5-Song Weekly Mini-Review #4

Oops. I'm off by a day. Well, I wanted to spend a bit of time writing an actual regular review this week, so that's my excuse for not making my arbitrary deadline. That said, let's see what this week's collection of random songs gives us.


1. King Kooba - Static Society
From the compilation Northern Faction 3.

These guys have been around, like, forever. Well, at least fifteen years anyway. Mostly on the Kruder & Dorfmeister tip, their funky soul approach to breakbeats had them appearing on all sorts of nu-jazz and atmospheric d’n’b comps before finding a home with OM records. This particular track is about as laid back as you’re likely to find in this genre, but remains very funky, soulful, ect., ect. If you like a few chill synthy washes with your street shuffle groove, check it out.


2. Mouse On Mars - Future Dub
From the soundtrack Deepwater Black: Inclonation Vol. 1.

This track again? Man, have I been hearing it a bunch lately, first when I did a Random Review of that soundtrack, and then when I used it for a mixtape. Hey, it’s a cool tune and all - it did get Ace Track honors - just a bit overplayed on my ears at the moment. If you still haven’t checked it out, Future Dub is also quite laid back, casually taking in dubby, bubbly psychedelia over a shuffling downbeat.


3. LDC - Die Schwarze Zone (Razormaid Mix)
From the compilation Radikal Techno.

What the…? Is this mini-review going to only consist of tracks I’ve covered before? Well, at least in this case it wasn’t also another Ace Track winner. Still, this is pretty good. That grumbling bassline never gets old, and fans of classic German trance will love all the ominous touches throughout. Alright, so I still haven’t a clue what the lyrics are on about, but there’s an extended instrumental of this called Wir Schicken Dich Ins All, which is pretty freakin’ cool if you ask me.


4. Reverse Pulse - Flexible
From a personal compilation.

Meaning, a track I downloaded back in the AudioGalaxy days and burned to CD. Hey, at least this means it’s not from another CD I’ve reviewed. There honestly isn’t much to say about this track though. Back in the mid-90s, Cleopatra started churning out A Tribute To… albums, rounding up several in-house trance producers to do covers of famous electronic acts: Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, and so on. This is from the Depeche Mode tribute, but Reverse Pulse don’t do much with Felixible, simply opting for a standard mid-90s German trance rub and distorting the lyrics some. As for why I even downloaded this, it’s an amusing story, but I’ve run out of space.


5. Flowjob - Change Everything
From the album Zentertainment.

Back again with the material I’ve already covered, it seems. *shrug* I honestly can’t explain it. For a Flowjob tune, this is alright. As usual, their backing synths are future-friendly and Tokyo-cool, the tone is chipper, and the rhythms are ridiculously groovy. They’ve done better, of course, but as a gateway track, it works perfectly fine.


So no hip-hop like I predicted either. I'm just going to stop making predictions on randoms altogether. Well, maybe I'll predict another Neil Young song will crop up next week. The pattern thus far seems to be every odd week.


Written by Sykonee, 2010. © All rights reserved.