i recently got ahold of 24 records, new and old stuff, no particular order
pt1.
d'malicious - dark tradition (wave music)
3 tracks of pretty nice sorta aril b. sounding stuff. 'dark tradition' has
slightly more clubby beats than aril, but some nice strings and portamento
melodies. 'soft machine' has lovely pads and a nice big square wave
bassline, congas, housey chords -- comes off a bit like joshua's stuff
actually (especially that bassline!), a bit more techno. 'dark transition'
takes the lovely portamento melodies from 'dark tradition', adds deeper
strings and pads, sounds a bit towards los hermanos/ur..so kinda familiar
sounding stuff all around but real nicely done.
maps @ diagrams / tim jackiw - glaciarc ep (tundra)
beautiful, deep, cool, moody stuff that i would put up there with the recent
alex cortex stuff on ann aimee, cim, etc. loads of lovely strings & pads,
excellent soft abstract beats, and subtle melodies (none of those idm
musicbox melodies that bug me tho). the maps & diagrams side is on the
deeeep fuzzy paddy/stringy idm side, all very lovely. tim jackiw starts off
with a sorta droney but lovely 4/floor track that actually reminds a bit of
stereolab with its nice subbass-line -- lovely strings and chords and pads
washing around in the background, it's awesome. after a skittery-beated but
still deep track, tim closes with a lovely more abstract one that goes a bit
in the d.e.c. direction..beautiful record.
v/a - headspace 2003 sampler
great techno all around. i was prepared to be hard on fabrice's track, he
was starting to use too much similar 101 lines in his tracks i thought
(sorry fabrice!), and while this one does again have that familiar 101 style
he uses, it's used in a fresh context, and at fabrice's best -- is one of
the more standout tracks i have by him -- loads of tension and a bit dark,
nice icy-pads underlying the track. derek carr's track is nice mellow techno
with nice deep droning bassline, nice little minimal touches, very warm and
simple. rei loci's is full of churning high-pitched ur-y melodies, nice
chords, simple but nice chunky bassline..very good energetic detroit-y
techno. but arne takes the cake! like rob hood doing (extra) dark
sophisticated melodic stuff? i dont know, is just arne and its excellent,
full of alien sounds, lovely strings, smartly-written percussion parts,
tension, is just technooooo...
rei loci - faction (seventh sign)
more great melodic detroit techno from one of the iridite guys..'faction' is
full of melodic tones flying all over the place, bass and melodies
intertwined, more little melodies coming in and out, little chord & string
stabs, buzzy percussion, sort of like a more melodic and busy rob hood? it
works nice @ 33rpm too, sounding a bit like hoodlum stuff but more
wild-techno style ;P 'no neutral surface' is more stripped down and banging
style, staccato melodies, some hood-y chords, string stabs, but this doesnt
just start and loop, it mutates wildly several times..excellent! lacuna is a
bit more abstract than the other two, some parts arent quite as likable, but
then its also got parts which are some of the loveliest and catchiest on the
record, a more housey bassline and lovely high pitched chords and
melodies..excellent record all around, technOOoooo!!
tres demented (planet e)
ok i see where one of my friends was coming from saying 'demented' is like
old farley and chi stuff, but hey not realllyy!! that drum loop and that
single note dancing morse-code style is all cc, and that big single-osc bass
note with changing decay, the way the track bulds...paperclip people getting
really dark and worked up if you ask me! dope!! and the dd version is all
deep classic cc detroit style, if minimal -- its the pads that make it..they
remind me of televised green smoke but thats ok hah ;)..nice shortloops of
computery beepboops and very nice 808 percussion. the drum tracks are nice
minimal cuts, one to the chi side one more to the detroit side..great
record, dont think it's necessarily _the_ record of the year or anything
arne, but one of!
rod modell - deep chord #16
not a whole lot to say, nice dubby stuff that reminds a bit of maurizio -- i
like it a lot BUT the problem is this stuff has no bass! just straight ahead
909 kicks. so instead of being dubby grooves that really grab you they just
kinda drift along. still, very lovely echoing dubby stuff..its just a shame,
one or two bassnotes added to each song would have made a world of
difference..i have noticed this lacking in other dc stuff as well..i still
am glad i picked it up tho, and will be nice to mix with..
d.i.e. - the men you'll never see pt.2 (clone)
the guys formerly of d-bass and m.a.p. now dropping the techno-bass on
clone...unstoppable...i wish the best track wasn't a "live @ the m.a.p.
lounge", ie p-dogg keeps cutting the beat out and talks over most of the
track..i think the original is on another m.a.p. record? (the only one i
don't have i think, noooo..)!! then you got another track with a great
moaning wet bassline and p-dogg talking about cosmic cars and programming
his home computer, nice pads and soft scrapey synth noises in all the right
places..then another track somewhere between aux and drexciya? more dope
pitched-up p-dogg vocoder vox....talkin about techno...aww yeah...the delay
on some of the vox on this record is kinda oddly-timed (not synced, at all)
but i like how it makes it a little more raw...2 tracks on here were already
out on the clone test release, but they are super hot too..
raiders of the lost arp - funk 005(drive) (pigna)
pretty nice mellow stretchin-out italo, with the sort of lead line that
reminds me of the theme to loveboat or something (kinda d wangy but less
jazzy -- the lead that is), but its nice...not super exciting but good. 2
mixes on the other side, analog fingerprints make it a little more
techno/electro, nice 8-beat bleep bassline, gated pads skipping away in the
background, pretty cool..the francisco mix is the nicest with a more
low-slung sleazy disco bassline and some bubbling lfo'd sounds, little
chirpy melody, a bit of choir-y pads accompanying the loveboaty lead..dopest
sounds on the record, real upfront and nicely done sounds.
ultradyne - age of discontent (pi gao)
this record is pretty notorious for having badddd mastering, which it does,
but the songs are SOOOo good..ultradyne showing its drexciyan relation more
than ever on this record. 'black panther' with viscious 808 drexciyan beats,
cold aquatic pads, and convulsing bassline that almost seems to be
talking..'clones' hmmm where have you heard that melody before
(dopplereffekt!)...not to mention the lyrics are sort of an accompanying
theme to sterilization ;P first sterilize the population, next clone the
serial killers..well anyways all the songs are hopelessly good...if you're a
drexciya fan...buy this chit..or die...this as good or better than abstract
thought, is more intense...(tho a.t. is also excellent)
amp fiddler - love & war (genuine)
ok nevermind all that stuff i said about the music being too loungey jazzy
etc -- i still dont like this record, even less than before, now that i've
had some time with it! but not because of the music -- amp's vox totally
sabotage this stuff. this is what is called (by some) OVER-vocalizing i
think. the way he'll go from a more throaty thick voice to that more raspy
prince voice int eh same song, sometimes the same sentence -- too much! id
much prefer if he'd pick a way to sing for a song and stick with it, i mean
he's got a good voice obviously...for that reason, i like 'eye to eye' on
here more than anything else, his vocals are consistent and smooth
there..too bad its so short. musically, i dig most of this stuff, just too
bad about the vox. 'freakin' kinda reminds me of digital underground, but
with the same overdone bobo style vox that ruined their later stuff too.
black joy - paloma (project)
this is a gem!!!! 'paloma' is a VERY soulful, just excellent
hiphop/downtempo groove, great organ, keys, guitar, i am picky on this kinda
stuff but this is just so damn nice. then there's the
flip..'untitled'...funky as hell chit in the area of cc, pepe, or i-cube, or
a collaboration of all haha....all lovely pads, a short perfect looping bass
line, single notes stabbing along cc style, wheezing pads that sing
wheooowooo, little chirpy bits...deep as hell! funk as sh;t! so nice. j.
caron and d.caron?? who are these guys? i assume thats not the dutch caron
boys, this stuff is too different from them..french!..? recorded at kif
studios...
cpen & jt donaldson - spread the groove (late nite essentials)
these guys do a lottttt of records, a lot of which are kinda genre-fied (but
high quality) house, but they always seem to sneak on a really nice more
unique track or two on each release as well..so here there is a real club
friendly sample house cut, with some organ and droning subbass, ok but
nothing special, but the b-side has two much nicer tracks "return to now"
has some nice pads washing, nice chunky percussion, and a real deep
pulsewidth? bassline..mellow and soulful and sorta prescription-y so i dig
it haha "i go crazy" is the best tho, reminds me of early 80's r&b turned
house, big sorta cheesey reverbed beats, cheesey casio sounding chords and
lead -- cheesey but classy struttin stuff y'know? -- guitar bits, nice vocal
samples, nice simple disco-y bassline, real low bpm..reallllly nice, really
different!
continues...
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