Q-Burns Abstract Message - Feng Shui

Astralwerks: 1998

Michael Donaldson's project always felt bigger than it actually turned out. Maybe it's because his early tracks were appearing on several noteworthy labels via compilations and mixes, FFRR the most prominent of the lot. Also showing up on OM Records, Wall Of Sound, and even Mo Wax (kinda') didn't hurt in selling Q-Burns Abstract Message as an artist with an ear to the ground with what was hip and shakin'. However, he was seldom ever tidily pigeon-holed into any particular scene. Was he acid jazz? Trip-hop? Dubby breaks? Big beat? Balearic chill? A bit of everything, really, and coming up in a time when an eclectic style at least got you noticed.

Q-Burns got his proper break with Astralwerks, consolidating his wayward tracks onto a 'debut' comp' called Oeuvre. Oh my, doesn't that come off just a tad pretentious. If so, then titling his proper debut Feng Shui won't help. I get it though, this being the late '90s, and alternate interior design all the hipster hype. Yes, let's use Far East spiritualism as a guiding principle in how to arrange wall shelves. I jest, some practical use in 'feeling' how one's living environment should flow just so. Titling an album upon it though...

Actually, it makes sense, his music rather free-flowing in of itself. In fact, I can't help suspect Mr. Donaldson was reigning himself in. The sort of artist brimming with ideas, fully capable of crafting pieces exploring them, but also realizing not everyone would be down for an ultra expressionist outing for a debut. Gotta' lure in folks with traditional dance tunes, hook them in with the familiar, then throw them for a loop when you go off on a little key-change solo two-thirds deep.

That's the general approach to Feng Shui, but obviously each cut offers something different from the other. Opener He's A Skull does the big, funky breaks thing with a quirky vocal sample. Follow-up Solar Car goes even funkier in a Euro-hop, skippity sort of way. Jennifer gets on that chill-out vibe by way of French pop getting so very popular at the time (thanks, AIR). Some tracks are more catered to showing ear-wormy contorted sounds or samples (New Patterns, the titular cut). Others are just an excuse for him to jam things out (A.S.T., Talking Box). And in case you did come to a Q-Burns album looking for more of the acid jazz vibes, Kinda Picky and There Must Be Something have you covered.

It all sounds like a solid record (and I really dig his bass tones in several tracks), so why isn't Feng Shui brought up in talks of Very Important 'Electronica' albums of the '90s? Honestly, I think things are played almost too safe. It's a good album, but the decade was spoiled for great albums, good ones gaining fans who find them, but few of the plaudits that entrench it within the lingering scene consciousness. Which kinda' sums up the Q-Burns Abstract Message story in a nutshell.

The Future Sound Of London - Cascade

Virgin/Astralwerks: 1993/1996

I do wonder, just how much of a shock this EP was when it dropped. The lads behind Stakker Humanoid and Papua New Guinea going full sample-heavy world beat? Why we never! Yeah, yeah, calling Cascade that is almost blasphemous in some quarters, but let's be real here: 1993 was peak world beat. You already had two juggernauts of that sound making bank across the globe (Enigma and Deep Forest), with many quarters of dance music raiding all manner of sample libraries and fusing them with club rhythms. FSOL, who's omnipresent hit single was no less guilty in doing such, had to feel some pressure to move beyond the association. They had greater artistic aspirations than what rave culture was offering, so time to head back to the lab and start concocting something more evolved from their Earthbeat era (big advance money after signing with the mighty Virgin helped).

Which all seems academic from our lofty vantage point three decades on (holy COW!), but not so much in those short few years of the early '90s. Far as '93 folks knew, FSOL were crafting proper follow-ups to the warehouse techno stompers as heard on Accelerator, not conceptual art music. Oh, that Tales Of Ephidrina thing? Well, they used a different alias for it, Amorphous Androgynous, so clearly it's an album satisfying their expressionist outlet, not a sign of things to come with their most profitable pseudonym. Besides, Tales still had somewhat of a techno pulse, here and there. Nothing to suspect, oh no.

So Cascade drops, the glistening digital rendering of a neuron drawing you in. Glancing at the back cover, you notice something strange for a lead single: it's all in parts, as if one long musical piece. What, were there no remixes commissioned? Not at all, son, marking the start of FSOL handling their singles as nothing less than mini-albums in their own right, demands of clubbing culture be damned.

Still, listening through this EP, and comparing it to where they'd go with future singles, it's apparent Garry and Brian were still in a feeling-out process with this idea. Part 1 is the version most know of (if nothing else than for getting featured in the first Northern Exposure), while Part 2 is mostly the same, just in a slightly extended and dubbier version – so, the Extended Remix. Part 3 goes weirder, sounding like an extended take of sound effects and alien landforms. Why yes, they were already getting the Tangerine Dream comparisons, why do you ask?

Part 4 is where the idea of 'different paths' really takes hold, a harsher, grittier IDM tone prevalent as the base melodic elements contort around gnarly electro basslines. Part 5, meanwhile, edges closer back to the domain of regular techno, surprisingly almost vintage Detroit in execution. Jettisoning most of the 'world beaty' elements (woodwinds, ethnic drumming, etc.), there's still sonic weirdness going on along with sci-fi synths, and man, gotta' love the ol' tikkity-tik-tik drum programming there too.

Fatboy Slim - Better Living Through Chemistry

Skint/Astralwerks: 1996/1997

For a time, I considered this the superior Fatboy Slim album: no overplayed hits or blatant crossover appeal. Norman Cook's big-beat debut was pure underground t'ings, for the underground heads who kept things under the ground. Or something.

Then I came to learn of Mr. Cook's storied career, how he'd been responsible for the goofy Pizzaman project, and that his Fatboy Slim moniker was just the latest (and most successful) of a long line of chart-topping achievements. Goodness, does that mean everything I thought and believed about this album was a lie, a misled assumption that couldn't be helped due to the lack of available knowledge while residing in such a far-flung corner of North America? Must I re-assess my enjoyment of Better Living Through Chemistry?

Well, there is an air of bandwagon jumping here. Cook broke out the Fatboy moniker with the single Everybody Needs A 303, a fun acid jam for sure (and a winner of a title!), but clearly riding on the wave of acid anthems that Josh Wink's Higher State Of Consciousness set off. Not that I suspect insidious intents in making the tune on Norman's part. Nay, here's a silly one-off alias for a one-off single and oh my God, this thing is blowing up in the clubs! Maybe there's some potential after all.

UK interest in breakbeats that sounded as big as rock 'n' roll of yore was taking off, and sampling funk and soul was always a major part of that scene. Well, ol' Norman had a woodshed full of records from years of DJing he could pilfer. Surely there's enough material there to knock out a full-length album's worth of 303 retreads? Well, maybe.

I'd honestly forgotten how loopy this album is. Yeah, they layer and build and all, but compared to the songwriting leaps the Fatboy project took in subsequent albums, this is some raw, basic stuff. The second half in particular doesn't do much to dispel the notion Better Living Through Chemistry was made mostly in service of capitalizing on a big single. The chill, psychedelic outing of Santa Cruz and trip-hop funk of The Weekend Starts Here show off some diversity, but generally there's only so much acid builds with big breaks can do before it all starts sounding the same.

Fortunately, the Astralwerks version added a couple winners, some of my favourite Fatboy Slim jams ever! Michael Jackson is Norman at his best with cheeky sampling, rockin' leads, and wailin' hooks with beats to back 'em up. Meanwhile, Next To Nothing is another chill outing like Santa Cruz, and a strong, proper capper on an album that originally got redundant by Milwaukee's end.

Whether Better Living Through Chemistry doesn't hold up as well as I remembered is irrelevant though, as its status as a Very Important record is already enshrined. The Chemical Brothers' Exit Planet Dust may have kicked off big beat, but this solidified it as a genre with big things ahead of it.

Spacetime Continuum - Double Fine Zone

Astralwerks: 1999

Forget all that ye' may think thy knoweth of Spacetime Continuum, for naught, it doth apply to Jonah Sharp's final album with said nomme de plume (um, yo'). This is a very different album from Sea Biscuit, is what I'm saying. Heck, it's also quite different from Emit Ecaps, though the Detroit techno pulse that dominated that album is still felt in Double Fine Zone. All that ambient techno and spacey chill-out and IDM explorations that marked much of his '90s output though, forget about it. For Mr. Sharp, he's discovered a sound that other techno producers had discovered, and wasn't afraid of having his stab at it as well. I am, of course, talking about all that jazz, man! Because if Carl Craig and Model 500 could go jazz, why not Spacetime Continuum?

Still, even in the annals of techno detours, this one comes quite out of leftfield. I can't say I've taken in all of Jonah Sharps musical output, but I see little indications in prior releases that he'd go this direction. Like, did Carl Craig plant some seeds of curiosity when he did those remixes for Kairo? Mixmaster Morris' foray into the realms of Ninja Tune inspiring his friend to attempt the same? Brian Iddenden just happened to be crashing on Jonah's couch and, having a saxophonist on hand, why not get some studio time out of him too? Whatever the case, going jazz is what Jonah wanted, so going jazz is what Jonah got'ed.

And he ain't pussy-footin' around it either, opening track The Ring featuring a prominent smooth jazz solo from Mr. Iddenden over chill, bloopy electro sounds. You can almost feel the warmth of cigarette smoke caress your cheek as you lounge outside a futuristic cafe. Follow-up Microjam gets back on that Carl Craig techno tip, but there's a fair amount of saxophone solos after. Rhodes keyboards too, if I'm being fair, and those are good fun for yours truly, but man, that saxophone... It's fine, I guess, but I've made clear it's an instrument that does weird, uncomfortable things to my ears, and ol' Brian's performances don't do much to alleviate that. A couple tracks here and there are fine, just not so much album's worth.

It's not just the Rhodes and saxophone contributions throwing this so firmly into nu-jazz territory. Sharp also makes use of sampled drums, giving many of his tracks that live-performance feel you'd expect out of, say, The Cinematic Orchestra. Seriously, did he make this in hopes of Ninja Tune noticing? It's almost a shock when you hear techno beats again in Double Fine Zone, even when coupled with the saxophone and Rhodes licks. Even more shocking to hear is Different Bend, a track that sounds like it could have been on an old school trance compilation. In the year 1999! Damn, what I wouldn't give to hear a ten-minute version of it, but Different Bend is one of the shortest tracks here. Such a tease.

Spacetime Continuum - Sea Biscuit

Astralwerks: 1994

It shouldn't have taken me this long to pick up Sea Biscuit. It never occurred to me that I could though. When I first heard Spacetime Continuum, it was as part of Coldcut's Tone Tales From Tomorrow Too, a mix CD that sounded so strange, so leftfield ...so alien to my virgin raver ears. I concluded the tracks within were so underground that I'd have no hope of ever finding them in my trips to the Vancouver shops, much less in my Canadian hinterland homestead.

Then along came a Lord by the name of Discogs, showing me the light – these tracks do exist beyond the unknowable realms of the deepest crates, some even care of familiar labels (that Namlook fella' was part of Alien Community? Go figure!). That didn't mean I could now rush out and buy 'em all up though, oh no! Tone Tales was more than a half-decade old by that point, ages where electronic music was concerned in those days. Surely items off there were long out of print and impossible to find for a college student on a minimal income just learning the wonders of Amazon shopping. Little did I know that one tune was always easily accessible, the Astralwerks label among the most prominent electronic music prints in North America. No ridiculous import fees, no inflated collector's market prices, no dodgy bootleg deals; just a nice, simple used-shop cost, plenty available no matter what your Amazon preference be. Yep, no reason to not get the Astralwerks version of Sea Biscuit if you want this album (from Astralwerks). No reason at all.

Jonah Sharp's debut album as Spacetime Continuum is oft hailed a classic of ambient techno, though I sometimes feel every ambient techno album released between 1991-1995 is hailed as such. It's definitely got a lot of things going for it that tickle my earbuds proper-like. Pressure, the tune that appeared on Tone Tales Too, is all retro-future sci-fi electro bliss. Subway gets in on that dubby ambient-bleep action that has my Higher Intelligence Agency triggers flaring (squee!). Ping Pong wouldn't sound out of place in a Mixmaster Morris set of the time. Q 11 isn't much removed from the sort of stuff FSOL were producing on their Lifeforms singles. Plus, we get a couple lengthy noodly ambient outings in Voice Of The Earth and A Low Frequency Inversion Field, which puts Sharp quite comfortably within the larger Fax+ canon. Can't be part of the Namlook legacy if you don't have at least one endless track of relaxing pads and minimalist sonic doodling.

So I like Sea Biscuit, but it's more for Sharp utilizing familiar tropes of dubby ambient techno than anything unique to his sound. Aside from Pressure, which hints towards his future leanings into techno-proper, there isn't much here that I couldn't find on other releases from that year. Still, if you're looking for another addition to such a collection, it remains an easy album to find on the used market.

Spacetime Continuum - Emit Ecaps

Astralwerks: 1996

The whole kerfuffle surrounding a dodgy re-issue of Jonah Sharp's Sea Biscuit did result in one positive: rekindling my interest in his old Spacetime Continuum project. I always assumed it was among those nigh-impossible to acquire discographies, released in ultra-limited fashion or on hopelessly obscure labels. Well, Sea Biscuit was on Fax +49-69/450464 (among other collaborative works with Namlook), and Mr. Sharp did have his own print, Reflective, which was about as underground as it got back-when (though the lads at Ninja Tune liked them). In any event, preconceived notions confirmed, amirite? Yeah, then I learned Jonah was also signed to Astralwerks, possibly one of America's longest, most respected electronic music promoters. They partnered with the almighty Virgin, fer' crise'sakes! How an ambient techno guy got signed to a label that promoted the likes of Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim blows my mind, but then Astralwerks did lean that way at their start too. Couldn't resist those almighty Virgin dolla's tho'!

And as Astralwerks was plenty profitable during the compact disc's glory years, there's plenty copies of Spacetime Continuum floating about, making gathering some vintage Jonah Sharp far easier than I'd ever have anticipated. I haven't gotten all the albums, mind you (that collaboration with Terence McKenna seems a little too out there for my interests), a couple mid-'90s items suiting me just fine. And as always, alphabetical stipulation starts us off with one of Mr. Sharp's lesser known works, his alias Emit Ecaps. No, wait, that's the name of the album, Emit Ecaps just a couple one-off tunes for compilations. What does 'emit ecaps' even mean? I keep thinking drugs.

As for the album, Emit Ecaps, you can definitely tell it sprung from the mid-'90s, when electronic music scenes were frequently cross-pollinating, yet it's rather timeless too. Opener Iform gets down with that funky electro business, but doesn't sound retro in the slightest. Follow-up Kairo starts off in ambient techno's lane, but somehow gradually morphs into jazzstep d'n'b before shifting onto an ambient dub path – Sharp sure makes good use of the twelve minutes dedicated to this track.

And the genre fusion doesn't let up. While electro, Detroit techno (of course) and dub tend to dominate Sharp's aesthetic, there are nuggets of other genres scattered throughout too. Out Here spends a significant chunk of its time being flighty, bleepy space ambient before dropping some solid techno thump for its final minute. Vertigo has some kind of jungle-breaks bleep ambient techno thing going for it (and is pretty darn dope while doing it). Pod pairs grumbly technobass with floaty electro melodies, perfect for cruising the Oceanus Procellarum Boulevard. Funkyar could almost be a tech-house track, if it didn't stutter-pause its rhythm so often.

Listening through Emit Ecaps, I realize it's perhaps a tad too 'IDM' for the sort of customer base Astralwerks had started cultivating in '96, which sadly caused it to slip through the cracks. There's no excuse overlooking this little electro gem these days though.

The Chemical Brothers - Elektrobank

Astralwerks: 1997

Nope, still haven't gotten Dig Your Own Hole. It's just not high on my priority list. In fact, it doesn't even register on such a mythical list. Like, if I find it super-duper ridiculous cheap, maybe I'd consider it just for the sake of “90s 'electronica' completionist” sake. No, the $0.52 at Amazon is still too expensive (d'at $3.49 shipping, tho'!). It'd have to be pennies, or given away by someone offloading their old CD collection in a beat-up cardboard box. Yes, I remain that jaded towards Block Rockin' Beats and Setting Sun. You cannot understand my annoyance, frustration, irritation, exasperation, and vexation hearing those songs ad nauseam though '96-'97, so desperate the rock world was in getting The Chemical Brothers over as the next Oasis or something. It ruined whatever hype I had in hearing Dig Your Own Hole when it first came out, and soured every playthrough with dreaded anticipation of hearing those tunes one... more... fucking... time.

“But wait,” say you, “even if you dislike the two big singles, there's other dope tunes on that album.” I agree. In fact, I distinctly recall having my head forcibly twisted about upon hearing Elektrobank during my initial listen way back when. Those propulsive guitar riffs, furious looping beats, random explosions recalling WipEout's frenetic action, and an instantly ear-wormy sample wherein Keith Murray ponders who might be making manufactured, trippy alpha-beta seti-zappa funkiness. Throw in one of the most badass codas to a big-beat tune I've ever heard, where everything slows right the fuck down and gets cranked beyond the eleven, and you've a classic Chem' Bros. cut that I was almost willing to get Dig Your Own Hole for alone. Almost.

Fortunately, a single option for Elektrobank exists, and for whatever stupid reason, it only occurred to me this year that I should get it. And now I do have it, and can enjoy all that psychedelic funkin' to my heart's content. There's even other cool tunes on this single, so let's dig into these too!

Not Another Drugstore is the official b-side, which you might know from the opener of Brothers Gonna' Work It Out, The Chemical Brothers' DJ mix from the same period. It's got a boozy-woozy arp for a l-o-o-o-ng lead-in before diving into some funky big-beat action and raps from Justin Warfield. Don't Stop The Rock, a surprising techno banger from Dig Your Own Hole, gets an extended Electronic Battle Weapon Version here. And if you liked the Block Rockin' Beats b-side Morning Lemon, you can hear a drab prototype of it with These Beats Are Made For Breakin'.

Then there's the Dust Brothers Remix of Elektrobank. Yes, the same Dust Brothers that The Chemical Brothers initially cribbed their handle from, and were threatened to be sued over if they didn't change their name. It's a funkier outing, heavier on showing off samples than the original, but really, you want to hear it just for the daft scenario of it all. No shame.

Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express

Kling Klang/Astralwerks: 1977/2009

A not half-bad proto-electro record that changed damn near everything, this. No, wait, let me try that again: the most important album Kraftwerk ever put out, even if no one cared at the time. Some truthiness to that one, but let’s really lay the hyperbole on!

Trans Europe Express is one of the twenty most influential albums, one of the thirty best albums of the year between 1970-98, among the one-hundred masterpieces, a top twenty-five electronic album, lodged somewhere with the essential two-hundred rock records, one of the one-hundred coolest albums in the world Right Now! in the year 2005, and in the midst of the two-hundred sixty-one greatest albums since punk and disco. Boy, and that’s just a sliver of the accolade Deity Wiki tells me Kraftwerk’s sixth studio album has earned over time. Not bad for a bunch of German dorks who’s biggest prior claim to fame was a chipper pop ditty about das autobahn.

In terms of songkraft and as an overall album concept, I find The Man-Machine a stronger effort from the lads of Düsseldorf. And some might argue that Computer World had an even greater influence on the world of electronic music, what with every ‘80s electro record ever raiding it for samples. Fair points, but what sets Trans Europe Express apart is how it so definitively marks Kraftwerk’s transition from krautrock oddities to form-n-functionalist heroes. The ears finally attuned to methodical, mechanical rhythms. The headspace shifting from abstract concepts like radioactivity in favor of quirky constructs like showroom dummies. Broadening their future world scope beyond Germany’s borders, venturing into the wide world of an endless Europe. And hey, there’s plenty of things to see on this trip – cafes, parks, hotels, palaces – unlike the utterly lonesome sojourn across a similarly-sized continental region Boards Of Canada offered.

Trans Europe Express is essentially two mini-albums, side-A devoted to Kraftwerk’s newfound song writing, with side-B the part everyone remembers. The actual Trans Europe Express is only six-and-a-half minutes long, but as it carries on into the klang-klang of Metal On Metal, and the epic build of Abzug, everyone always assumed it was one long track anyway. And after such a strangely sinister train ride, it’s comforting to know the scenery of your destination (Franz Schubert, a thematic return to opener Europe Endless) is lovely, pleasant, and pastoral, as all good European tourist destinations are.

After the Soulsonic Force sampled it and a pile more copied/emulated that, Trans Europe Express and co. essentially overshadowed the rest of the album. A shame, because side-A of this record has some of Kraftwerk’s most enduring tunes too. Showroom Dummies set the stage for their love affair of plastic men going about doing whatever it is mannequins and robots get up to when the lights go out. Meanwhile, The Hall Of Mirrors is one bizarre bit of minimalist electronic baroque, a study in insecure self-reflection that glam rockers of the day often indulged in. Yeah, that’s the Bowie Bump in effect.

The Chemical Brothers - Surrender

Astralwerks: 1999

The Chemical Brothers were kings of the big beat castle, a deserved title considering they practically built the damn thing themselves. A string of classic singles, two seminal albums, and a live show then unparalleled in electronic music, it'd take much to dethrone them. As the 20th Century neared its end, however, many would-be usurpers were storming the gates, ready to nab the crowns off Simons and Rowlands. The Crystal Method came with the pitchforks; Fatboy Slim with the battering ram; Junkie XL with the wire-fu crew; The Wiseguys with a donkey. The Chemical Brothers were seasoned veterans though, and ain't no way they’d go quietly into the night. They had their own counter-attack in the works, y'see, a third album ready to hit shelves with just as much aplomb as Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Hole. Surely it would be another big beat masterpiece, proving once and for all they could never be knocked off their peak, their summit, their- No, wait, that's not right. They instead abandoned big beat altogether, releasing an LP of house and techno grooves. So that's why they named the album Surrender.

Really, The Chemie Bros had nothing to prove, deciding the time was right showing off other genres they could tackle. Making things easier in getting playlisted by all the very important progressive house DJs probably didn't hurt their decision either. Surrender thus comes with very simple caveats for all potential listeners: if you like their block rockin' beats and only their block rockin' beats, you won't dig this album. If you're a Chemical fan for life though - through the fun times and the 'artistic' ones – then you already have Surrender in your collection, don't you.

The more interesting question, then, is whether it was love at first listen, or it took some warming up to. I can't deny Surrender wasn't what I was expecting, especially with such a lacklustre lead single in Hey Boy, Hey Girl, at least compared to previous leads. I was also stupid burnt-out on The Chemical Brothers anyway, all the hype that went into Dig Your Own Hole necessitating a brief break from their sound. I think it was hearing the sub-whoofer demolishing Under The Influence on the WipEout 3 soundtrack that got me curious again. Video games can do that.

And there’s still vintage Chemical Brothers on here. Opener Music: Response has them big, beefy beats hitting, but this time coupled with some psychedelic electro. Let Forever Be once again teams up with Noel Gallagher as they forever chase The Beatles, while Asleep From Day, Dream On and the titular cut fear no starry-eyed sunrise at Glastonbury. On the other hand, Out Of Control sounds tailor made for the action movie crowd, The Sunshine Underground a massive festival climax, and Got Glint? a deep house club on acid (those claps!). All this is enough that I can vibe with Surrender on its own merits, a worthy capper to their trilogy of ‘90s albums.

Kraftwerk - Radio-Activity

Astralwerks: 1975/2009

No, Kraftwerk, don't do it! No one's ready for a concept album from your group. Lengthy songs, sure that's fine, but sound experiments and quirky odes to Ohms is going too far. It'll be years before your promising, influential career will rebound from Radio-Activity. True, it'll all work out in the future-tense, when everyone goes back to these disregarded efforts with reverent eyes and ears. Can you afford that gap though? No, not yet, so just go make another Autobahn, over and over and over. Curses, why doesn't this time-travel portal let me interact with the past? More radioactive power, that’s what I need. Once accomplished, maybe I then could use this time-travel portal to go back a few minutes in the past and convince myself starting this review in such a goofy manner is a bad idea, yes?

The German quartet though, they had a vision, one where the future was now (then), and leading us into this undiscovered country were some of mankind’s greatest scientific discoveries of the last hundred years: the invisible realms of electromagnetic radio waves, and the radioactive energy emanating from everything that surrounds us. This wasn’t just Kraftwerk’s attitude either, as many Germans looked to the years ahead with fascination and optimism (the recent past was something of a sore spot) – it’s no coincidence many early electronic musicians hailed from Deutschland. That the Dusseldorf band would temporarily abandon the autobahn to explore things like transistors and Geiger counters makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, where Radio-Activity is concerned, a couple problems arise.

One, those darn experimental bits. As pieces of a concept album exploring the different aspects of radio transmissions and radiation, they’re fine, but man does it ever derail whatever musical momentum Radio-Activity has going for it. Okay, Geiger Counter is a cool opener, and The Voice Of Energy has that wicked-awesome Kraftwerk robot voice utilized for the first time. News though? Sorry, muffled German broadcasting items of the day isn’t compelling, especially following Intermission pings. And Radio Stars could have been a neat little bit of space-meditation if all those bleeps weren’t so grating.

Still, all this talk of radio activity, concepts of electromagnetic radiation, and evil-sounding robot voices, and it’s small surprise a few folks were sore at Kraftwerk’s seemingly thumbs-up for the nuclear age, potential nasty side-effects and all. Even the bouncy, chirpy tunes the group’s known for are rather absent, much of Radio-Activity cold and sterile as musique concrete of old. When our intrepid Germans do get melodic, it’s almost always melancholic (Radioland, Ohm Sweet Ohm) or ominous (Radioactivity, Uranium). Things aren’t out-and-out bleak on this album, but it sure isn’t as campy-fun as Autobahn or pop-tasty as their later work. At least Airwaves and Antenna bring a little peppy novelty for our listening consideration.

If you fear not these factors, then Radio-Activity is worth checking out. Though it’s the least essential of Kraftwerk’s Fabulous Five albums, it’s still interesting hearing the group discover their way through new ideas and gear.

Kraftwerk - The Man-Machine

Astralwerks: 1978/2009

Bunch of sell-outs. Sure, jump on the disco bandwagon. Abandon conceptual LPs in favor of appealing to gaudy, dolled-up dance clubs. Dear Lord, they’ve made an ode directly to one of those types in The Model. It’s that Moroder influence, isn’t it. That’s the Italians, ruining everything, and now creative German electronic Krautrock music with corny pop melodies. Have your time in the lime-light, Kraftwerk, it won’t last. Everyone will forget this travesty of an album by the next decade, and the true artists of this era, like Cluster and Neu!, will be remembered for centuries.

Said some Berlin hipster in ’78. Probably.

As for the rest of the world, those charming pop melodies in The Man-Machine finally got regular folks regarding Kraftwerk as something more than a one-hit curiosity, even getting TV time and performing as the titular machine men. While their prior albums were landmarks in showing off what electronic music could produce, this one proved it could exist just fine alongside any ol' mainstream hit and not be regarded as some novelty (re: Autobahn). Granted, The Robots or The Model weren't tearing up charts the world over, but you just know many other electronic music hopefuls were taking notes.

Debate persists over which Kraftwerk album is their best, but for pure accessibility, The Man-Machine easily tops the rest. Them Germans always had an ear for a melody, but here they craft the ear-wormiest hooks they could, sounding as naturally pop as any top hit-makers of the ‘60s (you know which ones). And sure, for all you highfalutin types out there, this album does offer a proper concept. Almost certainly inspired by the classic sci-fi film Metropolis, a running theme of future societies permeates every track (sans The Model). Whether Kraftwerk aimed to spread a poignant message of such futurism with their tunes or were content in providing simple pictures with their music is up to interpretation, but that’s good pop music for you.

The particulars of The Man-Machine, you’ve heard in some form over the years. The Robots has long been the stand-out, what with those precision-perfect rhythms, spacious sound design, succinct hooks, and wicked-awesome vocal effects (it’s also great for testing headphones and stereos!). At the other end of the album is the titular cut, a cousin to The Robots, and while not as catchy, has equally awesome vocal effects. Elsewhere, Spacelab and Metropolis get their Moroder disco on, likely inspiring a legion of future space synth and trance producers in the process. Neon Lights is the obligatory extended Kraftwerk jam, charming in its own right with shimmering synths, though you have to endure Ralf’s warbling to get there. And yes, The Model, definitely lyrically goofy synth-pop by any standard, but holy cow, that bassline, mang!

Of course, for the musically egg-headed out there, The Man-Machine contains juicy goodies aplenty to drool over (theory! gear! spawned genres!), but I’m out of space. Not time though, as this album’s as timeless as Florian’s fashion.

Hot Chip - Made In The Dark (Original TC Review)

Astralwerks: 2008

(2014 Update:
Remember when it was bands that was to rescue EDM from the '00s doldrums? Man, critical darlings like LCD Soundsystem, The Klaxons, and Hot Chip were all the rage in 2008, earning magazine covers and high scores alike. Then David Guetta broke America, soon followed by dubstep's explosion of popularity, and everyone subsequently forgot about bands again. Well, not exactly. Acts like Hot Chip appealed to an older crowd, whereas the nu-EDM appealed to the youngin's out there, and as with all things, it's the youthful movements that'll dictate general cultural trends - easier to market to, y'see.

Hot Chip still had a successful follow-up in 2010 to this album though, One Life Stand; I'd even started a review of it before I gave up the writing gig for a couple years (more reasons for this forthcoming in two weeks!). In 2012, they released In Our Heads, which passed by with little fanfare. Guess folks (kids?) weren't buying what they were selling anymore, although I hear they're still kick-ass live. If they include ample tunes from this album in their set lists, I wouldn't doubt it.)


IN BRIEF: Peppy.

Truthfully, bands in electronic dance culture aren’t terribly new. It arguably all started with a four-piece act (Kraftwerk), and has seen many former rockers go digital over the years. Still, the general image most have of the live show revolves around one or two guys buried behind synths, sequencers, and laptops, with the occasional guitarist thrown into the mix. That all seems to be changing lately though; electroclash’s emergence and disco punk’s revival re-introduced clubbers to a whole world of indie music they’d long paid little heed to, and the little New York scene that DFA built has found its way into numerous pockets of the world in the years since. Now, you can even choose which sub-category of this genre of music you wish to proclaim as superior: dance-goes-rock (LCD Soundsytem; Justice) or rock-goes-dance (!!!; that silly ‘nu-rave’ thing Klaxons have going). Somewhere in the middle of it all lays Hot Chip.

Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard make up the brains of this unlikely electro-soul-rave-wave-pop five-piece. Although obvious darlings of the hipster crowd, it was a few years before folks properly took notice. Their sophomore album The Warning certainly helped elevate their exposure, and bundles of buzz from their live shows on the festival circuit pretty much sealed the deal: anticipation and expectation on their third album would be difficult to match. So it’s just as well they forgot all that and settled on having fun with the creative process. At least, that’s what Made In The Dark sounds like.

Although Hot Chip’s flirted with a genre or two, this time they’ve stuck all their influences into a blender and added liberal amounts of pop to the mix. The result is something that’s at once chaotic and jumbled, yet super-fun just the same. These guys realize their studio (or rough approximation of one, since many of these songs were apparently conceived in Goddard’s apartment) is as much an instrument as all the guitars, synths, and tambourines they use. With such knowledge, an anything-goes mentality takes over, and the process can be sublime, provided it’s handled by musicians who remember to write music first, play with their toys second. And handle well they do indeed.

Granted, they don’t always succeed. Tracks like Bendable Poseable and Touch Too Much sound like Hot Chip needed someone reigning in all their ideas, as these overflow with excessive production; the good ideas lurking underneath are thus overshadowed. Fortunately, they’re the exceptions to Made In The Dark's general tone.

If anything, the group display an uncanny knack of making their unpredictability absolutely necessary. For example, One Pure Thought could be best described as house-music-meets-folk-rock. Yes, you read that right. Now, try to imagine Hot Chip doing without such a blend and settling on just a single influence, and chances are you’ve come away with something quaint but ultimately bland. Well, the chorus would still be good, but not as great as it is presented here.

The album is littered with such tracks. Shake A Fist, Hold On, and Don’t Dance are obviously heavily inspired by the club circuits, yet never strictly adhere to the expectations that come with that scene. Meanwhile, Out At The Pictures does the whole ‘big-disco-rock-band’ thing with winning results, while Ready For The Floor is an easy-breezy slice of crossover dance. And then there are the ballads. Good ballads!

Nearly a third of the album is dedicated to the softer side of music, and Hot Chip pulls it off with the grace of any crooner. Whether mopey musers (Whistle For Will), lovelorn lullabies (Made In The Dark; In The Privacy Of Our Love), or straight-up classy quirkfests (Wrestlers, a goofy call-to-arms rallying song inspired by, you guessed it, wrestling, with Hot Chip sounding about as threatening as a mid-80s WWF jobber ...just get a load of these lyrics: “Here we come; Drop kick; Half-Nelson; Full-Nelson; Willie Nelson... Willie Nelson.” Hilarious! ...well, if you were ever a fan of wrestling, that is ...okay, enough of this parenthesis tangent), these downtempo tunes showcase just how versatile this group is. All too often, ballads and dance music go together like oil and water in an album context (hence why ballads are usually lumped at the end whenever an act does attempt them), but Hot Chip display just as much skill in this field as they do in getting the dance floor energized.

Made In The Dark certainly is an album that will appeal to fans of many walks of music, and will undoubtedly get notice from several scenes. Heck, Metacritic alone has some thirty-five reviews available to check out, and that’s just covering the mainstream and indie-rock spreads. Even if your notion of ‘proper electronic dance music’ doesn’t hold much regard for an act that sometimes treats itself as a folk band more than techno sequencers, Hot Chip’s sense of rhythm and melody will win you over just the same.

The Future Sound Of London - Lifeforms (EP)

Astralwerks: 1994

Oh yeah, there was also a track called Lifeforms on Lifeforms, which became a single from Lifeforms. Fortunately, I can talk all about Lifeforms on this EP titled Lifeforms, so nothing was lost in bypassing Lifeforms on Lifeforms. This opening is funnier if you read-sing it like Data in Star Trek: Generations. “Lifeforms, you silly little lifeforms...”

Poor Virgin. They go and sign The Future Sound Of London, likely believing the duo a high prize in the early ‘electronica’ sweepstakes. With such a massive hit like Papua New Guinea to their credit, plus oodles more under other guises and remixes, surely the FSOL would put Virgin at the forefront of trendy club culture. Well, nuts to that, said Cobain and Dougans, they wanted to get all conceptual and shit for their major label debut. Fair enough, just make a couple singles available for Virgin to promote and- wait, FSOL are making the EPs themselves? But we had all these remixers planned already: one for the House Mix, one for the Progressive House mix, and one for the Techno Mix. Not even one for the Hardcore Mix? Dammit, FSOL, who do you think you are, artists?

Lifeforms (the track) was about as club-friendly as anything got on Lifeforms (the album ...ugh, this is getting confusing), so tapping it for single duty made sense. As the FSOL preferred turning their EPs into mini-albums in their own right, we’re offered seven different ‘paths’ taken on the Lifeforms idea. Beyond familiar nature sound effects, most of these paths bare scant resemblance to the album version (Path 3). Path 1, for instance, is mostly an ambient affair with water drums, droning industrial synths, and a chant that I don’t recall hearing in the album. Path 2, meanwhile, comes off more urgent and twitchy, throwing in different acoustic and wind instruments as a tense bassline bubbles and builds underneath – it rather sounds like an extended incidental moment from the album, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if that was the case.

Path 4 and Path 5 are the real highlights though. Both are refined takes on Life Form Ends (itself an alternate version of Lifeforms on Lifeforms), each exploring the expansive soundscapes FSOL enjoy indulging in, all the while excellent drum programming keeps things moving at a brisk pace. It’s the Papua New Guinea template taken to another level, if not in dancefloor effectiveness, then in conceptual execution (God, does that ever sound pretentious).

Path 6 serves as a minor interlude repeating sounds heard in the prior couple paths, and Path 7 bookends the EP with a similar tune to Path 1, but with more sounds and beats added from the other tracks. So a tidy conclusion to Lifeforms, the EP, and though not as varied as Lifeforms, the LP, it makes for a worthy companion piece. Kind of a closer study of some specific organisms you might have encountered while travelling the weird, wild world FSOL created with the album proper.

Fatboy Slim - Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars (Clean Version)

Astralwerks: 2000

In some ways, I'm more embarrassed to have this CD than even ICP. Why should I, a grown adult, have a “Kiddies' Clean Version”? Well, it was a gift, but the tongue-in-cheek label on the cover strikes me as deliberately insulting on the manufacturer's part. This isn't just the 'Clean Version', like many hip-hop pop albums offer, oh no. This is for the children, for we at Astralwerks, we thought about the children, oh how we thought about the children. We even moved the image over a little, so the sun no longer peeks through the woman's cooch – hell, you can't even tell it's a woman anymore, much less the sun creating those rays of light. Isn't that better than our usual antics of totally replacing the cover image for stateside distribution?

Norman Cook's Fatboy project was incredibly popular when he released Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars, his prior album offering two or three ultra-mega hits that we still hear today. So that there would be a 'Clean' option for his follow-up doesn't surprise me. It's still baffling why it'd been thought of only for the kids though (what kind of teenager wouldn't get the one with crude language?).

And what major changes can we expect on this “Kiddies' Clean Version”? Star 69's been cut. Yeah, no surprise on that one. Not a big deal losing it though, as beyond the lyrical gimmick, it was a mediocre tune. There's also a slight edit of “what the fuck” in Song For Shelter, which makes- wait! Why didn't they just edit the 'fuck's out of Star 69 too, keeping the track?

Frankly, that's all I can tell's been 'cleaned up'. It's been well over a decade since I've heard the original version, so if some naughty language from Macy Gray or Bootsy Collins was edited out, I don't know anymore. Come to think of it, I don't think it matters where this album's concerned, as Halfway... is a surprisingly mature sounding effort on Cook's part compared to the rest of his discography.

Yeah, he's had his classy moments, but folks were buying up his albums by the boatloads for the big beat party anthems. Halfway... has a couple offerings as such, like Ya Mama and Drop The Hate, yet Cook sounds bored with these cuts, just going through the big beat motions. Far more intriguing (and re-playable because they aren't so dated to late '90s music) are the blues, gospel, funk, and soul offerings. And even with all the crafty beats and samples Cook throws into his tunes, the guest vocalists (including the memorable husky voice of then-soul-queen Macy Gray) help excel what could have been little more than homage to some of ol' Norman's musical upbringing.

Put simply, Halfway... is easily Fatboy Slim's most consistent album, and maybe even his best. Unlike his other albums, which have big hits and forgettable filler, these are all songs I have no problem returning to and keeping lodged in my head.

Überzone - Faith In The Future

Astralwerks: 2001

After the successes of Chemical Brotherhood, The Prodigious, and Fatboy Slimstyles, record execs seeing dollar signs figured any ol' 'electronica' act making those break'n'beats musics would keep the cash flowin'. Thus began the proliferation of albums featuring breaks artists and whatever sub-genres they brought. BT and Hybrid had the progressive side of things covered; Adam Freeland brought the nu-skool to attention; DJ Icey repped Florida state; and the West Coast acidy chemical breaks vibe featured The Crystal Method and this Überzone fella’. You remember him, right? C’mon, his City Of Angels material was among the highlights of that era of breaks.

Still, though chemical breaks never died, the mid-‘90s was its only peak of popularity - it even beat out big beat by a couple years in America, though it clearly remained a product of the rave scene with little true crossover potential. The Crystal Method managed it by combining The Chemical Brothers’ block rockin’ sound with their acid, but Überzone was something different. He skewed closer to the electro side of things, finding a nifty, skippity-scratch blend between Florida and West Coast. It was unlike anything else even within the chemical breaks scene, propelling Mr. Wiles to the forefront of the genre. How, then, does one go about marketing the guy, when his sound is so underground?

Hedging bets, apparently. Faith In The Future has all the hallmarks of a big beat album, checking off what was required of a crossover: slick production that can catch your ear while the radio’s playing, guest performers and collaborations, chill cuts for the chicks, and knowing nods to the true heads who’ve stuck things out through thick and thin. Fine, if that’s your aim, but by the year 2001, the crossover formula had grown stale, and Überzone’s debut was quickly forgotten in favor of any-and-all things nu-skool.

All of which actually makes Faith In The Future a pretty darn good album regardless, because Überzone doesn’t fall into either of those camps. He’s an electro-funk guy, and if you don’t believe it, the opener Beat Bionic features veterans of the old school in talk-box action from Bart Thomas and Bigg Robb (of Zapp fame, though credited as Sure 2 B here), and scratch artist Davey Dave. Later in the album, none other than Afrika Bambaataa shows up with his SoulSonic Force for 2kool4skool, capably showing some nu-skool skill while keeping things retro-proper. Most of the album follows this form, with collaborations from Rennie Pilgrem and Ken Jordan (of The Crystal Method) expertly handled while Überzone cuts loose with his brand of electro-acid-funk. Rounding things out are pleasant enough chill tunes with Dreamtime and the titular cut, and the indie-rock warbler track (Frequency with Helmet front-man Page Hamilton) doesn’t drag, also a plus.

I cannot deny Faith In The Future coming off too polished if you prefer your breaks strictly underground, but as few others have ever emulated Überzone’s style, it’s still a fresh sounding album over a decade on.