Perfect Stranger - Learning = Change (2013 Update)

Iboga Records: 2006

(Click here to wander the barren wastes of my old writing.)

*blink* ...*blink-blink*

Sorry about that. My eyes dried out while trying to read that old review of mine. I still couldn't get through it. In fact, just thinking about it has left my creative process a desolate desert. I'm utterly stumped on what to say in this Update. It's still a good prog-psy album, far better than most of the material Iboga Records churned out in later years. What kind of material? Ah, you don't want me to tell you, it's really not interesting. I'm going to though, aren't I, just to burn some word count here.

Iboga was making a name for itself in the mid-'00s as a worthy contributor to a growing prog-psy scene, their finest offerings easily on par with the likes of Spiral Trax. Then, for some totally daft reason, the Iboga roster started getting bit by the minimal bug. Their tunes often had a deeper, tribal tone to them, sandwiched between the driving, melodic numbers, but not any longer. Perfect Stranger, Iboga's main man remember, was particularly smitten by this trend, churning out some of the driest tracks you could imagine. I don't know if they ever recovered from that nonsense, as I lost touch with the label as this decade took form. Didn't want to bother springing for music if it was gonna' be the listening equivalent of traversing the Gobi Desert.

I did have a chance to see if Perfect Stranger had changed his sound this summer, as he was one of the headliners at the Shambhala Music Festival. Unfortunately, he was slotted for a ridiculously early time at the psytrance-worldbeat-hippieshit stage, at which point I was slotted to work on the clean-up crew as part of my volunteer duties. Yeah, after six years attending this festival, I gave back to that which gave so much to me – the early-entry, gettin' fed, warm showers, and cool co-workers was a good incentive too. That Friday evening shift, I rode around on the trash collection truck; dirty work true, but a lot of fun too, hopping on a moving vehicle chanting “Trash! Trash! Trash!” along the way, dancing to music whenever we neared one of the stages. It was one, big, moving party, keeping the grounds tidy and that.

Still, my fondest memory of that trip didn't occur at the festival, but the night before my travelling posse got there. We stayed overnight in a small town called Trail, famous for a massive steel mill in the centre. We thought maybe a pub might be open late, but as it was a holiday night, Trail's downtown was dead, not a soul on the street, and a disconcerting sight for us city goers. Meanwhile, looming in the background of this abandoned area lay the massive factory, its evening lights eerily illuminating massive smoke stacks billowing thick clouds into the warm summer night. A real steampunk sight for this day in age.

What? Oh hey, Learning = Change. Still worth a listen, it is. Trust.

Enigma - Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!

Virgin: 1996

Enigma had beaten the sophomore slump on The Cross Of Changes, thanks in large part to songs you couldn't escape anywhere you went. In fact, I suspect it may have been overkill on the casual listener's part, as by the mid-'90s, interest in world-beat pop had significantly dwindled. What, another ethnic chant coupled with Shakuhachi flutes and dated breakbeats? Fah, who's got time for that when 'girl with acoustic guitar' is all the hotness now (then). Michael Cretu, crafty producer he is, also recognized the need to keep his project evolving. Thus his third album, Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!, was promoted as a marriage of his two previous Enigma works. Hey, now I get that title! It's, like, proclaiming old Enigma is dead, but here's new Enigma to lead the way. Deep, man.

Unfortunately, the album itself failed to generate much buzz beyond the lead single Beyond The Invisible, itself memorable mostly for the odd video. I mean, really, what’s going on here: Lola be running to the woods, where a figure-skating competition is being judged by steampunk cenobites (those oddballs on the cover) while tree sprites watch. It’s actually not a bad tune, though clearly a step below such hits as Age Of Loneliness and Sadeness, Part 1 - T.N.T. For The Brain comes close though. I guess if you’ve never cared about Cretu’s vocals, it wouldn’t grab you either. Tough beans if that’s the case, as he sings quite a bit for this album.

In fact, the more there are vocals on Le Roi Is Morty, Live The King!, the less interesting the album is. I appreciate the effort Mr. Cretu puts into his singing, as you can tell he’s giving his limited range all that he can offer (with a little studio boost too), but the tracks he leads on have almost always been the weakest cuts on his albums. His wife, Sandra, adds so much scintillating depth to admittedly daft New Age lyrics, and it’s a shame she doesn’t get more to do this time out.

Musically, The King Is Dead; Oops, He’s A Zombie! is softer than the previous two. Morphing Thru Time lazily coasts, Shadows In Silence floats on tranquil oceans, Almost Full Moon blissfully rocks back and forth in a dreamy daze, and Prism Of Life... well, would likely go good around a campfire. Even the upbeat tunes aren’t as driving in their rhythms as older Enigma, The Roundabout about the closest thing coming to a proper club cut.

LREM,VLR! is a better album than most gave it credit for back in the day, but has the feeling of an ambitious theme that never quite gels. Some trimming of the sappier moments like Why!... (oh God, Cretu just can’t sing here) and The Child In Us (oof, what platitudes) would have helped. If anything, the instrumentals are gorgeous, and worth checking the album out if you’ve been a fence sitter for all this time.

Neil Young - Le Noise

Reprise Records: 2010

It was about the mid-'aughts that I caught the Rusty bug, but even as ol' Neil continued releasing albums of new material at a good clip that decade, I didn't pay his post-millennial output much heed. I had nearly four prior decades of Young's discography to catch up on, and while press for the likes of Living With War or Chrome Dreams II was positive, I saw little point in catching such albums. They were good, so said the journals, but not going anywhere his classic material hadn't been before. Thus I figured I'd stumble along to Young's 2000s music long after the fact.

Then I heard the early promos for Le Noise. Say, this is different. I’d heard him as a solo guitarist plenty of times, but never with an emphasis on fuzzed-out distortion. Also, what’s with these songs about aged reflection? It’s almost as though his head was in an autobiographical mindset when he wrote them. And hey, Daniel Lanois is the producer? Holy cow, Neil ain’t never get professional producers on his work, always preferring the ragged, first-take approach guys like David Briggs provided. How would a guy known for spacious, perfected studio mixdowns mesh with a rocker known for almost the exact opposite?

Truth be told, Neil Young’s something of a music perfectionist himself, always aiming to capture the spark of his creativity as close to the source as he can. Couple that with an almost insatiable pursuit of discovering the highest-fidelity medium out there (he got no love for MP3s), and pairing up with Lanois isn’t quite so surprising. “Give me space for the music to breathe,” said Neil, “and you can use fancy studio gadgets to take it further.” Sounds good to me, as does Le Noise.

Instead of recording in a traditional studio, they set up a make-shift one at Lanois’ Los Angeles mansion, resulting in a fuller sound as Neil’s guitar tones filled large rooms. Also unique to the project was splitting the guitar into two amps, one for rhythm and one for lead, creating audio separation of the two. As Mr. Young’s never been the most technically proficient guitarist around though, flubbed chords are a consequence of simultaneously playing lead and rhythm. Still, as any longtime Rusty will attest, that’s always been part of his charm. As for Lanois’ production, it remains in the background while Neil sings about relationships (of course), global problems (damn hippie), and his sordid drug history (ooh, tantalizing!). When songs go pure instrumental, however, or during a coda, dubby effects emerge, lending Le Noise to something of a shoegaze feeling, though with a producer doing the sonic manipulation rather than the musician with footpedals.

This album received a ton of accolades when it came out, though I figure more for the concept than the actual content since most songs are typical Neil Young: simple. It’s definitely one of his most unique sounding albums though, and a must-have for anyone willing to take the Rusty plunge.

Lodsb - lazer.eyes.love

Force Intel: 2011

When pioneering glitch 'n experimental label Mille Plateaux relaunched in the late '00s, it was swamped by several up-and-comers’ promos looking to join the roster. I mean, when you're new to that scene and hoping to gain prestige, what better way to do so than having a Mille catalogue number attached to your work? Turns out though, some of these promos sent in weren’t weird enough for ol’ Plateaux, but would serve as fine examples of ‘classic’ IDM (bleepy ambient techno, scattershot breaks, etc.). If only there was a label that promoted the stuff still. Since Warp went all shoegaze though, I guess a whole new label was required, hence Mille offshoot Force Intel coming into its brief existence.

So this Lodsb fella' got to release a debut album on the 'net label. The Lord That Knows All apparently knows very little about who's behind the moniker. There isn't even a name assigned to his Discogs page, despite two albums to his credit. Heck, the only reason I know Lodsb is of the male persuasion is because there's a picture of him on his Last.fm profile - still no name, though. Curse those IDM wonks making research difficult.

lazer.eyes.love primarily falls into the breakcore side of IDM, so if you’re a fan of Venetian Snares and the like, this is a good bet for you to download (it was only available as a digital album). The opener, Analogue Arcade, is rather mellow for this stuff, even settling on a pleasant house beat while glitchy harmonics weave in and out. Yeah, you aren’t getting much more of that beat on this release. Second cut Eve lets loose with the cacophonic rhythms, then things go down Squarepusher’s frenetic jazzy acid avenue for a few tracks after. In fact, the next number of tracks all kind of blend together, so short as they are and sharing similar aesthetics, if not actual musical content. It can get to be a bit much though, so thank God Lodsb cuts it back by track six (Bubblegum Hypothesis, if you’re wondering, but it’s not like IDM song titles are meant to make a lick of sense).

Apparently Lodsb has a background in orchestral music study too, which becomes apparent on tracks like Deer Ride, Juno, Rubiq, and Zebra, where arrangements are cut up to form whole new compositions. Heck, Deer Ride forgoes any spastic breaks altogether, and if there is any glitch trickery at play, it sure doesn’t make itself known, sounding as seamless as though Lodsb was conducting a one-hundred-twenty string section himself. Mind, it seems every IDM wonk has to show off his classical capabilities in such a manner, but it’s nice to have such music break up the breakcore on albums like this one.

Of course, music such as this remains incredibly niche, and if even the popular names in this scene hold little interest for you, I doubt lazer.eyes.love will sway your opinion on it. Cool as a curioso, but not much else.

Vector Lovers - Late Shift / Babette (Original TC Review)

Simple Records: 2008

(2013 Update:
Hoo boy, is this ever a brief review. Guess it came at that point where we didn't really care much to review singles at TC anymore, though occasionally something would pique our interest enough to give it a shot. Had I gotten to this sooner in this year, I'd probably have written something about how it was a shame this MP3 single was among the last of Vector Lovers' releases. But lo', he came out with another album this year! Yay and stuffs, I suppose.

Also, in case you're wondering, yes, I do have an obsession with all-night noodle houses. They're quite tasty after a night at the clubs!)


IN BRIEF: Herbert would nod approvingly.

When last TranceCritic left Martin Wheeler, he was still manipulating R2-droid squeaks and squawks into sweet serenades while grooving to electro-coo’ disco dandies in Neo-Tokyo. That was a few years back now, and he has released a couple more albums since his lovely little self-titled debut, remaining quite on the fringe of dance music awareness, sadly. It certainly wasn’t due to a lack of promotion on Soma’s part, but perhaps joining up with Will Saul’s Simple Records will help spur some renewed interest in Vector Lovers, by way of this simple little MP3 single.

It would appear Wheeler has found more funk to his flavor, as both Late Shift and Babette get down on some fine tech-house grooves. The latter is more straightforward than the former, bumping along nicely before gradually bringing in deep pulsing synths accentuated with brief bright stabs. It’s rather old-school sounding as far as tech-house is concerned; I’m quite reminded of the kind of material you’d hear the odd German kick out around the early-mid 90s. As solid of an offering Babette is though, Late Shift easily steals the show.

Even right off, the track’s cool-groovin’ synths and mildly funky rhythms are win, conjuring up 2am cruises through lonely metropolitan streets in search of an afterhours or all-night noodle-house. But this is par for the course where Vector Lovers is concerned. What lifts Late Shift into quirky class territory are funny little sound-effect samples littered throughout. Like what, ask you? Like these, I reply: breezy winds; click-clacky kitchen utensils; a noise that sounds like a saxophone player struggling with a broken reed, but is actually Wheeler’s squeaky fridge door. No, really! ...well, according to him, anyway. Whatever it is, it isn’t used as gimmicky noise either, but rather as though it’s some kind of jazzy instrument. My friends, that’s just daftly brilliant!

Folks who’ve followed Wheeler over the years will definitely enjoy this. If you’ve never taken the Vector Lovers plunge though, this is a fine single to get your feet wet with. While it may not encompass all that is his discography, it highlights his intriguing musicianship just the same.

Various - LateNightTales: Fatboy Slim

LateNightTales: 2007

This was a release I was supposed to review at TranceCritic, but totally flaked on because I had no idea how to approach it. For one thing, I knew very little about LateNightTales, other than it was yet another compilation series dedicated to showcasing the esoteric tastes of musicians and DJs. Fair enough, but with Back To Mine, Choice, DJ-Kicks (sometimes), and who knows what else doing the same thing, I had difficulty drumming up interest in this one. Second of all, the music contained within is very, very, very un-electronic, and for a website that already frequently skewed away from its main focus (trance!), going that far off our beaten path probably wasn't wise (or just bad for traffic). So now that I'm writing on a blog dedicated to all electronic music, but often skew towards heavy metal, prog rock, and even country (but not Western – I do have standards here), finally tackling Fatboy Slim's contribution to LateNightTales just be honky-dory.

I don't know if it's a running theme with this series, but Monsieur Normane Cookie opted for something akin to a mixtape here. He even goes at length in the liner notes about the lost art of the craft, which strikes me as odd even for 2007. I'll grant all the kiddie-Joes out there likely don't care much about it, but almost every music connoisseur I know of appreciates the concept of mixtaping, if not the practical application of it.

And as this is a mixtape mix, there’s hardly any mixing at all; mostly quick blending as a song ends and another begins, if even that. Frankly, I doubt anyone could reasonably mix this music anyway. It opens with a bunch of sunny, psychedelic rock by the likes of Nick Lowe, Mink de Ville, and The Modern Lovers that screams ‘70s, only to follow it up with a run of obscure funk, soul, and reggae of the same era. Oh yeah, Fatboy Slim’s penchant for fun-time music’s in full effect here, and as a bloke who’s undoubtedly gathered tons of vinyl in his time, Mr. Cook’s gonna give us one heck of a history lesson on this stuff.

Since this is such old music meant for singles and radio play, they all breeze by in a hurry, no track exceeding four minutes. There are a few recognizable names in the back half (Willie Nelson, The Velvet Underground, Taj Mahal, Sly & The Family Stone), often rubbing shoulders with utter unknowns like ‘60s r&b outfit The Sandpebbles and calypso singer (plus actor) Robert Mitchum. And of course there’s cute novelty bits like Vince Guaraldi Trio’s Linus And Lucy (yes, from those Peanuts cartoons), Fatboy Slim doing a Senor Coconut-ish cover of Kraftwerk’s Radioactivity (!!), and ending everything with some poetry as recited by Bootsy Collins (!!?).

So an entertaining CD, all said, though not the most essential. If you don’t mind taking a stroll down music roads less travelled, this volume of LateNightTales is a handy soundtrack.

Various - Red Jerry: Late Night Drive Mix

Muzik Magazine: 2002

Oh look, we're back in 2002, and Muzik Magazine's been kind enough to rope in Hooj Choons godfather Red Jerry in for a mix. With that, you instantly know this is gonna be a good ol' prog-athon, of the deep, dark, (dull?), tribal bent. After enduring such a long stretch of plodding McProg beats, this'll be a breath of fresh air. Still, kind of odd seeing a mix CD of such music featured on Muzik’s part, as they were starting their snarky “lol, prog is boring, grime’s the mint, mate!” phase when this came out.

Fortunately, Mr. Dickens provides an excellent freebie of a set. He’d already made a number of mixes the few years prior, including constructing deeper offerings for the Euphoria series from Telstar TV. Curiously, Late Night Drive Mix is one of the last CDs he put out. Heck, his entire discography quickly dries up shortly after this, possibly due to Hooj Choons shutting down the year after. I’ll grant he was more of a label runner than a producer or DJ, but considering the dominance Hooj held over the progressive scene, its sad things ended so limply for him. Oh well, I hear he still DJs here and there, likely caning out classic Hooj with aplomb.

As for Late Night Drive Mix, yeah, it’s 2002 prog, so you get some deep tribal cuts like Creamer & K’s Pipeline Mix of Blackwatch’s Foreshadow, Joshua Collins’ Phonosynthesis, Peace Division’s R U Somewhere, and 16B’s Escape. Meanwhile, Smith and Selway’s dubby chugger Yess makes for a strong mid-set peak, and a Tony Thomas tribal mix of 16B’s The Game hits another high point near the end. Good vibes, all said, especially for those 3am cruises down urban streets in search of an all-night beef noodle house (or the afterparty). I’m still bummed this sound fell off to the degree it did (deep tech-house just ain’t as fun), but maybe we’ll start seeing a retro-return in short order. It has been a decade since it was in vogue, after all.

What gives this freebie CD an extra bit of class over most ‘dark prog’ of the time is the inclusion of breaks and even electro. While it may not be surprising to find PMT’s remix of Creamer & K’s Wish You Were Here in the early going (deep prog breaks!), Anthony Rother shows up at the end with Red Light District. Okay, it’s an obvious cut too (Danny Tenaglia ended his Athens Global Underground with it), but it fits the feel of Late Night Drive Mix wonderfully, and makes for a great blend into the Smith & Selway remix of David Alvardo’s Blue, itself an excellent, pulsing slice of space-dub prog.

So perhaps not the most unique prog mix you’ll find out there, but for a freebie, Red Jerry gave Muzik a definite keeper for folks fancying this sort of sound. Definitely worth a pick-up if you see it lying about cheap in a used shop.

Various - In Trance We Trust 019: Kris O'Neil

In Trance We Trust: 2012

Well, at least I didn’t have to endure a breakdown until two minutes this time, but there it is once again. God almighty, when will this trope- oh, it’s already back to the beats. Well, good then. But I bet this opener will come to a full stop for a standard build-up and- wait, it’s already doing the build-up? Without a pause? Holy cow, and it drops right after the peak; no dawdling, just hitting that anthem instantly. Okay, that wasn’t so bad, but it was just a one-off, I’m sure. The rest of this disc will- oh, wow! The entire first half of this mix has tracks like that.

I’ll grant some builds go a tad long (Cosmic Gate just can’t help themselves), but there’s no sense of momentum lost - just bangin’ tune after bangin’ tune, many with a hooky anthem and hard rhythms. Hm, and snares or claps on every beat, no less; rather like hard house come to think of it. Hey, this isn’t trance at all, it’s anthem house!

Right, so I should have expected it from a 2012 mix CD, as tons of DJs jumped on that genre’s recent resurgence (and stop calling it retarded names like ‘trouse’ or Trance 2.0). I can totally see the euro-trance faithful hating Kris O’Neil’s offering to the In Trance We Trust series, signifying yet another example of the scene they reverently coddled turning to sounds more popular to a general audience. Yeah, well, them’s the breaks, kids. Now you know how the old-old schoolers felt when the Dutch sounds ya’ll loved started dominating trance many moons ago. Stings, don’t it.

Anyhow, Mr. O’Neil’s quick mixes (average of four minutes per track!) of tunes that keep the energy escalating does peter out by the midway mark, after which he indulges in some tepid vocal cuts (dear Lord, that Wanrooy track with Blake Lewis is hokey), and tech bangers for the end. A couple are okay, but can’t match the unabashed stupid-fun the first half of the CD offered, which was more than could be said for so many other volumes.

Thus, that’s the last of the In Trance We Trust series, perhaps period. ITWT019 was released a year-and-a-half ago, and though the label still comes out with the odd single, there hasn't been word on a twentieth volume hitting stores any time soon, digi or not. Gee, I know the whole mix CD market’s got little appeal to most young punters out there, but surely a mega-label like Black Hole Recordings sees some merit in maintaining In Trance We Trust. Did Kris O’Neil’s offering tank that bad to kill it off? Or was the inclusion of so much anthem house a sign that In Trance We Trust no longer trusts in trance?


If this really is the end, then it’s only fitting to have In Trance We Trust put to pasture. Let ‘em have it, guys!

Gen: “Zan’ei!”

M. Bison: “Psycho Crusher!”

Akuma: “Shun Goku Satsu.”






Dan: “Chouhatsu Densetsu!

Various - In Trance We Trust 018: Marc Simz

In Trance We Trust: 2011

I've gone on about how bad some of these In Trance We Trusts are, but they haven't been dreadful-bad or anything. Despite many stretches of misery, unoriginality, or boredom, I can at least get through them with some decent tunes along the way. This one though... Oh God, this one...

Not even ninety seconds in, and I’m hit with a full-stop breakdown. What the fuck was the point of those limp opening beats then? You didn’t mix from anything, Mr. Simz. Either start your set with proper rhythmic build to hook me in, or don’t bother at all – use an ‘ambient intro’ if you’re going this route. Fine, the main track is nice as an opener, but the next track after that has another full-stop breakdown. And the one after that. And after, and after, and practically through the whole bloody CD. So much for set flow. Here’s the start of a new tune, it stops, here’s your dithering breakdown and build, thump-thump, and moving on. And dear lord do these breakdowns ever go on. It’s like the worst of DJ Scot Project, but with plodding prog beats rather than pounding hard trance.

And I thought I’d heard some wretched ‘melodies’ in such breakdowns before. Saint X’ Gabriel has to rank up there with the most overblown Dutch synths victimizing my ears, made even more hilarious by the ‘minimal’ bloopiness that forms the rhythmic backbone. Give me the good ol’ days where Dutch anthems were just supersaw nonsense. Wow, how I miss those alre-

Ah, fack me, I didn’t mean for you to actually include those sort of tunes at the end, Marc! Virtual Vault’s really getting his System-F on with Freedom, Simz teams up with Geert Huinink for an orchestral breakdown-build that lasts nearly three fucking minutes, and Juventa’s As You Are is, well, about typical for the classic Anjunabeats sound. Guess it was alright for what it is, but not after such a pathetically structured set such as this one.

Man, even some of the tunes I kinda like have things working against them. Fefelove & Abramasi’s Try To Catch A Goldfish has strong, spacey trance elements in play, but are undone by a distorted low-end drowning everything out. Ruby & Tony’s Praya kinda tickles my ‘dumb-fun’ centres with its anthem and chopped up McProg vocals, but it don’t last long enough.

Ugh. In Trance We Trust 018 is a total turkey. I can’t imagine the series getting worse after this, but there is still one more to go. Courage, Sykonee...


Is this the worst CD of this reviewing project? Let’s ask the worst Street Fighter, Dan Hibiki, if it’s so.

Dan: “Hey now, don’t be like that. I’ve proven myself in the fighting arena, as I’m sure Marc Simz has proven himself in the DJ arena. In fact, I don’t even need to listen to this to know it’s the strongest CD of them all. Yahoo! Am I right, Jimmy?”

Blanka: “Aaroohoaahoo! (You go, Friend Dan!)”

Various - In Trance We Trust 017: Bobina

In Trance We Trust: 2011

Bobina is Dmitry Almazov, a very important person in the world of Russian trance. Wait, are there any others? I know plenty of Russians have made trance over the years, but beyond the occasional cross-over hit (hi, PPK!), none have made much of an impact on the scene at large. Not Bobina though. He got noticed by a few very important people in the trance scene of Western Europe, and gained enough of a following such that he’s consistently placed high in an online poll many folks used to take seriously. He must have blitzed his homeland for votes, and with no other heroes to support, trance fans of the Motherland dutifully came to his support, a Red Trance Army unlike any seen before. Sort of.

Anyhow, he got a record deal with the all-consuming Black Hole Recordings, and as such got a chance at In Trance We Trust. Unlike the recent string of jocks in this series, Bobina already had some experience in the mix CD realm, so we can expect something with a little more structure despite still being constrained by the same ‘play record label’s latest singles’ politics we always deal with In Trance We Trust now.

The first three tracks are vocal trance. Well f

The first track, Reverie by First State and ‘has some personality’ vocalist Sarah Howells, is kinda fun, only that it’s totally Real McCoy’s classic euro-dance tune Runaway. Whether intentional or not, I haven’t a clue, but you can’t hide that chorus from my expert euro-detection ability (the hook screams mid-‘90s too). The second track has a bored sounding Jan Johnston on it, probably because it was Cosmic Gate originally doing the production. The third track has Hayley Parsons on it, who’s done little singing of note so moving on.

Actually, we don’t get anymore vocals until Bobina’s own You Belong To Me some midway through, and hoo boy is this ever set-up to be the anthem of ITWT017. Most of the tunes before were on a proggy tip, some nice synths and atmosphere created but little in the way of rhythmic momentum. Bobina’s cut practically erupts from there with rolling basslines, ultra supersaw washes and such. Really, it’s copying the ‘big Tiësto vocal remix’ formula, which he does pull off, I must admit.

Some good epic trancers with lovely sounding synths follow (I’m warming up to that T.O.M. fella’), plus some utter wank ones too (oh hi, Carl B). As many of them have halting, overlong breakdowns though, it naturally ruins any musical momentum this set had going for it. *sigh* Nothing changes is this bloody scene, does it.


Bobina’s from Russia. Of course the ‘Red Cyclone’ of the former Soviet Union has something to say about it. What does that big piece of beef, Zangief, think of ITWT017?

Zangief: “Comrade Bobina does the glory of Mother Russia proud, making music for European masses. I prefer the classics, Balakirev and Mussorgsky. Night On Bald Mountain good for wrestling bears in Siberia.”