From Greg Earle Sent Sun, Dec 21st 1997, 23:58
From Greg Earle Sent Sun, Dec 21st 1997, 23:58
Just a paragraph or 3 on my most recent purchases (sorry my prose isn't very
florid; I'm a computer geek, not a record reviewer):
V/A "Position Chrome" (Force Inc. PC 19)
Panacea, Problem Child, Heinrich at Hart, and Goner remix each other's works.
If you like your Drum n' Bass dark, dark dark and heavy (the 2 Problem Child
tracks threatened to disembowel my woofers), you'll love this. Ed Rush &
Nico territory but with different atmospherics and sense of space. i.e.
different enough on its own to be worth getting. The Heinrich at Hart stuff
is more downtempo, almost Autechre-esque in fact. It ends with a couple of
"Live in Stuttgart" jams involving the participants (No-U-Turn samples left in
intact!) that's mostly dispensible. Good stuff for the most part though.
Download "III" (Subconscious/Nettwerk 06700-30118)
Finally!!! The Download boys jettison Mark Spybey and his distorted vocals
(which meant "Industrial" reared its ugly head in the mind) and Phil Western
takes the con. For *years* I've waited for cEVIN Key to come around to
Techno as The Now Sound of Tomorrow, and it looks like Philth finally convinced
him. Almost all of the random noise doodlings of earlier Download have been
dispensed with, and the occasional crunchy Industrial bits (that don't even
really start until the 8th track) are more Autechre-esque than Puppy-esque.
What you're left with is pretty much a pure Techno/IDM record - tends to be
somewhat Detroit-ish in feel more than not, if anything (good for them!).
In short, it's no wonder there's talk of an Autechre collab - having turned
from The Dark Side of The Force, this is just as worthy of being discussed
on IDM as anything. If you associated "Download" with "Skinny Puppy" and
"Industrial", now you should think "Off and Gone/Harthouse" and "Techno".
I'm sure all the stick-in-the-mud Industrial rivet-heads must hate it. (-:
Fuck 'em. Download's now living in 1997 and it's about time. Welcome back.
Reflection "The Errornormous World" (Clear CLR432CD)
Now this is another kettle of fish altogether. Ridiculously high priced
(I paid US $27.99 in a Virgin Megastore, for a single CD!), that should
have warned me right there. I've only had time for one run-through, so
perhaps this is unfair to mention it now, but I just don't get this record
at all. It strikes me as one long series of tracks that mostly consists of
taking a Downtempo/Hip-Hop beat and looping it over the entire course of the
track. Now I'm not adverse to Downtempo (I'm rather fond of the "Headz" comps)
but this just didn't grab me as being all that interesting. And at $27.99
I'm kicking myself for not buying the Arcon 2 CD instead. Arggh. Anyone
wanna swap it for their "Arcon 2"?
Also picked up: Bjork's "Batchelorette 2" CD single (some nice mixes by Mark
Bell and Grooverider, along with 2 *great* mixes by Alec Empire), Luke Slater's
"Freek Funk" (reviewed enough times here already; not as sonically coherent
as, say, his Planetary Assault Systems LP from this year, but it rules anyway),
Curve's comeback single "Chinese Burn" (still think these folks are about
one of the only interesting guitar bands left, and this time 'round there's
lotsa dance mixes to be had, including an AFX-style makeover - i.e., take
Toni's vocals and replace the rest with your own Trance track - by Paul Van
Dyk, and a nice D n' B take by Witchman), and a snatch of not-quite-current
stuff (Stacey Pullen's Kosmic Messenger guise, Claude Young's "Soft Thru",
the Deviant "Pacific State" Japanese Techno comp., the Jeff Mills/Axis comp.
"The Other Day" - not the Japanese version with 3 extra tracks, alas! - and
the Dave Clarke "Electro Boogie" X-Mix 2CD edition - which was $3 cheaper
than the single-CD edition! Duh!
- Greg