Aphex Twin - Drukqs

Warp Records: 2001

Why, I remember a time when we took new Aphex Twin music for granted, by g'ar. You bet we received Drukqs with barely passing attention. “Yeah, yeah, it's fine,” we shrugged, “but when will you release Selected Ambient Works 3, Mr. James? Or redefine IDM again like with so many other prior albums and EPs?” How were we to know our lackadaisical interest in a double-LP opus would all but force the Aphex'd One into permanent production privacy, pulling a near KLF disappearance from the world of music. Yeah, there were all those acid singles as AFX, but not as Aphex Twin, the pseudonym everyone cared about (re: primarily knew). All these meticulously crafted drill’n’bass electro dancing in your brain, the attempts at ‘real’ music with pianos, harpsichords, and other assorted chamber instruments, all wasted on a selfish audience, wondering why Radiohead was going on about this guy so much.

Or, y’know, ol’ Richie had a pile of unused demo music and discarded braindance B-sides lying about and shoved Drukqs out for some quick dosh. Either scenario wouldn’t surprise me.

For all the music on these two CDs, this album honestly does sound like two different ones mashed together. Half of it is made up of the aforementioned drillin’ breaks, the sort that still sounds indebted to Squarepusher but with enough of Aphex Twin’s quirky fills, changes in tone, melancholic ambient, and irreverent sense of humor making it distinctly his own. If this just sounds like retreads of Richard D. James Album, I counter these tunes off Drukqs are far better polished, even the most extreme glitched-out moments having a logical sense of musical flow to them. Plus, the production is incredibly slick, sounds never mashed into senseless noise even as any number of digital bits and pieces are flying about. Of course, by 2001 much of the IDM world had caught up to such tricks, so that folks wouldn’t be as impressed by Aphex’s efforts isn’t surprising. That doesn’t make them any less mint though.

The other half comprises all the classically minded compositions, most running a couple minutes of noodling about on keyboards of various types. The only unique thing about these is how Mr. James recorded a fair amount of the mechanical process involved in these instruments: the shuffling of pedals, the light plonks of ivory within wooden casings, and even his occasional faulty human flubs. For all I know though, this is a technique many pianists employ – I’m simply not well-versed in that field of music for any comparison. All I can tell is Aphex does craft some lovely little ditties, and a few utterly ART-wanky percussion pieces too (that said, Gwarek 2’s fun with headphones!).

Many came around to Drukqs when it seemed no new Aphex Twin material would ever materialize, so the album has gotten it’s just due now. It’s still better served for folks with some prior knowledge of his music before going in though. Not a beginner’s LP, this.

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album (Original TC Review)

Warp Records: 1996

(2015 Update:
Oh God, there's such a glaring hole in this review, a critical piece of information I left out. Or forgot. Or didn't bother researching for some lazy reason. Richard D. James Album is officially the first album Richard D. James produced using soft-synths as his primary music hardware, which should be totally obvious by the tonal shift in these tracks. The tickity-tack sounds, cut-up rhythms, micro-sliced sampling, and braindance glitch is common for compositions by way of computer trickery, of which this album his filled with. His prior work, still on analog gear, is more straight-forward in their arrangements, though filled with their own sonic oddities because it's Aphex. Even if that distinction is obvious though, it's an important piece of RDJA's make-up, an essential piece of music journalism I neglected.

Speaking of, man does this review ever read like a stock 'music journalism' piece. I guess that's sorta' good, in that in TranceCritic's late run we were finally coming off polished and professional. Can't say I like reading it now though, much of it feeling functional while sandpapering personality off. Probably didn't like it much then either, at least on a subconscious level. Two year hiatus was nigh.)


IN BRIEF: Aphex-Pusher? Or Square-Twin?

After so many years of being an eccentric pioneer, the perpetually creepy-grinning Richard D. James suddenly was not. Rather, he started following the lead of another eccentric pioneer, Tom Jenkinson. Legend goes James was so impressed by then-unknown Jenkinson’s live show that he quickly signed him to his Rephlex label and released the first Squarepusher album. Then, James himself went and started making tracks with similar aesthetics, where frenetic jazz-fusion rhythms were thrown into a mixing bowl of real-world noises and samples for use in sound banks.

For the Aphex Twin moniker, this was quite new. Granted, there were dabblings here and there (most famously Didgeridoo), but James had carved out his name with gritty drill’n’bass beats, strange yet lovely ambient textures, and, most famously, unique sounds that only he seemed able to create –which is no surprise since the Cornwall native's hobby was gleefully dissecting and experimenting with equipment like some kind of evil vivisectionist. Why would a guy who made a career of sounding like no one else suddenly make music that potentially did (and would when others followed his and Squarepusher's lead)?

Well, aside from the aforementioned Jenkinson influence, fact of the matter was electronic music in general was in transition in the mid-90s, and James was no exception. As a part of the old guard of rave musicians and partiers, he, like so many others, found himself at a crossroad once the original rave scene finally crumbled into separate niches: either find a way to become highly successful in the music industry, or retreat the other way to satisfy the muse. If this album is anything to go by, his initial gut reaction was to retreat – let the other guys (Orbital, Prodigy, et al) have their mainstream. Ironically, the Aphex moniker too would see mainstream success, thanks in huge part to a series of Chris Cunningham videos, but that came later.

Back to the album at hand, it isn’t nearly as over-indulgent as you might expect from the likes of James. It is, however, somewhat jarring on first listen, if for no reason than opening track 4 has some of the tinniest, blunt percs offered from any Aphex Twin tune. Sure, the melody is charming enough, but where are those trademark big crunchy beats, eh? Not here, my friends, and nowhere on this album either. The early-90s Aphex Twin has moved on.

Fingerbib aside, the first half of Richard D. James is probably going to sound like a bunch of glitchy, abrasive, noisy nonsense for those uninitiated to IDM’s more screwy, intense drum programmers. Granted, we’ve had over a decade to get accustomed to such screwbars and nutballs (Venetians Snares, Bogdan Racyzinski, to just name-drop a couple we’ve already covered [at TranceCritic]), but way back in ye’ old 1996, this was some radical sounding stuff. Poor folks were coming into this album looking for more ambient bliss like Blue Calx or drill’n’bass delights like Come As You Mean To Go On, and instead get bizarre metallic clanging in Peek 8245yadayada or contortions of modem dial-up squawks in Carn Marth. You could still hear some of those old Aphex tropes littered about - the melodies James came up with, no matter how distorted or buried they got, still sounded great - but you had to give this album repeated listens to actually get it. Aphex Twin had always been a bit challenging in that regard, but he at least could be counted on cuts that you could easily digest in one sitting. Not so much here though.

Moving on to the second half in short time, James leaves behind most of the harsh sounds in favor of cute’n’cuddly silliness. Result: something far more accessible for those untrained IDM ears out there, and a good load of giddy adulation at the cleverness of it all from the rest. For instance, the brilliantly titled To Cure A Weakling Child splices together pieces of children singing along with infantile melodies (and, of course, intense clippity-cloppity skitter-beats), creating something that’s ridiculously twee, yet very disconcerting whenever James goes into a ‘drum solo’. Yellow Calx aside (which has more in common with older Aphex material due to the synthy backing melodies), Richard D. James wraps up on such silly charming sentiments, even going so far as to include a slide whistle in the final track. It does work wonderfully in a track like Girl/Boy Song, bringing nutty grins to your face in spite of the frenetic drum work, but is simply wacked in Logan Rock Witch, which seems to be James messing around with a bunch of left over samples.

Whatever the case, Richard D. James Album is definitely one of those Must Have releases for connoisseurs of IDM. Along with Squarepusher, it set a precedent for the future direction of this wildly eclectic genre, as several others began following suite and diving off the deep end with such experimental albums (unfortunately to ever-increasing patience-trying results).

For the rest, though, I can sense a little trepidation, especially considering the short running time (finishing out at just under thirty-three minutes). Frankly - and I know this point has been hotly contested over the years - this isn’t the best starting point for Aphex Twin material. Actually, I’m not even sure which album would be, but Richard D. James Album definitely is not it. Due to the very short running times of most of these tracks, the album comes across more like a collection of jingles than songs; great jingles, mind, but jingles nonetheless.

Unless you’re already well versed in IDM sample-skitter-step, I’d hold off on this album until you’ve already taken in one or two Aphex Twin releases. You will eventually enjoy Richard D. James - if not for the eccentric attributes, then for discovering the warmth underneath the eccentric attributes - but at least this way you’ll soften that initial “WTF?” blow to your ears.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009. © All rights reserved.

ACE TRACKS: March 2015

Hey, it’s April 1st, which means I have to do a prank or some shit like that. Okay, let’s see…. Um.. ah, I got it. I promise to review ALL the Armin van Buuren albums! Hahaha! Oh, that’s rich. What, too obvious? Okay, how about this one. I’ll not review all the AvB albums! Ah, hahaaha, hoho hee! That’s not a prank either? Well, what do you want, a close-up sneak peak to Ishkur’s Guide To Electronic Music 3.0? How about a fresh playlist of ACE TRACKS from the past month instead?


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
The Beatles - Revolver
Bandulu - Redemption
Various - In Trance We Trust 006: DJ Cor Fijneman

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 11%
Percentage Of Rock: 12% (note: not all the included rock bands perform actual rock here)
Most “WTF?” Track: I honestly can’t think of one with this bundle. Maybe some of the ‘cracker trance towards the end. Like, how could I ever enjoy such corn! If we’re going that route though, any Bryan Adams?

Quiz: what do Bandulu and The Beatles have in common? They’re both British! Oh, and neither are officially on Spotify, though you can find plenty of cover bands doing Beatles classics. No such luck with Bandulu, sadly.

This one came together remarkably well, which was nice considering the last few playlists were messier than I’d have liked. Even the dalliances into rock don’t sound forced (yes, even Bryan Adams). Also, as with ACE TRACKS: December 2013, I’ve lumped all the In Trance We Trust material at the end, so if you need your eurotrance fix, you’ve a jolly good lot of it at the end. Also, it seemed appropriate kicking that segment off with Faithless’ Insomnia, since they were partially responsible for clubby anthems of that sort gaining popularity.

Various - Renaissance: The Masters Series Part 12 - James Zabiela (Original TC Review)

Renaissance: 2009

(2015 Update:
Oh yeah, I called it for sure. CD1 still sounds great, timeless, and class; CD2 is aging so poorly it hurts. Dear God, I didn't give that 'Reconstruction' of Energy Flash enough shit. What the Hell are Huggy & Newton even doing with the acid? It sounds like a sick duck quacking. And shame on you, James, for including such a crap cover in your mix. Stick to the original, mate, always. MAOR field recordings too!

Ol' Zabs returned to The Masters Series for its 15th edition, which I haven't heard. However, seeing as how he has Boys Noize follow Peter Benisch in that mix, tickle me intrigued. He's since drifted away from the commercial DJ mix market, offering up several free MP3 mixes online instead, including a running series called Paradigm Shift. While I don't doubt it's provided him a greater sense of creative freedom, it'd be nice to see him return to the mix CD scene too. Come on, Balance, grease him palms a little...)


IN BRIEF: Almost there.

So much for being ‘the next Sasha.’

Actually, that’s unfair. I doubt James Zabiela ever wanted such an association. Be that as it may though, it was a handle he earned very early in his career when he toured with the iconic British DJ, even teaching the old chap a few new tricks along the way. Then, when Zabiela paired off with Nic Fanciulli a few years back, promoters and paid journalists figured they had a new Sasha & Digweed in the making, and eagerly pushed them as such. Unfortunately, although their One + One release got reasonable reviews and the subsequent tours were generally successful, they were never able to build upon that momentum, and they’ve been in relative stasis since as hip upstarts took the limelight. Might all that early promise in Zab’s career be disappearing into unfulfilled hype?

That’s a stupid question (but oh such a tempting segue, eh?) –James’ skill as a DJ is just as competent as ever. What’s still up in the air, however, is whether he’ll ever release a mix CD that will attain the ‘classic’ status Papa Sasha has repeatedly done. On the twelfth edition of Renaissance’s Masters Series, Zabiela has come about as close to doing so as he ever has.

Being the ambitious technical geek that he is, James wasn’t satisfied in providing ‘just another mix’, and, as seems to be quite the trend of late, got his conceptual on. The gimmick is this: Zabiela took a mini-recorder around with him for a while and recorded various sounds and speeches to make use of; then, after much studio tinkering, crafted a true musical journey of a mix.

The CD starts on a mellow tip, which will be the general theme maintained for much of its running time. Yeah, as per the Down title, this is mostly a downtempo set. Fear not, though, as it neither rambles nor dawdles – in fact, despite obvious transitions and changes of tempo, Zabiela has crafted an incredibly engaging and evolving mix. Sets of chill music are at their best when it feels like you’re being taken on a sight-seeing tour of various moods, atmospheres and soundscapes, all the while always making progress on the trip. Not only has James accomplished this here, but by making use of his samples, he’s given his chosen songs stronger context in the sort of story he aims to tell. For instance, how about a bit of melancholy dialogue regarding losing our humanity as a bridge between the somber minimalist Pattern 4 from Cyan341 and the warm, fuzzy nostalgic tones of Boards Of Canada’s Amo Bishop Roden? There are plenty of lovely little bits like this scattered throughout the mix.

Towards the end, Zabs starts cranking the BPMs up a notch – several notches, actually. Esky’s Number Station establishes a fitting sci-fi setting before IDM-breaks mainstays Plaid are given a chance to take off, reminding us just how sublimely exhilarating these guys have been throughout their career. And while the ‘two-step prog-house’ of Quivver obviously can’t compare to Marry, John Graham’s offering still makes for a worthy contemporary set closer, with Departing Gates’s blissful piano tones providing a fitting coda to the CD.

Overall, I’d rate Zabiela’s set just as good as anything you’d have expected from the prog DJ legends of the 90s – yes, even Sasha’s sets from Northern Exposure. Don’t miss out on this excellent CD from The Masters Series!

Eh? You say there’s two CDs to talk about here? No there isn’t.

Okay, there is, but can’t we just ignore it? It’s not worth getting into. No, really, it’s not. *sigh*

CD2 is called Up, but Down is more up than this disc. The BPMs may be geared for the dancefloor, but there’s very little ‘up’ about these beats. For the most part, this is an ‘I are serious techno DJ’ set, with rhythms that plod along, atmosphere that remains in k-hole murk, and generally very little fun. Despite the sounds and effects never being outright awful, it’s just agonizingly dull to endure - especially so is Zabiela’s own Darkness.2, which is little more than an extended effects wank-a-thon. The set has an alright start with Paul Woolford’s Surrender, but forget about anything being built upon it. Komytea’s Professional Killers nearly rescues us from the middling affair - it at least has some decent groove - but is quickly undone when the track doesn’t really lead anywhere, and James falls back on boring techno-stomp right after. Of course, the pointless cover–sorry, ‘reconstruction’ of Energy Flash will get your attention, in that it’s such a recognizable anthem, but it isn’t until the tail end of Perseverance that things finally pick up. Love You All makes a valiant effort to bring some proper fun back into the mix, but Luomo and Apparat’s track is far too little too late. Even Zabiela doesn’t seem too fussed with this set, as he only adds his walkabout samples at the bookends, not bothering to create the same kind of concept that worked excellently on CD1.

Up just can’t compare to Down in any way. It lacks the first set’s finesse, creativity, spunk, emotion… Hell, anything. And as a standalone, forget it. With tech-plod sets of this sort all over the place, there’s nothing about it to recommend. I hope CD2 isn’t meant to be a representation of what Zabiela plays at the clubs – I’d be spending a very long time at the bar were I hearing this out live.

Masters Series 12 is totally schizophrenic. One half is brilliant, the other not; one half makes a strong argument that Zabiela deserves all the hype, the other makes a strong argument that good prog DJs are dull techno DJs; one half will get repeated plays, the other will collect dust. Mind you, this isn’t a 5/10 release by any stretch, but a mediocre CD2 makes paying a two-disc price for a great CD1 mighty painful.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009. © All rights reserved

Solar Fields - Reflective Frequencies

Ultimae Records: 2001/2008

You’d think Solar Fields’ debut album would get talked up often, but it’s hardly ever mentioned. For most, Magnus Birgersson’s project starts whenever they were first exposed to one of his later albums. The psy scene caught on to him with Blue Moon Station, the trance scene joined in with EarthShine, and most chill-out aficionados hitched their wagons with Movements. I’m sure late-comers were aware older Solar Fields LPs existed, but only the hardcore would invest in them, in part due to scarcity of limited issue runs. Then again, if you’re really curious, there’s always the digital realm, but that’s denying experiencing a Solar Fields album proper-like, hard copy in hand on a full sound system. You know I’m right!

*Ahem*. In all seriousness, I think Reflective Frequencies goes neglected because of how un-Solar Fieldsy it generally sounds. While Mr. Birgersson often hops genres with every full-length outing, he always retains a distinct emotional core within his music that’s uniquely his own, a warmth that can melt the coldest of hearts. Such attributes are seriously lacking on his debut though, where sound experiments and stark ambient techno rule the day. In all honesty, Reflective Frequencies sounds very much like a Future Sound Of London album, and I’ve no doubt you could fool a casual listener of that should one be so tempted to.

There’s future-shock trip-hop (6.7, Blue Light…, …Red Vortex, Inherit Velocity, Zero Rotation), cybernetic sound collages (Echoing Spectrum, Self Transforming Experience (First Movement), Overlapping Particles, Nea 3, Breathing Neutron Empire), and trippy ambient techno as heard echoing through dead cities (Floating Channels, Zone 12, Outlined Surfaces). Tell me those descriptors don't sound like a long lost mid-’90s FSOL album. And dammit, I know I shouldn’t make that comparison, but it’s hard shaking off. If you add a little extra psychedelia and a conceptual narrative to Reflective Frequencies, you’d have the album most folks expected Cobain and Dougans to deliver about the same year rather than The Isness.

Which still isn’t the best selling point for a Solar Fields debut album, is it? Ah well, for an ‘ambient techno by way of FSOL’ LP, Reflective Frequencies is plenty good, and contain little touches throughout that hint at the music Mr. Birgersson would craft in the future. Zero Rotation has a small amount of prog groove bubbling underneath, while Self Transforming Experience (Second Movement) and Outlined Surfaces are more in line with sort of psy-chill Ultimae was interested in promoting going forward. It wouldn’t surprise me if ol’ Magnus felt compelled to fall lock-step with the blissy vibes of the psy scene rather than continue exploring harsh electronics.

The liner notes mention Reflective Frequencies was recorded in 1999, and does it ever sound like a ‘90s album, many sections fitting for a cyberpunk thriller or PC game. It’s an odd outlier in the Solar Fields and Ultimae canon, an example of both producer and label still discovering their latent talents in a cybernetic realm. How Gibsony of them.

Boards Of Canada - In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country

Warp Records: 2000

Between the critical nostalgia-soaked darling Music Has The Right To Children and the patchy schizophrenic outing Geogaddi, Boards Of Canada released this unassuming EP titled In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country. Okay, using the word ‘unassuming’ with regards to anything Misters Eoin and Sandison did at that point in their career isn’t quite right – they couldn’t sneeze without legions of fans proclaiming it a new masterpiece. It doesn’t get mentioned as often as their LP efforts though, mostly due to the fact the Boards aren’t typically thought of as an EP act. There’s been a few singles from the albums, but short-form players containing exclusive material comes in small supply from the Scottish duo. A shame really, as I’ve found some of their best material is found in these concise collections of music.

For instance, Amo Bishop Roden is Boards at their best: dusty, warped synth pads playing a charming, warm melody, riding along simple downtempo rhythms. Okay, it’s also sort of Boards at their most predictable, but more often than not Amo Bishop Roden is the type of sound most identify with them and look forward to. Kid For Today offers the other side of vintage BoC, what with lazy, hazy trip-hop beats, mellow organ tones, and field recording ambience. Truthfully, they sound like leftovers from the Musical Children sessions, but didn’t quite fit the overall tone of that album. Praise to the B-sides industry!

Or the “We Got A New Sound We’d Like To Try Out, So Here’s A Sample Track With A Couple Older Left-Overs” industry, if you’re the cynical sort. Yeah, for as nice and classic Boards as the opening two tunes are, the titular cut is something else entirely, and given it’s the name of the EP, odds are high this is what BoC wanted our attention focused on. If anything, it hints at where they’d go next with Geogaddi, exploring an uneasy vibe with lyrics fed through a vocoder and disconcerting laughter of children. A promising look, though I’m not sure if many even suspected that was the track’s intent. Hell, maybe it wasn’t at all, but the Boards must have liked the results enough to indulge further for their following LP. Lastly, final track Zoetrope forgoes any suggestiveness of their ‘70s synth inspirations, a spritely bit of ambience that would find a comfortable home on the records of that era’s classicist-leaning composers.

And that’s about it for In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country. Considering its chronological placement within Boards Of Canada’s discography, it’s not surprising this EP goes overlooked most of the time, completely overtaken by the overbearing shadows Music Has The Right To Children and Geogaddi cast in that era. I honestly only gave it a purchase because Lord Discogs keeps recommending it, no matter what sort of downtempo IDM I may be browsing about for at the time. That and Autechre’s Amber. Shit, now I have to start an Autechre collection, don’t I?

Antendex - Photons

Force Intel: 2010

I kicked this November’s batch of reviews off with ZerO One, an ambient techno producer that isn’t all that dissimilar to The Higher Intelligence Agency. Now I’m at the end of November reviewing an album called Photons from Antendex, another collection of music that bears striking similarities to The HIA. And in the middle of this month I reviewed Boards Of Canada’s Geogaddi, which only has tangentially related stylistic markers within ambient techno’s scope to any of these acts. But a tangent is a prominent feature in geometry and trigonometric applications, which is more math you know – just know - BoC intended as another hidden clue to that album’s deeper meanings that the music alone couldn’t articulate. And that message…? That I’m never gonna’ let fan-based theoretical bollocks go, am I?

Seriously though, it’s a remarkable coincidence that this month of reviews is bookmarked by a pair of such albums. However, where ZerO One’s efforts were of a more playful approach, Antendex (or Tamás Olejnik to Hungarian credit companies) goes for the serious, experimental side of ambient ‘bleep’ dub techno. Though I immediately thought of HIA when listening to Photons, you could probably namedrop plenty other early IDM acts who shared similar aesthetics with Bobby Bird’s work (Autechre, Biosphere, etc.). This album also smacked some sense into my jaded assumptions of ambient techno’s non-status in the new millennium. I had no idea anyone would make deliberately old-school ‘bleep’ dub, yet on reflection it shouldn’t have surprised me, dub techno finding all sorts of in-roads with budding laptop producers. That Mr. Olejnik would craft an album strong enough to gain Force Intel’s notice and blessing is remarkable, but then perhaps the Mille Plateaux offshoot had as much of a hankering for the retro style Antendex offered as I did.

Yeah, I should get this out of the way: as a collection of ‘bleep’ ambient dub,Photons is incredibly vintage, almost to a fault. I don’t know whether Mr. Olejnik was directly inspired by Bird, but these sound an awful lot like HIA b-sides. If I’ve never convinced you of the wicked-neat sounds of HIA, I doubt I’ll have any luck with Antendex. If you’re game though, stick around to the end of this review for some convincing. Or pie. I promise there’ll be pie afterwards.

Photons is made up of thirteen primary tracks, plus a remix of the first song Quanta. Other track titles include names like Emission, Amino, Modulation, and Dronflex. This is all very geeky sounding, and the music is too. It’s also quite pretty in that minimalist way spacious bleep ambience can go, though a few experimental drone tracks are littered about too. Very little breaches the four minute mark either, giving these tracks an bit of pop writing sensibility. Just as well since the sonic ideas Antendex brings up in each track didn’t need much exploration anyway. It’s all rather samey throughout, but if it’s a sound you can dig, your ear-holes shall be tickled proper.

Aphex Twin - On

Warp Records/Sire: 1993/1994

Did you know there’s a new Aphex Twin album? Of course you do, because no one will shut up about the new Aphex Twin album. It’s such a novelty, a new Aphex Twin album being available, one that a new generation of electronic music lovers finally understanding the thrill of. Okay, new Aphex Twin albums weren’t as big a deal back in the day, because they weren’t so infrequent, you see. Anyhow, let’s forget about Syro for now, because I won’t get to talk about it until, oh, spring (I’ve a lot of albums with ‘S’ in the title). Let’s instead jump into Aphex Twin’s debut on Warp Records, the single On.

Truthfully, this wasn’t Richard D. James’ first appearance on the seminal label, having put out an album with them as Polygon Window the year before. The Aphex Twin moniker had bigger clout though, and I’m sure Warp believed they’d scored a winner in signing Mr. D. James to a long-term multi-album deal (that he’s still yet to complete, apparently). Maybe as a means of distancing the Aphex sound from its Apollo origins, On features quite a radical change of sound compared to prior works, many pointing to this EP as where ‘drill-n-bass’ got its beginnings.

Fun fact: On was one of the first Aphex Twin songs I ever heard. The other was Donkey Rhubarb, both appearing on ‘ambient’ compilations. I couldn’t understand why. Sure, Aphex Twin was some ambient-God at the time, his name always coming up in mid-‘90s Best Of lists, but if these tunes were indicative of Aphex ambient, then I clearly had a totally off idea of what ambient was. Right, On starts with a charming bell melody, soon joined by the crackling of thunder and rainfall. It’s brisk, but still in line with ambient’s calming tend- oh my God, what’s with that …kick? Bass? What even is that sound? And why are the hi-hats so sharp and piercing? This song makes no sense being on a CD titled Ambient Auras, no sense at all.

Of course, senselessness is part of Aphex Twin’s charm, and despite the bizarre rhythm, On remains a lovely little tune in his discography. In stark contrast, the drilling acid beats of 73-yips is great for pissing your neighbors off (and inspired a zillion copycat wonks in the process). Meanwhile, Xepha hints at the creepy-weird discordant-dream ambience that would encompass Selected Ambient Works 2, except with drill-kicks bouncing about like rubber demonites - it makes sense when you hear it, trust me. The American copy of On jettisoned D-scape in favor of the Reload Mix, a chipper ambient techno rub by the Global Communication chaps that ends the EP on a light note, but isn’t as interesting as Aphex’s material.

It’s academic whether you should get on, erm, On, if you haven’t already. Since it’s a career-transitional EP, it’s one of Aphex Twin’s more unique items. That’s saying something, considering the various musically obtuse paths he’s taken over the years.

Wyatt Keusch - Object-Relations

Force Intel: 2011

Poor ol’ Wyatt probably never had a chance. Getting a release on Force Intel (an IDM sub-label established during Mille Plateaux’s 2010 re-launch) would already make getting exposure difficult, but just take a gander at his album here - it looks like a Mille Plateaux release at Mille Plateaux’s Mille Plateauxiest. A title of Object-Relations suggests weird, abstract math-glitch, and having each track simply called Object doesn’t help either, to say nothing of the egg-headed cover art. It’s the sort of release where even latter-era Autechre would give a cautious glance over.

Of course, Wyatt Keusch’s debut LP is hardly anything as I’ve described above – well, mostly. Opener Object 01 is exactly as I described above, but it’s only two minutes long, so don’t let it dissuade you from checking Object-Relations further. Thing to keep in mind with Force Intel is they clearly had old-school IDM in mind, even if the artists assembled adapted many production advances into their sounds. That means, hey, ambient techno! Real, honest-to-God melodies; delicate, haunting beauty lurking within technology’s cacophonous assault. I’m overselling, aren’t I?

Can’t deny I’ve given Mr. Keusch’s work much regard, Object-Relations only receiving a play by random chance before now. I knew I kept it for some reason after receiving the promo, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember why, and as mentioned, the cover art wasn’t terribly inviting for a memory refresh. After hearing those nice ambient tones in Object 07, spritely bells in Object 08, and general bliss-out of Object 09, I’d say this album’s worth a listen if you can find it at all.

The rest? Yah, there’s a bunch of tracks prior to those three. Most of it is the sort of glitchy stuff you’re expecting, though not unbearable like some IDM goes. I honestly can’t tell if Keusch has sped his rhythms up to ridiculous levels, or micro edited them into infinitesimal pieces – neither would surprise me. Yet no matter how frenetic his beats get, there’s still songcraft going on with each piece/track/object, clear structure and progression in how things play out. Not my thing, but if you’re into the braindancier side of IDM, you may like Object 02-06.

Bonus tracks? Can a digital album really have bonus tracks? I’ll grant in the context of the album, Object 10 and Object 11 don’t really fit. The former’s got some weird trip-hop vibe going for it, while the latter seems like it should be on Lodsb’s album full of glitchy, orchestral breakcore. I sure like this mess more than most of the other tunes on here though.

Speaking of messes, I better get this review wrapped up. Object-Relations isn’t that challenging of an album to get into, but man did it sap my inspiration to write about. I feel like I’m trying to describe advanced calculus principles using music notation, and failing miserably in the process. Probably didn’t help I pretty much failed Calculus 2 as it is.

Squarepusher - Numbers Lucent (Original TC Review)

Warp Records: 2009

(2014 Update:
Since this was the first Squarepusher review submitted to TranceCritic - yeah, yeah, way late in the website's lifespan - I felt it necessary for a brief background summation for the reader base. Seems like redundant information now, but then it's not like I've got a ton of Jenkinson material on this blog either. Man, so many musical gaps, no matter how diligent I remain in buying albums...

This remains a fun throwback EP, and I kinda wish we'd hear a bit more like this from Squarepusher, just for the novelty of it all. Can't see it ever happening though. There's just so much other jazz-stuffs he'd rather be doing than making music for the 'up all night' crowds.)


IN BRIEF: Familiar.

Even in the ‘WTF they be smoking’ realm of IDM, Tom Jenkinson as Squarepusher established himself as one of the more challenging producers to be found. Yet, within those frenzied jazz-fusion drum beats and eclectic abstractions lay carefully considered songs that often rewarded the patient and attentive listener. Small wonder Warp jumped at the chance to sign Tom to a long-term deal, as he fit nicely in a roster that included such IDM wonks like Aphex Twin and Autechre. In the meanwhile since, he’s continued to reward dedicated followers with ever new takes on his sound, and either confounding or mesmerizing the casual passerby (as usual, there’s seldom middle ground with intelligent techno).

His latest avenue - Just A Souvenir - saw the pusher of squares diving into various aspects of underground rock music: garage, funk, psychedelic, prog, kraut – you’d think it was made by some jam band from the 70s if you didn’t know better. In any case, it was once again quite a departure from what folks figure to be Tom’s trademark sound. Perhaps in an effort to throw a bone to his pure electronic fanbase, we have this quickie follow-up EP, Numbers Lucent. Gone are all the guitars, and instead builds upon tracks like Star Time 2. Or, considering Star Time 1 is on here, perhaps this was what he was working on before his muse led him elsewhere. Whatever the case, beyond the ties between both Star Times and similar looking cover art, Numbers Lucent is a mostly different entity from Just A Souvenir.

So, if you’re down for some more Squarepusher funk-slap basslines, spritely keyboard melodies, and skittery jazz-fusion rhythms, the first four tracks here will certainly please. At the same time, though, it all feels a bit ‘been there, done that,’ especially so coming off a string of albums that saw Tom continuously moving in new directions. Cuts like Paradise Garage and Star Time 1 are by no means bad – in fact, they’re quite good; just over-familiar and safe. You get the impression he could have knocked these out at any time in his career. Mind, this feeling may be due to the old-school leanings these tracks take.

If the retro-rave vibes were only hinted at in the first four, Tom takes a full plunge in the final two. Yes, folks, Squarepusher has been bitten by early 90s nostalgia as well. Arterial Fantasy is straight-up old-school hardcore with a Jenkinson twist, and very cool in the process. Illegal Dustbin, on the other hand, goes for the gabber jugular, in a move that’s fun for the novelty factor (Squarepusher! Gabber! WTF!???), but little else.

And there isn’t much more to say about Numbers Lucent. It’s a tidy little EP that fans of Squarepusher will enjoy, and inviting for those who are curious about checking out the man’s work on the cheap. He may not be stretching here, but average Squarepusher remains better than average… a lot of others, really.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009. © All rights reserved.

Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children

Warp Records: 1998/2004

What is it about Music Has The Right To Children that's allowed it to endure as a classic album within electronic music's long history? Is it the positive impact it had on the IDM market, rescuing that scene from ever-deepening navel gazing experimentation? Is it how it lured in a tonne of proto-hipster kids after Boards Of Canada were NME and Pitchfork Approved, one of the first electronic albums made so during the net-‘zine's early years? Might it be the perfect timing of this LP's release, capturing the attention of an ageing raving demographic that found itself wistfully longing for the innocence of their youth? Will this paragraph have at least one sentence that isn't in the form of a question?

The answer to all but the last of these is “yes”. In a broader sense, Music Has The Right To Children was one of the few electronic albums of the ‘90s that had wide appeal no matter your background, surprising many with its charming tone. Just take an impossibly geeky style of electronic music like ‘70s analog synth work, and pair it with an impossibly cool style of electronic music, in this case trip-hop. It’s such a simple idea, one wonders why no one thought of it before Boards Of Canada. Who could have guessed that the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Ninja Tune getting sexed up was something folks longed for.

Much has been said about the nostalgic nature of Musically Right-Handed Children, many theories out there why this album touches folks the way it does. The playful bounce of Roygbiv and quirky sampling of Aquarius certainly plays a part in recalling those days of childlike whimsy, yet as we age, a warped sense of cynicism creeps in too. The off-kilter “love”s in The Color Of The Fire, disconcerting synth tones of Sixtyten, or rhythmically-chopped vocals of Telephasic Workshop suggest the world we grew up in wasn’t so perfect after all.

Still, it’s all theory, and for all we know, Boards Of Canada just enjoy toying with different emotions in their music. Ultimately, what wormed its way into the minds and hearts of countless fans were simple, catchy moments. The aforementioned Aquarius is a perfect example, no one able to mention BoC and the word “orange” without saying it in the goofy way that it does in that track. This album’s filled with such quirks, often tucked away in brief sonic doodles throughout. I’d wager the duo’s at their best when they focus less on song craft and simply indulge themselves, but the few fully-formed tracks they do provide remains some of their most enduring work.

Music Has The Right To Children has one drawback though: those trip-hop rhythms. They sounded great in the late ‘90s, but over a decade of glitch rhythms since, I’m not sure newer audiences would dig them quite so much. Then again, the synths Boards Of Canada use sound older than time itself, and that’s never stopped folks from enjoying this album.

µ-Ziq - Lunatic Harness

Virgin: 1997

Aphex Twin was the king of IDM. Squarepusher was the revolutionary (yes, even among revolutionaries). µ-Ziq was the guy that got to hang out with them, taking on their styles, even carving out his own niche in the process. The man from Planet Mu never quite hit their highs, though during the ‘electronica’ boom, I’m sure some record executives figured they’d have another Come To Daddy success on their hands by signing Mike Paradinas. Virgin plucked the µ-Ziq man up for his fourth full-length, and the results were about as you’d expect an IDM wonk making a crossover: charming, challenging, seductive, abhorrent, and just plain nuts.

Right off the first track, Brace Yourself Jason, you can hear the lineage: frenetic jazz-fusion rhythms that made Tom Jenkinson such a darling with fans of challenging techno, coupled with those ambient pads that made many a Rickity Da Jam-Man tune sound so utterly alien. It’s a cool track, though not really distinctive of µ-Ziq - not that I know exactly what is Paradinas’ distinct sound, as I’ve only two albums worth, including this one. If I’d make a guess, however, he shows more love for the classical side of IDM, the sort of music inspired by Mozart and the like (say, would Amadeus be an IDM wonk of his era?). Many of the subsequent tracks feature cute, elegant melodies as played on synths that one suspects were formerly in the hands of modern classicalist composers of the ‘70s. Not an entirely unique approach to music-making then, but definitely innovative when complemented with equally infantile hip-hop rhythms.

Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a crossover album (probably not)? Very well, here’s some of that trendy ‘drum and bass’ stuff, though clearly on the agro-tip with Approaching Menace. This tune’s what it would have sounded like if Dillinja really went fucking evil; less bass-bin punishment, more feral nastiness, and all distortion on those snares. In case that’s too much for you, µ-Ziq offers a few pleasant atmospheric tunes as a follow-up, bridging the gap between IDM’s breakcore and jungle’s amen breaks.

The back end of Lunatic Harness is mostly experimental stuff, including aggravating industrial-noise nonsense in Wannabe, a total Aphex Twin jump with London, and some orchestral glitch to finish off in Midwinter Log (I bet Lodsb was paying attention). Thus wraps up my generic recap of what goes down in this album.

There’s a great deal of variety here; unfortunately, it doesn’t make for much of a cohesive listen. That’s often a problem with these IDM full-lengths: the producers have so many ideas bubbling in their wacky heads, they’ll struggle crafting an LP that can be enjoyed front-to-back. The classics are obviously the exceptions, and while Lunatic Harness was well-received by this particular scene, it’s remained in the realms of EDM niche to this day. Still, I can’t think of a better µ-Ziq album to get your feet wet with. Give it a shot if you’re curious about Mr. Paradinas’ output.

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.

The Future Sound Of London - Lifeforms

Virgin Music: 1994

The Future Sound Of London always struck me as an odd group, and as I didn't come around to them until their Dead Cities period, I had some catching up to do. The club-friendly material off Accelerator was an easy introduction to the sounds they were capable of, but Lifeforms seemed daunting. A double-LP with nary a recognizable hit in the tracklist? Goodness, what's a young raver taking his first, tentative steps into this weird, wide electronic music world to do? I mean, this must be a good album, if all those old-schoolers are loving it, though they don't talk of it as much as Papua New Guinea or We Have Explosives. Still, really cool looking cover art...

So yeah, Lifeforms was the last of the First Three FSOL albums I picked up, but it wasn’t that long after getting the other two; thus, I’ve had plenty of time to listen, re-listen, analyze, contemplate, and understand Dougans and Cobain’s weird ambient opus. I’m still working on that. For that matter, who isn’t? I wouldn’t go so far as to say Lifeforms is a hopelessly complex piece of abstract music, as the basic concept is straight-forward enough: raid all the nature sample libraries, mesh it with ambient house and trip-hop of the day, take a ton of drugs [citation needed], and see what springs forth from the muse.

Even that doesn’t seem too far removed from what The Orb was doing, but whereas Dr. Patterson had a playfully chill outlook to his music, FSOL have larger ideas on mind. I honestly don’t know if this was their intent, but the concept in Lifeforms I’ve gleaned over the years is each disc tells a different story of evolution: CD1 the primordial growth to complex organisms, CD2 the arrival of higher intelligence and future-shock technology.

I’m risking turning this review into a graduate thesis, so I’ll make my explanation brief. Aside from the interlude Bird Wings, disc one typically has natural sounds running through it: gentle washing pianos, tribal drums, bells, un-manipulated chants and animal calls. The clincher, however, is the benign nature of the music on this first half. Lovely melodies in Cascade, haunting synths in Ill Flower and Dead Skin Cells, and even a sense of innocent playfulness in Flak and Among Myselves. The Garden of Eden is a wonderful place to be.

Not so in disc two. As almost a parody of advancing intellect, FSOL open with a brief, ominous version of Pachelbel’s Canon and Gigue in D Major. From there, harsh bleeps emerge in Spineless Jelly, and we’re on our way into a dystopian outlook of nature for the duration. True, there are lovely moments still found (Omnipresence, Elaborate Burn), but always coupled with aggressive electronics. We’re a far cry from the tranquility of CD1.

It makes Lifeforms no less captivating, even if many of the interludes are just effects wibble. Check it out, and discover what weird things come to your mind.

Lodsb - lazer.eyes.love

Force Intel: 2011

When pioneering glitch 'n experimental label Mille Plateaux relaunched in the late '00s, it was swamped by several up-and-comers’ promos looking to join the roster. I mean, when you're new to that scene and hoping to gain prestige, what better way to do so than having a Mille catalogue number attached to your work? Turns out though, some of these promos sent in weren’t weird enough for ol’ Plateaux, but would serve as fine examples of ‘classic’ IDM (bleepy ambient techno, scattershot breaks, etc.). If only there was a label that promoted the stuff still. Since Warp went all shoegaze though, I guess a whole new label was required, hence Mille offshoot Force Intel coming into its brief existence.

So this Lodsb fella' got to release a debut album on the 'net label. The Lord That Knows All apparently knows very little about who's behind the moniker. There isn't even a name assigned to his Discogs page, despite two albums to his credit. Heck, the only reason I know Lodsb is of the male persuasion is because there's a picture of him on his Last.fm profile - still no name, though. Curse those IDM wonks making research difficult.

lazer.eyes.love primarily falls into the breakcore side of IDM, so if you’re a fan of Venetian Snares and the like, this is a good bet for you to download (it was only available as a digital album). The opener, Analogue Arcade, is rather mellow for this stuff, even settling on a pleasant house beat while glitchy harmonics weave in and out. Yeah, you aren’t getting much more of that beat on this release. Second cut Eve lets loose with the cacophonic rhythms, then things go down Squarepusher’s frenetic jazzy acid avenue for a few tracks after. In fact, the next number of tracks all kind of blend together, so short as they are and sharing similar aesthetics, if not actual musical content. It can get to be a bit much though, so thank God Lodsb cuts it back by track six (Bubblegum Hypothesis, if you’re wondering, but it’s not like IDM song titles are meant to make a lick of sense).

Apparently Lodsb has a background in orchestral music study too, which becomes apparent on tracks like Deer Ride, Juno, Rubiq, and Zebra, where arrangements are cut up to form whole new compositions. Heck, Deer Ride forgoes any spastic breaks altogether, and if there is any glitch trickery at play, it sure doesn’t make itself known, sounding as seamless as though Lodsb was conducting a one-hundred-twenty string section himself. Mind, it seems every IDM wonk has to show off his classical capabilities in such a manner, but it’s nice to have such music break up the breakcore on albums like this one.

Of course, music such as this remains incredibly niche, and if even the popular names in this scene hold little interest for you, I doubt lazer.eyes.love will sway your opinion on it. Cool as a curioso, but not much else.

Aphex Twin - ...I Care Because You Do

Sire Records Company: 1995

Whauh! Don’t look at me like that. We all know you’re operating on some other wavelength compared to your musical peers (pft, as if Aphex Twin has a comparable variable), but there’s no need to be smug about it. Plus, are we to believe you have teeth that pearly white? Come on, you’re from the British Isles – we all know what’s up. It cannot be denied, though, that …I Care Because You Do has one of the most unique album covers out there in Electronic Music Land, such that ol’ Richard’s grinning visage became a running theme for his ‘90s output. It seems, no matter what he does, Mr. D. James’ will always leave a lasting impression.

Speaking of music, how about dictating the change of a whole scene? As Aphex Twin, he’d already helped define ambient techno, leading to the intelligent dance music (IDM) branch at large. Yet as everyone jumped on that bandwagon, he was already moving on. There were still melodic and calm musics found in his releases, but hardcore beats, abrasive acid, and sonic noise crept further and further into his sound. The On EP properly introduced his new 'drill'n'bass' style, and this here album explored it further, even as folks pondered whether such ventures were wise in the first place. It definitely caught those only familiar with Selected Ambient Works off guard.

…I Care Because You Do tends to go forgotten when it comes to Aphex Twin albums, probably due to the slipshod way the packaging comes off. The vinyl barely looked better than a white label, and the CD cheekily uses the original 'compact disc' logo with pen scratchings for labeling; Richard D. James sure does care about this, doesn't he. Plus, few classic tracks were culled from it, most of the Aphex glory going to former or latter offerings. Who could even enjoy tracks with weird titles like Mookid, Cow Cud Is A Twin, or Wet Top Hen Ax anyway? Farmers?

No, that’s not right. This is a great collection of off-kilter music, skillfully flirting through lovely melancholy, aggressive freak-outs, and funky experimentation. It’s almost impossible to get bored playing this, each track sounding totally odd and unique from what came before, urging the listening to keep going and discover what delightful devilishness Mr. D. James creates next. Lovely orchestral passages like in Next Heap With and The Waxen Pith rub shoulders with glorious beat freakouts like Start As You Mean To Go On and Wax The Nip. Childlike whimsy as found in Alberto Balsalm has a wicked counterpart in Ventolin (ooh, my ears …yet I can’t turn it off!). Other assorted styles are tinkered and toyed with, almost bizarre parodies as played through ol’ Richard’s mangled and abused analog gear.

Despite a lack of any unifying concept, this is easily Aphex Twin’s most complete album in terms of diversity. I wouldn’t want to start an exploration of his discography here, but I’ve definitely returned to it more often than his other works.

Nine Inch Nails - Further Down The Spiral

Nothing Records: 1995

I swear I never intended to get such a crash-course in Nine Inch Nails’ peak years. I figured it’d come as a slow, gradual process, assimilating Reznor’s music at a comfortable pace of my own volition. Oh so fool hardy of me to think thus. It’s almost as though ol’ Trent intended to release so much material within such a narrow alphabetical range, such that should anyone attempt to listen through their music collections in that order, they’d be forced to go through Nine Inch Nails discography almost all at once. It even makes me want to pick up The Fragile now, just to complete the process. Oh what the hell, I may as well.

Until that shows up, however, here we get the remix EP to The Downward Spiral, Further Down The Spiral. I’m not sure why it’s considered an EP though, as its runtime easily makes this a proper full-length remix album. And like all Nine Inch Nails remix projects, an attempt at creative a cohesive listening experience is repeated, a small collection of artists and producers called upon for all eleven tracks.

Returning from the Fixed remix project are industry icons Coil and J.G. Thirlwell (most well known as Foetus). Coil’s trippy, psychedelic take on The Downward Spiral actually ends up sounding like something The Orb was producing in those days (which may have contributed to Dr. Patterson getting tapped for a remix on The Perfect Drug a couple years later), while three different version of Erased play more to Coil’s twisted sense of choking soundscapes (the short Polite version notwithstanding). Meanwhile, Mr. Thirlwell gets his hands on Mr. Self Destruct, and brings the thrashing original closer to a proper industrial work; good for what it is, but his remix for Wish still ranks as his best.

Reznor adds a little distortion to Hurt, and studio associates Brian Pollack and Sean Beaven turn Self Destruction more clubby. Let’s face it though, the real draw of Further Down The Spiral is the special guest producer on hand. That’s right, let’s give it up for Rick Rubin! He gets to work with Piggy, where-

Eh? What do you mean there’s another special guest providing a remix? No he isn’t. Oh, he was approached to do so - guess someone in Reznor’s camp (Trent himself?) noticed that oddball Aphex Twin chap shared a similar noisy aesthetic, and thought he’d make for a welcome addition to the Further project. Turns out, however, Richard D. James couldn’t be bothered to even listen to the original track to remix, and simply sent some unreleased material instead (legend purports he initially used the excuse of “sped up entire song to use as a snare” to get away with it).

So you ended up with a Nine Inch Nails remix album, plus two new Aphex Twin tunes (both of which skew closer to his drill’n’bass period). Guess Futher Down The Spiral becomes essential purchasing if you’re a completist of either act.

Zenith - Flowers Of Intelligence

The Music Cartel: 1999

It almost seems like an accident. After a few years making acid techno and trance under various guises for various labels, Federico Franchi brought his Zenith moniker over to IST Records, they of the kick-ass mushroom logo. A sub-label of American hardcore outlet Industrial Strength Records, it made sense for Mr. Franchi to follow suit in what he offered them. The ensuing EP, titled The Flowers Of Intelligence, suddenly became an instant classic within hardcore circles, and the vinyl it was pressed upon a highly sought after piece of hardware for any discerning IST follower and bosh-head. The reason for this, as far as I can tell, is due to the melodies employed within the tracks, spritely counterpoints to the abrasive acid and thudding kicks in a genre that shuns any and all moments of melancholy. Okay, it’s essentially the same sort of thing that Aphex Twin was doing when he started on his ‘drill’n’bass’ style, but for the hardcore scene, Zenith’s music was fresh and unique.

Fair enough, but this curious tale doesn’t end with a much-beloved piece of rare-ish vinyl. A few years after that EP’s release, demand was high enough to warrant a proper album release. But IST don’t do CDs, mang. Enter The Music Cartel, a label more known for trippy, stoner rock and metal than anything electronic orientated. They did dabble in industrial music though, and Zenith’s work suggested an influence from that scene’s noisy, coarse aesthetics. Good enough for a proper release on their label, so the Flowers Of Intelligence was brought on over, with various other unreleased tracks in Mr. Franchi's backlog rounding things out to proper long-player length.

The result we have is an interesting mix of gabber beats, touching melody, and rough mastering. It's hard to tell whether the low-fi quality of this music was intentional or not; again, maybe a happy accident. Part of the appeal in the industrial aesthetic is how it takes conventional music and warps it into a parody of itself. Enjoy thundering 909s? Now they're diluted to such a point you feel their intent, but not their power. Haunting winds and mournful synths are abstracted such that they turn into something mysterious and puzzling. It's these attributes that gives Flowers Of Intelligence a degree of class you'd never find in regular hardcore circles, and wound up getting Zenith noticed by the IDM crowds. Say, he makes some interesting stuff, kinda in a retro-Warp sort of way. What else has he made- oh my God! What’s this hardstyle nonsense?

Flowers Of Intelligence isn’t likely to blow anyone away who’s digested the entire works of Richard D. James, as Zenith’s song craft primarily relies on extended loops fed through effects. They are catchy loops though, especially so if you enjoy crunchy acid or trancey hooks. Hell, the tunes are worth a look-see just to find out why they were so highly sought after back in the day. It’s definitely a cut above your typical hardcore schlock.

Venetian Snares - Detrimentalist (Original TC Review)

Planet Mu: 2008

(2012 Update:
This was one of the albums that helped get me out of a writing funk I had in 2008, where I went nearly two months without contributing anything to TC. I think I made a big, melodramatic deal about not "having anything left to say" or some bullshit like that to explain my absence.

Detrimentalist has gone on to be a handy bit of ammunition for many forum arguments over 'awesome intense musics'. I've put many a bro-stepper into place by throwing Eurocore MVP and such in their faces. y0 betta' recognize, son!)


IN BRIEF: You thought this shit was easy?

As Venetian Snares, Aaron Funk has spent the last decade assaulting ears with all kinds of noisy glitchcore, gabber, and drill’n’bass productions, in the process building up a sizable following of aficionados for that sort of thing. Thus, whenever the curious inquire about the genre, Funk’s name is one that is oft repeated. What they’re usually stunned to discover, though, is there is more to the Venetian Snares moniker than distorted beats and scattershot rhythms. Modern classical compositions, chip-tunes, sprinklings of trip-hop and whatnot – it’s certainly an eclectic discography, and with something like “332” disparate albums (though realistically more like a dozen), trying to dive into Venetian Snares new can seem like a terrifying proposition.

So it’s just as well we bring our attention to his latest full-length, Detrimentalist; after all, if you’re looking to get your feet wet, it might as well be something relatively current. And fortunately for the fearful, this album is probably among his most accessible. Like so many, Funk has been bitten by early 90s nostalgia. And like his fellow IDM screwbars and nutballs, this also means dedication to old school hardcore rave. Ragga jungle! Hoovers! Big riffs! Oh shit, yes!

But allow me to reign in my unapologetic enthusiasm for the moment, as there’s more going on here than a simple love-in. This is, after all, Venetian Snares, and the project from Winnipeg never would have gained a well-deserved reputation without providing music that’s oftentimes compelling head-music. For sure, Dentrimentalist has old school vibes bursting at the seams, but when coupled with glitchy noise, confounding time signatures, and spastic breakcore, you have something that’s wholly unique in the process.

To put it bluntly, this some next level shit, motherfuckers! Ragga rave-jungle squared. Beats and patterns that are at once chaotic and infectious. An audio assault you can barely handle, yet crave more once the track ends. There’s acid, hip-hop samples, rhythmic drops that’ll have you moving like you’re suffering from an epileptic seizure. Leonard Nimoy going on about how his eyes and heart are flame (Koonut-Kaliffee lifts a nifty lengthy sample from an old Star Trek episode; the use of “I burn” is especially mint!). Screechy gabber will bludgeon your brain and you’ll thank Funk for it. One of the most common clichés in dance music reviews is that a track will “destroy a dancefloor” but some of the material off Detrimentalist could probably cause mass chaos, were it not for those good-time ecstatic rave riffs keeping a smile on your face.

Eh? Is all this talk of intense rhythms too much for you? Well if so, you could always scurry over to the deadmau5 stage, where you’re guaranteed a clap every second beat and not much else. Still, despite Funk ably holding his frenetic beats together, there are points where it does fly off the rails, and you begin to wonder if he’s about to loose all sense of direction. Flashforward in particular comes off wholly wayward, not only sounding misplaced on the album but directionless overall; as though Funk couldn’t resist throwing in a ‘breakcore-for-breakcore-sake’ track. Detrimentalist needs more of those snappy reggae notes found in Eurocore MVP, not less.

The final two tracks also stray from the general theme Detrimentalist tends to maintain, in that they are more along the lines of some of Venetian Snares‘ previous material. Bebikukorica Nigiri is all chip-tune bleeps, classical chords, and skitter-breaks, and fun in its own unique way. Finally, Miss Balaton dips into analogue ambient waters and orchestral strings before engaging us with rather subdued breakcore, providing us with a relatively soothing bit of music to ease us out of the intensity the rest of the album bombarded us with. Allow me to just add here that I am continuously amazed by these IDM producers’ yin/yang capabilities - they create some of the most ruthlessly noisy music out there, yet will often deliver incredibly gorgeous synth textures within the same album.

So, if you’re still wondering whether Detrimentialist is worth your time, the answer is a definite yes. Even if the notion of drill’n’bass and breakcore seems scary and absurd, this here new album from Venetian Snares should cure you of such concerns. Funk has thrown in more than enough inviting classic EDM conventions to draw in the most cynical of IDM detractors, all the while maintaining his signature complexity throughout.