Various - Ambient Auras: Diverse Dimensions In Ambient Dub

Rumour Records: 1994

Those early compilations from Waveform Records/Beyond may have opened my ears to a style of music I'd never known before, but nothing solidified my adoration of it like this particular CD from Rumour Records. Makes me wonder how my tastes might have gone had my follow-up ambient dub/house/techno pick been the bunk, forever deterring me from a new, promising musical obsession. Heck, could such a compilation even exist? For sure some dodgy underground rubbish looking for a trendy cash-in floated around, but with some licensing muscle behind you, you'd be spoiled in an abundance of sonic riches. Ambient Auras is proof of that.

Rumour Records was mostly known for compilations that didn't feature a pile of well-known artists, often exposing underground acts who may not have been just one studio dude cranking out tunes under multiple aliases (oh hi, Jake Stephenson!). In that regard, Ambient Auras is almost an exception, though to be fair, few could have predicted the commercial heights some of these acts would go on to enjoy. Way back in ye' olde year of 1994, Alter Ego was thought of as a side-project of Acid Jesus, Levis Jeans hadn't contacted Biosphere, Taucher was a couple years away from Waters, and The Chemical Brothers had yet to make their legally-mandated change of name. Aphex Twin was still about where he's always been though.

Really, Ambient Auras provides everything that was so wonderful about the ambient dub/house/techno compilation market of back-when. Even beyond the 'before they were famous' interest, Rumour Records dug pretty deep in their sparse catalogues for their track list. The Pentatonik rub of HIA's Delta (forever re-titled as Alpha 1999); a dancier version of Biosphere's Baby Interphase; Aphex Twin's On; the pure ambient outing of Undersea Girl from Alter Ego. Holy cow, what a killer's row of obscure tunes from famed artists!

From there, the compilation indulges in some actual obscure artists, names like State Of Flux, Neuro Project, and Centuras hardly on the tips of anyone's tongues these days. Still, they each bring something unique to the table, Flux's The News a pleasant, groovy dubby house number, Neuro's Lovechile' getting deeper into the sample-heavy dub, and Centuras' Tokyo mixing those obligatory world beat nods into a thumping, marching ambient techno soup. As for the ten-minute-plus Dr. Atmo Mix of Taucher & Koma's Happiness, it's a tad sappy, sure, but they sure weren't gonna' put the Spicelab rub of the same tune on here.

One proper nod to roots dub music later (Release The Chains from Centry Meets The Music Family), Ambient Auras closes out with the psychedelic funk of The Dust-Chem Bros' If You Kling To Me I'll Klong To You, and epic space-dub of Bandulu's Run Run (such echo!). How can you fault the diversity in any of these tracks? If you want to know why ambient dub/house/techno was such a big deal in the early '90s, seek this compilation out. This one has everything that made that micro-scene a treat.

Bows - Blush

Too Pure: 1999

(a (late) Patreon Request from Omskbird)

At first ear-glance, you'd be forgiven in thinking this is just another trend-hopping cash-in by another would-be trip-hop-slash-jazzstep act. Well, more the former than the latter, but if Roni Size/Reprazent could have crossover success, surely anyone could repeat the trick (spoiler: no). I cannot deny letting that assumption initially sink in, the Massive Attack comparisons rapidly blossoming in my brain like a bounty of succulent peaches. Or coconuts. Or apples... Darn, what a boring list of fast-growing fruits for a simile. What would the opposite of that be, the slowest blooming fruit? *d'un Google'd* The melocanna baciffera, eh? Well, the simile wouldn't work, but the alliteration would!

Anyhow, Bows was the brainchild of Luke Sutherland, a multi-instrumentalist who plied his trade with the indie rock band Long Fin Killie. Never heard of them myself, but they released three albums throughout the '90s, so a modest run. When Mr. Sutherland started feeling the itch for something a little more proper urban, the band disbanded, though Colin Greig brought his bass to the Bows project. And while Luke was proficient with plenty of instruments (guitar, violin, saxaphone, his own voice), he added a few more musicians to the mix, including Robbie McKendrick on non-sampled drums, and singer Signe Høirup Wille-Jørgensen as vocalist. Yes, that's a Danish name, she also of the band Speaker Bite Me, and followed-upon with a solo career as Jomi Massage. Man, where would I be without The Lord That Knows All, eh? I couldn't imagine trying to research all that when Blush first came out.

Anyhow, the reason those Massive Attack comparisons couldn't be helped is because the UK soul drips from this album (and we all know who invented contemporary UK soul... (James Blake?)). Opener Big Wings features dense layers of swelling strings, oozy-woozy saxophone and horns, and Ms. Wille-Jørgensen's croon over a slow Amen Break, essentially bridging trip-hop and jungle. By '99, I'm sure it'd been done plenty times, but Bows' take on it is enjoyable enough.

And that's about the gist of how I'd sum Blush. It treads ground mostly covered in years prior, but Luke shows enough songcraft and personality with the sound to make this a solid companion piece to the trip-hop lexicon. Some intriguing tricks crop up, such as the ultra-quiet start of King Deluxe (such a whisper of a vocal), or the chill fake-out before going full jazzstep tear-out in Girls Lips Glitter. Plus, the swelling strings of Big Wings becomes a recurring theme throughout Blush, including an extra-long outro in Rockets that almost turns the music into a dense six-minute drone.

If this had come out during trip-hop's critical peak ('94-'95), I'm sure it'd be regarded in the same discussions as Portisehead and Tricky. Unfortunately, the genre was waning in critical favour at the turn of the Millennium, so it's no surprise this would have been brushed off as 'more of the same'. If you dig trip-hop's myriad contributions though, 'more of the same' ain't a bad thing at all.

Telefon Tel Aviv - Fahrenheit Fair Enough

Hefty Records: 2001

(a Patreon Request from Omskbird)

I've seen the name Telefon Tel Aviv around, though Lord Discogs tells me I've acquired but one track of theirs. Not even a track, actually, but a remix, appearing on the Impulsive! Revolutionary Jazz Reworked collection from Verve Records; apparently I compared their rub to a Hybrid tune. Even beyond that though, theirs is a name that's floated in the periphery of preferred IDM producers, a slightly underground option for those who dug a little deeper into the scene. They never had the promotional clout of a Warp or Mille Plateaux behind them, however, initially appearing on 'anything goes!' Chicago print Hefty Records (jazz! funk! post-rock! whatever Solo Andata is!). Guess when you're Americans making IDM, it takes a lot more effort getting attention, most eyes eternally fixated on whatever the Brits, Scots, Germans, and Belgians are doing. Making unique, captivating music is usually a good start.

Yes, I know 'unique music' is basically the whole selling point of IDM, where you gotta' sound completely different from your contemporaries if you're to stand out from the crowd. There's still some aesthetic cross-pollination though, otherwise you'd never see continuous namedrops of Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, and Boards Of Canada when making comparisons. And guess what, I'm gonna' do it again here, Telefon Tel Aviv's debut album taking the hyper-editing glitchiness of Autechre, pairing it with the shoegazey acoustic melodies of BoC's The Campfire Headphase. Well, that was an easy review, what's for supper? Mmm, bacon-filled brussel sprouts sounds delish'.

On the great IDM hierarchy, Telefon Tel Aviv rated somewhere around Plaid, a recognizable duo with music folks quite enjoyed without ever being too challenging on the technical front. Fahrenheit Fair Enough is definitely the sort of album you'd marvel at in a blind purchase (before anyone knew who they were), and fondly return to as the years pass on. The titular opener is as strong a showcase for what you're in for with the Telefon Tel-stylee. Gentle Rhodes tones give way to clicky-glitchy-itchy beatcraft that I'm sure captivates ADHD sorts, but never overstay their welcome for those who just prefer some nice melodies (*cough*). A little guitar doodling joins with simple techno grooves, taking us out on more a nu-jazz tip. And none of this sounds convoluted or overwrought in the slightest! That ain't no mean feat in genre fusion this ambitious. Like, who ever heard of 'restraint' among braindancers? You either go as far as you can go, or don't go at all.

Most of the songs play out as above, chill opening tones, followed by some glitchy effects (even on the modern classical outings like Life Is All About Taking Things In And Putting Things Out... gosh, what a shoegaze title), heading into jazzy techno finales. No, not Detroit – these guys hailed from New Orleans whereabouts. Fahrenheit Fair Enough also isn't a terribly long album, though the Ghostly International re-issue does add a second LP's worth of archival material. Not a bad deal there, nosiree.

Richard Durand - Always The Sun (Original TC Review)

Magik Muzik: 2009

(2019 Update:
Well. I certainly had a lot to say about this, huh. Never thought I'd ever listen to this again, but for some daft reason I kept the MP3 album, maybe for future reference. Then I embarked on my listening project, listened to this again, figuring it'd be the final time I'd subject myself to it. And now I've listened it again, for the sake of completism within this blog's archives. I've only myself to blame.

But enough about my sad-sack, what's ol' Durand been up to since? Quite a bit actually, that blatant 'I R Nu-Tiësto!" marketing taking the next logical step when he was handed the In Search Of Sunrise DJ mix series after Mr. Verwest completely and fully abandoned trance for lucrative Vegas money. Naturally, the series saw diminishing returns with every volume, to such a point they started pairing him with other guest jocks (and BT). And now, he's no longer involved either, the latest edition featuring McProg's superstars of old in Marcus Schulz, Andy Moor, and Gabriel & Dresden. Durand also kept releasing albums, his latest coming out this past year, where he's apparently aged twenty since this one. Helps when you're not airbrushed into the Uncanny Valley.)


IN BRIEF: Gads…

The name Richard Durand (Richard van Schooneveld’s current alias) made quite the impression when it first broke out in the trance scene, although it wasn’t for a good reason. Rather, he’d briefly stolen the title of Needless Remixer Of Classics from Sean Tyas, though folks quickly realized that, aside from Toca’s Miracle, he was mostly just doing old Tiësto singles (he has made dubious remixes for classics by The Prodigy and Underworld since, however). The initial hate subsided, but there was this lingering feeling that something was still askew regarding this Durand fella’. For instance, why him? Who was he, exactly? Where did he come from? And, considering how much Mr. Verwest seemed to be giving him the thumbs-up, why were so many of his remixes and follow-up singles garnering incredibly divisive opinions? (the usual from “mesmerizing” to “torturous”, though typically “pointless” being the consensus)

To be honest, Durand’s ascent is remarkable when you consider what he was doing when the Big T saw something in him. Before then, he was carving out a niche sharing compilations with the likes of Scooter, Lasgo, and Klubbheads as G-Spott, releasing a stream of dodgy euro-dance with gratuitous supersaws. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because very little of his material ever left the realms of Dutch, with tracks appearing on equally dodgy releases going by names like 100% Eurotrance Vol. 4, Get Uppa And Dance 3, and Damn! 9. Then again, even the biggest titans of dance music had very humbling beginnings (Doot Doot, anyone?), so we shouldn’t hold Richard’s past against him. Or should we?

Let’s turn our attention to the release at hand, Mr. van Schooneveld’s debut ‘Richard Durand’ album Always The Sun. A change of artist names to something closer to one’s real name is a sure sign that ol’ Richard wants to be regarded as a Serious Producer now, with a muse that stretches well beyond his G-Spott legacy; smart career idea, to say the least. To back that up, he’s introduced more tech-trance attributes to his tracks, giving his productions a much tougher edge. Unfortunately, he’s also carried a lot of his generic cheese-dance baggage with him, such that it permeates much of his debut album. This wouldn’t be a horrible thing if he went into this tongue-in-cheek the way other over-the-top hard-trance acts like DuMonde often did, but he doesn’t - after all, this is the new, Serious Producer Richard Durand, not that silly G-Spott guy who was seen playing a synthesizer to CGI popcans in the video for N-R-G. (trust me, YouTube that shit!). I mean, just look at the intensity of that face in the cover!

He hopelessly fails. At damned near everything.

I know what you’re thinking: “Oh, Sykonee, how can he really fail? I mean, so long as I can dance to it, right? Um… right?” That’s just it. I never thought I’d say this about standard 4/4 dance music, but Durand has actually managed to make tracks that are nigh on impossible to dance to. I’m not even talking about the usual overlong breakdown-build nonsense Dutch trance abuses - the song-writing itself lacks any sense of flow. When the rhythms, basslines, and synth-hooks are all in play, they sound horribly disjointed, creating this weird, herky-jerky momentum that saps the energy right out of your legs; it’s the sonic equivalent of walking on a railroad track. In fact, that’s exactly what it was like, as I couldn’t even get a decent walking groove going when I was listening to stuff like Papillon, Ancient Garden… hell, everything in the album's first half. I’m sure Durand’s defenders will point out that I’m not listening to his music in the proper context, that I should be hearing it blasting out of towers of speakers at clubs. Yet walking and dancing aren’t that dissimilar - both require a sense of rhythmic motion, and Durand’s music totally, utterly, fucking wrecks it when you try to move with. Then again, many of Durand’s fanbase considers dancing to be jumping in one spot with a fist in the air.

So yes, Durand has actually failed to make dance music that is danceable on a dance album. It gets worse though. For instance, are you still pining for more Anthem knock-offs? That track may be two years old now, but Durand seems intent at his piece of the melodramatic male-singer eurodance pie, and offers up two generic cuts: the titular track, and No Way Home. I actually didn’t mind vocalist Simon Binkenborn when I heard him on Leon Bolier’s album, but there he was featured on a track that was quite content to be light-weight eurodance fluff. On Durand’s album, however, it seems he’s been instructed to belt out his lyrics with all the overwrought raw emotion he can possibly muster - this is, after all, a Very Serious album. Predictably, the results are ridiculously over-the-top sap. Ah well, at least there weren’t any naff acoustic guitars this ti- wait, what’s this at the end of the album? A… melodramatic acoustic version of No Way Home? FFFFFUUUUUUU...

Although I could endlessly berate the first half of Always The Sun (like the hopelessly amateur sounding Divine, which desperately wants to be a profound opener; or the equally desperate Next Big Anthem Into Something), perhaps it’s about time I turn my attention to the second half. Here is where Durand’s corny super-trance takes full control, starting with a generic femme vocal trancer in City Never Sleeps and followed by Mouseville, an ultra supersaw epic trancer that sounds like a left-over System-F tune Corsten was embarrassed to release. The good news is Durand seems to have finally figured out how to get everything in his tracks working together, so you can actually dance to these. The bad news is he’s forgotten how to adequately mix his tracks together (did I mention this is a continuous mix album? Oops…). So, instead of fucked-up flow within his tunes, it’s now fucked-up flow between the tunes. Gah, can’t he do anything right?

As for the remainder tracks, they’re mostly serviceable tech-trance numbers, but much of their hinted potential awesome is too often squandered. The Trigger, for example, features the first instance on this album of a genuinely unique and nifty hook, a bleepy little thing that gets devilishly twisted as a buzzing sawwave spits and spurts in the background; it never takes off in any significant way, even when the two breakdown-builds suggest the track is ready to erupt. Instead, the standard beats are brought back in, and The Trigger gradually comes to an unremarkable end. As does the whole bloody album.

Call me flabbergasted. I cannot for the life of me figure out how this album saw a green-light at Tiësto’s label. Sure, we’ve handed out bad scores to them before, but it was for things like dull pop pandering or misguided experimentation. Durand’s album is none of this. It’s a euro-cornball hard-trance album trying to pass itself off as a Serious And Earnest collection of rough’n’ready tech-trance (watch the video for Always The Sun if you still don’t believe me), thus diluting the ‘stoopid-fun’ of the former while easily getting outclassed by the likes of Oliver Lieb, Marco V - hell, even Bolier - in the latter. Still, although Always The Sun has all the musical merit of a Special D. album, this probably won’t stop Durand’s career from continuing its rise - Tiësto’s mighty PR machine will see to that. The only thing that still eludes me is why Mr. Verwest would have given a cheesy Dutch hard-trance producer an opportunity like this in the first place. Perhaps Tiësto figures Durand’s success will give him the chance to resurrect Da Joker.

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

Alter Ego - Alter Ego

Harthouse/Harthouse America: 1994/1995

Even with their name right there as the album's title, I doubt most folks would believe you if you told them this was Alter Ego's debut. Oh, the old heads know, though they tend to skip straight to Decoding The Hacker Myth for their Must Have Alter Ego Records Of The '90s; Acid Jesus too, if they want some straight-up techno. Heck, even if folks are savvy enough to know Alter Ego started out on a more chill bent, I'm sure they'll name-drop the album they released before this one (The Primitive Painter as The Primitive Painter) as the more interesting of the two, if nothing else because of how unknown it is (gotta' show off that trainspotter savvy).

Thus in a discography that includes IDM, techno, tech-house, minimal tech-house, electro, faux-electro, and some acid too, Alter Ego stands alone, more a remnant of the ambient dub era of downtempo music than anything Misters Wuttke and Flügel would go on to do. For sure they put their own spin on the sound, but by and large most folks instead regard this album a chill-out option within the early Harthouse catalogue, a companion piece to whatever mellow moments Ralf Hildenbeuten, Oliver Lieb and B-Zet were providing the label. Aside from the laid-back acid vibes of single Soulfree, little from here gets brought up when discussing Alter Ego's body of work.

Well, poo on them, because I quite enjoy Alter Ego for all those reasons! Yeah, it owes a fair deal to ambient dub, but that gives their music much warmth over their more clinical excursions into music-making. If anything, I'd bill this stuff as 'lounge techno', the sort of music you could imagine being played out at a dimly-lit coffee shop while relaxing on a sofa, a warm mug of your favourite caffeinated beverage simmering nearby as you contently flip through some old novel, its spine withered from repeated usage. No, I'm not basing that off the one track titled Sentimental Books, why do you ask?

As mentioned, Soulfree was the lead single, a wonderfully downtempo outing of deep acid grooves. Atomic Playground plays up to its namesake, a playful little ditty of acid, jazz, and dub, while Chinese Eyes lazily bobbles along with dubby acid and lushly warm pads. For those who need their Alter Ego a tad more upbeat, the thirteen-minutes of Nude Restaurant works a nifty, rolling oscillating rhythm as acid and synths percolate throughout, while Tanks Ahead shows off the duo's funkier side of acid electro (small wonder The Black Dog tapped this one to remix). And as is required of most techno albums of the day, we get the obligatory ambient closer in Undersea Girl, about as warm a piece of ambience as I've ever heard from anyone of the era, wrapping you in thick blankets of synthy timbre while spacey acid bubbles to the ocean surface from Atlantian depths. Yes, I've had this album so long, it's practically painted canvases within my brain matter. How it do?

Bogdan Raczynski - Alright! (Original TC Review)

Rephlex: 2007

(2019 Update:
I don't normally include the track list in these old TranceCritic reposts, much less any review beyond some personal burned discs, since it's usually redundant, unimportant information, and takes up ugly space. However, much of the opening paragraph is dependent upon you knowing what the track list looks like, so in this rare case, it's here to see. Funny thing is, despite this album now being over a decade old (!!), I'm still not sure if the track title confusion has cleared up. The Discoggian entry has them all listed as 'Part's, but scope out the Bandcamp option, and they appear as below. I think I added 'Part' to the titles when I uploaded this album to my computer, just so the Last.fm scrobbling data didn't get all wonky too. And since the album's not on Spotify - y'know, where Bogdan can make a couple fractions of a penny via streaming - there's no way to know for sure, is there?

Sadly, this was Mr. Racyznski's last album. He's kept active in other ventures (does he still mod? I feel like he's the kind of guy that'd still mod), and recently released a four-track collection of DJ mixes on his Bandcamp. It just feels wrong that he never followed up this giddy LP. Surely he's got more ideas in his brainpan for the braindancers. Like, a decade's a long period to not release anything official, and far as I know, Rephlex's doors are always open for the quirkier chaps in this scene.)


Track List:
1. Alright! (4:59)
2. Alright! (4:51)
3. Alright! (4:31)
4. Alright! (4:32)
5. Alright! (4:05)
6. Alright! (5:32)
7. Alright! (5:58)
8. Alright! (7:38)

IN BRIEF: Um... alright?

No, your eyes don’t deceive you. That really is the track list to this album. Or is it? There is absolutely nothing to hint at what the titles are, or even if the tunes contained on here do have titles. Sure, Mr. Raczynski has mentioned they should be Alright!, but given his prankster past, how trustworthy can such claims be? For all we know, they could all be called ‘Untitled’, or even ‘...’. Perhaps we the consumers have been granted the good grace to come up with our own names, although I’d imagine that would make finding these on your handy P2P programs ever more difficult. What I do know for certain is they are not titled after record labels, so ignore that fake track list floating around with names like Rough Trade and Forced Exposure: it's completely the bunk. For the sake of sanity, I’ll be referring to them by their track numbers in this review (#2, #4, #7, etc.).

Alright? Good. After reading that, you should have a better idea of what kind of a producer Bogdan Raczynski is (if you didn’t know already, anyway). Taking influence from ‘braindance’ icons of the 90s like Squarepusher and µ-Ziq, his music can be a bit, um, challenging. At the same time though, he treats his craft with the recklessness giddiness of a child, taking delight in throwing curveballs at the self-serious attitudes the IDM crowds are known for. Whether making threats to produce psychedelic trance if fans didn’t legally obtain his music or using bait-and-switch album names like Ibiza Anthems Vol. 4, Bogdan can be one tricksy musician.

On his sixth full-length, it also appears he’s become nostalgic,Alright! a kind of joyful throwback to the hedonistic days of raving, when folks were more concerned with happy-fun times rather than prestigious regard in the eyes of the larger world. Goodness knows seeing the word ‘eurodance’ on the back cover of a Rephlex release is enough to throw such serious plans right out the window.

Fortunately for fans of Bogdan’s drum programming, his scattershot rhythms and frantic pacing is still in full effect, although far less complex than in years past. There’s breakbeats at break-neck pace, proto-gabber beats bobbing about, and plenty of tin-can rim shots for you to gorge on. Er, yeah, a lot of the percussion, while interesting to hear, comes off weak and flat, as do many of the sounds used too. You’d think he cannibalized a bunch of 8-bit video games for samples, which may not be far from the truth. Frankly, aside from moments when the bass suddenly rumbles with authority (especially so in #4), much of Alright! is gleefully under-powered, and will immediately turn away those whose tastes are within the confines of squeaky-clean, pristine, EQ’d-to-the-max production.

Shame for them, then, as they’ll be missing out on some gosh-darned wonderful little songs here. Between rave-tastic riffs - #1 and #3 spring immediately to mind - and mellower melodies (#6 and #7) Alright! is just so endearing, you can’t help but come away with a smile on your face. Heck, the tinny production even helps sell the tone of the album, reveling in childlike exuberance.

Is it silly? Sure. #4 could just as easily be called The Spastic Acid Kitty-Kat Parade, but what a hoot it is! And #8 sums up Alright! perfectly, indulging in both old-school energy and ambient sentimentality for a winner of a track. Perhaps the only stumble to be found is the acid work in #5, lacking the spiffiness the other tunes have but still fun in its own right.

Undoubtedly, fans of Bogdan’s work and dedicated followers of Rephlex have already snagged this one up, but what about the rest of you? Should you commit debit to disc on a silly ‘braindance’ album? Even if your tastes are razor thin, I still say yes, if anything to spice up your collection. But more than that, no matter the circumstance, these tracks are simply fun diversions, very much channeling the care-free spirit of raving’s heyday. And isn’t the whole point of dancing to let go of the world’s formalities anyway?

Clocking in well under an hour, Alright! breezes by quickly and like the rave party that prematurely ends, you can’t help but long for just one more song. End it does though, as does this review.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2008. © All rights reserved

Advanced UFO Phantom - Alliance Of Worlds

Werkstatt Recordings: 2013

What's funniest about this EP is its alphabetical placement in my music directory. I've just completed a run of three 'alien' albums, plus there's a fourth one I reviewed a couple years ago (Nacht Plank's Alien). Come to think of it, it wasn't too far back that I'd revisited Alien Project too (cringe), so there's definitely something of an extra-terrestrial nature lurking in this lump of music of mine. Heck, might there have been some Greys lurking in Air Farina too, some unidentified flying thing that come down from sky? This particular release doesn't have 'alien' in its title, yet here it is, appearing in the list just a couple items after all the others. And I find that hilarious because with cover art like that, you'd just assume Alliance Of Worlds a shoo-in for hanging out with its alien brethren. Not quite, standing between them a pair of robots, a local rocker, some ancient mystics, and those Irish dudes who just won't go away.

That's all I really got for this EP. No, wait, this was also Werkstatt's ninety-ninth release, one shy of hitting the big one-double-oh. Of course, the Greek label is up to three-hundred-five now, but it's always a special moment when you first hit that triple digit achievement. Goodness though, I don't remember what my one-hundredth CD was. For sure I was buying music at a respectable clip for a teenager with almost no significant income, but it wasn't until I started working at a music shop that I truly began indulging my musical consumption habits. My guess it was something from Moonshine. My one-thousandth CD, then? Ah, hm, I don't remember that one either, and it couldn't have been more than a year or two ago that I got it. It all comes in such waves and bunches now.

Anything else? Ooh, the one-hundred-one item in Werkstatt's catalogue was GosT's debut EP, Nocturnal Shift, so that's kinda' cool. Oh, you mean about this release I'm supposed to be reviewing. Well, as Rorschach As Voiced By It'sJustSomeRandomGuy would say, “Hrrm.”

I honestly have nothing to work with here. There's zero information of who Advanced UFO Phantom is, not even a brief blurb on the Bandcamp page. For all I know, this could be Werkstatt head Toxic Razor under another alias. He/She/They/Being-From-Beyond appeared on that Aeon Nemesis compilation I'm sure y'all have already forgotten about, but didn't offer anything worth a namedrop there.

And so it is with Alliance Of Worlds, a four-track EP that musically failed to grab my attention. The titular opener, at not even three-minutes long, is chipper, Alien Combat and Oblivion Oracles Of Beta Orionis work more a New Beat groove, while Empyrean Star opts for a chill closer. It all just sounds like so many other under-produced sci-fi synthwave offerings from this label though, with little unique to say about it. Alien Combat does have a decent New Beat stomp to it, but that's the extent of anything I can recommend about this release.

Death Grips - The Powers That B

Third Worlds: 2015

(a Patreon Request)

Impossible to ignore Death Grips, isn't it? They were among the heaviest hyped acts to emerge this past decade, in no small part due to their on-again, off-again disbanding antics; y'all better get this latest album of theirs, 'cause it might be their last! While I wasn't in a rush to check them out, I figured they were worth a scoping if most of the talking heads I trust with musical opinions were showing interest. Like, if savvy folks were going on about how that one Kanye album was essentially style-biting Death Grips, then there had to be something to this Oakland trio. I've heard all their albums are quite unique from one another though, so where to start, where to start? (Note: this Patreon Request left it to me with which album I'll review)

Most professional reviews recommend all their albums, though for differing reason, while fan lists have them arranged in all manner of random order. The Money Store seems easiest to get, but also feels kinda' wrong, being on a major label and all. Not so sure about that No Love Deep Web cover art being on my blog either. Their latest? How can I critique it without proper background comparison? Fine, I'll go with this double-disc one – should be a good sampling of their stuff.

The Powers That B is essentially two albums, each disc radically unique from its companion. The first, Niggers On The Moon, came out early as a download, and had the gimmick of featuring Björk samples throughout. Eh, I only really hear one, a consistent “ah ah-a” chopped and screwed with over digital hardcore beats (reminds me of Chemical Brothers' Song To The Siren). As for the beats, yeah, they're frenetic and spastic and experimental and Kaos Pad'd to the nth degree, but it all sounds kinda' samey throughout too. Without watching the tracks play through, I honestly couldn't tell when one ended and another began. It's an interesting listen, for sure, but strikes me as something only the dedicated Death Grips fans will get much out of.

As for Jenny Death on CD2, hole Lee bovine...! Now this, this is worth the hype. Just viscera, balls-to-the-wall thrash-punk bedlam, squalling guitars and chaotic drums over forceful, pissed-off shout-rapping from MC Ride. This is the music Liam Howlett probably wanted to take The Prodigy, before all that commercial success neutered his rebellious streak. I know Jenny Death is no more indicative of Death Grips' style than Niggers On The Moon is, but I've no doubt this is as solid an introduction to the group if you're itching to expose them to the undecided.

Hell, even the obligatory 'RnB tune', Pss Pss, is like some crazy psychedelic romp about a dirty festival. And that insane digital hardcore closer of Death Grips 2.0 is greater than anything on CD1. Okay, that Say Hey Kid was amusing, in that it reminded me of another long-since forgotten California rave-rap genre-fusion act: The Movement! (don't O.D., yo').

Aira Mitsuki - C.O.P.Y.

D-Topia Entertainment: 2008

(a Patreon Request from Philoi)

Holy cow, it's a j-pop synthwave album! You'd think this is a shoo-in mini-scene, as '80s anime seems ripe for aesthetic plundering as anything else form the decade, but for some reason I don't see it much. Then again, a lot of the animation coming out of Japan was setting its sights in the far future (anywhere between 1995-2152), and synthwave is more about celebrating stuff that actually existed in the '80s, even if it's a hyper-stylized version cribbed from direct-to-VHS fodder. There's no doubting that cover though! The font, the streamers, the car, the city lights, the purple vector grids, the retro-future eyewear – looks about as synthwavey of art as I've ever seen. I wonder what sort of cool sounds I'll hear in this ...2008 release? Wait a second... *does a playthrough* Oh. It's not synthwave at all. Huh, I forgot the '00s cribbed a ton of '80s iconography too, all the while sounding nothing like '80s music.

Before getting into what this is, let's get into who this is. Aira Mitsuki is a j-pop songstress who apparently won some contest called the Mega Trance Songstress Audition. I have no idea what that is/was, and a Google search just brings me either to her bio, or the Mega Trance compilation series, which has nothing to do with Aira, j-pop, or trance. I'll assume it was another idol contest that Japan loves throwing, though Ms. Mitsuki used her opportunity with the victory to go in a totally unique direction.

Instead of retreading chipper ol' synth-pop in cute/fetishistic outfits, Aira instead presented herself as a “techno-pop idol from the future”. Sure, we could always use more cyborbs in our dance-pop, and she accommodated this style by going full electro-house. No, wait, that's not right. With the heavy use of vocoders, auto-tune, and other digital effects on her voice, I'm hearing nu-italo in her tunes. Yes, that short-lived novelty genre of the early '00s, where it didn't matter what you sang or how badly you sang it, the machine would turn it into a catchy radio hit. Pair it up with bouncy, stylized dance-pop, and it's basically nu-italo half a decade past its peak popularity. But then, Japan has always been resistant to global trends in their music.

It's not all nu-italo though, with plenty of that mid-'00s electro house acid farting going on. Some tracks even take things into Ed Banger territory, Beep Count Fantastic and Rock'n Roll Is Dead in particular all sorts of garrish, chunky, abrasive electro-trash noisiness. Meanwhile, イエロー・スーパーカー is... happy breakcore? Where did this come from? The future, is where!

As for lyrics, even if I understood the language, the digital effects still render everything almost unintelligible. Which is fine for me who only like nu-italo on a dumb level. Sing about being blue or a Darling Wondering Staring, it all sounds the same to me.

ACE TRACKS: December 2018

Well, that was a disappointing year. Oh, I'm not talking about all that other stuff, though it wasn't any sunshine either. Not that I was surprised by much of it, that Gen-X upbringing bracing myself for all manner of nihilistic developments as history unfolds. Still, there were little signs and portents that maybe, just maybe, things will turn around.

But no, I'm talking about on a personal front, specifically with regards to this blog. The Year 2018 saw my lowest output yet (again!), which is crazy considering I probably bought more music than ever before. It's like, in getting so many new items, I just don't have the time to digest them, taking me longer to form cohesive thoughts and opinions before committing them from fingers to keyboard. On the other hand, I did actually finish my initial goal of listening to everything I have in alphabetical order, so there's that to be proud of. Already feels like an age ago though. Also, since I'm now dedicating one day per week to Patreon-exclusive reviews, that has cut a tad back on content here. Maybe I ought to re-upload those Patreon posts here, after a month of time has passed from their posting? Maybe...


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Aeon Nemesis
Supercar - Highvision
Aquasky - Aftershock
Various - Alien Dust 1
TUU - All Our Ancestors

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 16%
Most “WTF?” Track: Igorrr is as wonky as it gets, though compared to some of the other offerings off that album...

Gosh, what an enjoyable playlist this month turned out. Like, it's already chock full of choice tunes, but even some of the pairings are fun. For instance, going from the faux-live antics of Scooter, to the proper-live antics of Daft Punk, what a contrast! Then you got peppy synth pop, classy progressive house, thoughtful ambient techno, nifty psy-chill, assorted miscellaneous stuff keeping things diverse, and a dash of rock AND roll for spicy flavor. Gonna' make sure this one makes the list of ACE Ace Tracks Playlists!