Fairly decent selection of rave tunes. But Cookie Jar put a couple too many tracks on the cd, so things got cut short. While there is a handful of tracks that stuck out, I specifically picked this up from a dollar bin for The KLF track, although it was cut down to 3 minutes 26 seconds (it isn't listed as a edit on back of the cd case). New Atlantic's "I Know" is a classic. Skin Up's "A Juicy Red Apple" is a prime example of rave's hilarious side. Blame's "Music Takes You" is an early piece of drum and bass originally put out on Moving Shadow records. There's a lot of good stuff on this.

There are only 2 bad offenders on the compilation. The Sly and Lovechild track, which is just weak as a tune. And the Clivilles & Cole track which overlooks complex reasons for poverty and takes an overly simplistic and bizarrely conservative Anti-welfare (such social assistance) stance in its lyrics.

I first heard Intelligent Univers from a recording of a Spin Masters (of 808 State) radio mix done back in '93. The A-side is a slow paced trance track. It edges on both goa and ambient house, building up an atmosphere, over the beat and main riff, based on sci-fi beeps, a fragment ("Maximum distance from the sun") from the track 'Albedo 0.39' by Vangelis, a repeating voice asking "How do you feel?", an abstract female vocal, a trumpet riff, and other samples.

The cd doesn't give the title, but the Orb and KLF collaboration is called 'Borrowed Love'.

The Orb and Coldcut collaboration isn't a track they did, but rather is a portion of a mix called '3D Rhythms' they did for KISS FM. I don't know all the songs from the play list in the short segment presented on this cd; but the songs I recognize included in this Orb Coldcut mix are at least:

'Life After Death (Beat Untold Mix)' by Ultraworld
'Don't Fight It, Feel It' by Primal Scream
'Fast Forward the Future (The Orb's Bucket and Bong Mix)' by Zodiac Youth

The Orb track is not far from the original version; basically a truncated version of the original Star 6&7,8,9 with some minor tweaking. The Got to Be Jerkin Edit was never released before Big Hard Disk 2, and has never been re-released since, not even on the Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld Deluxe Edition. I personally prefer this tighter, edited version found here on this sampler; keeps the beauty of the original with less of the slower filler. The Orb tried to get too much mileage (goes on for a few minutes too long) out of the original version of Star 6&7,8,9 found on "ABTU".

The Sheep on Drugs track is cool, with the "Burning Church of Baby Jesus" vocal, its a bit techno-punk (proto-electroclash?. Holy Ghost's track 'Heavy Water' is a nice dark-techno track. Both these 2 bands (Sheep On Drugs and Holy Ghost) are massively under-appreciated.

The remix of the Grace Jones track is exclusive to Big Hard Disc 2 (both sampler and actual album). It's the weaker of the 4 tracks available on the sampler. It's not a terrible track, just nothing amazing. I wish Smash Records had chosen any other track from the compilation to put on this sample vinyl.

I have this album, but on cassette: ASW 6119 4

Steve Fisk's Express God is spooky as sin. Great stoner album for 7 tracks; a pleasant adventure into sound... until this evil thing comes out of the speakers. Then the last 2 tracks (Mike Kandel & Aphex Twin) save the day.

This is an excellent compilation there are no awful tracks (one creepy one). But I specifically got this for the Future Sound of London track; it's exclusive to the compilation (on all 3 versions: tape, cd, vinyl).

Immortal is an awkward track that ruins the flow of the album. Stylistically it's sticks out against everything, and overall just isn't that great of a track anyway. But everything else is perfect.

Sasha, rather than one guy, is more a collective effort along the lines of The Orb or UNKLE. Its not to say Coe isn't a good producer; it's just he does do his best work with other people, like Charlie May.

Coe was aiming for an album that matched the Wow factor of Leftfield's Leftism. The 2 are completely different animals, Leftism being dub influenced and having vocals, while Airdrawn is pure instrumental prog. But yeah, Sasha & Friends created a classic.

I mean this is a good way, but Sasha's Airdrawn and Expander EP remind me a lot of Vangelis or Tangerine Dream.

I'm trying to bust myths that are placed on discogs-dot-com. So here's my second myth busted...

It is untrue that the album only plays on regular cd players and has security features. However, I got my copy the day it was released, so it could be possible that early prints weren't copy protected.

I've transfered tracks onto my computer and made copies. The cd I have was purchased at a ligitmate store and is a true Kenetic version of the album. On the linernotes it has the same catalogue number as this listing, and the UPC code on the back insert has the catalogue number followed by a 7.

A great album, just press skip right as Immortal beings to start up; or make a cd-r copy with everything but it.

Ghost in the Shell: Megatech Body Cd

This is a majorly huge techno album. All the tracks are awesome, and the album flows cohesively, building an intense cyber-future soundscape. (It's the perfect counterbalance to the soundtrack to the GiTS movie, which is a really brilliant ambient album.) And the artwork of the poster-style liner-notes is astonishingly detailed manga madness. I first heard about this release from Dan Sicko's book "Techno Rebels", listed as one of the top techno soundtrack albums - an honour it deserves.

There is a bit of confusion as to the identity of the Derrick May track. It is truly indeed "To Be or Not To Be (Off the Cuff Mix)". I own both this album and Derrick May's _Innovator_ album, which has the original mix "To Be or Not To Be". The two are comparable; basically the same track with minor tweaking. (It's more of a remix for audiophiles, rather than a major overhaul type of remix.) I wish I kept a copy of this, but May even spoke in an interview about producing this remix of "To Be or Not To Be" for the video game soundtrack. "Mysterious Traveler" is good tune, but this is not a remix of the System 7/May collaboration at all.

Rating wise, I'd say 5 out of 5 all the way. It's an under-appreciated album. This Sony Jpn compilation holds its own, and is in the same class as classic Tresor compilations.

The 3rd-person shooter video game, by the way, was really good, although unfortunatly released in small numbers. You, as a rookie Section 9 cop, controlled a Fuchikoma police vehicle in environments that kept with the feel of the original movie and manga. The game even featured original animation by Production IG.