Various - Alien Dust 1

Psysolation: 2001

I've implied it in the past, a period when I'd completely written off psy-trance. It was only a few years, yet it's not like I came back into the fold willingly. Fortuneately, when I did return, I heard enough new ideas to keep me checking in ever since; if nothing else, Israeli full-on has that feather in its cap. And for all I know, the stuff that got me scoping psy out again had always been there, just unavailable to those way out in the Western provinces of Canadaland. I wasn't in any rush to dig through online stores though, the stuff I was finding so consistently dull and dry, it gave me the false impression that was what all psy-trance had become. Gone was the goa, missing was the tweaky acid, and dead on arrival were the rhythms – just, a lot of pseudo-deep minimal stuff, with sampling that was no where near as clever as it thought it was.

The final nail in the temporary isolation chamber I put myself into was this double-disc compilation. Oh, how seductive it was on the store shelves, a grey alien with eyes like new black polished chrome, luring me in for a listen. I had to obey its hypnotic gaze, hear what it had to offer, intake its intriguing space dust.

Alien Dust 1 gets off to a decent start, Fünf D's Das Signal a deep acid chugger with ominous pads and German words (always good for a sinister mood setter), followed by a solid, minimalist rhythm builder in Spirallianz' Blast Food - get a good primal, tribal vibe out of this one. Some solid tear-out psy is thrown down by Gill's First Elevation, and Human Blue is always good for classy material, of which Non Transparent Shadows does the trick (those dubby clattering drums!).

But then the compilation falls straight off a cliff after that, the remaining 1.5 CDs a dreary trudge of monotonous, 'deep' psy that kills whatever momentum Alien Dust had going for it. The lone bright spot, Electric Universe's Love Is Not A Crime, appears on Disc 2, and offers some much needed spaced-out, high flyin' goa vibes, but it's not enough to rescue the rest of the compilation. I guess Der Dritte Raum's Der Schrittmacher ain't too bad either, but he's done better, and doesn't really fit with the other artists involved in this release. And *whoof*, are the two cuts with guitars near the end ever weak-sauce. At least Akanoid's Base Breaker tries to ease us out with some pleasant space acid, but it's not worth sitting through all this mediocrity just to hear it.

Some of these might have sounded fine in compilations with more variety, where the flat songwriting worked in contrast with tunes with more flair. As presented here though, Alien Dust is a dull, monochrome, slog to get through. Can you blame me for giving up on the genre if this was your current impression of it?

Various - Alien Ambient Galaxy

Hypnotic: 1996

When did I first discover Bill Laswell? This CD right here, which is funny, because it's not indicative of his larger, massive, ginormous body of work. I mean, only one track of the featured eight even has much of his distinct bass playing – it's a super long track, but still, just one. I probably heard him prior, but had no clue he existed, if that makes sense. You can hear some musicians – especially sessions musicians – in a multitude of songs without ever knowing who they are. Sure, one could study liner notes of every booklet and Discogs entry to know every performer ever, but man, who'd want to?

Had little choice with Alien Ambient Galaxy though, the only credits offering nothing but liner notes. Hell, the back cover just lists all the players involved, with no attribution to the list of tracks. For all you'd know, everyone performed together as one big conglomerate. Bill Laswell, Jah Wobble, Jeff Bova, Alex Hass, Pete Namlook, Liu Sola, Buckethead (yes, that Buckethead), Robert Musso, Mick Harris, and Nicky Skopelitis are... Alien Ambient Galaxy!

But no, that's not the case. In fact, only three projects actually make up this compilation, all of which Laswell had some hand in, care of his short-lived Subharmonic print. Most prominently featured is Divination, a world music, ambient drone project that could be considered a proper conglomerate of musicians. There's four tracks of the group here, but they're mostly subtle, droning pieces, serving more as transitional tracks between the other ones. I'll talk about them more at a later date, but again, I must give a flustered name-drop in seeing Buckethead's there.

A few other tracks are from Cypher 7, a duo consisting of Hass and Bova, with Laswell performing “navigation & ground control”. These are more interesting, giving Alien Ambient Galaxy some needed diversity and flair. Conspiracy Of Silence opens the CD with mysterious, ominous tones, feeding into alien paranoia that was so popular in the '90s, while The Suspicious Shamen does an upbeat ambient dub thing with piano flourishes. Nothing Lasts, meanwhile, features a bouncy beat while French actress Jeanne Moreau drunkenly laments about lost passion. Not sure how it ties into an alien ambient concept, but it's a cool sounding tune nonetheless.

And finally, clocking in at over thirty-eight minutes, is one of Bill and Pete's Psychonavigation outings – the lengthy track with the lengthy title of Psychic And UFO Revelations In The Last Days. It features Laswell's bass, Namlook's space pads, a simple dubby rhythm, a lot of dithering passages of music interspersed with sci-fi effects, and strangely hypnotic throughout its runtime. Plus, it contains dialog from the DS9 episode Emissary, so instant awesome right there.

Strange presentation aside, Alien Ambient Galaxy is a nifty little collection of tunes if you like your ambient on the mysterious side of things. Even with the amount of Laswellian music I've since heard, this still remains a remarkably unique offering of what he's made within his vast discography.

Aquasky - Aftershock

Moving Shadow: 2000

Aquasky was among Moving Shadow's new breed of drum 'n' bass tastemakers taking the scene into bold new territories as the Millennium turned. I know this, because a lot of the PR blurbs surrounding Aquasky said so. More than that, they had no problem flitting beyond the strict borders junglists demanded of their artists. Breaks? Sure, they can do that too, and maybe even give a few bassline pointers to those emerging nu-skool doods. Trip hop? Ain't no th'ang, every ace producer having a chill side too. Nu-jazz? Oh, hey, let's not get carried away. Just because Kruder & Dorfmeister tapped a track for their DJ-Kicks doesn't mean you should go that far beyond your boundaries. Maybe try something safer, like jazzstep. (note: the tune on DJ-Kicks is jazzstep, but why ruin a joke with facts?)

A trio of cats (Brent Newitt, Kieron Bailey, Dave Wallace), Aquasky initially debuted with a handful of singles on Moving Shadow, as many d'n'b acts were wont to do. They must have generated quite the buzz, as Polydor swooped in and offered them a deal, the mini-album Orange Dust emerging. I assume that didn't turn out as the players involved hoped, for Aquasky was right back in the Moving Shadow fold shortly after, releasing a proper LP in the form of Bodyshock. That one did better, so good that a remix album was commissioned the following year. That's no small feat, remix albums few and far between within the d'n'b scene to that point. Goldie's Timeless never got one. Roni Size's New Forms never got one. Perhaps a couple stray examples exist throughout the '90s, but fact remains Aftershock is a rare beast for its time. Or a hastily cobbled cash-grab quick to capitalize on all the hype Bodyshock had generated – would explain the totally borked track list on the CD.

No, seriously, how does one completely screw up a track list like this? Nothing is sequenced as laid out on the back of the booklet, and given that the compilation itself actually flows remarkably well for a remix album, I'm assuming what I hear is the intended order. Corduroy's rub on Battlestar is a fine funky, bass-heavy opener, while Sketch's go with Sonix feeds your reptile brain with some savage bass throbs and shuffly 2-step rhythms. At track five, we take a break from the breaks 'n' bass business for Mr. Scruff lending his funky jazz touch to Man Made Symphony, but for the longest time, I was told this was Stalker (Timecode Remix). Given the players involved, that don't make a lick of sense.

I suspected something was up when the obviously London Elektricity rub of Rebirth was titled Zero Tollerance (Aquasky Remix), and the track titled Rebirth (London Elektrcity Remix) sounded nothing like a London Elektricity remix. It wasn't until The Lord That Knows All graced my existence that I was enlightened upon Moving Shadows' erroneous handling of Aftershock. I wonder if that's why Aquasky left the label again, after this?

Various - Aeon Nemesis

Werkstatt Recordings: 2014

Aww yeah, this is exactly what's lured me into synthwave, isn't it? Retro futurism, cosmic setting, video game cockpit, vector grids galore. And ooh, can't forget that potential narrative brewing. What is the Aeon Nemesis? An inter-dimensional being we must fight? The concept of defeating time itself? Just a couple of cool sounding words slapped together for marketing purposes? So many conceptual possibilities, these synthwave albums, and what better way to truly explore those limitless ideas than rounding up a bunch of producers with similar muses for a big ol' label showcase? That'll get folks digging deeper into the back-catalogue, no doubt.

If you're wondering how I ended up with so many Werkstatt Recordings items, it's because of compilations like this. Get the main feature, plus a bulk deal on CDs with tie-in artists. From this, I nabbed Beatbox Machinery (of course), Toxik Synther, Advanced UFO Phantom, plus a nifty t-shirt with Arcade Metropolis' logo across. Funny thing, regarding that t-shirt. When I wear it to work, a co-worker inquiries whether it's in association with the Arcade Metropolis once located in downtown Vancouver (before the dark times; before the gentrification). Naturally not, but does that ever bring back memories, wandering the once seedier side of the city's urban core, where all manner of strange, darkened places warned that only surly teenagers could enter. To say nothing of the striking mannequins my father would suddenly flush with embarrassment should we venture past on the way to a second-hand music shop. Man, downtown Vancouver was a different beast back when. Not quite Times Square pre-Rudy or anything, but there's a reason many pick-up shots for a Manhattan-based movie would be done in Vancouver.

Anyhow, I had a'lotta anticipation going into this one, as cool cover art is wont to do upon my psyche. You'd think after so many years led astray by dodgy psy trance CDs with cool cover art that I'd learn it, too, can happen in other scenes, especially ones as filled with amateur producers as synthwave. It's not that the music within Aeon Nemesis is piss-poor or anything, but it doesn't lift itself to the standards I've gone and set for myself either. Yes, I've actually developed 'standards' for synthwave – there's only so much time I can give to the endless options this genre now has, and I don't need to waste it on middle-of-the-road material.

A few tracks do offer some nifty ideas, like Beta Grid's hip-hop electro-acid Omni-Halo Matrix, Liege Viper's peppy outrun outing of Rising Star, and Arcade Metropolis' epic excursion of Take Hold Of The Flame - at six-minutes of runtime, it easily outpaces everything else on this compilation. Unfortunately, little else stands out from the synthwave glut, and nothing really highlights or builds upon whatever theme Aeon Nemesis was going for. It's just another collection of synthwave tunes, though did come with some cool extra swag if you jumped on it first run. Werkstatt's swag game is always on point.

Various - A Taste Of Pork: A Collection Of Pork Recordings

Quango Records: 1995

This is a CD I always saw in the music shops, even as far back as I was allowed to go to the Vancouver music shops. As the years went on, there it forever sat, unloved, uncared, unappetizing. Like, who in their right mind would pay regular price for a compilation with just seven tracks on it, three of which are by the same artist? CDs weren't cheap, and when you're looking to wax twenty bones on a compilation, you want to get as much music as possible on it, with as much variety on it. No wonder those double-disc sets of 'european trance' or those hard house DJ mixes with thirty-five tunes were more appealing. This though, what's appealing about orange cover art talking about pork? Whenever is food a tempting association with music? Unless you have synaesthesia, they interact with completely different senses, generating completely different responses upon your brain-matter. I can no better taste the music than I can hear the ham - I sure as shit ain't shoving some sizzling strips down my earholes!

Still, I've been on a bit of a Quango Records binge as of late, most of their discs quite cheap and easy to come by. I figured there's no harm in dropping a couple loonies for this on the Amazon market, round out a little more of that early jazz-funk downtempo collection that keeps growing. And it makes sense that Bruno Guez would tap Pork Recordings for material for the fledgling Quango, the label the birthing home of future Quango staple Fila Brazillia. In fact, it was co-Fila member Steve Cobby that co-founded Pork Recordings with David 'Porky' Brennand (thus the print's namesake). They even produced a lone white label to kick things off, but it was clear Cobby's production as Fila and Heights Of Abraham (with former members of industrial group Chakk) would do the heavy lifting in Pork's early years.

Hence it's no surprise that of the seven tracks that make up A Taste Of Pork, Steve Cobby is in on all but one of them. As mentioned, Fila Brazillia gets three, Leggy and The Sheriff both doing that funky, chill Latin-jazz thing the duo's always been ace at (as they played back-to-back, I thought they were the same track!). There's also Subtle Body, a surprising ambient-jazz thing with gentle keyboards and twinkling bells with dubby overtones. Meanwhile, Heights Of Abraham get two cuts, The Cleric and E.V.A. (Instrumental), both much chiller and groovier than the Fila Brazillia material, almost treading into ambient dub's domain. Cobby even gets to shows off his solo project Solid Doctor, itself a slightly dubbier take on the burgeoning Kruder & Dorfmeister downtempo stylee.

The lone track breaking up the Cobby showcase is R Resonant from R Earth. This was actually care of a re-issue Pork did for the 1990 single, though why they picked this, I haven't a clue. Is it just because a Kevin Bacon in this group? No, couldn't be that.

Various - Tangent 2002: Disco Nouveau

Ghostly International: 2002

I wanted Legowelt's Disco Rout. Okay, I technically already have Legowelt's Disco Rout, but as part of a DJ mix (Sound Of The Third Season, as long time readers know). I wanted it in all its pure form though, preferably in an album context. Trouble is, Danny Wolfers never released a Legowelt album that included Disco Rout, just a single on Cocoon Recordings. T'was my hunt to be thwarted by personal collecting limitations? Not so, Disco Rout also doing a little compilation duty back in the day, the Ghostly International CD Tangent 2002: Disco Nouveau the first of such outings. And, ooh, look at all these other electroclash acts on here: ADULT., I-F, DMX Krew, Lowfish, Hong Kong Counterfeit, Mat-101...

Right, calling most of these guys and gals electroclash is a bit of a stretch. Like so much retro-leaning music at the turn of the century, it all got lumped under the banner when lazy music journalists needed a quick, clever, catchy, contemporary tag for an old thing that simply hadn't much popularity in the decade prior. What's funny is all their tripping and falling over being at the forefront of the zeitgeist was for nought, electroclash essentially done as a movement by the time even this CD hit the shelves. A few acts carried on the original sleazy, ironic ethos, but soon enough folks were making proper synth-pop or electro without having their tongues so deeply embedded within their cheeks.

Honestly, that change is apparent even with Tangent 2002. I've no doubt that Ghostly International was looking to capitalize on a reinvigorated electro fad, but the artists on here display little of the sleaze that labels like International Deejays Gigolo helped create the image-conscious scene that was electroclash. Also, despite not loading this compilation up with big, obvious names (I think ADULT. had the most market presence, for no other reason than they often compared to Miss Kittin & The Hacker), quite a few of the artists featured on this compilation already had well-established music careers, making quirky electro, poppy techno, and synthy EBM on a lark. They didn't need electroclash added to their resume, but it's cool that they indulged in it for a bit.

One of the things that really struck me about the music on here is just how solid the songcraft is. Whether chipper electro-house (Susumu Tokota's Re: Disco, Charles Manier's Change You), space-age synth-pop (Solvent's My Radio, DMX Krew's Make Me, Memory Boy's (There Is No) Electricity), weirdo Detroitisms (Ectomorph's Lost Angles, I-F's Holographic Voice), or regular ol' deadpan electroclash (ADULT.'s Nite Life, Hong Kong Counterfeit's Metal Disco (Legowelt vs Orgue Electronique Mix)), it's all boss, with none of the insufferable irony that suffocated the scene's original momentum. And glory be, it's wonderful hearing such retro sounds with experienced musicians behind them. Not to knock all the synthwavers down, but it's quite apparent how many of them are still at the amateur level compared to this stuff. Give 'em time though, give 'em time.

Various - Surf Beat

Not Now Music: 2016

At some point in my past, I realized I liked surf rock, even beyond it's starring role in Pulp Fiction. For sure there was that childhood interest in the Beach Boys laying the foundation, but it's more than that. The energetic pace, the abundance of echo and reverb, the general lack of vocals – why, it could almost be a form of 'techno'! My interest was cemented when a former boss put a bunch of it on the work playlist, a wonderful counter to the bland contemporary rock and pop we endured throughout the day. It got deep enough into my head that I concluded this was a genre of music that might be worth a little further exploration, just how fruitful a scene had sprung from Dick Dale's innovative guitar shredding.

However, the music came about when the single dominated the industry, and if I honestly wanted to take in all that this scene had to offer, I'd have to engage in some serious spelunking. Scouring the local used shops for records of various inches and lengths. Move beyond the famed bands like The Surfmen, The Revels, and The Champs, and discover unheralded acts like The Fireballs, The Frogmen, and The Trashmen. Then I'd have to go to the Meccas of surf rock itself: Malibu, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Topanga, Lower Trestles, Venice Beach, Zuma. Where surfers far and wide inspired musicians near and thin with their wave-ridin' skills, and undoubtedly flooded the market with a soundtrack to their carefree crazy pastime. Oh, the abundance of early '60 vinyl one is sure to find in all the pawn shops along the SoCal coastline, draining me of so much of my financial means, so very much.

Or I can pick up a 2-CD compilation of the stuff. That'll work too.

There's forty songs on Surf Beat, which may seem like a lot, but considering each tune only averages around two minutes, things breeze by like Frankie Avalon skimming the inside lane of the blue pipeline (is that how you do surfer jargon? I really haven't a clue). And while most of the famous ditties of the day are included, (no Wipeout, thank God), it isn't all surfer music all the time. Really, the term 'surf rock' only included a select few acts that made their mark in the surfer locales, while a lot of other rock bands of the day had their instrumentals often lumped in with the scene. Songs like The Ramrods' Riders In The Sky and The Outlaws' Indian Brave have more lineage with country music, painting pictures of galloping through the Sierra Range or Chihuahuan Desert. Ain't no surf in those parts of America, I reckon.

Which just confirms my inclination that 'surf rock' is but a small part of what I like to call 'desperado rock', taking the music's rebellious overtones and applying it to Americana like The Old West and The California Coast - a romanticism of an America that never was.

Scott Grooves - Key Statements - The Beginning: The Soiree Collection 1992-1995

Soiree Records International: 2017

Yes, the beginning. The start of it all. The alpha happening. The prime, um, kickoff. Whatever you want to call it, these are the tracks Scott Grooves initially got his groove on with, a smattering of singles and remixes for Detroit based Soiree Records International. He'd shortly after get a deal with Soma Quality Recordings, which led to the single A New Day, the album Pieces Of A Dream, and we already know all this because I just talked about it in the Pure Mixin' It retrospective. So let's give a quick rundown on Soiree instead.

Not a major print by any stretch, but they've been in operation since 1990, releasing a few records every year to this day. I honestly don't recognize anyone on this label, but there must be enough love for acts like Glenn Vernon, Pleasure Device, Drivetrain, and CloudMasterWeed to have kept the lights on for nearly three decades now. Nothing can stop the Motor City deep house machine!

Yeah, we're in house's house, and really, if you clicked on a review for a guy called Scott Grooves and weren't expecting house of some sort, let me be the first to welcome you to our planet - please take your litter with you when you leave. This American house though, it's in that weird transitional era from the classic Chicago sound of the decade before, and the full-on loopin', disco n' funk revival that would define the latter half of the '90s. At this point, the deeper, bumpin' New York and Miami style was dominating the clubs, producers like Masters At Work and labels like Strictly Rhythm large and in charge. Scott Grooves may have hailed from Detroit, but that don't mean he wasn't heavily influenced by that sound either, much of the music here fitting comfortably snug within clubs out on the east coast. It'd be a few more years before Detroit musicians stopped fighting their natural inclination to put the 'tech' into their house.

Despite some ultra-tight drum programming that's just part of any Detroit producer's DNA, Scott Grooves doesn't do much here distinguishing him from the deep, eastcoast bump 'n grind vibe. Which is fair, the chap undoubtedly still learning the ropes of production while DJing remained his main focus.

His two Key Statements cuts work a sparse groove just fine, with that punctual squarewave bassline bobbin' about as a soul sista' or piano/organ/saxaphone/xylophone improvises between the vocals. His remixes for Pam Vernon, Sweet B, Lawanda, and Kiata generally follow the same formula, though the production's got a deeper, richer atmosphere to them – less stiff than the Key Statements cuts. The collection ends on a couple unreleased items - On My Way and Anything 4 You - and it's here Scott's Detroit lineage peaks through, tunes sounding far more futurist and 'techy' than anything New York was churning out, but still on that deep house vibe nonetheless. Dang, why'd it take this long to revive these, yo'?

Mahiane - Oxycanta

Ultimae Records: 2006

After years (a decade!) of ducking, dodging, denying, and diatribing, I've finally relinquished. Oh, you knew such a time would come wherein I'd go back on my word, my proclamation, my mantra. The ceaseless thrust of progress demands sacrifice, tossing the norms of old into the tempestuous Cauldron Of Change (defeat a Level 72 balrog to attain said cauldron!), including a music collector's steadfast ideology that if a physical copy of an item exists, he shall not buy the digital version. What is said music collector to do, though? There exist artifacts of old that, while attainable, are financially unfeasible to procure. Maybe a time will come when such items work their way out of the over-inflated collector's market, and into the more practical used market, but so long as the demand exists, so too do the scalpers. And out-of-print Ultimae CDs, the demand is high indeed.

It is thus, under such circumstances, that I sprung for the digital releases of a few such select items in their catalogue. I choose them sparingly, logically, knowing the odds of them seeing any sort of re-issue at this late point is nil. The albums, they all have some chance of resuscitation, but the second-tier compilations, what hope have they? None, common sense tells me, so it is with defeated resignation that I finally complete my Oxycanta collection with the digital version of the first in the series, released a year before I knew the label even existed.

Still, I get some small sense of rhyming the circle, or echoing my mirror, or whatever cliche you prefer. It was the second Oxycanta – Winter Blooms, that truly lured me into Ultimae's fold and all the wonderful, panoramic sonic delights the label could offer. It makes sense I finish the path I started with as I embark upon another undiscovered country.

As this is mid-'00s Ultimae, you know you're in good hands music-wise, the label really hitting its stride. Music includes all the main players of the time (Asura, Solar Fields, Aes Dana, one-half of CBL), plus a couple future luminaries to grace their discography (Cell, Hybrid Leisureland). Kind of disappointing that some of their tracks have appeared elsewhere, making Oxycanta a tad redundant for the Ultimae completist, but you also get a couple exclusives from these dudes too, so all balances out. Scope out the compilation to find out which I'm referring to!

As for the rest of the tracklist, it includes some rather unknown ambient composers (Between Interval's Aerolith reminds me of Space Ace's Sea Of Japan - now that's an obscure call-back!), the Ultimae office posse (Vincent, Mahiane, Dessaeaux) collaborating for a tune as Subgardens, and a track from Omnimotion. Wait, the same Omnimotion that appeared on Waveform Records? Why, so it is! Small world, eh? His ultra-blissed ambient piece Magic Tree's a wonderful meditative closer to Oxycanta, with sounds like a tall, creaking tree slowly swaying in the wind as you chill among its branches. Gravity never felt so irrelevant.

Etnica - The Juggeling Alchemists Under The Black Light

High Society/DAT Records: 1995/2018

No, seriously, is there a better time to be a music fan than this past half-decade? Like, beyond just the unprecedented abundance of selection, even old, obscure stuff is now frequently unearthed and reissued in ultra-deluxe collector's packages. I've always wanted to pick up an Etnica album, one of the O.G. goa trance acts that lured me into the genre's weird, twisted sonic possibilities. Alien Protein was the obvious choice, released on the familiar print Blue Room Released – be easiest to find, is what I'm sayin' (plus, Party Droid!). I never considered their debut album, released on the far smaller label High Society, an item almost certainly lost to the dustbins of an overpriced collector's market. Not only has DAT Records rescued The Juggling Alchemists Under The Black Light from such a fate, but included a second CD of assorted remixes and single material from the same period of Etnica's career. And then they convinced the band to unleash a pile of unreleased early works for a third disc of material. Dang, son, I would have been satisfied just with a standard re-issue, but all that and chicken soup too?

Describing exactly what makes Etnica click in such a way that so few other psy trance acts do is difficult to detail. Yeah, they have just as much wiggly noises and squiggly sounds as any other act of the era, but there's something uniquely identifiable about their particular method. They have just as much freeform songcraft as other respected acts of the era like Kox Box, but always show enough restraint in not getting lost in random, go-nowhere tangents. There's the obligatory goa tonal scales, but it never sounds like Etnica is completely dependant upon them either, trippy tribal trance sounding just as comfortable cruising the cosmos as it does getting crusties flailing about on Indian beaches. And while the original Juggeling Alchemists Under The Black Light album was a tidy seven track outing, all the additional material in this mega-package doesn't dilute the experience in the slightest, Etnica's sound hardly growing stale even as the hours of music pile on. Well, okay, there are a couple quibbles I must point out.

One, due to a mislabeled DAT being sent to DAT, a lone track isn't even an Etnica cut; rather, it's a tune called Alien Phenomenon by another High Society act called Evolution. Whoops. But to make matters worse, this was supposed to be a remix of Party Droid. Aagh! Also, The Early Years disc definitely shows Etnica still in their developmental stage, tracks on there comparatively unpolished when contrasted with the stuff they properly released. It's all serviceable old-school trance, but not terribly different from much of what else was available out there. A fun bonus, then, though when mixed among the wicked-awesome coolio cuts that Etnica started churning out on the regular (as the digital version of this collection does due to alphabetizing the whole playlist) ...yeah, I can hear why they initially sat on it.

Various - A Journey Into Ambient Groove

Planet Earth Recordings/Quango Records: 1995/1996

Bruno Guez, the dude who oversaw Quango Records, claims in the inlay this particular compilation was the impetus that created the label. The original Journey Into Ambient Groove came out on Planet Earth Recordings, a short-lived print mostly handling early Harthouse America distribution. It possibly would have ended at that, Mr. Guez continuing on the DJ circuit while the CD got lost in a pile of trendy 'ambient house' compilations flooding the market in the wake of The Orb's commercial success. The head of Island Records though, Chris Blackwell, liked what he heard from Guez' efforts, sensing he had an ear for downtempo music that was more properly global than what most UK producers were making, and suggested a full label promoting a brand of 'global groove'. Thus, when Quango launched, Bruno retained the rights to the original Journey Into Ambient Groove brand, and used it as the premier compilation series for the young label. He'd go on to create many other series, but at four volume's worth in three year's time, this was his most successful.

Naturally, the title of this series is something of a misnomer. While there's definitely groove among these ten tracks, there's precious little ambient. A chill vibe, for sure; a dubby vibe, oh yeah. Even a light Balearic vibe, if you count the occasional flamenco guitar jamming as Balearic. Don't really hear anything I'd count as ambient though – no droning pads, no wallpaper sounds, no sentiments of napping at airports (though hanging out at a fancy lounge-bar might work). Not that it's Bruno's fault or anything, 'ambient' simply the standard buzzword for anything 'chill-out' through the first half of the '90s. It's just funny seeing it carried forward on a compilation series that'd go on to include the likes of Innervisions, Fila Brazillia, Cottonbelly, and Basement Jaxx.

What Journey Into Ambient Grooves has most in common with is the ambient dub that Beyond and Waveform were pushing. Heck, the opening track of Gato de Oro from Sapien sounds like it could have been an Original Rockers tune, which makes sense since it's actually a remix from Rockers Hi-Fi (aka: the group Original Rockers evolved into). And speaking of original rockers, Kruder & Dorfmeister's Original Bedroom Rockers is also on here, as it should be since K&D's records were among the earliest items Quango put out. Another Fine Day also crops up towards the end, doing his jazzy dub-chill thing in Lazy Daisy, while Howie B does a rub on Jenny Devivo's Love Is What I Live For.

Can't say I recognize anyone else in this track list, though I've probably crossed paths with traditional dub-dance act Zion Train at some point – they get two tunes here with Arise and First Power. The remaining artists all provide suitably groovy music to vibe on in your down time, but I feel this style would find its true form in the coming years, when the K&D influence would move downtempo beyond, um, Beyond's original ethos.

Various - Hyperdub 10.4

Hyperdub: 2014

You'd think with the camo cover art, the fourth volume of Hyperdub's Tenth Anniversary Box-Set Spectakaganza would be getting down with the jungle scene. It makes sense, after all, UK garage and d'n'b having a mutual understanding of cross-pollination. They hang out at the same venues, where none of that cheesy cracker-trance or lame-o house music is being played, and maybe even share a few musical ideas between each other. Not too much though, as junglists are all about that purity, and UK garage followers... actually, I don't know what they consider 'pure' in their scene, so many mutations having emerged from it since the turn of the millennium. It was all so simpler when all you had was 2-step, grime, and speed. Now, it's all a confuzzled mess, especially after that which is dubstep infected both scenes with varying degrees of interest and suckitude.

Anyhow, all this is moot because the camo is a lie. There is no jungle here, nowhere on either CD of this double-discer closer. Unless the camo is meant to reflect the disguise you didn't see coming at all with a Hyperdub compilation, of a genre that most would figure never had a chance of appearing among future garage, nu-soul, wonky-step, and 'night bus' ambient (dear God, Beatport actually tried to make that a thing!). I am, of course, talking about the one electronic genre to rule them all: techno. Because no matter how disparate, divergent, or unique a sound you may enter with, everyone returns to the mean of making either house or techno. It's an absolutism none can resist, even those dudes with the crappy, choppy beat boxes.

I wouldn't go so far as to call everything among these twenty-eight tracks techno. Some of it is 2-step garage, some of it is bassline house (aka: speed garage without the garage), and some of it is that weirdo electro-grime thing that could only have been made somewhere among the streets of South London, an impossible fusion of so many different things, it's entirely it's own thing (so, future garage, then). It's stuff like that that gave Hyperdub that extra edge among its contemporaries. Well, that, plus all the other things highlighted in the previous five CDs.

Generally though, Hyperdub 10.4 sticks to the stripped-back techno, spiced with that distinct UK urban flavour. Maybe some vintage bleep/rave tuneage (Funkystepz' Vice Versa), or a dubby minimal rinse-out (Fhloston Paradigm's The Phoenix), or Detroit-funk all wobbled up in a ketamine daze (Kode9 & Spaceape's Love Is The Drug). There's quite a bit to take in here, though if I'm honest, the deliberately stripped aesthetic UK garage of this era loves kinda' makes much of this sound like cheap filler on generic techno compilations of the '90s. Not saying Hyperdub should have stayed in their lane, and I'm sure many of these tunes make for fine compliments to any tech-house or techno set. Two CDs of it though, it's just too much for a single sitting.

Various - Hyperdub 10.3

Hyperdub: 2014

Wait, Hyperdub did ambient music too? Well, yeah, guy, of course they did. Doesn't everyone? Mind, what you consider ambient is probably a rather narrow niche of sonic padding and lengthy doodling, but that doesn't mean other scenes can't have their kick at the can with their own beatless interpretations of abstract art music, especially ones where 'dub' production is seen as the norm. While many musicians have taken the original Eno concept down radically divergent paths, that doesn't mean folks in the UK garage scene haven't felt the influence of spacious sounds filling sonic gaps between heavy bangers and the ephemeral void leading you to the Land Of Nod. Even 'gaihr-idge' heads need their comedown music, mate.

Still, it's not like Hyperdub has any dedicated musicians making just ambient music, or even much ambient adjacent music on the regular. Rather, they'll craft little interludes and quiet sound experiments as part of a larger album narrative (or a B2 on a single). As such, most of the twenty-three 'ambient' tracks on offer with Hyperdub 10.3 hover around the two-to-three minute mark, some not even reaching ninety seconds in length. Which urges the question, exactly what the point of this particular compilation is? Like, I get you wanted an excuse to show off more Burial, and certainly his two pieces of At McDonald's and Night Bus were key elements of what made Untold the seminal work of post-clubbing reflective misery that it was. However, sixty-four seconds of chopped pad tones from Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland comes off as redundant filler on a CD that's already technically filled with the filler of other LPs.

Most of these pieces are of such nature, taking the Hyperdub notions of urban digital editing to the realm of wallpaper music. It does provide a unique take on ambient, though it isn't that far removed from the glitchy realm of IDM experiments. It's interesting that two such disparate scenes could arrive at similar sonic points though – gotta' love all that easily accessible production software! Heck, some of this stuff could fit in with the noise camps, like DVA's Reach The Devil, and Jeremy Greenspan & Borys' Gage, which ends the whole CD off with an awful aural assault before abruptly ending. Kewl.

Personally though, I prefer it when things go for the urban-soul Burial mould, as in Cooly G's Mind and Trying, or Lee Gamble's DSM. But let's not leave out the retro-ghetto stylings of Darkstar's Ostkreuz, or the near synthwavey pieces from Ikonika's Time/Speed and Completion V.3. Wait, synthwave, in a Hyperdub collection? What timeline is this?

Then there's more traditional stuff, like The Bug's five-minute long Siren, and the super-traditional stuff, as in Fhloston Paradigm's Liloo's Seduction. Seriously, this production from the King Britt alias brings to mind '70s Berlin-School, and lasts ten minutes in length. On a CD where only three other tracks break the four-minute mark, Liloo's Seduction might as well be a double-LP composition.

Various - Hyperdub 10.2

Hyperdub: 2014

Look, I get all that post-dub-juke-bash-grim-skee-ap stuff is what folks hip to every tiny permutation of UK garage were digging. I mean, it must have been a significant development if Hypderdub was gonna' dedicated a double-CD opening salvo to it. And while there were enough tracks among those thirty-plus that a few got my attention or had my head twitchin' for a mild nod, much of it just passed me by as same ol', same ol', no matter who was chopping and screwing with the hi-hats and snares. It's music that makes better sense when out at a shitty London venue or abandoned Chicago warehouse, where the ketamine is floating through the air like particulates of ashen snow. That is what all those early dubstep parties were like, right? I wouldn't know, I never went to any, not even in British Columbia when the likes of Skream and Rusko were becoming big names here.

Just because it wasn't to my taste doesn't mean it was to no one's taste, and it was popular enough that many indie rags were forced to dedicate detailed write-ups about why this new 'yoot' movement was Very Important to UK's underground dance scene. It's not what attracted me to Hyperdub though, so if the review of Hyperdub 10.1 seems lacking, well, that's your reason. Now, let's move onto the stuff I'm more interested in: the dubby funk 'n soul music of Hyperdub 10.2!

That's right, the post-clubbing, depressive soul of Burial, or the urban grit soul of King Midas Sound, where R&B is taken through the UK underground wringer of lonely nights spent at coffee shops and fish friars before returning to squalid flats barely paid for by a dwindling dole, the unmistakable croon of a lovely lady still echoing in your ears over a cheap, choppy beat. Something like that, I think.

That's the vibe I get from these tracks. Burial's Shell Of Light, DVA's Solid with Zaki Ibrahim and Metrodome, Terror Danjah's You Make Me Feel with Meleka, Fhloston Paradigm's Never Defeated with Rachel Claudio, Morgan Zarate's Sticks & Stones with Eska and Ghostface Killah. Wait, Ghostface is here? Man, them UK grime dudes sure do love 'em some Ghostface. Don't blame 'em, Tony Stark basically bullet-proof no matter where he ends up (UK garage, Eastcoast rap, horrorcore stories, 30 Rock cameos).

And it's weird, because normally I'm not that hype to R&B either. I appreciate its influence and its contributions and all that rot, but generally speaking, I get my musical soul-food from other sources. This Hyperdub stuff though, it hits me at just the right angle, just gritty and askew enough, where the cheap, scattershot production keeps it leagues away from the slick polish of the industrious mainstream material. It's rhythm and blues as the terms should be interpreted, with bare beats and human murk. Still, it's not like I'm actively seeking such music either, Hyperdub 10.2 sating most of that itch until the next King Midas Sound record comes out.

Various - Hyperdub 10.1

Hyperdub: 2014

It's hard to undersell just how Very Important of a label Hyperdub turned out. Even if you excise the Burial factor, it's been home to many producers that helped steer the course of UK garage into ever stranger and weirder future incarnations. Acts like Kode9 (founder), Space Ape, Zomby, The Bug, Mala, Flowdan, Kyle Hall, Inga Copeland, Darkstar, Ikonika, and loads more have made their home on Hyperdub at one point or another. While I can't say I've messed with many of them over the years, I cannot deny the label's earned a pedigree in tapping unique artists that have caught my ear more often than not. Considering the UK garage scene at large is filled with redundant, generic, cheap-ass half-step beats and gimmicky bass noises, that's no mean feat.

I've long considered diving deeper into the Hyperdub discography than whatever Burial and The Bug have released, and while there are a number of Very Recommended records, I wondered whether there was an easier way, a handier way, a box-settier way. Why, hello there, Tenth Anniversary four-volume, six CD collection celebrating the label, how you doin'? Of course, even this set is a little old now, Hyperdub coming upon their fifteenth anniversary in short order. I don't doubt for a second they won't celebrate that, having done a little roll-out of their fifth birthday too, when all they had to their name were some critically hailed works from Kode9 and Burial.

Things really started rolling from there though, hence a quadrupling of material for this box-set. And kicking things off for Hyperdub 10.1 is nothing less than a double-CD of material, with all the familiar Hyperdub names, and then some. DJ Taye! Cooly G! Ill Blu! Mark Pritchard! (!!) Terror Danjah! LV! DJ Rashad! Too many more to name-drop!

As each volume of this box-set focuses on a specific genre or style of music, you bet the first would feature that dubstep action. Or, post-dubstep, I guess – whatever it was folks tried to label the Hyperdub sound (certainly not bland wub-wub). There's also, according to Lord Discogs: Bassline, Grime, Techno, UK Garage, Abstract, and Juke. What, no Trap? Sure sounds like a lot of rat-a-tat-tat hi-hats and snares among these two CDs. Right, trap wasn't really a UK thing, but they had a whole bunch of other names for ghetto beats.

And that's the sense I get from these twenty-three, two-to-four minute tracks, where drums kits, acid boxes and samples are chopped and screwed in such scattershot fashion, it feels like you're hearing music made by the slummiest of musicians too broke to afford any proper production or studio time. Y'know, real music, like punk rock, unfettered and uncut from the soul, technical limitations be damned. Or something.

I dunno. Sometimes I feel journalists made this stuff seem more important because of that supposed authenticity than any actual musical merit. Wouldn't be the first time that happened, especially in UK-Land.

Various - Hits Of The 80's

Sony Music Select: 1993

It was the start of the '90s, and one thing was clear as day: CDs were the dominate medium of music consumption. People liked them for their portability and higher fidelity. Stores liked them for their ease of display and storage. And labels sure as Hell loved 'em for the insane mark-up they got, cheaply produced and sold for $20 a pop, not to mention that whole 'buying music you already had on a newer format' aspect. Them labels though, they weren't all greedy all the time. They knew they had a pile of music in their archives they already made max bank off of many years past, but were still favourites to many. Meanwhile, there remained a significant chunk of the populace who'd buy a CD of familiar music if the price was right. These consumers weren't the sort to scour record shops looking for the radio hits, but should they spot a collection for cheap in a discount bin by the grocery store check-out, well, what harm th'ar be in a $10 impulse buy, eh?

Hits Of The 80's was probably such a buy from it's former owner. Ooh, look, there's The Warrior. There's Bangles. There's Hooters. Recognizable songs, but the local rock radio doesn't play them anymore – too busy pumping out newer jams like Pearl Jam, or Unbelievable, or Pump Up The Jam. As I've said before, it was almost instantaneous in how the '90s music industry rejected anything that sounded like the decade prior, but that didn't mean fans of synth-pop, new wave, and glam metal went away either. Offering quick 'n cheap compilation CDs filled with this stuff was a sure-fire method of squeezing a few more drips of finely ground coin from those left wanting in the era of Spin Doctors.

That said, at ten tracks long, Hits Of The 80's feels skint, even for the cheap-o compilation market. What, couldn't squeeze two extra tunes on here, Sony? It's not like you're left wanting for selections in your archives. And how did they go about choosing which songs got included here anyway? The only thing I can say unites these tracks into any sort of theme is when I listen to it, I think, “Yep, those were hits in the '80s.”

So you get some classic, girl-fronted new wave music like Patti Smyth's The Warrior, Bangles' In Your Room, and 'Til Tuesday's Voices Carry (fun fact: for the longest time, I thought the chorus was “it's so scary”). That strange '80s fad of updating rockabilly is also present, in Cheap Trick's Don't Be Cruel and Adam Ant's Goody Two Shoes. A good ol' power ballad in Warrant's Heaven shows up, while something smoother in Gloria Estefan's Words Get In The Way reminds us there was soul in the '80s too. Oh, and Toto's Africa is on here, which would have made a fun talking point two years ago, before the song was inexplicably and annoyingly memed to death. Damn millennials.

The Oak Ridge Boys - Gospel Hits

Sony BMG Music: 2005

Greetings, Past Peoples. It's been a while, at least from your perspective, that I, Sykonee Of The Year 2073, have graced this region of your 'inter net'. It's been a while for me as well, hopping the various timelines, seeing what events may come and how things may have turned different if things had just gone a little stranger. For instances, did you know there's a time-line where the German Nazis won World War 2 with a little item called the Heisenberg Device? You do? And they made a TV series out of that? Oh, well, that's arctic and all, but you all figured it just fictional, whereas I've seen the reality of it. Or the alternate reality. Sure t'was not mine, and t'is not yours, though whether my reality becomes your reality remains a mystery, don't it. I've noticed a few minor instances of differences of what I knew and where you are, but very little to suggest The Great Divide isn't still on course. No, fret not, the Atomic Brotherhood will carry you through it, saving us from all that unsavoury retrograde Murican business. They look out for their own kind, they do.

Of course and correctly, I'm back here to bring tidings of that indomitable musical force that at least provides our disparate cultures with some common ground of clay, the everlastingness that is The Oak Ridge Boys. We in the Cascadian realm admire them for their contributions to atomic resourcefulness, while those others adore their Jesus, Godly, and Murican themes, reinforcing their beliefs to an almost fanatical degree. It's strange how two cultures can find such different, opposing embracings of enjoyment from the same musical source. You folks in your times could learn a thing about that. Might even prevent what's to come, if you think what I live in isn't to your likening. Haha, just coming with the jokes there; my future is ordained.

So here we are again, with Another Oak Ridge Boys Gospel collection. It's astonishing just how many of these are on the market, isn't it? All with different degrees of quality, content, and presentation. I've been handed a couple impressive ones, a few redundant ones, but this one, this one is a big ol' lie.

Unlike so many other of their gospel collections, this one had some major-proper support from one of the big record companies of old, Sony BMG (eventual subsidiary of Disney-ZTE). The Oakies weren't signed with Sony BMG (eventual subsidiary of Disney-ZTE), but they had gotten a little surged patriotic love in rallying Muricans together in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. What better opportunity, then, than dusting off some rights-held recordings for the quick bucker compilation market?

Thus, even though the cover adorns The Oak Bridge Boys as they were in 2005, everything within is music recorded in the early Nauty Seventies, including when Lil' William Wynn was tenor. Deceived us, Sony BMG (eventual subsidary of Disney-ZTE) has! Should have just shown another church.

Kevin Yost - Fundamentals (The Best Of The Early Years)

i! Records: 2010/2015

I didn't take much away from David Alvarado's contribution to the United DJs Of America series (or 'west coast grooves'), but it did remind me that Kevin Yost and Peter Funk had more tunes to their names than the deep house classic Dreams Of You. And that got me digging a little deeper, revealing that the two – and especially Kevin Yost – have had quite a busy career to this day! And wouldn't you know it, there's a Bandcamp with their stuff. With their music! And their CDs! Oh my!

Damn though, I've a lot of catching up to do. I'd best start at the beginning, and as luck (fate) ordained, Kevin Yost has a twelve-tracker called Fundamentals (The Best Of The Early Years). It was first released in 2010 as a DJ mix CD, but by the powers of digital music, all the original tracks were made available in their unmixed version too. So, I gets myself full versions of Dreams Of You, Another World, Stronger Love and Round Bout Midnight (nine minutes of deep house bliss!), but the DJ mix too, and a CD? There's gotta' be a catch. What's the catch? Oh, I get just the CD, no original digipak included. Well, it has been a while since Fundamentals first came out, so maybe the complete package sold out long ago. And it's not like I haven't received things from Werkstatt that came in little more than a plastic slip-case.

Ah, wait, I should probably fill in a few more details of exactly who Kevin Yost is. I mean, you may know Dreams Of You, but Peter Funk kinda' earned most of the glory of that collaboration (thanks, Mark Farina's Frisco Disco tracklist!). In reality though, Mr. Yost has by far been the more active producer between the two collaborators. He's released at least six solo albums (maybe more, if Lord Discogs isn't being accurate with me – it happens), not to mention numerous other collaborations with folks other than Funk, names like Horace James, Guy Monk, Howard Burns, Danny Walls... you know, jazz guys.

Yeah, if there's anything Yost has built his reputation on, it's infusing right-proper jazz vibes into the deep house template, himself or guest musicians laying out a little extended solo time as a bumpin', groovin' rhythm chugs along in support. Of course, he wasn't the first, nor the only house producer to do this, but he has such a distinct style, you can always tell when it's one of his tunes when it comes on.

And that's the basic gist of what to expect from Fundamentals. Smooth 'n groovin' deep house vibe, with assorted jazzy solos in support (saxophone, organ, flute, guitar, xylophone, probably others). Maybe there's a vocal loop thrown in, but not much else. Nothing else is needed, so why complicate things? With a dozen cuts capturing Mr. Yost's first half-decade of successful singles, Fundamentals is as tidy a primer in his sound as you'll ever find.

Biosphere - Compilation 1991-2004

Biophon Records: 2012/2017

Now isn't this just a right dandy little item Geir Jenssen's given us. As Biosphere, he released few actual albums throughout his first fifteen years of music making, but each one was a bonafide classic of ambient and frigid techno, making fans squirm and itch for more material. There were collaborations with Pete Namlook (Fires Of Ork) and Higher Intelligence Agency, but if you fancied yourself a true Biosphere completist, you'd have to do some serious sleuthing and digging, many tracks exclusive to compilations littered among his discography. Some of these weren't too hard find – even I could find copies of Trance Europe Express 3 on my local store shelves – but chances are you'd have to come from the hinterlands of Norway to snag yourself a copy of Nova Norvegia – (Get) Into The Arctic Groove. To say nothing of the outright obscurity of a Denmark museum collection in Krydsfelt – Norpol. I imagine even the peer-to-peer juggernauts of old had trouble tracking that one down.

Well fuss no more, Biosphere Completists, for Geir has gathered all his wayward offspring between the years 1991 and 2004 into a tidy 2CD compilation, titled, um, Compilation 1991-2004 - doesn't beat around the lichen moss, does it? Of course, if you really want to fancy yourself a true-proper Biosphere Completist, you'll still hunt down all those CDs these tracks were sprung from. For sensible people though, this will suffice.

Although, having listened through this now, I wonder if Compilation: My First Fifteen Years has any appeal beyond only the most die-hard Biosphere disciples. There's no denying Mr. Jenssen's frigid oeuvre can leave some folks cold (hah!). Yet whether you prefer his bleep techno beginnings, desolate field recordings, or looping drone, few come away from his work without at least thinking, “Hm, that's interesting.” And this double-discer touches base on all these aspects, but if you were coming in here looking for brilliant exclusives that never made an album cut, you've come to the wrong place indeed.

There isn't much from his techno days, opener Hypnophone the lone cut with any sort of beat among these fifteen tracks. The Third Planet and The Seal & The Hydrophone (Geir has a fascination for hydrophones) do the bleep ambient thing that marked his second album. By four tracks in though, we're already in the year 1997, when the minimalist abstraction really started taking hold of the Biosphere muse. Knives In Hens and Superfluid features some of the most experimental samples and drones Geir's ever produced, tediously so. At least the gentle ambience of Bird Watching and Sun-Baked end CD1 on a pleasant note.

CD2 is generally more consistent, as Mr. Jenssen's figured out how to craft his abstraction sampling into compositions with direction and focus, despite sometimes taking forever getting there (such a lonely road in Vi Kan Tenka Digitalt, Vi Kan Tala Digitalt). If you can't mess with ultra-minimalism though, well, you probably haven't bothered with post-Millennium Biosphere anyway.

808 State - 88:98 (2018 Update)

Universal Records: 1998

(Click here to bang your head against an impenetrable wall of text)

I've severely lagged in my 808 State gathering. Hell, it's almost shameful it took me until just last year to snag me a copy of at least one proper LP from the Manchester group, any LP. ex:el is a decent jumping on point, I suppose, but I'm certain most acid heads declare their first couple of records - Newbuild and Ninety - the only true 808 State albums you're supposed to have, even if you're not an 808 State fan. “But wait!”, say some, “Don't you dare dismiss their post-ex:el material either, Gorgeous and Don Solaris just as worthy of discussion as any of the band's seminal '80s work.”

Yeah, those too, though considering I've seen Gorgeous in the used-shops on occasion, I do have some suspicions of that one's overall quality. Strikes me as the sort of record that I would have stumbled upon back in my exploratory years, picked up to hear why 808 State were held in such high regard, and came away entertained but unimpressed. But hey, until I actually hear Gorgeous in full, I can't make that claim.

For now, all I have to go on is the fact only three of that album's tracks made the cut on this retrospective, whereas ex:el earned a whopping five out of thirteen potential slots. Not to mention none of the songs got a spiffy '98 update like Pacific and Cubik did. No, wait, this is bad logic on my part! Newbuild got jack-shite representation with 88:98, which follows that it's a completely rubbish outing. Well, we must concede it's the least commercially viable for a compilation such as this, but that's probably why so many True Heads adore that acid excursion compared to what came after. Only way you'd hear Flow Coma on the radio is via pirate options.

I cannot deny having 88:98 makes getting the band's post ex:el material a rather low priority. Yeah, you can argue this compilation also makes having ex:el redundant (or the other way around), but c'mon, tracks like Lift and In Yer Face are worth having as many times as possible! If this is meant to be a gathering of their best material though, then I've already heard all the highlights from Gorgeous and Don Solaris, everything else on those albums 'just for the fans' options. Then again, if I went by that logic, then I'd have assumed I wouldn't need anymore tunes off of ex:el, as there's no possible way the five on 88:98 are the peak. Then I heard ex:el, and realized they could have thrown even more on here than what's offered.

There, that should be enough circular rambling to sate anyone. As should be painfully apparent by now, I really have nothing else to add or update with 88:98. It's still a handy intro to 808 State, but far from a complete story. Besides, there's plenty of streaming options for that now anyway. Wow, the 'retrospective CD' market truly is dead, inn'it?