Warren G - I Want It All

Restless Records: 1999

Though he arose from the same g-funk scene as Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, Warren G took quite a different path compared to his contemporaries. Rather than signing with Death Row Records like the rest of 'em, he took his talents elsewhere, hopping around labels as an independent artist and producer during his '90s run. The gambit paid off, establishing a strong solo career when he could have instead been lost among the Death Row stars (to say nothing about escaping the tribulations that came with being on Suge Knight's label). After a while, his former association with Long Beach faded from the public consciousness, despite having quite the hand in helping define the original g-funk style of music. He may have broke big with the Nate Dogg duet Regulate from the Above the Rim soundtrack (itself released on Death Row), but the biggest hit I recall him having was a take on I Shot The Sheriff in '97, a tune with ‘crossover appeal’ square in its sights.

Still, his former friendships endured even if Mr. Griffin The Third went elsewhere in the world of hip-hop. As the ‘90s drew to a close (and most of his old associates finally freed themselves of Suge Knight), it seemed all the original g-funk party crew were reconvening, collaborating with greater frequency. It was almost as if something big was going to happen, like a return to the glory days of Dr. Dre’s The Chronic. What could it be, mang? Oh, wait, we already know. Chronic 2001. Well shiiite, no wonder then.

I Want It All, Warren G’s third full-length, has collaborations galore, especially from his Long Beach days (or would that be... ‘daze’? Ahahaha! Haha! Ha. Er...Um, what was funny again?). Tha Dogg Pound’s here! RBX is here! Nate Dogg is here! Snoop Dogg’s here! In fact, the inclusion of both Snoop and Nate on Game Don’t Wait marked a proper reunion of the trio’s original group, 213, which existed even before they showed up on The Chronic. Small surprise it’s one of the best tunes on I Want It All, an easy, breezy, spliffy recollection on their music careers and where they may head (though they never properly released anything as 213 until a number of years after).

Most of this album’s like this - laid back and mellow, even for g-funk. Not much in the way of club bangers, ‘hood anthems, or r’n’b crossovers, yet still maintaining the ‘everyday is summer days’ vibes you’d expect of West Coast hip-hop. As for Warren G himself, he mostly steps back into the studio, letting his guests handle the lyrics (also included: Jermaine Dupri, Eve, Drag-On, Slick Rick, Memphis Bleek... holy Hell, I could go on). As Mr. Griffin The Third’s never been an exceptional rapper (similar to Snoop’s drawl, but with less playfully smug sneering), it’s just as well he lets his beats do the talking, as the music’s mint for recalling those warm sunny days you just want to cruise.

Banco de Gaia - I Love Baby Cheesy

Six Degrees Records: 1999

Windows Media Player has some odd organization. Ignoring articles in titles, that makes sense to me – who wants long strings of ‘the’s, ‘a’s, and ‘an’s? Yet here we are in the ‘I’s, and it regards the pronoun ‘I’ as its own entity, lining up all my albums starting with “I…”. On the other hand, it treats the word ‘is’ as lesser than ‘I’, as demonstrated when Khooman’s album Is A Flexible Liquid cropped up in the ‘F’s. All of this, of course, has nothing to do with the music on Banco de Gaia’s I Love Baby Cheesy. If you’ve actually been wondering how this alphabetical thing works though, here’s your answer, since there’s not much to discuss regarding this single, and I have to eat up self-imposed word count somehow.

Truth is, aside from one or two cases, Toby Marks' project doesn't translate well to the singles format. His albums generally are enjoyed as a whole, and the odd tune that does get plucked out for EP use often comes off weaker without the surrounding tracks as context. Still, DJs gotta DJ, and they'd much rather have a shorter piece of wax or disc without all the fuss of partial blends and multi-tracks.

I Love Baby Cheesy was the lead single off Magical Sounds Of Banco de Gaia (and the lead track, incidentally), marking a return to big, exuberant fun-time music from Marks after the relatively somber Big Men Cry. As a jump off point for that album, it's fantastic, the combination of funky rhythms, catchy nonsensical vocal samples, hooky synths, and dashes of world beat grabbing you by the lapels for a flailing good time on the dance floor or open field. It's about as light-hearted as you'll ever find Banco de Gaia (and if you don't believe me, gander at those goofs in the video). Shame the stupid Radio Edit on this single ruins all of that, but his Skippy Mix makes up for it (aside from a few cosmetic changes, it's the same as the album version).

Two remixers join in on the cheddar love, the first care of Dub Pistols, a group who broke out during the big beat era and are still kicking it today. Best way to describe their take on this tune is… ‘hard-step’ breaks? Whatever, it’s typical late-‘90s fodder, and mostly forgettable.

The second comes care of a chap going by Wayward Soul, offering two rubs here. Lord Discogs says this is actually Anthony Thorpe. *blink* Wait, original acid house Thorpe, he of Addis Posse, Moody Boys, and such? You sure of that, oh Lord? Huh, if so, that’s quite a coup on Marks’ part to snag him. His remixes are pretty cool too, the first (Electric Cheddar Remix) a dubby, tribal breaks thing, and the second (The Afro-European Remix) going deeper into the dub and tribal haze. Yeah, I can vibe to these. They’re definitely unique offerings within the Banco discography, even for those who are not completists. (*tugs at collar*)

Various - I Love 1992: Underground Anthems

Mixmag: 2001

More free music from a magazine, though this time care of Mixmag. I only bought the one issue, primarily to sate my curiosity over who’d earned the honors of their “Top 100 Tracks …Ever” vote (no, really, Energy 52’s Café Del Mar was deemed the best of all time – could it win such a poll today though?). Beyond that, the issue was crap, and I saw no reason to ever buy another again (I soon had Muzik for my Brit-biased journalism anyway). Still, if Mixmag included CDs as fun as this one, maybe I sold the magazine too short.

Promoted as a two-disc series celebrating the original peak of old school rave (where buying two issues was required, bastards), one disc featured the ‘very important’ tunes of ’92 dance, and the other highlighted underground anthems of the same year. In a way, it was just an excuse for them to jump on the “Hey, remember these classics?” market, though admittedly a profitable one with a decade’s worth of nostalgia finally creeping into the UK clubbing consciousness. Now that I think about it, why isn’t there much of the same thing going on right now for 2002? No ‘I love 2002’ retrospectives? ‘Best Of Dark Prog’? I guess UK Garage is kind of having a retro return, but that’s it. Funny how those genres don’t feel so comparatively old today as vintage ‘ardcore did when this CD came out.

And is there anything special about I Love 1992: Underground Anthems? Not particularly. The tracklist is obvious as fuck, featuring The Hypnotist (twice), Praga Khan, Human Resource, Blame, 2 Bad Mice, Origin Unknown, and Q Project, amongst others. If you don’t know which tunes by these acts were used, let me be the first to welcome you to this scene called raving (keep it tidy, please). It’s definitely a CD where the term “all the same tracks you got, in a different order” is apt, as I can’t think of any old school hardcore aficionado that wouldn’t already have these tracks in some fashion.

That said, I fucking love having all these tracks in this particular order! The opening salvo of The House Is Mine, Injected With A Poison, Hardcore You Know The Score, and Dominator is as perfect a rave anthem whore-out as you can get – hell, Adam Power’s mix of Injected’s so worth the price of admission, gloriously capturing every single old school cliché at their best (Pianos! Divas! Hoovers! Samples! Breaks! ‘hoo-hoo’s?). From there, we take a journey into the dark side of hardcore, a pile of proto-jungle tunes offering glimpses of how quickly that scene would take over. The transition to Valley Of The Shadows is rather sudden, mind, but considering this is just a freebie from Mixmag, that’s a pointless quibble, especially when the rest of the CD’s been so much fun.

Since the tracklist’s hardly unique, I wouldn’t recommend seeking this disc out for more than a dollar. At that price though, it’s a bargain!

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.

Blend - Echo Warrior

Shadow Records: 2002

I’ve apparently known about Blend (George Mandas on his Greek passport) for a while now, appearing on the 2002 Shadow Records compilation Hed Sessions 2. Among original cuts and remixes, he makes up a third of that CD's tracklist, and is easily a highlight of all that funky, downtempo niceness (shouldn’t I have reviewed Hed Sessions 2 already?). It was just recently, however, that I re-stumbled upon Blend, while scouring through Shadow’s discography at Lord Discogs. Say, the samples of Echo Warrior sound good, but fat chance finding a hard copy over a decade- whoa, Amazon does have one available!

The album turned out as I expected, a solid collection of downtempo tunes borrowing influences from trip-hop, dub, nu-jazz, and broken-beats. In fact, you could say Mr. Mandas manages to 'blend' them quite excellently! Eh? Eh...? Oh come on, you have to give me that pun - it was too tempting to pass up, the most succulent of low-lying fruit.

Seriously though, the name Blend as an artist title is apt, as ol' George displays quite the craftsmanship for his chosen sound. Each track typically features a specific genre of the downtempo scene, but borrows enough elements from others such that they never drown in cliché. So whereas you may prefer pure dub vibes over jazz noodling, even when Blend gets his saxaphones or standing cellos in the spotlight, it’s always accompanied by rivers of reverb and smokey space.

Thus, Echo Warrior gets to indulge in a surprising bit of diversity: Green Tea Blues and E-Funkt have funky hip-hop flavor going for them (kind of reminds of a Gorillaz instrumental); All That Dub, Plan Zero, and Moods For Mr. D get heavier into the bass ’n’ echo end of things; Blue Man and World Dot Com play up urban jazz tones, such that you just might handle those beatniks and their poetry after all; a couple nods to trip-hop and illbient (really, ‘trippier-hop’) crop up in Addicted, Soulcentrik, and Bleep, Human, Bleep; and even drum ‘n’ bass gets represented with Sunset Cream and Strictly Nowhere. I should mention that this summation of Echo Warrior is far from sequenced; in fact, every stylistic variant is nicely paced from one another, giving this album an equally class listening experience when played from beginning to end.

Okay, high praises all around, but if what I say is true, why have so few (including myself, until now) heard a thing about Blend’s decade-plus old debut album? Unfortunately for Mr. Mandas, his timing in releasing an album like this wasn’t the best. Had Echo Warrior somehow managed a late-‘90s street date, it may have stood out as something far more unique. By 2002, however, the downtempo scene was flooded with options for music suitable for lounges and late-night smoke sessions. Blend couldn’t help but get lost in the glut. Perhaps this little review will turn some ears his way though, as Echo Warrior shouldn’t be lost to indifference and passing of time.

Juno Reactor - Bible Of Dreams

Blue Room Released/Metropolis: 1997/2008

First, some well-deserved props to Metropolis for reissuing all the Juno Reactor albums released prior to the band joining their label. It couldn’t have been easy gathering up the rights to them, as Ben Watkins’ group saw distribution across several labels in several countries throughout the ‘90s. That said, I cannot deny some disappointment with the reissue of Bible Of Dreams. I never had an original copy myself, but a couple friends did, and the combination of a slick digipak (back when they weren’t as common) with modified Renaissance artwork in the booklet gave the album a degree of class few psy-leaning CDs of the day could compete with. Well, the booklet remains for the reissue, but comes within a boring old jewel case now. Poor form, Metropolis. This is a classic, treat it as such, eh?

Actually, Bible Of Dreams isn’t quite the classic many make it out to be. For sure it's another strong album in the Juno Reactor legacy, arguably even their best from front to back. A critical release within electronic music as a whole, however, is debatable. My impression's long been it was an LP that happened to drop at the right time, and got noticed by a wider audience thanks in large part to their signing with TVT Records for Stateside distribution. TVT also had a lucrative deal with Hollywood, licensing out music for all sorts of action movies (hence why so many of them featured industrial acts from their roster). This greater exposure rescued Juno Reactor from psy trance obscurity, and with tracks like Conga Fury and God Is God leading the way, drew in a ton of new fans who'd never have given them a second thought. “Holy shit, dude, there's music like this being made out there!?” Yeah, you silly metalhead, it's been around for years.

Wait, scratch that. Bible Of Dreams did have fresh sounds on it when the album first dropped in '97. For sure there's some regular ol' psy in the latter half of the CD, but Juno Reactor almost sounds bored with these tunes, like they're going through the motions or were left-overs from previous work. No, Bible Of Dreams made its impact within the psy scene with its opening salvo, showcasing a radical change of musicianship for Ben Watkins' band that none foresaw coming (orchestral swells, in goa trance!?).

Opener Jardin de Cecile is blissy but brisk, almost progressive trance; God Is God is practically world beat with an evil, industrial bent; Komit finds something of a meeting ground between Watkins’ forward outlook and goa of old; and Swamp Thing predicts prog psy’s techier moments a decade early (gotta have those triplets!). Oh, and tribal beats. Especially tribal beats. Lots of tribal beats. This is Watkins tapping into the primitive parts of your brain, giving all who ventured into this album – hippie and metalhead alike – something unexpected and unforgettable. He definitely succeeded in that regard, as Juno Reactor’s star flew ever higher after this one.

Juno Reactor - Beyond The Infinite

Blue Room Released/Metropolis: 1995/2008

Fortunately for me, I didn't have to spend much time getting re-caught up on Juno Reactor's discography before hitting Beyond The Infinite, as the group had released only one standard LP prior, Transmissions (does Luciana count as a proper album?). Then it’s off to Bible Of Dreams right after this, and my ‘90s Juno resuscitation will be complete. Ironically, Beyond and Bible come one after the other in my collection’s alphabetical order, so it’s almost like I’ve gone back to the ‘B’s again!

Beyond The Infinite finds the band Ben Watkins built further refining the psy trance sound they helped popularize on their debut. What had once been a quirky trance offshoot music journalists struggled to identify (“goa techno”, really?) had now turned into a full-blooded scene with major names, labels, and parties blowing the doors of possibility open. Blue Room was among the early UK adopters specializing in the sound, and their manifesto lured in all the hot acts: Kox Box, Etnica, Total Eclipse, and, of course, Juno Reactor. There was something different going on with Watkins' group though, their industrial roots lending less of an India-on-acid tone to their tunes in favour of straight-ahead thrashing, spacey numbers.

It'd still be a few years before the group truly started exploring the potential of genre experimentation though, but we find hints of it in Beyond The Infinite. Cut Samurai throws in woodwinds and bit of Japanese dialogue, Rotorblade is practically a precursor to all the 'buttrock goa' the likes of S.U.N. Project would fully indulge in (to say nothing of the proper rock elements Juno Reactor would eventually do themselves), and Magnetic started their short-term trend of heavy tribal beats on the second album track (Conga Fury and Hule Lam on following albums; or was that just a coincidence?).

The rest of the album falls more in line with psy trance’s style, though still retains that Juno Reactor aesthetic. You know the one: somewhat flat, as though, no matter how hard they try, the band just can’t shake those EBM sonics. Hey, it gave them an identity, but it's honestly a sound quality not for everyone, especially if you prefer your psy filled with chunky acid galore. If it’s not a problem though, there’s a decent amount of stylistic variety on Beyond The Infinite: blistering cuts like Guardian Angel, Feel The Universe, and Mars (ooh, voice pads, like German trance – no wonder Hypnotic initially picked up Stateside distribution!), or slower number like Ice Cube and Silver.

Long time Juno Reactor followers tend to remain divided over which is the group’s ultimate best album, but for those who prefer and continue to long for their straight-forward psy sound (holy cow, guys, let it go, Watkins ain’t going back to it), Beyond The Infinite is about as good as it gets. It hits hard when it needs to, takes time to ease off the reigns for a breather, and not a duff cut in the lot.

Earthling - Hypernature (Original TC Review)

Neurobiotic Records: 2008

(2013 Update:
Another CD that sounds better than I recall, at least on a superficial level. There wasn't anything on here that I actively disliked this time around (though some of the drug references remain childish), making me wonder why I gave Hypernature such a snarky, middling score in the first place. Maybe I was just cranky? It was the middle of the winter when I wrote it, and Lord knows that's affected impressions on more than one occasion. Oh yeah, I'd totally suck as a 'professional' music journalist, what with letting emotions and subjectivity getting in the way and all.

However, once the album ended, I remembered why Earthling's sophomore effort left me underwhelmed: nothing stuck in my head, the same frustrating problem I had with it before. Maybe that's why liked this a little more now - I'd totally forgotten anything about it.)


IN BRIEF: Cool cover.

I have a confession to make: I’m easily drawn towards psy trance covers. Sure, they can be ridiculously overcooked and busy at times, but there’s something about the combination of computer artwork, fucked-up concepts, and pure psychedelia I find difficult to resist. Maybe it’s my fruitful imagination that’s to blame, intrigued by the out-wordly bizarreness of these covers. Whatever the reason, it was one of the things that got me into trance when many compilations from the 90s had similar themes, and it’s a bit sad that generally only the field of psy continues to over-indulge in fractals and such.

More than that, though, I often figure imaginative, creative covers will provide imaginative, creative music from the CD inside. You would think after being burned on numerous occasions over the years I’d have learnt my lesson by now. But nay, I still peruse psy trance albums, find something with a really funky cover, and come away underwhelmed time and time again. *sigh*

Italian Celli Firmi has been DJing psy trance around the Mediterranean (mostly Ibiza) for over a decade, but earlier in this decade he released an album as Earthling called Patterns to minor fanfare; some enjoyed it, some found it boring, but, having read this far, most have only just now discovered he even had an album called Patterns (and probably also that there’s a guy named Celli Firmi who produces as Earthling). Firmi’s mostly appeared in collaborations since, but this past year he decided to release a follow-up titled Hypernature. After listening to this, I figure more effort was put into the cover than the music.

Okay, that’s unfair. I’m sure Frimi put a good amount of effort into his album – after nearly eight years since the last one, why wouldn’t he? When the results are this dull and generic, however, one can’t help but wonder what even the point was.

Seriously, it took nearly half-a-dozen listens of Hypernature for anything beyond stock psy sounds to sink in, and even then I had to resort to alternative methods. No, not that kind of alternative method – I’m talking about something else entirely different. Instead of playing the album from beginning to end as usual, I hit the Random button on my player, then jot down notes beside a track number should it crop up. Lo and behold, it actually worked! I could finally remember which track had the “TV brain” sample, and which one had the “open eyes” sample; which one had “some moments with a rubber hook”, and which one had the extra amount of “superfluous rips, zips, and zaps”; which one had the “dull twiddle”, and which one had “some acid chunk”; which one had a “slight bass change”, and which one was “slightly groovy”. And so on.

Actually, there were a few things that did catch my attention even on the initial play-throughs. The tracks that bookend Hypernature - Beans Of Light and Lost In Trance-Nation - stand out from the rest because they have actual solid hooks in them; however, they are unfortunately undone by silly ‘taking drugs is cool, kids!’ vocal samples. Also, there was one cut on here that makes use of a mid-track tempo change – which one was it again? (checks notes) Ah, right, number six (Get In The Chopper); not that anything comes of it - this gimmick has been used in psy for ages, and often executed with far more brilliance than here - but after listening to standard full-on rhythms for much of the album, any variation stands out.

That’s the primary problem with Hypernature though: everything on here has been done before, and done far better. The rhythms may have energy, but are generally as generic as psy gets; there’s plenty of synth tweaks and burps scattered about to make the music appear busy and complicated, but for the most part is merely fluff; the standard psy arrangements either wibble about or piddle out with anti-climatic finishes. Some might argue that Firmi wanted to make a ‘deep’ record, so of course things won’t leap out; it’s designed to be head-fuck music, or some-such. Fine if such is the case, but when one Olien track can fuck with my head more than a whole album’s worth of Earthling tracks – and be a memorable experience in the process - I’m going to go with the sure-thing.

Yet Hypernature isn’t an awful album either; there isn’t anything here that made me cringe or bury my head in shame. For all intents, were I to hear a track from here while at a party, I’d probably continue to bounce along to the beat. Granted, I doubt I’d recall what had just played once it was finished, but nor would I have an overwhelming urge to leave the dancefloor. If anything, these could make for fine transitional tracks.

And that right there explains why Firmi’s second is the dull, unremarkable listening experience that it is. It’s an album full of set pieces, of transitional tracks. There are plenty of brief possibilities and almost-hooks, but you always get the sense that it’s leading to something more engaging, more memorable -perhaps in a DJ set this would be so. Alas, it is not the case on the album called Hypernature.

Carbon Based Lifeforms - Hydroponic Garden

Ultimae Records: 2003/2011

I could go on and on about how brilliant Carbon Based Lifeforms’ Hydroponic Garden sounds, to which those who know will nod in agreement, and those who’ve instead discounted my praise of Ultimae Records shall remain in the dark. It's a given fact at this point that little of what I say here will convince the doubtful, but trust me, if you’ve yet to drink of the Ultimae cup, it shall remain your loss for it is quite delish'.

No, screw that. Selling Carbon Based Lifeforms should be easy, especially to old schoolers as the act’s sound harkens back to ambient techno of the early to mid-'90s: simple, laid back rhythms, haunting synths, samples of dialogue and nature, and TB-303. Hell, even the album's title and tracks sound scientific and futuristic, like something you might have found on Beyond, Recycle Or Die, Apollo, or Fax+. If you're one of those folks yearning for more of a vintage ambient techno sound untethered from the modern obsession with laptop noodling and glitch (*cough*), Hydroponic Garden really is a no-brainer, especially with the lush Ultimae Mixdown included in the deal.

Alright, I'm getting ahead of myself. Who even are Carbon Based Lifeforms, and what sort of particulars can we find on their proper debut album? The act itself is a Scandinavian duo comprised of Johannes Hedberg (sounds like a hockey player) and Daniel Sergestad (or is that Ringström?), who’s also the chap behind Sync24 (how’d you miss that tidbit of info, 2012 Sykonee?). They’d released prior material on MP3.com and CDr, though went mostly unnoticed. Their luck considerably changed when they got to showcase their talents on the Fahrenheit Project series from Ultimae, stealing the spotlight on the third edition with the track MOS 6581. Hot anticipation followed, and within a year came Hydroponic Garden.

Whether the album met expectations, I haven’t a clue, as that was a decade ago now (scant reviews of it are positive though). Even if for some absurd reason it didn’t, Hydroponic Garden’s held up perfectly fine as an entry into the ambient techno canon. There’s pulsing dub numbers like the opener Central Plains, the titular track, and Silent Running, blissy acid with Tensor, Neurotransmitter, and Comsat, and lovely, spacey ambient passages on Exosphere, Refraction 1.33, and Artificial Island. The two highlights, of course, are a revamped version of MOS 6581 – the lovely synth melodies are given extra weight and space – and Epicentre (First Movement), essentially an ambient version of the same tune found on Fahrenheit Project: Part 4.

I guess the only fault to be had with Hydroponic Garden is that similar versions of The Big Two can be found elsewhere, somewhat diluting whatever special quality they have within the album itself. That, along with a small drag in the middle, are the only quibbles I have, but whatever. I’m preaching to the choir, aren’t I. If not, this is a worthy addition to any ambient techno collection, so get on it, folks.

Various - Human Traffic

FFRR: 1999

Movies properly capturing club culture are rare and often crap, but Human Traffic’s one of the few that got it close. Sure, it's a comedy, exaggerating all the highs and lows associated with “clubs, drugs, pubs, and parties”, and it only highlights one aspect of a global phenomenon – specifically the UK in the late '90s. Still, I can't think of another country that had as much sway within dance music as the Brits did at the turn of the century, what with so many self-important DJs, clubbing brands, and magazines exporting their narrative across the world. Even in the hinterlands of Canada, we were lapping it up. Groove may have been more realistic in the parties we actually went to, but we yearned to be a part of the Human Traffic ones.

Funnily enough, us far-flung Northwest Coasters almost never learned of the movie's existence. Quite by chance, I’d stumbled upon the soundtrack in a local shop, a double-disc of music featuring names and tunes I was familiar with. Upon realizing there was a whole picture associated with it, I special ordered the DVD to sate my curiosity over what sort of movie could have such mint music. It fast turned into a hit within my party crew, getting umpteen repeated plays almost every weekend as we showed it off to any and all (almost always while stoned). For most of 2001 (yes, we were really that late to the Human Traffic revelry), we would not stop quoting the damn thing, and I somehow suspect similar occurrences went down in other areas to the world who dug the flick.

But enough about the movie, how's the soundtrack? Pretty darn good, I'd say, though like its cinema counterpart, very much a product of its time. Almost all the big producers and genres of the late '90s are accounted for, plus nods to classic tracks of clubbing yore are included too. Interspersed throughout the discs are clips of dialogue from the movie itself (like I said, damn quotable!), often leading into music associated with those scenes (Orbital's Belfast after the Comedown Sermon, for instance; or William Orbit's Ogive after What Was I Talking About?).

The two-discs also separate the music between a DJ mix (handled by Pete Tong) for CD2 and a 'miscellaneous' CD1. For my money, the mix disc is most fun, running from garagey house through trance and finishing hard with techno – a proper clubbing disc. The first one features mostly broken beat music (trip hop, gangsta rap, downtempo, breaks, etc.) with a few ambient pieces added; in other words, where all the music that couldn't fit on the DJ mix ended up.

Whether fresh-faced ravers will find much of interest in Human Traffic, I'm not sure, as there's almost an entire generational gap from when this came out. On the other hand, there's yet to be another movie celebrating dance music hedonism as entertainingly as this one did, retaining a timeless quality to it. Nice one, bruv.