From Lance C McGannon Sent Wed, Aug 5th 1998, 17:50
From Lance C McGannon Sent Wed, Aug 5th 1998, 17:50
A few more reviews. Many more coming soon... . Lithops: Turbino 7" (Static Caravan Records) This is the sickly limited ep by Mouse on Mars member Jan St Werner under his Lithops guise. Two tracks on this clear-vinyl 7" both in the ambient experimental style. The a-side starts with a looped synth line then slowly builds with a squelchy baseline, muted percussion, a heavily filtered guitar melody with a bit of reverb giving this track a very dubby Mouse on Mars Vulvaland-era sound. The b-side features a beatless looped melody with random distorted noises throughout the entire track. This is my first Lithops record but if they're all this good then it certainly won't be my last. 8/10 . Mark Bell: The Return of the Jazz Twit 12" (Shaboom) Former LFO member, Mark Bell, continues his association with Doc Martin's excellent deep house label Shaboom. On this, his second ep under his Jazz Twit guise, Bell delivers two tracks of sax/flute-driven percussive deep house. The a-side starts with driving muted 4x4 percussion then a thick David Sanborn/Kenny G-like solo starts (and continues throughout the track). As the track progresses a lush synth, a flanged synth, a slap-baseline and a clap track all add to the mix but the sax solo & percussion are by-far the focus of this track. The b-side starts with light bongos, claps & lush synths then a loud flute solo drops in (and also continues throughout the track). Some 4x4 percussion and base is added to round out the track but, again, the flute is definitely the focus of this track. Very beautiful stuff but the sax & flute are so prevalent i don't know if i'll ever be able to fit it into one of my sets. A pleasant listen though. This is what i imagine Muzak will be in 20 years. 7/10 . Too Funk: Too Funk To Funk 12" (Ferox) Russ Gabriel returns to his Too Funk guise for some more Ferox-styled funk-laden tech-house. The a1 is a short latin- sounding piano/vibraphone-driven track with light jazzy percussion and a funky little baseline. A funky listening track. The a2 starts with a flanged synthline, then the funk really begins with thick baseline, intermittent vibraphone- sounding and flanged synths all over a shuffle percussion. The b1 starts with filtered hi-hats then slowly builds with a funky baseline, 4x4 percussion, warm jazzy synth beds, and bongos. The final track starts with a deep bassy melody over hi-hats. Flanged bongos, stringy synth beds and several detroit-sounding melodies drop in to complete the track giving this last track a classic May/Craig sound. But overall this is a another decent funk-laden tech-house record by Russ. Nothing unique but funkin fun nonetheless. 7/10 . Rhythm & Sound w/ Tikiman: Showcase cd (Burial Mix) Mauritz Von Oswald, Mark Ernestus & Tikiman have been producing excellent old-school dub-reggae 10"s on their Burial Mix label since 1996. Now all the Burial Mix eps the have been compiled onto this "showcase" cd. Ten tracks altogether on this cd, five original tracks and five instrumental versions of the originals. If you would say that Mauritizo's M series are techno tracks with a dub influence, you could say that the Burial Mix tracks are dub-reggae tracks with a techno influence. So don't expect a heavy basic channel flavor to these tracks, listen to theses tracks in the same way you would listen to a King Tubby or Lee Perry release. Kick back and take in the soundz, mon. 8/10 . Concept 1 96VR cd (M_NUS) If you thought that Richie Hatwin's Concept series of releases were a bit of all-right, then you'll definitely want to hear what German minimal techno producer Thomas Brinkmann has done on this cd. Brinkmann, who also remixed Mike Ink's Studio 1 records, does a fabulous job at adding a new depth and even a little funk while still retaining the weird experimental edge. Brinkmann also does some amazing stuff with the channels his sounds come out on. Listen to this one with headphones and you'll see what i mean. The end result sounds like a mix of the new Plastikman album mixed with some of the more experimental Profan releases by Mike Ink, Sweet Reinhard, Gas, or maybe Jurgen Pappe. Highly recommended. I may even like this one more than the original Concept 1:96 cd. 9/10 BTW: Don't forget our Inaudible netcast every Wednesday from 9-11 pm Eastern Standard Time. Hear John C (Bent Crayon) 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 and cds so yet another reason to tune in. -->-Lance--- p.o. box 450715 westlake, ohio 44145 united states