
brilliant, totally. get it get it get it.
aphex twin: window licker (cds, warp)
richard james: more ironic than ever before. at first window licker
sounded like a quickly thrown together bagatelle, but it grows on you. it's
actually very catchy and will play loops in your brain for hours (better
this than whitney houston). and rdj's special geinus can be sighted in the
happily distorted ending.
track two is boring. if it's really written by a computer program,
then i prefer to wait for a (much) higher version number. on the last track
aphex gets really melodical on us, a song written for his girlfriend built
round the sounds of a wind-up music box. beautiful.
while definitely not his best record, it's still worth the money.
for the cover, in any case.
lamb: b line (cds, fontana)
took a while to get used to, but "b line" is now firmly lodged in
my mind as one of the best tunes of this year. starting almost mellow with
loungey drums and bass, it sets the adrenalin flowing with the mad rush and
hi-speed percussion of the refrain. a perfect pop tune, clocking in just
under three minutes.
the andy votel mix feels good but a bit slow, focussed as it is on
the slow part of the original. symphonic jazzy triphop, probably works much
better when not played just after the original. the pace picks up with the
funky herbalizer, while still retaining the loungey jazzy feel.
global communication as usual serves up a stunning bit of
production on "gorecki", a track i thought couldn't be improved. they do it
by completely changing direction from the original. this one's a nice
growing number built on a repetetive drum'n'bass-groove.
sadly, the swedish release i've got doesn't feature the lamb lounge
mix (grumble). good video, though.
mr. oizo: flat beats (cds, f comm)
so mr. oizo's sold platinum with this single in england. what?
definitely not your regular no. 1 pop tune, but it's not that fun, is it?
french techno built with fat chemical brothers-type beats. i suppose it's
all about the video and the levi's commercial. they should've included it
on the single.
some album reviews soon...
hs
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