Aim023  Add Friend
Name: Alex
Home Page: http://www.myspace.com/transhuman23
Member Since: Aug 24, 2005
Rank: 2811
Average Vote Received: Correct (4.00, 2 votes)
Rated 1563 releases, average: 3.77
Location: The Midwest
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I'm not selling anything out of my collection but I am interested in using discogs as a resource for picking up some of those hard to find albums & singles.

Also, ignore my shitty reviews, I don't know what I'm talking about ½ of the time.
Aim023's groups (48) 		Reviews:

Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine - 28-Dec-06 07:29 AM
Even though the work of several artists in the same vein and from the same period (even 10 to 15 years before in most cases) far surpass this album in terms of dance-ability, poetic angst and especially harshness, this album was to become the be-all / end-all for anyone with an interest in industrial music. At least, until Trent Reznor released each subsequent album of his under the Nine Inch Nails moniker.

The material on this album works because Trent is a songwriter, the writing works because it reads out like an individual, on the cutting edge of Gothic culture no less, spilling out each of his thoughts and feelings.

The tracks vary between several tempos of dark synthpop, and one of the things about this album that Ive always found peculiar is how things begin to drag down extremely right in the middle of the CD, picking up again through the last 3 tracks. This gives the album an odd feel, like taking a downer but coming up from it again by the finish.

If youve already got Nine Inch Nails later material, its perfectly fine to skip this one. Its really only for the serious fan anymore and is also, to be honest, some of the cheesiest "industrial" you may ever hear. In my opinion the three major highpoints are "Head Like A Hole", "Terrible Lie" (the two first tracks) and "Ringfinger" (the last track). These are the three with the best melodies, beats and the faster tempos, making the best vehicles for Trent Reznors rather tame brand of angst.

Various - Space Daze - 29-Sep-06 02:42 AM
This 2 CD set, yet another weak compilation from the label Cleopatra, is marketed as "a 2 hour mind journey of electronic ambient space rock", which isnt exactly the most fitting title they could have come up with. I almost suspect this is merely a veil for a compilation of the best-selling acts on the label coupled with artists that make the former look more influential - this makes for a rather limp listening experience.

While the CDs do have a few artists that are considerably ambient, primarily electronic-based or of the space rock genre, the compilation is pervaded by the usual artists whose material is showcased ad-nauseum by this label. A first glance at the tracklist provokes little more than a scratched head. For instance, seeing Brian Eno, Ozric Tentacles, Nik Turner and Tangerine Dream on the playlist makes sense in this context... but why The Legendary Pink Dots, Delerium (blegh!) and Alien Sex Fiend?

Besides that, a lot, if not most, of the artists featured here are great but like many of Cleopatras compilations the songs selected were not exactly the artists better material.

I would recommend purchasing an album or many from about every one of the artists on this release, but with them blended together this way, everything just seems too nonsensical for me personally.

Auteurs, The Vs µ-Ziq - The Auteurs Vs µ-Ziq - 26-Sep-06 03:16 AM
The story with this release, was that during the period of time that this came out, commercial record labels had finally realized the marketing potential of hiring big name DJs to do remixes of artists signed to their label. Of course, DJs got paid a lot by these labels just to remix another artists work, but a lot of the time the DJs were bored and uninspired by these artists.

Whereas back a few years earlier, a DJ might have done a remix of an artist they really liked or of an artist that had inspired them (a compliment not unlike that of a rock band "covering" another band), now there were all of these DJs being paid a lot of money to remix crap that they hated by artists that were, obviously, just being hyped-up by their labels.

This CD happened after one such label, which was in the process of trying to generate hype for The Auteurs, decided to hire µ-Ziq to remix tracks from The Auteurs album "Now Im A Cowboy". Michael Paradinas (µ-Ziq) didnt like the album at all, was bored with it and just decided to make original music and throw samples in from the other album here and there. The result was, essentially, a µ-Ziq album with cuts of vocals and maybe a guitar-line from The Auteurs album here and there throughout the mix, and had an overall dark, abrasive, drone feel, showcasing Michael Paradinas boredom with the material loud and clear.

The label wasnt sure what to think when they came to pick up the finished product and listened to it. Im sure they were dismayed, hoping for something that would show off a little more of The Auteurs songwriting, which had been completely dissolved with the remixing. They paid Michael and sold the album none-the-less (probably due to contract), and as far as I can tell, a lot of people love it... except maybe those record executives and The Auteurs.

In turn, this CD was one of the first examples of an anti-remix album, or versus album (meaning, loosely, one artist "against" another), and also went on to inspire other remix albums, such as Aphex Twins equally seminal "26 Mixes For Cash" - and by the time that had come out, record companies were already specifically looking for and buying remixes from DJs that sounded nothing like the original artists.

Jacob Miller - Who Say Jah No Dread - 20-Sep-06 08:08 AM
This is classic, and definitely one of the more popular albums showcasing early Jamaican experimentalism and studio wizardry - the dub. Of course, you already know youre getting some of the best just by checking the credits.

Each first track is Jacob Millers own spirited and beautiful roots reggae, immediately followed by a dub mix on each second track by King Tubby.

This almost wouldnt seem much for an album, given that there are 12 tracks (6, actually, considering each second track is just a mix of the previous one), and the album is over in a short amount of time... but it never disappoints once, and is, all in all, one of my personal favourite reggae / dub albums.

Black Strobe - Chemical Sweet Girl E.P. - 19-Sep-06 04:50 AM
Theres no reason to argue the issue: what passes today for EBM is drastically different than what it was about 2 decades ago. What I find interesting about this release is that the apparent influences here seem vastly different than the influences on EBM artists anywhere from 2 - 10 years ago...

Artists such as VNV Nation, Beborn Beton, Funker Vogt or Assemblage 23 could easily have their lineage traced somehow back to earlier gothic and "industrial" musics by tracing the sub-cultures generational gaps and (seemingly) degrading music preferences. It was all very narrow from my perspective, and its dependence on labels like Metropolis (and on clothing stores like Hot Topic) for any fresh interest forced the whole scene into a virtual remission and provoked an internal crisis of identity - at least for anyone not over 20 years old and privy to information regarding the history of it all. Goth had a firm hold on the music, and EBM began to seem less and less an accurate description.

The music on this CD, contrary to most other CDs that have come out in this genre, takes a lot from the increasingly more popular UK-style electro-clash scene, and artists like Tiga, Technova, etc. Somehow (helping to cast off all the mopey-goth nonsense and flaccid posturing of their fellow EBMers) Black Strobe have taken things a little more close to what could be considered real EBM in the new millenium.

Still, at times the music can be kind of goofy and lame and a bit heavy on the synth-popiness. There isnt a whole lot thats dark about the album, its often a bit electro-housey... but its fun to listen to, and its more fresh and moves a lot better than anything in the genre Ive heard for awhile.

Its not my favourite thing... nowhere near as good as Front 242 or Nitzer Ebb, but nowhere near as bad as VNV Nation or Apoptygma Berzerk either.

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