Snap! - Snap! Attack: The Remixes

BMG: 1996

Look, you know the hits, but their omnipresence within radioland, videoland, and sports-arenaland may have soured folks who'd been swayed in by The Power and Rhythm Is A Dancer. Why should they bother with a remix of a dance tune they only tolerate as it is, then? They wouldn't, hence clubland the only place having much use for a remix CD, and even then it’s suspect. Maybe DJs were wholly on board the Snap! train early on, but all that success tainted the underground's perspective of them. Thus, jocks that could get mileage out of Snap! remixes likely weren't having them in their rotation - not even the pop DJs, who'd just play the originals anyway.

That leaves the hardcore Snap! fans that’d collect everything they put out (*cough*). Yet such a following had significantly dwindled by the time this came out, concurrently with a ‘Best Of’ CD (dying career alert!). Not to mention the messy departing of rapper Turbo B excised his vocals from all of these tracks, including in an updating of The Power, titled The Power 96. As this is post Welcome To Tomorrow Snap!, gone are any sort of rugged, hip-house rhythms and urban vibe, replaced with standard eurodance beats and trance pads. The tune needs a rap though, and as ragga still had some popularity, in comes Turbo B’s replacement, Einstein, a euro rapper who’d been around since the late ‘80s. He’s adequate for what the tune’s accomplishing, but Snap!’s production had definitely lost an edge. The following two remixes are also by Anzilotti and Münzing (Snap!’s producers), and also aren’t much to get fussed about: Cult Of Snap! tries getting a deeper, tribal feel going, limply so, while Welcome To Tomorrow is... Look, the tune was already hammy to begin with, and ain’t no way they’d make it any better.

Fortunately, Snap! Attack: The Remixes turns remarkably fantastic following that, featuring a list of remixers that have to be heard to be believed. Oliver Lieb is here! Rollo and Sister Bliss are here! Dance 2 Trance is here! David Morales is here! Torsten Fenslau is here! Stonebridge is here! Even Resistance F’n D. is here! How on Earth did Snap! ever court such an A-list roster of house and trance producers? I’ll grant a bunch of them are German, and Snap! seemed buddies with just about every well-regarded name in that scene (remember Off with Väth?), so maybe it’s not so surprising after all.

Nor are the quality of these remixes either. Each lend their distinct sounds to their respective tunes (Resistance D. do the acid, Rollo and Bliss do the arena anthem, Dance 2 Trance the squalling, pitch-bending sawwave synths, Morales the bumpin’ New York garage, Lieb the... Lieb, I guess), with only the proto-Faithless rub of Rhythm Is A Dancer coming off weak (that ‘kick’ ...ugh). This unexpected (undeserved?) all-star cast of remixers is about the only selling point for Snap! Attack, but hoo, what a selling point it is.

Kitaro - Silk Road II

Polydor: 1980

It's negligent discussing Kitaro's early career without bringing up The Silk Road. The seminal archaeological series was already a remarkable achievement for documentaries, among the first major ones produced in the Far East, and often highly regarded alongside Western greats like Attenborough's Life series and Sagan's Cosmos. It provided an intimate look at China's historical sights and locales, many of which had never been filmed or photographed during the nation’s reclusive years, much less exposed to the world. And as with so many of these sorts of shows, the soundtrack was vital to its success as a series. Just as you can't think of Cosmos without thinking of music from Vangelis, so it is with The Silk Road and Kitaro.

For anyone who’s watched the series, sounds of synthesized Far East harmonies is practically synonymous with the image of camel caravans traversing the desert against a setting sun. And a great many have, doing wonders for Kitaro’s exposure abroad. He was already making a name for himself with his original works and albums, but chances were unless you were hip to that whole synth music scene, his material would pass you by. Besides, how could he challenge Tomita for the crown of “Most Popular Japanese Synth Wizard” anyway? Music in a beloved documentary series certainly helps, not to mention an ear for melding the exotic with traditionalism making for easy appeal for folks of all walks in life.

If anything, having his music coupled with images of desert vistas, flowing rivers, mountain passes, ancient cultures, and a sense of mystery and discovery helped sell Kitaro’s style. It’s easy to take the these tunes out of that context and hear the New Age, sentimental sap creep in, which I’m sure some might if they simply played them plucked from the soundtrack. Certainly you can glean a few things on your own with titles like Takla Makan Desert (wide open landscapes) and Silver Moon (haunting beauty) without watching a single image of wind-swept sand dunes and the like. Seeing centuries old Buddhist statues though, so impeccably preserved in desert caves accompanied by Kitaro’s classic flutes, sparkling synths, and soothing pads, all playing captivating folk harmonies as the most evocative Far East music goes... Yeah, there’s something rather magic about it all, I must admit.

As The Silk Road’s initial run lasted twelve episodes, Kitaro crafted many compositions for the series, two full-length albums in all. Remarkably, very few tracks sound all that ‘soundtracky’, most capably standing on their own. In volume II’s case, Eternal Spring and Reincarnation have more rhythmic urgency about them, Magical Sand Dance and Tienshan go for larger crescendos, and Dawning works in synthesized chants, but all retain that sense of timelessness of the ancient world, traditionalism surviving even to the digital era. Both Silk Road albums are probably worth getting, though I’m talking up this one because it has one of my all-time favourite Kitaro pieces in Silver Moon on it. Used CD shop options were considered too.

EDM Weekly World News, September 2015

Where has our most trust-worthiest of trust-worthington gossip rags been in the past year? Why, getting exclusive inside coverage of the now gloriously (in)famous EDM movie We Are Your Friends. Our crack(ed-out) team worked tirelessly to get interviews, guest commentators from around the globe and beyond, plus coverage of the wrap party, after-wrap party, and the morning-after wrap party. Eh? You say our exposé seems a tad too positive for this movie? Oh come on, you know EDMWWN upholds only the most ethical of EDM gossip journalism you'll ever find in this day in age, and any other age for that matter. Now excuse me, I've a music festival to attend, ridin' in full-size SUV style all the way. Our dealer says Taylor Swift rode in it last, y'know.

Various - Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café III

Wagram Music: 2003

Shortly after I finished writing a review for the first Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café, I found the third in the series while browsing a used shop. That… can’t be a coincidence! Either the Music Gods guided me to this encounter, or the Collector Deities blessed me on that day - depends which faith you follow. Or you don’t believe is such things, and it really was just dumb circumstance that this occurred.

Hell, despite their dwindling numbers, I wager the same thing could happen if I went to almost any ol’ used CD shop. The Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café series strikes me as the sort of compilations that are almost always the first to go when folks cull their CDs. An initial purchase made because the cover seemed hip and cool, and turns out the music is hip and cool, but as you age, you grow less hip and cool, and the need to have hip and cool music playing to appear hip and cool grows less of a concern; so, you sell off your hip and cool CDs for some cool, hard cash. Or maybe you really do enjoy jazzy, lounge music with an ‘electro’ bent, but then you’d probably keep such CDs anyway.

If you don’t know what’s up with the Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café, a handy review exists less than four months back detailing such trivia. And truthfully, not much has changed in the series two years between the first and third. There’s still a wide variety of nu-jazz sounds, from the sort of café music you’d expect to hear, to fusions with nearby genre cousins like trip-hop and acid jazz, plus a little sprinkling of ‘as real as real jazz can get in urban locales’ sort of tunes. Of course all these saxophones, pianos, trumpets, standing basses, drums, and singin’ soul sistas come coupled with a fair share of trippy synth sounds, squelchy acid stabs, and occasional sequenced rhythm sections, but more often than not the line is blurred between the natural and synthetic, you can’t tell whether that snare fill is programmed, sampled, or played live in the studio. Okay, the big giveaway is most of the acts in this compilation are solo artists, but man do they ever often sound like a five piece jazz band once a tune gets going.

Probably one of Saint-Germain-Des-Prés Café’s greatest strengths as a series was their ability to keep the artist rotation fresh for much of its existence. You’d seldom see a repeat name with each volume, all the while mixing well known acts with relative obscure ones. Only De-Phazz makes a return for SGdPC3, offering something on the cinematic side of jazz with Downtown Tazacorte. Other names here I’m familiar with are DJ Cam, Patchworks, Tek 9 (aka: 4 Hero), and Moloko, who ends the CD with a Sing it Back. No, not the version you’re thinking of, but a totally swingin’ piano version care of Can 7, sounding lifted straight from a ‘30s speak-easy. Well, murder, little tomato cat!

DJ Moe Sticky - RnB State Of Mind 33

promo: 2015

Of course, another reason I had no problem parting with some American paper for two promotional CDs of DJ Moe Sticky is I knew I could get some mileage out of them. No, obviously not on the home front as those street hustlers promised ...well, maybe I could, if I was the sort of douche who'd invite club girls over with this pre-playing in the background. My game's so weak though, that I'd probably talk about how trap has its roots in Miami Bass music, or that RnB was better in the New Jack Swing era. Like, are we gonna' do it or not?

Not in this review, baby! I've got some things to say about the state of RnB, yo'. For instance, it's no secret that EDM and southern beats crept into the genre in recent years, but even after hearing two mixes worth of it, I'm still kinda' flabbergasted by the development. RnB, and by extension the urban scene in general, had almost nothing to do with dance music's environment, the two repelling each other like two negative electrons (g'ah, so dorky!). One had their thing, the other hand their thing, and though they shared some loose lineage in utilizing drum kits, studio synths, and the like, by no means would their scenes cross, RnB a world apart from where I stood. A few tunes would catch my ear, but so much of it sounded the same to me, even with occasional evolutions of the sound (we go reggaeton!). Which is fine – I needn’t follow every electronic genre under the sun, especially ones I don’t relate to.

That all said, I find all these trap influences none too obnoxious at all. Make no mistake, the RnB that DJ Moe Sticky’s promoting here has little to do with RnB of old, or even the soulful crooning stuff that most critics will praise. The Brooklyn native is strictly all about that strip club bounce and cruddy crew come-ons; much less ‘rhythm and blues’ and tons of ‘raunch and bass’.

The only thing keeping this in the realm of RnB is the reliance on singing rather than rap, and even that’s suspect in this case. Well over half these names (T-Pain, Fetty Wap, Lil’ Wayne, Tyga, Kid Ink, and a ton more you’ve probably never heard of) rely on digital manipulations of their voices to carry a tune, which undoubtedly pisses off purists to no end. Me though, I dig it - at least when they don’t sound like they’re singing through their nostrils. Most times it sounds natural (!) with all the booming bass, synth stabs, snare and hi-hat rolls, and trap-chants (which remind me of the “Hey! Hey!”s from Boney M’s Rasputin for some silly reason). There are enough familiar electronic sounds that I enjoy from genres of old that there’s no good reason for me to hate this, even to the point of enjoying it in drunken spurts.

Mr. Sticky’s annoying cut-off ‘mixing’, on the other hand...

DJ Moe Sticky - RnB State Of Mind 32

promo: 2015

Well, if this doesn't look all kinds of sketchy, ghetto, amateur, and scrub. Folks, you don't know the half of it. That's the only piece of art I got with this, and it's on nothing more than a piece of scissor-cut paper, printed with an ink jet. The accompanying burned CD itself is completely blank, not even a single scribble of a felt marker telling you what's on the disc. And a proper jewel case or cardboard digi-sleeve to hold it in? Oh, that's cute. All you get is a small plastic slip, though mine does have my name scribbled on it by a felt marker. Personalization, yo'! Gads, even the mix CDs I made back in the day had more effort put into them than this.

Of course, this is the sort of thing one expects from demos handed out at parties by desperate DJs looking to make their mark. Sometimes you get a burned disc with more care and attention given to it, but since these are freebies anyway, you typically overlook whatever faults the packaging may have. Except this wasn't free. I paid ten dollars for this. And for a second one. Twenty bones on cheap-as-fuck demos. How could I have been so stupid and careless with my money, you ask? Oh, don't worry, there's a tale I must tell. The actual music critiquing of these RnB State Of Mind discs can wait for the next review.

I don't doubt for a second I looked like an easy mark wandering the Vegas Strip, but frugal spending and marketing cynicism kept my wallet deep in my pocket. Besides, what do I care for passes to casinos I'll never attend, or burlesque clubs I couldn’t properly tip at, or- wait, these two black dudes are selling some music? Tell me more!

Were they ever hustlin', telling me how the DJ – one Brooklyn native Moe Sticky – was set to blow up huge in the world of rap and RnB. Since they were also shilling for a strip club, they insisted these two discs would get any woman within hearing distance naked, horny, droppin’ drawers, etc. They talked a good game, and while there was zero chance of me playing this back at the Hard Rock Hotel while entertaining eager ho's (“sorry, Dad, you'll have to hang at the casino tonight”), I enjoyed the game they were playing enough to drop a Jackson into their palms. Look, I've paid far more dollars on old Namlook CDs, so it's not that big an investment where I'm standing from.

Naturally, with my wallet currently out, their wingman swooped in looking to hawk a DVD accompaniment to these promo CDs. Seeing as how it'd cost me an additional twenty, forget that noise. He was persistent though, selling how the whole combo was essential to get ladies wet or some-such. Then he reached towards my wallet to extract a twenty, at which point I Noped!, and strolled off, counting my bills just in case.

ACE TRACKS: August 2015

So this is late, partly because of slack, but also because Spotify went and did another one of their app-crippling updates that made making Playlists a bitch for a while. Yes, even one as short as this one for August 2015, of what few releases I did get through last month. At least it was more than my previous August effort of two years past, a feat I was determined to beat, dang nab’it! The good news is that finally - finally - Spotify’s Local Files issues seem to have finally been fixed, and the app took in a good, heaving gulp of all the music I’ve gathered since that featured went kaputnik. And holy cow, I’ve now amassed over two months worth of music on CD, played non-stop, back-to-back. Now that’s what I’d call a road trip!



Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Slumberland (Episode 2: Awake & Dreaming)
Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 2% (I wouldn’t really call most Beach Boys/Brian Wilson music rock, at least of what’s here)
Most “WTF?” Track: Brian Wilson - Ms. O’Leary’s Cow (I know the bovine was responsible for much destruction, but dear me…!)

This one came together remarkably well - or perhaps all too predictably since we’re dealing with a smaller sample size of music and genres than most months. Good times are aplenty if you vibe on the dubby downbeat and calm ambient, plus a couple pleasant techno and trance numbers thrown in for good measure. Not much else to say about this one, so onwards and upwards to another 1,000 hours of music in plastic form. Maybe I’ll hit that mark before the end of the year! Erm, not the way current finances are going, I wager. Damn vacation bills.

Adham Shaikh - Resonance - Selected Ambient Works

Sonicturtle Records/Black Swan Sounds: 2010/2013

Hearing Adham Shaikh branch out into music with more tempo and groove is all well and good, but it was his ambient productions that got me digging deeper. Still, though he'd mostly left that part of his career in the '90s, it didn't stop him from composing pieces in his spare time or for other projects. Prominent among these were sounds and scores for various, small-budget films and documentaries, mostly dealing with things like spiritualism, activism, and yogaism. And while they didn’t lead to anything officially released on the market, he kept those works on hand should their ever be an opportunity to make use of them. Turns out there was, in the number of recommendations from associates and friends that told ol’ Adham that he needed to make these available to all us common folk out here in the music wilds. Hey, if it worked for Aphex Twin, why not Adham Shaikh? Oh yes you better believe the Selected Ambient Works sub-title was gonna’ get remarked upon. Uh, that’s I got on that.

Anyhow, I can’t deny once again having preconceived notions of what Resonance would be going in. A return to Journey To The Sun, mayhaps, or a fresh take on ambient dub, as so many ethnic fusion types often do. Heck, even something deeply meditative again would be interesting, just to hear if Mr. Shaikh had picked up some new techniques in composing such music.

Instead, we’re dealing with pieces that are very much score orientated, some sounding not all that dissimilar to the piano and drone works of early Brian Eno (Ambient Dream, Warm Hope, Fibonacci Spriral Song, Opaquealyptic), though with a slight worldy twist. Others tread close to the New Age realm with their heavy mystical and spiritual vibe (Voices Of Hope, Om Shanti Shanti), not a surprising development given Mr. Shaikh’s deep involvement in the yoga scene. A few pieces go all in with traditional sounds like woodwinds and string instruments (Mountains Of The World, For The Heart of The World, Dew Daisy), and a few more run for lengthier times (Gayatri Mantra, Satori), suggesting not everything on Resonance was intended for visual accompaniment. Or maybe they were inspired by credits sequences.

That was my initial trouble with Resonance, where I couldn’t disassociate the music from its original intent of score compositions. It was still enjoyable on that level of course, but without seeing the films, I felt something was lacking. Mind you, it didn’t help I was playing these in the background, never quite focusing on the music. Until it came time for the standard ‘in MP3 player, on headphones, walk’ playthrough anyway, which I always do before writing a review (daily commutes help with this). With my attention properly focused then, my goodness did this music ever open up to my ears! Those stunning, captivating ambient textures that wooed me in Journey To The Sun, they were all here, lurking underneath, waiting to seduce an attentive mind. How’s he keep doing this?

Various - Renaissance: The Masters Series Part 13 - Hernán Cattáneo

Renaissance: 2009

About time I take in Hernán Cattáneo. I've only been recommended him for a decade now, and kinda-wanted to hear what the big fuss was for awhile. They say he's kept the prog fires alive, long after all his DJ kin wandered elsewheres in the music world, staying the deep, groovy path while others chased clicky-glitch dirt and side-chained traintracks. Only one problem for yours truly though: Mr. Cattáneo kept releasing his mixes on expensive foreign labels like Renaissance and... um... That's pretty much his only home, isn't it? He recently got his hands in Balance, and contributed something to Perfecto way back, but by and large ol' Hernán’s had most of his spotlight burning surrounded by angelic and philosophers artwork. Not sure if he's beat out Dave Seaman for “Most All-Time Renaissance Mixes” though.

It feels weird even having a few of these Masters Series in my collection now. Like, I had one, long-long ago, a Dave Seaman mix of course. I don't remember much of anything from that except the second track (Minimalistic's Struggle For Pleasure). This was back when Ultra Records had more clout in bringing over trendy UK mix series, but I lost it during a move. Now, whenever I make a rare browse of a used shop, there's inevitably a Renaissance CD sitting there, so why not pick them up upon sight, eh?

Thus, we get to Hernán Cattáneo’s fifth contribution to The Masters Series, the thirteenth in total. Uh oh, is there some bad luck to be had on here? This did come out at the tail-end of prog-house’s infatuation with minimal and electro, and no matter what folks claim, I’m sure even Mr. Cattáneo couldn’t keep that sound totally out of his musical arsenal – can’t go getting irrelevant, right? And yep, there’s Guy Gerber’s Stoppage Time sitting at the fifth track position, a minimal tech-house ‘anthem’ if there ever was one. What kind of music leads up to it, then?

Oh! Oh wow! This is some deep, dubby, groovy stuff, mang. Spacious sounds, echoes of melody, and... okay, the beats are still in late-‘00s limp mode, but with enough shuffly percussion going on, it’s not so bad as many other ‘prog’ mixes of the time went. Even the Guy Gerber tune is pretty dope, mostly focusing on a building envelope of dubbed-out sound filters, while the rest of CD1 carries on from the tone set in the early going. There aren’t many tracks I’d point out as highlights, but Hernán’s choice of tunes maintains a steady, vibey mood throughout. Good stuff.

CD2 starts even better, with more energy in the rhythms, more melodic sweet spots (oh my God, Damabiah’s Flower Planet is practically prog German trance!), and a finish that’s... kind of a letdown of a wind down. Man, I’d thought a final sequence featuring tons of Guy J and Henry Saiz would be stronger. It doesn’t ruin a great overall collection of tunes from Cattáneo though. I believe this hype.

BT - R & R (Rare & Remixed)

Nettwerk: 2001

I'm far from a BT mark, but I cannot deny a double-disc collection of rare and remixed music from Mr. Transeau's back catalogue is a tasty offer. Some of his best music never made it to his albums proper, while other producers have given tracks brilliant rubs, outclassing the originals. Even better, this release came out shortly after Movement In Still Life, before all sorts of bullwark and unsense affected ol' Brian's music making ability. In plucking tunes from his earliest, obscure collaborations with Deep Dish and John Selway to the very (then) current cuts of his discography, R & R (Rare & Remixed) almost serves as an alternative greatest hits package. Oh, what the Hell, I declare this better than any kind of “Best Of BT” that could have surfaced covering the same ten years of his musical life, including 10 Years In The Life.

For one thing, CD2 has nearly every great nu-skool breaks tune Mr. Transeau ever had a hand in. Fibonacci Sequence is here! Hip-Hop Phenomenon is here! Smartbomb is here, and the kick-ass Plump DJs remix at that (best damn cut off WipEout: Fusion)! Um, that's about it, at least the ones I rate as his most essential breakbeat efforts – guess the Hybrid Remix of Godspeed is fine too, if you skew more the progressive trance way for your breaks fix. Point is, you won't find these on his albums proper, at least no official, non-special edition version in the Americas. And yet, here they all are on R & R, all lined up and decently mixed together. I told you this collection is mint!

Oh, you don't like BT Breaks. Fair enough, and as there's two discs worth of music here, there's heavier emphasis on his various takes on progressive house and trance anyway. Of course all the agreed-upon classics of his career make it on: Flaming June, Blue Skies, Dreaming, Anomaly, Remember, Sunblind. I personally don't rate all of these as highly as others, but damn if the versions on here don't kick some serious butt. Example: Tori Amos, bless her talented heart, has a tendency to grate after too much Blue Skies; that acid line in Mr. van Dyk's remix, tho'! And hey, it's a good version of Anomaly here, one that focuses more on acid than Jan Johnston's vocals. Hell, even Timo Maas treats Mr. Transeau's (questionable) singing in Never Gonna Come Back Down with some degree of class (re: shuffles them mostly out of the way early). Ooh, and we can't forget the Sasha collaborations either, Heart Of Imagination and the remix of Seal's It's Alive; no 2 Phat Cunts, unfortunately.

Probably the best surprise of R & R lies at the end of CD1 though, where two super-early, one-off BT collaborations lurk. Yes, I'm referring to those aforementioned Deep Dish and Selway singles, where you're treated to some bumpin' garage business. Never would you have expected to hear that on a BT CD, I wager.