Jam & Spoon - Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 (Original TC Review)

Sony Music Entertainment: Cat. # EK 64230
Released 1993

Track List:
1. Heart Of Africa (6:49)
2. Odyssey To Anyoona (9:59)
3. Two Spys In The House Of Love (0:32)
4. Stella (6:19)
5. Neurotrance Adventure (5:42)
6. Zen Flash Zen Bones (6:10)
7. Who Opened The Door To Nowhere (2:44)
8. Right In The Night (Fall In Love With Music) (6:04)
9. Muffled Drums (0:40)
10. Path Of Harmony (7:02)
11. Paradise Garage (6:30)
12. Earth Spirit (6:28)
13. Stella's Cry (7:25)
14. Find Me (Odyssey To Anyoona) (Radio Mix) (4:00)


(2010 Update:
I guess for a review attempting to describe what this album sounds like to a newer generation of trance fans, this came out alright; albeit too wordy like so many other reviews I was writing at the time. However, I regret not really delving more into the significance of this release more, in that it truly was a daring attempt on Jam & Spoon's part to make a crossover trance album. Also, I neglected to mention all the various, um, variations of 2001 that were issued, as new hit singles kept cropping up and replacing less-favored tracks. Ah well, Discogs can clear much of that up for you if you're curious enough.)


IN BRIEF: Looking back in trance time.

I hadn't planned on doing this review anytime soon. There's always a certain fear in going back to a release you hold fond memories of but know will not stand up against genuine scrutiny as much as you'd hope. Equally difficult is when it is an album, for whatever reason, you hold a sentimental place in your heart -you would love to give it a glowing review but any trace of sentimental fanboyism will ruin your credibility faster than a lip syncing pop star. Yeah, it's not fun doing these kinds of reviews.

However, with the recent and all-too-soon death of Markus Löffel, a.k.a. Mark Spoon, I can't help but feel compelled to tackle this now. I never knew the man (obviously) so writing some sort of obituary is out of place -that's for friends and family. Also, I never really followed much of his career. Most of the music I'll remember him by came out in the early half of the 90's, a time when I was hardly clued into what was going on overseas. Still, the work he did with Jam el Mar laid the ground for much of what was to come in this whole trance thing. As with many others, it was the Jam & Spoon sound that swayed me to the underground.

This isn't going to be a typical review. To judge Tripomatic Fairytales against the history of trance is unfair, as this release is very much a product of its time. Likewise, it would be quite tasteless of me to try and spin some sort of perspective on this release with Mark's death. Instead, I'm writing this to give those who may not have heard much of the Jam & Spoon catalogue beyond the major hits an insight into some of the other works they produced.

Tripomatic 2001 has always been known to be a somewhat difficult album for casual fans to get into. The big hits - Right In The Night, Find Me - seemed strangely out of place on an album filled with oddball experimental songs like Zen Flash Zen Bones and Earth Spirit. Such was Jam & Spoon’s allure in those days, though. They were never afraid to test how far they could push their songs and, even if the results weren't always memorable, they were at least interesting.

Opener Heart Of Africa is a prime example. You get a bizarre assortment of tribal grooves, quirky sound effects, gentle synth pads, and bits of goobled dialogue all mixed into a synthetic soup. Interesting combination, to be sure, but the end result isn’t as coherent as folks seeking their poppier songs might expect. Not to say this track is a random mess of sounds -there's still flow to the way all the elements play out; however, the feeling of playing loose and fast with traditional song structure is quite apparent. Heart Of Africa is as good as a gauge to test the waters on 2001, as the style of this track tends to be the norm.

Odyssey To Anyoona -ah, now this is what I always enjoyed about old trance. Loops and loops being layered and layered on top of one another, building and building to crescendo and crescendo -er, one crescendo. The remarkable thing about Odyssey is just how long Jam & Spoon dwell on the rhythm at the beginning, yet manage to keep things from sounding too repetitive. Give credit to that wonderful bass kick. It creates a cavernous resonance and the louder the sound system, the more full it gets. This ain't a track meant for your tinny iPod earbuds or mini-player (although the melodic bits work just as fine). Invest in that two-grand sub-whoofer and feel how this track was meant to be felt.
One little skit which may be an inside joke later, and we're gently slid into the somber opening pads of Jam & Spoon's first big single, Stella. This track has been remixed a number of times to keep it current sounding, but I still feel the original remains the most effective. Like Odyssey, it's another track that works with layered loops. Unlike Odyssey though, Stella doesn't dwell on lengthy, rhythmic lead-ins, getting into the thick of things rather quickly. In addition, the loops don't all remain static, allowing for pitch bends and subtle effects to keep them interesting. Yes, it's more of a slow burner than your typical remakes, and I'm sure many of the new cats will wonder what the big deal with Stella is, especially with guitar strums as fake sounding as those or no massive build or melody. But that's just how the music sounded back then.

Stella ends with the elements of the track getting stripped away and then gradually slows down to a crawl. In contrast, follow-up Neurotrance Adventure does the exact opposite. Starting with a simple little three-note hook, the track slowly begins speeding up for some thirty seconds until, surprise, it's gone on to form the bassline! Heh, clever for sure, but does the rest of Neurotrance measure up? Hard to say, really. It's a pretty sparse track for a good chunk of the beginning, doing the same layered loops thing as the last couple tracks, but without anything quite as catchy. Really, there is no major hook, as the track relies on layering sweeping synths playing a benign ditty for its melody. There's also a moment midway through where you have one of those synth noises getting a pitch bend, most famously done in the duo's remix of Age Of Love, but heard in many other works Jam el Mar's had his hand in. Yeah, Neurotrance is a nice little song, but not quite as memorable as the obvious tracks here.

And now, you might want to hold onto your hats for some very oddball sounds. Zen Flash Zen Bones spends a huge amount of time having fun with quirky rhythm effects and not much else. The bass definitely growls along, but what's with some of those... hi-hats? The added claps make for a decent little bit of tribal foolery, and you cannot deny the effectiveness of those glowing stuttering synths playing a little Eastern tune towards the end, but couldn't this track have been a bit more coherent in what it was trying to accomplish?

Who Opened The Door To Nowhere is another skit, this time in the form of bubbly acid, sweeping ambient synths, and robotized voices. Very cool sounding stuff, and makes for a nice interlude.

Right In The Night. Boy, what can be said about this track? Probably most recognized for letting Jam el Mar put those classically trained guitar skills to work, it is also quite famous for giving the burgeoning trance scene its first bona-fide club hit; really by drawing upon the styling of euro dance that was so incredibly popular back then. With lyrics sung by Plavka and some extra trancey elements recycled from the B-Side of this single, Follow Me, it crossed the barrier between the underground and the mainstream so effectively that both camps declared it a classic. Good work to all four of them on this track.

Huh? Four? There's Jam, there's Mark, and there's Plavka, so who's the fourth? Heh, you didn't think the commercial accessibility of Right In The Night was their doing alone, did you? No, the man really responsible for making this song so chart friendly was Nosie Katzmaan and, as the man who's had his hand in scores of euro hits, his touch can definitely be felt on this song. Not to take anything away from Jam & Spoon, mind, but if you've ever wondered why this song sounds so much different than the rest of the material on 2001, that is your answer right there. Anyhow, moving on (right past Muffled Drums, since there's nothing of interest there).

Getting back to Jam & Spoon's more quirky side again is Path Of Harmony. A very strange sounding bassline, bizarre percussion sounds, and rhythmic experimenting make up the beginning of this track, but fear not, my friends, this isn't another Zen Flash. Once we get past all that, we're thrust into a serious groover with catchy synth stabs and throbbing voice pads; call it the housey cousin of Stella. And, lo and behold, we get an actual breakdown in this track, where, *gasp*, the main hook, a happy little synthetic thing, is introduced with gentle pads, letting things build back up to a peak where those groovey rhythms are thrust back in. A certain Dutchman was probably paying attention.

Returning to the layered loop template is Paradise Garage, a tribute track to the club of the same name. A pure trancer in the traditional sense, there's no real hook to be had in this track -just arpeggio synths and effects getting their pitches tweaked out. Love the format or hate it, you can't deny its effectiveness in sucking you into trance, especially as subdued pads get a little extra playing time towards the end. Man, but did they ever like to make things sound distant sometimes.

And, once again, were getting some rhythmic experiments, this time in the form of Earth Spirit. It's a little more coherent than Zen Flash, and there's yet another great, growling bassline to be had here, but a great number of the added sound effects tend to grate just a bit much. If Jam & Spoon's indulging hadn't won you over in the earlier tracks, I doubt this one will sway you either, but the tribal energy to be had in Earth Spirit is quite infectious, and it's a nice experiment to give the bassline over to a bubbly bit of acid later on. Ending on some ominous stuttering voice pads, this might make you feel more in tuned with your animal instincts than any other track on here.

Alternatively, Stella's Cry will most likely get you in touch with your more humane feelings (aw, garsh). A pleasant little number that, despite actually having a brisk rhythm to it, is carried by benign sweeping synths, string stabs, and piano ditties. It definitely catches that morning after feel as the night's festivities come to an end and would have been a perfect capper on 2001...

...Had Find Me not been seemingly tagged on here. Well, that's because this track was thrown on the American release when it became the big hit it did (thanks to, once again, Nosie Katzmaan finding the euro hit capabilities of Odyssey To Anyoona). Not that it's a bad thing, really. The song is fine and dandy for what it is, being the birth of vocal trance (probably) and all but, with in sounding so out of place coming right at the very end of 2001, it doesn't quite leave the same feeling upon finishing this release as Stella's Cry would have. At least Right In The Night was bookended by interludes so it wouldn't interfere with Jam & Spoon's more quirky tracks.

And there you have it, my friends. There is any number of ways to conclude what sort of album Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 is: genre classic; underground burner; failed crossover attempt; hopelessly outdated -it tends to boil down to your level of cynicism, I suppose. Of course, I'd recommend this album for anyone who wishes to have a piece of trance history in their collection but it should be forewarned you will be getting a release with a lot of variety. Yes, I know this is supposed to be a good thing but I've known many folks who were disappointed in 2001 because it wasn't filled with copies of Right In The Night or Stella (for the record, I never even heard those tracks when I first picked this up -it was Follow Me that tuned me into the Jam & Spoon sound). Keep your mind open to what these two were trying out here, however, and you're sure to enjoy their little fairytale several years on.


Score: 7/10

ACE TRCKS:
Stella
Right In The Night
Path Of Harmony


Written by Sykonee. Originally published 2006 for TranceCritic.com. © All rights reserved.

Various - Fabric 48: Radio Slave

Fabric: Cat. # fabric95
Released September 2009

Track List:
1. Baeka - Right At It (Michel Cleis Deeper Remix)
2. Radio Slave - DDB
3. Radio Slave - I Don’t Need A Cure For This
4. Dance Disorder - My Time (Radio Slave’s Rekids Tribe Remix)
5. Brothers’ Vibe - Platter Sugar
6. Spencer Parker - The Beginning (Michel Cleis Remix)
7. Nina Kraviz - Pain In The Ass
8. DJ Boola - Balada Redo
9. Radio Slave - Koma Koma (Steve Lawler Remix)
10. Spencer Parker - My Heart (Daniel Sanchez Easy Noise Remix)
11. Michel Cleis featuring Totó La Momposina - La Mezcla
12. 2000 & One - Wan Poku Moro
13. Nate Williams - Maximum Overload (Roy's Death Wish Mix)


IN BRIEF: Exactly what you’d expect.

So this one’s kind of late, and, in light of the Fabric series having recently reached the 50th edition of its long history (100th, if you include the FabricLive series alongside it!), makes talking about number forty-eight seem highly inconsequential at this point. Yet surely there’s something to be said about Radio Slave contributing, right? After all, Matthew Edwards has been a hot commodity these last few years, building his steadily rising star on the basis of an endless stream of singles and remixes that, er, always have the feeling of being endlessly looped.

Therein lays the problem though. Having firmly established his place as a producer with a limited, if effective, signature sound, Edwards’ name has cooled off in the clubbing conscious. Without even looking at a tracklist, someone even vaguely familiar with Radio Slave material will have a good idea what a Fabric release with his name on it will sound like. What could have been a thrilling addition to the series’ legacy a couple years back now seems safe and predictable.

Sure enough, Fabric 48 holds few surprises. The opening begins with a few deep cuts, recalling the sort of sound prog DJs were playing around 2002. Then, we move into tribal-house territory, which is interesting merely for the fact this stuff is in vogue again after some five-to-ten years of being not. A quick detour into dull ketamine-house with Nina Kraviz’ Pain In The Ass, then back into the tech-grooves, finally throwing in a few contemporary ‘gimmick-house’ cuts towards the end; a Latin-sample here, a soul-speech there… not all that contemporary, to be honest, as we’ve heard gimmicks like these for years now.

And frankly, Edwards’ set is summed up as much. You could probably walk into a used music shop and find a DJ mix CD from up to fifteen years ago that would sound remarkably similar to much of what Edwards plays here. No, this isn’t a bad thing, as his set is mostly enjoyable, the sort of dance music you can mindlessly bob your head along to; unfortunately, it’s also redundant. Unless you can’t get enough of this deep-tech-tribal-etc. house sound, such that you just have to have every release the genre offers, there isn’t much incentive to pick this up. You would be just as well off downloading a live-set for free.

Supposedly, Edwards intended this to be taken as such, a representative of what you’re likely to hear at a club he’s playing at. I can buy into that, as there isn’t any kind of musical narrative going on here. It simply starts, let’s the energy gradually grow, and simply ends, taking in few variations of tech house along the way. You can start this CD at any point and not have missed anything significant; or end it at any point for that matter. It’s like being able to leave the dance floor to get a drink or go for a smoke, secure in the knowledge the DJ isn’t going to memorably switch things up in the meantime.

Or, if he does, it’ll be a fall back on a worn-out anthem -in this case, La Mezcla. For whatever reason, this was one of the biggest tracks of 2009. As far as I can tell, it’s just Heater Part 2: Flute Boogaloo; the melody is apparently Spanish in origin, but I keep hearing the words to Frère Jacques whenever that flute starts bleating. It’s a fun little tune once in a while, though definitely not something you’d want to hear over and over and over once the novelty of the sample wears thin.

Even if you have a fondness for this music, Fabric 48 is hard to get terribly enthusiastic over. I’m just repeating myself in calling this safe and predictable but Edwards hasn’t given me much to work with here. Such seems to be the case with the Fabric series as a whole lately though. Aside from a few occasional standouts, what was once a leader in the DJ mix field has settled into something of a ‘Global Underground syndrome’: relying on high-profile names to deliver merely adequate DJ mixes to the consumer; unremarkably consistent. Radio Slave’s contribution is just another addition to this trend, and if you’re still wondering why I’m even bothering to review this CD four months after it hit the streets, it only confirms my point.


Score: 6/10

ACE TRACKS:
Nothing really stood out as a highlight.


Written by Sykonee, 2010. © All rights reserved.

Various - Buckle Up, Vol. 2: The Trancelucent Garage (Original TC Review)

Trancelucent Productions: Cat: # TPCD-IL012 

Released July 2005 

Track List: 

1. System Nipel - Russian Gangsters (8:08) 

2. Cosmic Tone - Element (6:51) 

3. Electro Sun - Demon's Halo (7:20) 

4. Aquatica - Skydance (Remix) (7:35) 

5. The Misted Muppet - Snarling Zraw (7:56) 

6. Noga - Acceleration (8:15) 

7. Etic - 1 Day (7:38) 

8. Systemic - Systec (6:53) 

9. Noga vs Solar System - Above The Ground (6:53) 

(2010 Update: Well, at least I was getting the hang of talking about the music without going track-by-track, even if I only did it for the latter half of this compilation. A lot of these guys are still around, though have somewhat faded as the whole prog-psy thing started to get more attention than full-on. In fact, I think this was about the peak of full-on's popularity, not to mention creativity -a lot of subsequent full-on I heard wasn't quite as good as this stuff was. Maybe I just had bad luck of the draw? Cover's still hilariously tacky too!) 

IN BRIEF: We're missing a decade here. 

 Before I write anything regarding the music on Buckle Up Vol. 2, I want to direct your attention to the cover of this compilation. No, go ahead and look at it. Don't be shy, I know you want to. Got a good look at it? What's that? You need more time? Okay, but don't take much longer. I have much to cover here. 

Seriously now! You can stop looking. No, I mean it! Stop looking! Bloody pervert... 

So what's the big deal, you ask. It's just a couple of naked gals. Plenty of covers have used this tacky gimmick to sell their CDs: thrashy, trashy rock music; booty bass hip hop; even superstar teen pop (well, they may be clothed in the last one, but they certainly don't leave much to the imagination either). You can hardly take such covers seriously. 

That's exactly the point, though. All too often trance music, especially of the psy variant, takes itself far too seriously and uses overly pretentious images of Buddhism or fractal artwork. Fine and dandy for the most part but it'd be nice to see the genre have a little fun as well. It might actually attract more casual folks into the fold, if anything to sate their curiosity. The only time I've ever seen trance try to get kinky is back when Hypnotic would put devil chicks wearing S&M gear flopping their giant breasts around in moving cover art (plus other assorted fetish material inside, but perhaps too hardcore for many of our readers so I'll spare you the details). Whether you were turned off or on by the stuff was inconsequential -at least Hypnotic had the balls to do something different from the norm. 

These days trance covers play things safe with scenic art, contemporary computer art, Renaissance art, or 'DJ/Producer looking off in the distance' art. So, no matter how many psy-heads may call this cover tasteless, I say Kudos to Trancelucent for breaking the norm. That rant out of the way, let's get into the music. 

Straight up I'll tell you there isn't anything revolutionary or groundbreaking on Buckle Up Vol. 2. This is un-mainstream trance going about its business as though the last ten years hadn't happened. The furthest thing from these producer's minds is having the likes of Tiestin van Corstenfold play them or to be broadcast on A State Of Global Deejays (or something like that). As such, this compilation would probably get lumped into the psy trance section of your stores, even though not everything on this is true blue psy - it's just a tendency for stuff that doesn't fit into popular niches to get shunted over to the psy camp. However, such concerns aren't all that important: how effectively these producers craft their music is the main question. 

We dive into Buckle Up Vol. 2 with System Nigel, one of many members of the Trancelucent family I've never heard of prior to receiving this disc. Like many psy-trance titles, the song's name of Russian Gangsters doesn't make a lick of sense to what goes on in the song. As for the song itself, it's serviceable full-on stuff, building from simple, chunky acid sounds and bleepy hooks to more stock psy sounds anyone with a passing familiarity with the scene will recognize. As with most psy-trance, there are a few tangents taken during the course of the track before peaking out with rhythms that pick up the intensity as most of the hinted elements throughout come out in full force. It's a bit happy-go-lucky, which may scare off the purists, but certainly inoffensive enough as an opener. 

Cosmic Tone's Element borrows the spoken dialogue from Danny Tenaglia’s track of the same name, but doesn't go through the whole laundry list of items that make up the track like the original, mainly because they'd be out of place here. Instead, it cuts to the chase by skipping right to the "I like it all" bit after the initial prelude. As for the track itself, it's a simple, moody little number. Not much happens in it, letting the subtle sounds create a sinister atmosphere and deep, rolling bassline groove you on. 

As Element ends, we're thrust into the soaring pads of Electro Sun’s Demon’s Halo. The track doesn't waste too much time getting into it though, as chunky, acidy rhythms erupt with everything they've got after the paddy intro. From here, this song absolutely tears along. I mean it! Compared to most of the material on Mr. Elkayam's debut, Demon's Halo is leaps and bounds better. Okay, so there are a few odd tangents (is that a synthesized chicken being strangled?), and Electro Sun still hasn't changed the sound patch for his bassline, but these are just minor nitpicks. When the soaring pad work and invigorating rhythms are this infectious, who cares? Had I known Electro Sun was capable of this kind of stuff, I might not have been quite so generous in my rating of his full length. 

Aquatica's Skydome makes for a decent transitional track on this compilation, but not much more. It's pretty standard full-on material, including a build that peaks with a typical full-on synth - it could easily be called Psy Synth 01 in a pre-set bank. The peak isn't nearly as good as the build would have you believe either but nice eerie pads are to be had in this track. 

The Misted Muppet seems to be one of the main stars of the Trancelucent label, and if this offering of Snarling Zraw is any indication, I can see why. Whatever a Zraw is, it certainly snarls in this track as it oozes absolute evil with some of the most messed up sounds this side of a Hellraiser sound-effects studio. And those rhythms! My God, I thought Demon's Halo was busy but Snarling Zraw is absolute chaos! I've listened to this track several times since receiving it from Boa Distribution (plug!) and am still discovering little nuances amid the mayhem. Most trance seems content to use around four elements in their rhythm sections - Zraw uses three times that in the first half alone. 

Unfortunately, it's not all aceness in this track. It seems my compatriot Cinos was correct in his assessment of Zraw: despite a very promising start with things building in intensity for a while, it loses the plot around half-way through, veering off into just plain weird tangents for the sake of it. Ah well, Zraw finishes off wonderfully with a chopped up female chant accentuated with shuffling percussion that'll get the hippie girls shaking their skirted asses if they hadn't already fled to saner pastures. 

For the rest of this compilation, something strange happens. A feeling comes over me that recently seems to only occur with some the deepest prog around. I know what it is, but I'm almost afraid to say it. For so long now trance music has been mostly about mega-melodies and worshiping the guy who plays them; the name of the genre has gone on to only imply euphoria so saying what this feeling is would be out of place here. Ah, what the Hell. I'll say it. From Noga's Acceleration to his collaboration with Solar System in the form of Above The Ground, I literally feel like I'm getting sucked into a trance -the inward, hypnotic kind, that is. 

How does it do it? Simply put, it's all about the subtlety of these four tracks. The leads and sounds used are subdued and ever shifting as the tracks evolve. Pad effects - some gentle, some ominous - keep the songs afloat and whenever a main hook enters the fray (usually two-thirds of the way through), it doesn't smack you across the head for your attention, rather complementing the track as a logical conclusion to the lead up to it. Of course, this isn't to say these four tracks are perfect. Certainly, some of the sounds in Systemic's Systec are odd, and, as mentioned earlier, it's not like there's anything groundbreaking to be heard. You wouldn't be able to tell if these were produced in 2005 or 1995. Indeed, some of the sounds used are a little primitive considering how far trance has moved. Still, within this field, these producers managed to craft tracks that truly do succeed where so much other trance fails despite better production values. 

There you have it. Definitely some interesting material on hand, if staying true to the source materia nearly to a fault. Buckle Up Vol. 2 probably won't win over any folks who still haven't jumped on the psy wagon, nor will it impress those always striving for the latest and greatest. For those of us who wouldn't mind a little harmless full-on action followed up by some good old fashioned hypnotic trance, this is as decent of a compilation as any which I've heard over the last ten years. 

Score: 7/10 

ACE TRACKS: 

Noga - Acceleration 

The Misted Muppet - Snarling Zraw 

Written by Sykonee. Originally published 2006 for TranceCritic.Com.

Banco de Gaia - Memories Dreams Reflections

Disco Gecko Recordings: Cat. # GKOCD010 

Released September 2009 

Track List: 

Disk One (studio) 

1. Spirit Of The Age (7:17) 

2. Starless (11:19) 

3. Echoes (22:26) 

4. Soufie (Now That’s What I Call 2009) (8:39) 

5. Tempra (7:10) 

6. Terra Om (5:35) 

Disk Two (live) 

1. Analogique (6:50) 

2. Indecision (6:54) 

3. Soufie (Blue Mix) (7:23) 

4. Qurna (8:59) 

5. China (7:24) 

6. Celestine (11:50) 

7. How Much Reality Can You Take? (6:36) 

8. No Rain (7:37) 

9. Drunk As A Monk (7:09) 

10. Last Train To Lhasa (7:08) 

IN BRIEF: Quite a career. 

Geez, can’t Toby Marks release a typical album this decade? Okay, so there’s been three thus far - Igizeh, You Are Here, and Farewell Ferengistan - but there was also the 10 Years retrospective, the remix package to go with that, and now a 20th anniversary retrospective. For those confused as to how a 20-year package can come out a mere seven years after the 10-year one, apparently the very first instance of Banco de Gaia as a name came when Marks initially paired with Andy Guthrie and played a few live gigs way back in ye’ old year of 1989. Fair enough, though considering the last proper album was over three years ago, wouldn’t it be nicer to have some fresh material? 

Well, that’s the quirky thing about this release. Technically, this is all new, or at least previously unavailable. The first disc contains a few covers of old prog/space rock songs, plus re-releases of old Banco tunes that were never officially released; the second is all live material cobbled together from various gigs spanning ’92 to ’04. With that, I’m sure Memories Dreams Reflections has the impression of a ‘fans only’ release, which would be doing this album an injustice. True, there probably isn’t much here that would interest someone who isn’t terribly interested in the odds’n’sods development of Banco de Gaia, yet the music is hard to dismiss out of hand. 

Besides, it’s been nearly fifteen years since we’ve had a proper live album from the world bank. With so many gigs to choose from though, the only fair way to give ample exposure to Marks’ touring career is to take various tracks from various shows and arrange them into a set itself. CD2 (the live one) certainly is an eclectic assortment of Banco tunes. There’s obvious favorites such as Last Train To Lhasa (given an additional bumpin’ rhythm here, easily making this the best version I’ve heard) and big-beat inspired How Much Reality Can You Take?; live staples like Celestine and Drunk As A Monk, where the Banco band usually gets plenty of opportunity indulge themselves (flutes, saxophones, and guitars, oh my!); a few overlooked gems - Qurna and No Rain - get some deserved re-exposure as well. And, of course, there’s the early-early tracks: Analogique, Indecision, and Soufie; aside from Soufie appearing on a couple old ambient dub compilations, these have never had a proper release. 

In fact, I don’t think Indecision did get a release period, as it doesn’t appear on any of the three Banco tapes. Shame, since this probably would have fit snugly in any number of prog-house DJ sets from the mid-90s, so if you fancy yourself a fan of that sound (hi, J’!), this track will undoubtedly sweeten the deal for you. Analogique is fun too, if anything for IDing various sounds and samples Marks would recycle for later tunes -though obviously the “hardcore, you know the score!” riffs were never seen again. 

Speaking of early tracks, gander at disc one where we get three more oldies, here given a modern spit-shine -very modern, in the case of Soufie. Eh, I’m all for hearing that lovely melody again, but this ‘dancey version’ isn’t much to get fussed about - stick with the original (if you can find it) or at least the ambient one on the live disc. 

There’s another three oldies on this CD: prog rock oldies! Doing that cover of Pink Floyd’s Echoes for Six Degrees Records Backspin compilation must have inspired Marks some, as not only do we have an extended 22-minute version of that here (with all the noodly prog-ambient sections you can handle) but also King Crimson’s Starless and Hawkwind’s Spirit Of The Age. These are quite well done, especially so Starless which includes a wonderful somber build, though like much of this release will probably only be of interest to fans of Banco. 

Anything else? Nah, I say not. Memories Dreams Reflections is a tidy enough collection of obscure Banco, with plenty of material to please followers of Marks’ career. As for casuals, the live disc is the one you should get your hands on. It rounds up a few more choice tunes that weren’t on 10 Years, and is a better overall representation of Banco’s live shows than the Live At Glastonbury album. 

Score: 7/10 

ACE TRACKS: 

Last Train To Lhasa 

Indecision 

Starless 

Written by Sykonee, 2010. © All rights reserved.

Luciano - Tribute To The Sun

Cadenza: Cat. # CADCD05
Released October 2009

Track List:
1. Los Niños De Fuera (8:48)
2. Celestial featuring Liberty by Karen Ann (12:31)
3. Sun, Day And Night featuring Martina Topley-Bird (7:09)
4. Conspirer (6:59)
5. Hang For Bruno (9:01)
6. Fran Left Home (5:20)
7. Africa Sweat featuring Ali Boulo Santo (8:48)
8. Pierre For Anni (1:22)
9. Metodisma (10:51)
10. Oenologue (8:40)



IN BRIEF: ‘Minimal world beat’? Er…

Of the members that comprise clubland’s latest mega-DJ - the three-headed minimal-techno monster known as Luciardo Villalawtin - Lucien Nicolet seems to have sustained his career mostly on DJing reputation these last few years -despite lacking either the prolific musical output of Villalobos or the endless marketing stunts of Hawtin, he remains high in the consciousness of folks who fell sway to that scene’s great hype machine. Still, fans have been restless for a proper long-player from Luciano, with a string of collaborative singles and DJ tools having done little to ease the demand for a follow-up to his five year old Blind Behavior. Thus, as his fame continues to grow, so has anticipation.

This fact apparently hasn’t gone unnoticed by Luciano’s own PR team. Once word dropped that the Swiss-Chilean man was going to release a new album, they went into overdrive. The press release that preceded Tribute To The Sun was filled with the kind of overwrought hyperbolic praise typically associated with the likes of mega-trance DJs rather than techno jocks, which really just reaffirms the notion that ‘minimal’ has been the new ‘prog’ for a while now. Having phrases like “[The album] draws upon Luciano's extensive experience as a mover of bodies and a reader of the crowd's mind” and “this is the fullest portrait yet of Luciano as not just an artist but a human being” is enough to sound off your Pretentious Artist Alarm, while the incredibly gaudy cover art had even the most faithful of fans questioning where Mr. Nicolet was going with this. Still, perhaps it was all just an unfortunate example of over-enthusiasm on PR’s part. While the fanboy hype - of which such press seems to be shooting at - for Luciano has grown almost unbearable during his superstar rise, surely the man himself has kept a level head through all the headlining DJ tours. After all, it’s the music that’s coming from the speakers that counts, and the man’s track record in offering groovy ethnic-tinged minimal house, though somewhat spotty lately, has been solid enough throughout most of his career.

Unfortunately, right from the first few seconds of Los Niños De Fuera, no doubts are eased. The track opens with one of the most hideous vocal samples I’ve ever heard. Is it the clashing of flat, mismatched keys? Was it fed through an Anti-Tune program? Who the fuck knows but it’s awful, and you’re going to be hearing it through the entirety of the track’s near nine-minute length. And this is a bloody shame because Luciano does manage to do something quite catchy at the same time, bringing in a tribal chant overtop and adding a simple, infectious rhythm that’s nearly impossible to resist. At periods you even forget there’s an atrocious noise wailing in the background. You get the sense Mr. Nicolet was so confident in his abilities as a musician that he decided to intentionally make a tune that you will be simultaneously enthralled and repulsed by. It doesn’t work. A horrible sound is a horrible sound, and unless you’re purposefully making noise like Man Machine Music, no amount of sweet groove is going to change that. This is not genius music-making; it’s pretentious aspiration.

The opener’s problems are two-fold. Not only is it ruined by the backing vocal, it also doesn’t go anywhere, simply looping along as the bassline throws in little improvisational bobbles throughout. The weaker cuts on Tribute To The Sun all suffer from this directionless loop-noodling. Sun, Day, And Night rambles on with filtered percs and noisy crashes, giving Martina Topley-Bird’s vocal contribution little point. Conspirer fares better, its tranquil tones at least making for a pleasing little filler of a track; however, Fran Left Home is a total waste of time, style-biting about 16-bars of an old Vector Lovers track and looping it for a pointless five minutes -why would you ever put a DJ tool like this on a CD album?

Unsurprisingly then, the few tracks that do sound good are the ones that actually go somewhere. After some atmospheric jazz doodling, Celestial brings in an extended sample of Karen Ann’s Liberty, mostly featuring the backing choir vocals and melodies as Luciano improvises some groovy drum-work. It’s quite a lovely affair, easily letting your mind drift away as the music plays, though it must be said much of the solid music ideas in Celestial come from Ms. Ann’s original. Elsewhere, Hang For Bruno and Africa Sweat are solid numbers that continuously build in rhythmic and melodic energy -still, that these are probably the best cuts on here shouldn’t come as a surprise considering Luciano has some talented musicians working with him in this case.

Yet, what we’re hearing on this album thus far isn’t terribly innovative or fresh. Frankly, the only folks that are going to be serendipitously impressed by Tribute To The Sun are those that have never bothered to wander over to the World Music section of their major-chain record store. Six Degrees Records alone has been churning out ‘world beat’ for over a decade, to say nothing of all the mid-90s ethnic samplers, and all Luciano’s done to spice up the sound is added some groovy minimal loop beats to it.

Confounding the whole enterprise are the final two tracks, a pair of bog standard deep, k-hole techno cuts that are all ominous atmosphere and sinister tones. Actually, Oenologue is a decent, if typical, example of the sound, but Luciano totally wrecks Metodisma’s mood with a few scream samples that are hilariously corny. Seriously, just make one of the cheesiest screams of pain you can possibly muster, and it’s probably similar to what comes out in Metodisma. How these relate to the rest of the album, however, is anyone’s guess (mine: they were intended for a separate single, and got tagged on here when Luciano realized he was short on running time), as they’re of totally opposite tone to the rather upbeat and pleasant nature of the album. Like, how can something so dark be a tribute to the sun?

To completely write this album off would be silly, as Luciano’s a strong enough producer to warrant a brief listen to any of these cuts -even Fran Left Home is interesting for at least a minute (doesn’t matter which minute since they’re all the same). Unfortunately, the lack of focus and inclusion of awful ideas also shows signs of a musician having an overconfidence of his abilities in the studio, convinced that his muse can do no wrong. Perhaps his fanboys will think so, but in the end we simply have a slightly above-average world beat record. Pick this up if the name Loop Guru draws a blank.


Score: 6/10

ACE TRACKS:
Hang For Bruno
Africa Sweat


Written by Sykonee, 2009. © All rights reserved.

2562 - Unbalance

Tectonic: Cat. # TECCD006
Released October 2009

Track List:
1. Intro (1:28)
2. Flashback (4:40)
3. Lost (4:21)
4. Like A Dream (4:21)
5. Dinosaur (5:01)
6. Unbalance (7:21)
7. Superfight (7:41)
8. Yes/No (6:08)
9. Who Are You Fooling? (6:27)
10. Narita (5:08)
11. Love In Outer Space (4:57)
12. Escape Velocity (6:08)


IN BRIEF: More unimatrix, less urban.

Being such a young genre, dubstep hasn’t had much opportunity to splinter off into micro-genres. For much of its early years, it seemed to be a curiously fresh amalgamation of the UK grime scene and displaced drum’n’bass vibes. Now that all the dust has settled, however, it appears we now have two or three distinct branches from which many will firmly make their bed with. Party kids obviously enjoy the ‘wobble’ side of things, where gimmicky bass tricks abound. Elsewhere, the ‘funky’ variety has found a home with forlorn UK garage fans. Then, you have ‘atmospheric’, which seems to be the favorite of most spliff-heads and music critics (this, of course, can be broken down further but then we’d be here all day -we don’t want to be here all day, now do we). It is in this last type that we find one Dave Huismans, or simply 2562.

Mr. Huismans has actually been around for a while, producing other broken-beat styles under guises like Dogdaze and A Made Up Sound. Yet once his offerings as 2562 got noticed, it alerted many to the idea that dubstep had plenty of creative room to pursue, should producers be adventurous enough to do so. In Huismans’ case, he brought a dub techno aesthetic to his tunes, leading the genre to something more deep and clinical rather than dirty and grimy. His first album under this moniker -Aerial- got plenty of kind words thrown on it last year, so obviously a follow-up is going to be met with higher expectations. Fortunately for ol’ Dave, he’s managed meet such expectations with Unbalance -for some, overwhelmingly so.

He’s taken the idea of tech influences to the next level with this album, creating a sonic soundscape that will have old-school Photek fans nodding approvingly. At first he mostly sticks to the dubstep template, with an assortment of half-step skitter beats (Flashback, Like A Dream) or funky-soul outings (Dinosaur, Lost, the latter also where you’ll find the only instance of a human vocalization) meshing with his cold outlook. Once that’s out of the way, however, Huismans begins to indulge himself, often with intriguing results.

Perhaps fittingly, it’s with the titular track Unbalance where things get wonky. The spirit of Parkes can definitely be felt here, as paranoid strings pair with an uncompromising broken tech-beat that’ll give even the most ardent dubstep dancer fits. For a while, you wonder if any sort of tune will emerge, and although a bit of structure does come about, it’s still unsettling. From there, ol’ Dave does settle his experimental drum-programming down with easily digested skippy-beats, but unfortunately can’t resist going too far in Who Are You Fooling?, a track that fails to amount to anything of note. Love In Outer Space, the lead single for the album, at least corrects such wayward beat noodling before the album ends out.

As for the rest, they’re a solid bunch of cuts, growing increasingly sci-fi in tone before the final tune, Escape Velocity, heads straight for the stars with spacey backing synths. It’s curious - maybe suitably so - that Huismans would stick the track with the most obvious bit of melody at the very end of Unbalance, but I can’t argue against it as a strong album closer.

And to be honest, if anything is going to hold Unbalance back with a general listening audience, it’s the lack of much melody to begin with. Yeah, tech-tones of this sort tend to shy away from blatant human emotions, yet the greatest techno records have always been those where the producer is able to coerce the machine to express their soul regardless of humanity-stripping technology. Such is so with this album, where cuts like Lost, Superfight, and Narita appear to be cases where Huismans let his right brain override, thus standing much taller than Like A Dream or Who Are You Fooling? -at least in a musical sense.

This is still a strong album -I’d only pin one cut as a real duffer (no points in guessing which one -no, Intro doesn’t count). Despite the singular atmosphere, I highly recommend it for anyone who even has a passing curiosity over expertly-executed tech-toned broken-beats (hyphenated enough for ya’?). Yet, is this a ‘classic’ album, as some of already hailed it as? I think not. Sure, the dubstep genre is in short supply of such releases, but Unbalance purposefully lacks what those few standout albums contain: an identifiable human soul connecting to the music itself. Even Parkes (yes, him again -can I help it if I find the similarities striking?) understood the need for this back when he was doing similar things to drum’n’bass back in the 90s. In short, Unbalance is good, but it’s no Modus Operandi.


Score: 8/10

ACE TRACKS:
Lost
Superfight
Escape Velocity


Written by Sykonee, 2009. © All rights reserved

Vitalic - Flashmob

Pias America: Cat. # PIASA37CD
Released November 2009

Track List:
1. See The Sea (Red) (4:04)
2. Poison Lips (3:52)
3. Flashmob (4:26)
4. One Above One (3:39)
5. Still (5:25)
6. Terminateur Benelux (3:50)
7. Second Lives (4:26)
8. Allan Dellon (3:09)
9. See The Sea (Blue) (4:05)
10. Chicken Lady (3:26)
11. Your Disco Song (3:36)
12. Station Mir 2099 (4:46)
13. Chez Septime (0:34)


IN BRIEF: Respect.

Yeah, so I called it two years ago while covering V Live, but I really didn’t think ol’ Pascal would take until 2009 to release his second album. Jokingly, it was to compare Vitalic’s career to Leftfield’s career -funnily enough, the comparison remains apt. Rhythm And Stealth was seen as a quality album, yet somewhat lacking compared to Leftfield’s first; the same can be said about Flashmob . At the same time though, few will contest both are amongst the best - if not the best - in the genres they made their name in. For Leftfield, it was progressive house; Vitalic, maximal techno.

Pascal certainly wasn’t the first to introduce aggressive detuned hooks to techno but once he managed to shake free of the electroclash association from earlier in the decade, he definitely lead the charge. At first, it seemed like only he and Mylo would offer anything of note. Then, a whole collective of fellow maximalist Frenchmen emerged, the Ed Banger Records group grabbing all the headlines. The summer of 2007 undoubtedly saw this movement reach the very apex of the genre’s popularity, as acts like Justice, Digitalism and Boys Noize gained a large amount of hype and momentum -but where was Vitalic during all this?

Busy touring, most likely. Unfortunately, at a time when Pascal could have really made a stamp on the genre, he started to fade from clubbing consciousness as the newer names in the scene grabbed the spotlight. Now that he is finally back, just how much demand is there still for a new Vitalic album, especially so with maximal techno having received something of a backlash due to talentless copycats flooding the market with gimmicky knockoffs?

Well, that’s a question that’ll probably boil down to one’s personal preference over maximal in general. If you still have a soft spot for the sound, though, then Flashmob will win you right over. Even after imitators and would-be maximal stars have come and gone, Vitalic remains head and shoulders above many at this. The reason for standing tall is the fact he knows how to write songs rather than tracks. You would not believe how much of a difference this makes.

Far too many maximal producers simply take a catchy hook, amplify and distort it so the monitors bleed red, then loop it for the duration; perhaps they’ll add a drum break or additional loop, but not much else. It creates music that is instantly appealing, but lacking in substance in the long run. Vitalic, on the other hand, tends to add melodic fills or quirky twists as a tune plays out, making them richly nuanced even when the whole point is an aggressive assault of techno bedlam.

Take the titular track, Flashmob. The hook is little more than a tension builder but every loop adds something extra with each go-around, plus an added break near the end for some decent release. Funky nu-electro monster Terminateur Benelux, acid-tweaker See The Sea (Blue), and the stomp-a-long Chicken Lady work in similar ways; these aren’t subtle songs, but they do have enough going on in them that you they’re worth repeated listens.

Vitalic didn’t make his name doing maximal hooks though. Many times, it was the melodic moments that would catch your attention, and Flashmob comes with oodles of them. One Above One and Second Lives shoot straight for the anthem jugular, the kind of tunes Ferry Corsten only wished he could have made during his L.E.F. period; elsewhere, bursts of synth washes come at you in Poison Lips and Station Mir 2099. Plus, perhaps in a bit of a knowing wink to the scene that broke him, he offers an electro-trashy cut in Your Disco Song. Good fun, all of these.

That all said, Flashmob unfortunately doesn’t have many of those quirky unexpected moments that OK Cowboy had; nothing like the surprising Polkamatic or Valletta Fanfares, nor a tune like My Friend Dario, where you couldn’t help but break out into air guitar. To be fair, Pascal does bring us some decent downtempo cuts again, though Still and Allan Dellon aren’t quite as good as The Past.

It’s clear that Pascal has made his bed with the more maximal branch of techno, and if he’s going to kick out jams as solid as they’re offered here with Flashmob, who are we to complain? He was there at the beginning and, despite long breaks between albums, remains a force to be reckoned with. One can only hope that the Leftfield comparisons end here though; we wouldn’t want this to be the last Vitalic album, now would we.


Score: 8/10

ACE TRACKS:
Check ‘em all out. (well, maybe not the last one)


Written by Sykonee, 2009. © All rights reserved.

Trend - Trend EP

SPX Digital: Cat: # SPX006 

Released November 2009 

Track List: 

1. Abscent Dream (8:01) 

2. Abscent Dream (Shane Blane Remix) (7:32) 

3. Always But Never (7:47) 

4. Patience (8:55) 

IN BRIEF: Fine debut. 

The boys over at SPX Digital (U4IC DJ’s and Corderoy, specifically) seem to have done well for themselves in the year of 2009. When last mentioned on [TranceCritic], they had just released their second single, 3 Spirit - now, as we draw to a close in the year, SPX is on single number six, which is a decent rate of output for any up-and-coming label. 

This time, we have a duo by the name of Trend, which, according to the promo material, is comprised of Dean Anthony and Deep Cycle. Aside from appearing as remixers on previous SPX singles, virtually nothing can be found of them online (well, there’s a Deep Cycle on MySpace that appears to produce deep-tech house, but I kind of doubt it’s the same guy -correct me if I’m wrong though). 

This self-titled EP features three original tracks, plus a remix. The originals are all with their charms, two of which are quite worth your while. They’re mostly on the tech side of trance, featuring a different spin on the formula that can suit a specific period of a typical set. Abscent Dream is the subtlest of the bunch, utilizing a simple-yet-effective hook that simmers throughout the track - yes, even during the breakdown - that gets brightly tweaked at key points but is never oversold; all-and-all a pleasant deep trancer. Always But Never, on the other hand, shoots for the epic jugular. Trend do a solid job of working you up during the breakdown/build portion, but unfortunately the payoff on the other side isn’t nearly strong enough; the second half isn’t without merit, just a letdown given the lead-up. Finally, Patience is your no-nonsense tough-tech cut. They do milk their build a little much but rather than trying to blast you with a massive drop, Trend instead ease the beats back in, which is remarkably effective.  

The thing that struck me the most regarding these tracks is just how nicely produced they are. The sounds are clean and well spaced, featuring none of the annoying brick-walled over-compression that’s come to plague many a trance track in recent years. If you need an example of just how much better Trend’s tunes sound, take a listen to the Shane Blane remix of Abscent Dream, which is punchy to a fault and sometimes drowns with reverb washes. Compared to Trend’s cuts, Shane’s production is even a little painful on the ears, which is a shame since he does a decent job of taking the track in prog-trance territory. 

Overall though, Trend’s E.P. is a solid debut. If you fancy yourself some finely produced trance, this duo’s three offerings will serve you well.

Score: 7/10 

Written by Sykonee, 2009. © All rights reserved.

Fedde Le Grand - Output

Flamingo Recordings: Cat. # FLAMCD001D
Released September 2009

Track List:
1. Wild ‘N Raw featuring Rob Birch (4:54)
2. Feel Alive featuring Will.I.Am (4:13)
3. Scared Of Me featuring Mitch Crown (2:49)
4. Hard Days Work featuring Ida Corr (4:04)
5. Shotgun featuring Camille Jones (6:20)
6. Back And Forth featuring Mr. V (3:23)
7. Let Me Be Real featuring Mitch Crown (3:22)
8. My Faya featuring Andy Sherman & Dorothy (5:50)
9. 3 Minutes To Explain with Funkerman (3:42)
10. Rockin’ High featuring Mitch Crown (3:52)
11. Noise Reduction with P.L.F. (4:00)
12. Output (F.L.G. Edit) (4:08)
13. Dany P-Jazz - New Life (Fedde Le Grand & Funkerman Re-Edit) (4:07)


IN BRIEF: You’ve heard better.

It’s been three long years since Fedde le Grand became an overnight star, and he’s managed to maintain his profile on the strength of being an in-demand remixer and endless compilation duty. Still, though anyone can point to Put Your Hands Up For Detroit as a Fedde le Grand track, he’s had some difficulty in escaping the hit single’s legacy; few, if any, of his subsequent tunes have made anywhere near the same kind of impact. Not that anyone should have expected it anyway -such a track is a once-in-a-year event, and unless your name is Daft Punk, seldom replicated during the course of a career where house music’s concerned. Yet, the question remains: will he be able to live up to the hype of his past?

Well, no. It’s as simple as that. Let’s face it: three years is a long time between breakout success and debut long-player, and Grand may have missed the boat on really propelling his career to dizzying heights. Instead, most of the Swedish House Mafia has surpassed the Dutchman in popularity, while a Frenchman double-lapped him in the same amount of time. His chart success has been negligible since Detroit, with perhaps his recent re-rub of Fatboy Slim’s Praise You being the most significant. Beyond his loyal fanbase within the ‘handbag house’ collective, most will struggle to name-drop much of his recent material, especially with regards to his new album Output. I’ll grant Grand has been plenty busy with running his Flamingo Recordings imprint and headlining mainstream dance festivals, so he may not have had as much time to spend on his productions. Therefore, it’s all the more reason to bring his best to Output. Yet, if this is his best, perhaps Grand has been nothing more than a flash-in-the-pan sensation after all.

The weird thing about Output is it finds itself in a no-man’s land of attempted crossover pop album and credible underground house collection. Additionally, he’s thrown in every single style of house music he can think of (handbag, electro, minimal, tech, French, etc.), either in attempt show off his broad music palette or to hedge his bets that someone will enjoy at least a couple tracks if it closely matches one’s taste enough. On nearly every single track, he almost succeeds in accomplishing this too, but Grand’s far-too simple songwriting continuously holds these tunes back.

First, the pure pop tunes, of which makes up most of the first half. Rob Birch of the “yes, they’re still around” group Stereo MC’s opens things up, and as expected provides a suitably positive-party vibe. Grand, on the other hand, doesn’t really do much to give Wild ‘N Raw vitality. There are piano flourishes, trumpet blasts, and an adequate groove, all of which will provide some level of cursory enjoyment while you hear it but never really grabs you either. It’s the sort of tune you’d expect to hear on the radio and promptly forget right afterwards. And sure enough, once the Will.I.Am featuring Feel Alive hits, you do. As for that track, the rapper repeatedly refers to it as a “stinky tune”, which I have to agree -it does stink. The only guy who could credibly get away with using ‘stinky’ as a synonym for ‘funky’ was Ol’ Dirty Bastard; Will.I.Am, on the other hand, comes off ridiculous and clueless, all the while adding zero street cred by throwing in “punk motherfuckers”. Oh, and the track just sounds like a generic Black Eyed Peas cut anyway.

And so it continues. Scared Of Me apes Benassi, Hard Days Work is nondescript ‘handbag-electro’ (plus auto-tune!), and Shotgun is the ever popular barely-euphemistic “I want your penis” track. Really, every track on Output sounds like something that’s already been done, and already been done better. The feeling begins to sink in where you wonder why you’re even bothering to listen to this album when there are several superior examples of the sound out there. Even the straight-up ‘handbag’ moments are trumped by the likes of Roger Sanchez.

I’ll grant there are times that do make you feel like Output is worth your while. Let Me Be Real and Rockin’ High are good fun while they last, even if they’re total style-bites of French house (specifically Stuart Price) …but they don’t last at all. Heck, even for pop songs, these feel short; appetizers rather than delectable meals.

In fact, it’s one of the overriding problems with this album. The ‘short’ feeling has nothing to do with song lengths, but song writing. The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations (as an example of a great pop song) is shorter than nearly everything here, yet feels epic compared to Grand’s offerings. This abnormality is made even worse on tracks that stick to a typical house format. There are some good grooves to be had - 3 Minutes To Explain, Output, My Faya - but just as you’re getting nicely warmed up to the track, it ends, again prompting the thought of, “Well, that was pointless.”

Which kind of sums up this album anyway. Grand brings nothing fresh to the table here, simply copying better productions from across the field, and failing to offer a unique sound of his own in the process. Serious house-heads aren’t going to have much use for Output, as it clearly wasn’t produced with them in mind. The mainstream crowd may find more worth in it, but only if they don’t listen to much house music to begin with. In that sense, Output may serve as a handy and accessible introduction to the genre at large, in which case I’ll give Grand some credit. After all, he’s made a better album than the fucking Boomtang Boys ever did.


Score: 3/10

ACE TRACKS:
Rockin’ High


Written by Sykonee, 2009. © All rights reserved.

Alex Theory - Saturn Returns

White Swan Records: Cat. # WS0093 

Released October 2009 

Track List: 

1. Oasis (7:31) 

2. Warrior Dub (6:24) 

3. Afterburn (5:19) 

4. Strangeland (5:35) 

5. In The Deep (7:23) 

6. Event Horizon (7:09) 

7. Memories Of Gaia (6:55) 

8. Moon Song (6:39) 

9. Saturn Returns (7:36) 

IN BRIEF: More earthly than spacey. 

I’ve a confession to make. It’s not a scandalous or even terribly shocking one, but I must admit it is rather embarrassing on my part. You see, this here album titled Saturn Returns by San Francisco-based Alex Theory was a blind purchase - as in, I picked this up with no prior knowledge of the artist, and without hearing a few samples in-store. This of itself may seem a little peculiar to many of the MP3 generation - “you bought music without even knowing what it was!?” - but has been a common practice amongst dedicated music buyers for years. 

There’s a measure of thrill in making blind purchases, a giddy feeling that mere luck and chance has directed you towards this previously undiscovered treasure of sonic gold; or, the fates have been unkind, and your money has been wasted on a release that will collect dust on your shelf, a few token sympathy plays notwithstanding. Ultimately, it’s a similar thrill that anyone who’s gambled on something can relate to. The fact that Saturn Returns was a blind purchase isn’t the confession, though. Plus, anyone who’s paid attention to some of my favored releases over the years will probably find a slight skewing of favoritism towards space-themed music, so an album with a big ol’ picture of the solar system’s sixth planet isn’t an outright blind purchase anyway (even if the term ‘Saturn Return’ technically isn’t an astronomic one, but astrologic in origin). 

Nay, my embarrassment stems from what happened upon opening the CD case and finding a mini-catalogue of several releases from the label, White Swan Records. A lot of it revolves around world-fusion material, with a heavy emphasis on India. Mood music, meditation music, shamanic trance and ethno-ambient; a whole series dedicated to soundtracking yoga sessions. “Oh dear,” I thought, “what New Agey mumbo-jumbo have I stumbled upon?” 

I should make it clear that, as a whole, I don’t find New Age mysticism all that bad. Really, many of the people involved are perfectly pleasant folks, if at times a bit flighty in conversation. That said, much of the music associated with it isn’t terribly engaging, which is often the point; when you’re in deep meditation, you want music to merely supply a mood and serve as wall-paper to your surroundings, not to directly grab your attention. Unfortunately, this makes much of it rather ‘muzaky’ in the process, which is utterly wretched to have to listen to when you do focus on it. 

So yes, it was rather petty of me to assume that this was what I was in for with Alex Theory. Still, if this was to be the case, why was he in the ‘electronica’ section of the store and not the ‘New Age’ section instead? A misfiling, perhaps? Or maybe I should have just checked my preconceived notions at the door because had I actually known who Alex Theory was, I’d have never made them in the first place. 

Oh, he definitely skews towards the mystical side of music, as his association with the Discover Sound collective attests to; however, his actual output has more in common with world-fusion dub-funk than anything New Age. It’s the kind of stuff you might expect on a Buddah-Bar compilation or a Bill Laswell project (though with less emphasis on bass), and, to be frank, incredibly common where chill-out music is concerned. Theory is a good musician but he’s travelling well-trodden roads here. Ethnic samples, rhythms, harmonizes, and so on are all skillfully woven together, creating a blissy atmosphere with just enough drum programming to entice a little hip-shake should you be up for it. Yet, he never really pushes the envelope in the process, nor throws in musical twists or production curve-balls to spice up the proceedings. Instead, he simply allows his beats and melodies to do the work, with just enough flourish to keep you engaged should you pay more diligent attention to it. 

About the most notable wrinkle he brings is differing time-signatures, yet even they won’t dazzle many. It’s all very nice to listen to; unfortunately, when other musicians in this field go out of their way to be unique or experimental, Theory ends up sounding rather tame and safe as a result. Much of Saturn Returns strikes me as something Ott would write before he throws his tracks into a psychedelic soup. 

Where this album does shine, however, is whenever Theory brings in a little collaborative help, much of which appears in the second half. Famed didgeridoo player Ganja Giri does his thing in Event Horizon, and Theory provides suitably bottom-heavy beats for him to play off of. Elsewhere, keyboardist Andrew West throws in a wonderful solo for the jazzier Moon Song and Saturn Returns, which are superb. Theory himself also provides guitar and keyboard solos on other tracks, but he seems more adapt at playing off of others. Granted, if you aren’t one for jazzy solos, then you probably won’t vibe on these -too bad, then. 

Overall, Theory’s album is good for a casual throw-on, and shows promise in future releases. Still, despite little to find fault in with the music, he needs to do more in order to stand out from the glut. Perhaps more collaboration is in order, hm? 

Score: 6/10 

ACE TRACKS: 

Event Horizon 

Moon Song 

Saturn Returns 

Written by Sykonee, 2009.© All rights reserved.