System 7 - Point 3 - Fire Album

Butterfly Records/A-Wave: 1994/2003

See, Point 3 makes good sense as the title of System 7’s third LP; threes, and all that. Except Point 3 wasn’t their third LP, but rather a split concept LP into two albums, Fire and Water. Point 3 – Fire Album is their official third, what with most tracks on Point 3 – Water Album credited as remixes. What, the option of ‘bonus ambient reinterpretation’ disc wasn’t available? That didn’t stop Astralwerks from doing the deed for Stateside distribution. Also, as the band still had to use the moniker 777, the double-LP was titled System 7.3 Fire + Water, clearing up the Point 3 pun if you didn’t get it originally. Yet, because this was only the second album released in the Americas, the ‘.3’ pun is- No, I must stop reiterating these convoluted release points! My mind cannot take the chaos!

*ahem*

Their debut album got them chummy with club culture, and 777 found Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy growing into their distinctive techno-trance space-rock hybrid. Point 3, however, is where their reputation as a collaborative supergroup truly cemented. Not that System 7 didn’t have all-star pairings either, but the sense was they were simply hooking up with folks that The Orb palled about with. Fair enough, as it was Alex Paterson that Hillage first connected with. And those associates persist into Point 3 as well, with Youth (Martin Glover) returning for a pair of songs: goa trance on Gliding On Duo-Tone Curves (with Total Eclipse and Juno Reactor in keyboard support, OMG!), and a meditative tribal-dub excursion into trippy world music on Dr. Livingston I Presume. The latter sounds more like a Youth production, something he might have done with Greg Hunter for Dub Trees. Right, Mr. Hunter was lending an engineering hand with the last couple System 7 albums too. Forever production pals!

But we expect that of System 7 anyway. No, it’s the pairings with techno legends that always gets the talk of Techno Town with this group, and for good reason. The Derrick May collaborations Altitude and Fractal Liaison were the most interesting cuts off their debut, and Mr. May brings his Detroit sensibility back for a couple more future-funk tunes in Mysterious Traveller and Overview. Seems like System 7’s dragging him to their trance-trippin’ realm though, both tracks quite out there in the cosmos. Fear not, all ye’ techno stalwarts, for a Frenchman in Laurent Garnier has shown up, opening Point 3 with Sirènes, sounding more like Garnier with Hillage guitar in support. There’s also Batukau, which you might remember in a remixed form on Garnier’s Early Works collection.

Additional names here are The Drum Club (Lol Hammond and Charlie May) on Jupiter!, providing Hillage's guitar the sort of thumping techno track Spiral Tribe alum would do. All this, plus System 7’s own pounding Coltrane (Fire Mix) and tranced-out Alpha Wave (Gliss Mix) makes for a remarkably varied album, with something both techno and trance heads can enjoy.

Dronny Darko - Outer Tehom

Cryo Chamber: 2014

Have I mentioned Dronny Darko’s name yet? Tsk, three albums deep, and that’s just unacceptable. Right, Earth Songs was a collaborative project with protoU (real name Sasha Cats), and seeing as how I spent the bulk of that one getting all giddy over the CD’s concept, you’ll forgive my omission. Then I came to Neuroplasticity, and spent a good deal of time delving into Dronny’s details; and yet, no proper name drop. This self-imposed word count though, it forces content cuts, information incised from each review. And that’s good, long-winded, tedious, go nowhere tangents of useless use seldom clogging each post. Even if the sacrifice must be an artist’s real name, it must be so, lest I unwarily ramble into the never-ending chasm that is the Pointless Pitchforkian Anecdote.

Oleg Puzan debuted on Cryo Chamber with this album, and got his first hard copy CD out of the deal to boot. No more languishing in obscurity on saturated dark ambient netlabels, yo’! Heh, no, the Ukrainian resident was making a name for himself, one that stood out if for no other reason than he went by such an obvious pun in the drone scene. He's also rather obvious in tackling the concept of ‘old world horror’ here, where the occult and the profane meet up for a good ol’ outing in the murky pitch of abhorrent black realms. Not the most original topic where dark ambient is concerned, but these Cryo Chamber guys, I gotta’ hand it to them, always unearthing some of the most obscure references to suckle their creative juices from.

For those who are not practicing scholars of Judaism (or theology in general), Tehom is a deep, abyssal realm, kinda’ like Hell, but an empty void rather than a fire and brimstone domain. There’s also an ocean there apparently, for this is where it’s said the Great Flood that drowned the lands of Noah’s age originated from. God sent the waters of the Red Sea into Tehom as well, when Moses had to scurry all those Hebrew refugees out of Pharao’s clutches. And ultimately, you can either go there to drown in your sins, or be granted safe passage through during the End Of Days, depending on who you ask. It’s all quite vague, with barely a mention in any tome, but cool that ol’ Oleg used it as a source.

Also cool is how each track is thirteen minutes long, even if the significance is lost on me. Opener Black Arts and closer Arcane Shrine are rather similar in the desolate drone they offer, though Black Arts does start with some gnarly throat singing. Mortal Skin goes as you’d expect of occult dark ambient, including many creepy chants. Compared to the other three tracks though, Snake Hole is surprisingly soothing, if still eerie in a ‘staring into the abyss’ manner. I must wonder too, whether Outer Tehom is set in a contemporary age, as I hear distant transmissions emanating from distant radios throughout. Strange, that.

Various - Now And Then: Music From The Motion Picture

Columbia: 1995

If it wasn’t clear that much of this current backlog was formally owned by a person of the double-X persuasion, this should all but confirm it. Now And Then was a movie fully intended for a female audience, an attempt at Stand By Me for all the mothers and daughters of America. Well, maybe not specifically intended as such by writer I. Marlene King, but it sure was marketed that way. Big mistake that, the movie critically panned for being a rehashed ‘feminist Stand By Me’. Ooh, couldn’t get away with such a derisive critique these days, even if there’s some truth in the matter.

But why shouldn’t there be such a movie? With so few generational, female-led vehicles out there, star Demi Moore felt strongly enough in the project to help fund it herself. If my own mother and sister are anything to go by, it certainly succeeded, Now And Then on constant rotation once the VHS came out. Who cares if the plot was paper thin, the storyline syrupy-sweet, and big-name actresses in Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, Melanie Griffith, and Rita Wilson barely appear - Now And Then was about the memories of times past, growing up in the early ‘70s. A total nostalgia trip for mothers, while bonding with their daughters as they related to the younger cast. And if I’m honest, I didn’t mind putting up with the movie either, what with Thora Birch and Christina Ricci as part of the cast. Don’t deny it, all my ‘90s bros, you did too.

Naturally, the only sort of music that could accompany such a film is the bubblegum pop and chart topping R&B of the era. Rolling Stone magazine and all its spiritual successors may have constantly gone on about the revolution of rock, continuously peddling the narrative of which bands were the Very Important Bands we should honor, respect, and study. All well and good, but it was stuff like The Archies’ Sugar, Sugar that the majority of people were playing on the radio at this time. The scene of the girls riding their bikes singing Tony Orlando’s Knock Three Times? My mum swears her childhood was exactly like that! The Monkees were perfectly willing fill-ins of moptop pop once The Beatles buried themselves in the studio. And hoo, let’s not forget Motown’s complete dominance of this era either: The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, and Freda Payne – all mega-selling names most folks would enjoy over that ‘stoner’ rock the weird boys would listen to. Not that there’s a little room for rock in this soundtrack, Free’s All Right Now and Badfinger’s No Matter What finding their way in as well. It’s pretty safe-sounding stuff though, total AM radio material college students wouldn’t have any use for.

But then, the music for Now And Then wasn’t curated with me in mind. It’s a snapshot of what girls of the early ‘70s were playing, and we can’t fault it for that. Ricci growing into Rosie, however…

The Cranberries - No Need To Argue

Island Records: 1994

The Cranberries were one of the most popular bands that gave the world a grunge anthem, which is hilarious because they are not a grunge band. Alternative rock, perhaps, but the Irish group only ever made one song that could be considered grunge. But hoo, what a song that was, Zombie among the biggest singles of the ‘90s, setting The Cranberries up for plenty of future success. This, despite tons of CD buyers coming away from No Need To Argue with confused first impressions.

Not that they were total unknowns leading up to this album. Linger from their debut did reasonably well, especially in thanks to copious amounts of MTV play, and also finding a nice home on alternative stations. It’s a peppy bit of soft rock, perfect for your romantic comedy needs, more indicative of The Cranberries’ style of music, and generated enough buzz for their debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, for a top spot on the Billboard of Ireland and the UK. Island Records, the victors of a label bidding war as representation for the band, had to be pleased. It was good enough for a modest fanbase in their homeland and even a little abroad, one that would stick with the group throughout the ‘90s. Not a bad claim to fame, nosiree.

But then along lurched a Zombie, scoring the band a Number One hit across the globe. It’s no surprise this single became the sensation it was, executing the grunge ‘quiet-heavy-quiet-heavy’ template to perfection. Coupled with a rousing chorus singer Dolores O’Riordan completely owns, and you’ve an anthem for the pissed-off generation that’s continuously played at every “Hey, remember the ‘90s?” party. It helped that it honestly sounded unlike anything else at the time, with that haggard accented voice from Dolores, to say nothing of an actual lady providing pipes in such a male dominated scene. The whole ‘anti-war’ message didn’t hurt its prospects either, though I wonder how many of my peers even knew Zombie was about that, instead content scream-singing “In your head, in your head, they’re fi-i-ighting. In your hee-aaadd! In your hee-aaadd ! Zo-o-mbie! Zo-o-ombie! Zomibe! Ey-Eh”, etc. Lord knows I didn’t clue in until the fiftieth time I heard it.

And that, despite scoring big on the charts with ultra-Platinum sales, No Need To Argue has found many a home in the used shops across the land (erm, with CD hoarders too). The Cranberries already had their followers, and this album’s blend of peppy alternative rock, charming Irish folk ballads, and Ms. O’Riordan’s intoxicating voice (such a wonderful singer!) delivers to those fans in spades. However, for the multitude of others that were introduced to the band via Zombie, and expecting more of that… well, some became fans of their traditional sound regardless. Many others though, didn’t quite vibe with what the Limerick group was selling, leaving them with No Need To Argue as a neglected gift from their Auntie. Probably.

ACE TRACKS: May 2016

CD collection’s gotten too big for mere towers, especially since they’re nigh impossible to find anymore. I thus had two options: buy a bulky shelving unit, or make one myself. Seeing as how I have all this unused wall space, why not go with the mounted option? Less cumbersome, easier to move (whenever I do), and provides plenty of flexibility in adding MAOR MUZIKS to the piles. Worked out pretty darn nice, I must says.

Incidentally, this isn't the full collection – I kept one revolving tower as a ‘showpiece item’ for labels and favorite artists, plus a couple others for miscellaneous use (all those PSX games!). Lord help me though, if my entire apartment turns into nothing but CD shelving. Makes things like Spotify seem so much more practical now. Speaking of, here’s ACE TRACKS of May 2016.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - E.1999 Eternal
Mind Over MIDI - Deep Map

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 8%
Percentage Of Rock: 30%
Most “WTF?” Track: Ted Nugent - Stranglehold (holy cow, this gun nutjob made such groovy space rock!?)

No surprise that rock music has a dominate showing two months in a row now, yet somehow just a smidge less compared to April’s assortment of tunes. I also got much deeper into dark ambient’s cold waters, though not everything I listened to made the cut here – some of it just doesn’t work in a curated playlist format. And if that sounds too bleak to enjoy, take heart in a bunch of peppy Madonna music. Funny enough, the alphabetical arrangement caused her songs to get frequently lumped in bunches throughout this seven hour long playlist. You can go for a stretch of, say, Pantera, Lorenzo Montana, Orb, and Dronny Darko, then BAM, bunch of Madge all at once. I’m sure she approves.

EDM Weekly World News, January 2014

Back issues! Look, with the recent derth in Original TranceCritic Reviews and Ace Tracks all backtrack'd and caught up, I need something else to fill the Lazy Writing Day quotient. Might as well be these older editions of EDM Weekly World News, especially since their original home remains in cryostatis. In this issue, we celebrate Four Tet's astounding, unprecedented, immaculate haul of that year's Grammys. I bet he do it again!

Dronny Darko - Neuroplasticity

Cryo Chamber: 2016

Dronny Darko’s the sort of alias I really want to make snickering remarks over, but damn if the man behind it doesn’t deny me that chance. His works are just so interesting, at least on a conceptual level. Obviously his pairing with protoU on Earth Songs was pure catnip to my cosmic triggers, and it seems his points of inspiration show no bounds. His first album on Cryo Chamber, Outer Tehom, dealt with the occult side of dark ambient’s oeuvre, and he’s explored various other themes on netlabel releases for Petroglyph Music and DNA Production. A misconceived origin here, a polar night on Titan there, to say nothing of spending one-thousand years in cryosleep. Dark ambient sorts sure love their cryosleep. Are many of them insomniacs, the scientifically induced slumber their only hope of a restful respite from the harrowing conscious state defined by neurosis? Or maybe it’s just a real cool sounding collection of syllables.

Still, a wandering muse doesn’t always lead to the most promising of pastures, especially for one seemingly intent on challenging himself as Dronny Darko does. His second LP for Cryo Chamber, Neuroplasticity, foregoes almost all of dark ambient’s conventional spaces in favor of something you might find on Mille Plateaux or Raster-Noton: experimental, minimalist abstraction, muted atmosphere, and empty drone. Right, some of this label’s producers indulges in that last one too, but Mr. Darko takes his material closer to the realms of musique concrete than anything remotely typical for Cryo Chamber. The opening track, Mirror Neurons, has echoing woodblocks plonking about as though we’re watching an avante-garde film detailing the finer processes of bio-chemical reactions, soon followed by flittering electrical pulses flashing across colorless spaces. In fact, that’s exactly what this is, if the little promo video for this track at the Bandcamp site is anything to go by. Oh yeah, have I mentioned each Cryo Chamber release has a nifty promo video? Worth checking out, if you need some context for this music.

No, wait, ‘music’ is not what this is in the slightest. While drone ambient is often atonal regardless, ol’ Dronny doesn’t give us any wisp of a note in these five tracks. Plazma Lake is fifteen minutes of being submerged in thick viscous substance, occasional crackles of brain pulses and a muted heartthrob your only markers of sound. Electrical Membrane spends six minutes shooting garbled frequencies at your senses before fading out in mechanical drone. Circuits sounds like you’re gestating in a test-tube, being nurtured and cared for by scientists twisting and abusing the laws of nature. Ion Voltage frees you from whatever cybernetic madness has thus far assaulted your senses, with a hard cut ending the album abrupt and complete.

Neuroplasticity isn’t just abstract experimentation for its own sake – the album does have a journey of sorts going for it. Damn though, it’s unlike anything I’ve heard on Cryo Chamber yet. Cheers for taking a chance in exploring the desolate mindscape of a Borg drone.

System 7 / Mirror System - N + X

A-Wave: 2015

Its remarkable System 7 remained as relevant as they did throughout the ‘00s. They were of an old-guard, see, a product of the hippie idealism that nurtured a nascent rave culture, and the new millennium had little use for that, growing mature and engaging with ‘post’-clubbing notions. The DJs were still making bank, but only with the most minimalist music offered, drug-fueled enthusiasm be damned. Right, things weren’t that dire, but as minimal-tech was about the only genre earning prestige points anymore, producers were forced to adapt or be ghettoized to the undying outlier scenes. Gotta’ give massive props to Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy then, for finding a niche within tech-haus’ stodgy domain, playlisted by the sorts who’d just the same snicker at their psy trance offerings.

Adapting to one scene can consequently leave your former one cold. Such was the case with long time System 7 followers, none too pleased with the duo catering to the Dubfire crowds. They needn’t have worried so, for it seems System 7 have gradually weaned off minimalism, their latest offerings getting back to their techno-trance strengths with space-age guitar action to spare. Such is the case with their latest album, X-Port, though that’s not what I’m reviewing here. Nay, in my search for the freshest music from Hillage and Giraudy, I instead stumbled upon a mini-album, N + X, which includes a few tracks from Mirror System. Ah, whoops?

Nah, it’s cool; get to talk about that side project I guess. At some point in the ‘00s, Hillage and Giraudy felt their System 7 material was no longer compatible with their chill-out muse, so they created Mirror System to explore it. After launching with a debut album of Mirrorsystem in 2005, the project sat fallow for a full decade. Another flurry of downtempo inspiration must have struck though, Mirror System resurrected for a second album titled N-Port, just in time to co-release it with X-Port. Thus this teaser of N + X, and a Venn Diagram of the two projects as the cover art. So, wait, is this like the ‘Fire + Water’ concept of the Point 3 duo release? Why not release it that way? Pretty sure there are two more elements available that could make it work as a two-decade sequel.

Yeah, a teaser is the easiest sum-up of N + X, two tracks each from the System 7 and Mirror System albums available. Included is Chic Psychedelic, both X-Port Version and N-Port Version, though the X-Port Version surprisingly features less beats than the N-Port Version. 5 Beat as System 7 has a spacey techno-thump going for it, while Blue Ocean as Mirror System is a total ambient dub outing. N + X also features an exclusive track from each alias. On The Seventh Night from their lo-o-o-ong ago album 777 gets a beefy 2010 goa remix, and Thundernight harkens back to Hillage’s earliest ambient works. Proceed with shredding of thy follicles, all ye’ System 7 completionists.

The Orb - Moonbuilding 2703 AD

Kompakt: 2015

Seems with every new album from The Orb, the narrative claims it’s the group’s long awaited return to form. No, more so than the last one, we insist! Does anyone even know what the ‘proper Orb form’ is anymore? After twenty-five years in the business of music making, they’ve gone down so many different paths, avenues, cul-de-sacs, stairways to heaven, and time-warping singularities that the only predictive aspect of The Orb is their next album most definitely won’t be like their last. Whether you actually dig their latest session is practically listener dependent now. Some keep hankering for sounds akin to their early ‘90s ambient output, others crave the wild experimentation of the Kris Weston years, while a few get down to the reggae dub vibes Youth sometimes brings. Not sure how many would rep Cydonia above all else, but you know there’s a couple contrarians out there.

That folks would find Moonbuilding 2703 AD one of The Orb’s better offerings in recent years isn’t surprising though, the album remarkably consistent and groovy for its modest fifty-minute run time. With only four tracks on hand, each sees Alex Paterson and Thomas Felhmann giving themselves plenty of room to explore… um, their sound? Can’t really say that, if I’m honest, Moonbuilding one of the least ‘Orb go on big trip of sound explorations’ LPs around. Whatever you hear in the opening few minutes of a given track is generally the same tone and mood maintained for their durations (often a shade under fifteen minutes each). On the plus side, we don’t have any ‘wacky-randomness for its own sake’ tangents that left many a former Orb fan cold, but that does leave these tracks rather safe and conventional as they work themselves out. It ultimately all comes off like a jam session with shuffly dub techno and house as the backbone, the likes you might find on typical Kompakt releases rather one with Dr. Paterson lurking in the studio. Wouldn’t surprise me if Moonbuilding was primarily a Fehlmann work, ol’ Alex kept on a tight leash from worming in his requisite goofy audio clips.

The four tracks, then. God’s Mirrorball goes heavy with the dub techno tones. Moon Scapes-2703BC has a steady groovin’ thump going on. Lunar Caves is the most ambient of the four, though also finds time for some soft dub techno pulse in the back-half of its nine-minute run time. Moon Scapes-2703AD has some fun in trip-hop’s domain before getting on a light funky shuffle. Each track is a rather loopy affair, but with consistently shifting elements about so nothing comes off too repetitive or monotonous. It also isn’t the most adventurous Orb album you’ll hear, nor does it have much in the way of memorable earworms or clever sampling. Moonbuilding essentially plays as it means to go on, and it’s perfectly fine in that regard. How some folks are calling this the best Orb album since U.F. Orb is beyond me though. Orblivion was so much more fun!

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Virgin: 1998

The only Massive Attack album you probably have, despite many critics pointing to their other albums as the ones you’re supposed to have. Not sure what the consensus between Blue Lines and Protection is, though I’m almost certain the group’s (duo’s?) post-millennium material is generally held in lesser regard than Mezzanine. This one smacks right in the middle of the transition, but due to the super aggressive marketing the mighty Virgin machine did for the album, critics can’t help themselves in being contrarian, pointing to an earlier effort as the definitive Massive Attack experience. Back when they were still a tightly-knit band that included burgeoning vocalist wunderkind Tricky as part of their roster. Back when they were laying the groundwork for an entire genre, and not simply cashing in when trip-hop was at its peak of prominence.

Hah, no, Mezzanine isn’t a cash-in, though Massive Attack definitely got mad paid here. Angel and Teardrop are among the most heavily licensed tracks in their discography, only losing out to Unfinished Sympathy for top honors; and that one had a seven year start on these two. On the other hand, additional singles Risingson and Inertia Creeps weren’t anywhere near as successful, the latter failing to chart even in the UK. Considering how trendy trip-hop was in the late ‘90s, with Teardrop hitting Top 10 in Massive Attack’s homeland that same year, it’s surprising such popularity didn’t translate into further success for their singles. D’at album sales number, tho’! Were Teardrop and Angel enough to propel Mezzanine into the stratosphere of platinum accolades? Yeah, but all those critical awards the album earned after needed strong songs to prop it up, and we have those in spades too.

Right, I quipped Mezzanine not being as critically hailed as their earlier records, but Massive Attack didn’t earn those ‘one of the greatest bands of all time’ plaudits in a vacuum. When tasked against their contemporaries, the original Bristol posse was nigh untouchable, always uttered with just that extra bit of reverence when compared to the likes of Portisehead and Morcheeba. The fact Massive Attack could come in at trip-hop’s apogee and release such a smooth flowing, densely dark album like Mezzanine is nothing less than brilliance. In lieu of the multitude of copycats, Robert del Naja (Mr. 3D) desired taking the group closer to the realms of post-rock - out of the domain of dubby-thick hip-hop that defined the genre they’d built. The move paid off, broadening the band’s appeal into the world of indie music and movie scores. It also gave them room to further explore their sound, fusing gritty guitar tones and cinematic flourishes with their vintage big beats, dense reverb, and somber urban soul, generally keeping each track fresh and unique throughout for a required playthrough.

Not everyone was on board with this development, original member Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles leaving Massive Attack after this. The enduring popularity and lasting legacy of Mezzanine suggests ol’ 3D was onto something special though. Dream on.