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Soul Parlor - The Way We Talk - 13-Jun-06 03:30 AM
This album is a little known gem that wouldn't sound out of place if it had been released on Compost or Sonar Kollektiv. If Jazzanova had a more funk-driven sound, rather than a jazz-driven one, it would sound something like this.

My only real complaint is that this album is about 10-15 minutes too long. By the time you get to Parlor Lude 06, you’ve heard everything that Soul Parlor can do. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the album is still solid, with ‘That Something’ and ‘Spacer’ being two of the album’s highlights, but I find myself listening to the first half of this album, then coming back to the second half at a later stage. There isn’t a lot of variation from track to track – the instrumentation, tempo and construction of each track stays relatively the same, but Soul Parlor (and in particular Korben Dallas) know their preferred genre extremely well. The album is mixed quite dryly, particularly over the drums, giving it a quite an intimate, lounge room feel.

‘Friday’ is a strong opener and another of the disc’s highlights. It features sampled flutes and some effective (and effectED) percussion programming laid over sampled funk drums, shakers and keyboard pads. This is probably a good summary of the what’s on offer here, and also brings to light the Soul Parlor’s biggest issue here – where’s the live instruments?! There are a handful of nebulous credits on the back cover (“Claude [EVP on ‘Peanuts’]” for example), but they’re so few in number that it’s hardly worth mentioning. What Lotz and Müller needed to do was recruit a small live band for the project – drums, bass, live organ (ie. not sampled or a synth preset), some additional percussion (bongos, congas, shakers etc), even some live guitar. What they needed, in point of fact, was exactly what Dzihan & Kamien did with their ‘Live In Vienna’ album. While their programming and sampling is right on the money most of the time, and you can pick out the odd live instrument and vocal here and there, you just can’t beat a live band with some electronic flourishes added in post-production for this style of music.

Overall, ‘The Way We Talk’ is a very consistent and enjoyable album, though it is overly long and could do with less sampling and more live instrumentation. It’d be interesting to hear what Soul Parlor could come up with as a follow up to this album, as they’ve got a very nice groove happening on this album. Though overly long, the album flows nicely from start to finish with only two or three average tracks. The highlights for me include:

Friday
Fly By Night
It’s Alright
We’ve Got Sneakers On
Peanuts
Prove Positive

If you’re already a fan of this style, then you could do a lot worse than check this album out, as it is does have a slightly different take on the deep house/future jazz/future funk sound (thankfully!). If you’re after an introduction, then start with Compost Records, OM Records, Naked Music, Dzihan & Kamien, Jazzanova, or some of the more established deep house/future jazz labels and artists.

Peewee* - DJ's Downunder Presents Vol 1 Peewee - 30-Mar-06 08:27 AM
This was one of the first mix CDs I owned. It's a typical mix by an Australian DJ - we have no scene of our own to speak of, so we borrow from almost every corner of the globe, the result being this somewhat mess of a mix (and scene, until recently). It's all happy hardcore from start to finish, but it covers so many variations on the theme that it lacks any sense of cohesion (I mean, does 'Australia' really mix all that well with 'Burning Love'? 'Take Me Away' with 'Hardcore Disco'?)

On the plus side, the majority of the tracks, taken individually, are a lot of fun. 'Cold As Ice' is as corny as they come, but never fails to get your hands up. 'Funkify', 'Back To Unity' and 'Thunderdance' are all decent Happyhard outings. But the cream on this cake really comes with the last five tracks. Peewee suddenly takes us into deep territory as we move from the more serious, yet still comical 'Let Me Suck Yours...' into 'The Ultimate', a track which, though incredibly simple and unoriginal in its arrangement, just seems to work. 'I Need Your Love' is a big, big track and though it is aimed squarely at the charts, it's got a nice big melody and tonnes of energy. 'Rejoinder' is an amazingly good track - it's moody yet maintains constant energy and just sounds fantastic. Then we come to 'The First Rebirth'. Nothing really needs to be said about this absolute classic track, so suffice it to say that between it, 'Rejoinder' and 'I Need Your Love' you have a VERY tasty, trance flavoured end to an otherwise decent-at-best mix.

Ignore the mixing - it isn't technically bad (beatmatching and phrasing is fine), but the track selection and sequencing leaves a lot to be desired. Instead, listen to this as a kind of sampler of a selection of a wide variety of happy hardcore from across the world. This came out a year before the first Bonkers album - compare the two for an idea between a more consistent track selection (Bonkers) and an inconsistent, though fun mix (Peewee's efforts here).

Hans Zimmer And Lisa Gerrard - Gladiator: Music From The Motion Picture - 28-Mar-06 06:54 AM
This is the album that got me hooked on film scores in the first place. It contains one of Zimmer's biggest sounding themes to date (as heard in 'The Battle' and 'The Barbarian Horde') and was also one of the first scores to utilize the old-world, quazi-ethnic vocal style of Lisa Gerrard ('Now We Are Free' being the best example). Unfortunately, this style of vocals, which was something of a novelty at the time this score was produced, has been done to death in the years since.

'Gladiator' is an important score, despite receiving a 3-star average among film score reviewers and critics. It marked a turning point in Zimmer's scoring style that would influence everything he has done since, as well as influencing a new crop of composers (compare this with Steve Jablonksky's score for 'The Island' or Klaus Badelt's score for 'Pirates of the Caribbean').

'Gladiator' marks the pinnacle of a style of film scoring for Zimmer that began with 'Crimson Tide', 'The Peacemaker' and 'The Rock'. But don't forget Lisa Gerrard's or Klaus Badelt's contributions to this score. Both are responsible for the equally memorable 'Earth', 'Elysium' and 'Patricide' themes, not to mention Gerrard's moving vocal work.

If you're after an introduction to the world of film music, then this is an excellent starting point - big themes that have an instant catchyness about them, but infused with enough depth to keep you coming back for repeat listens.

Mescalinum United - We Have Arrived 2002 (Remixes) - 24-Mar-06 06:17 AM
Promo's mix is freakin' amazing! While there are parts of his mix that don't differ too drastically from the originally, he has infused a more updated feel into the whole track. The kick is extremely tuff and Promo even manages to sneak in his infamous 'Vicious Circle'/'Patterns In Chaos' kick here and there. It's accesible industrial hardcore - it flows very nicely, has a solid groove, but is rough and noisey.

It's nice to have the original mix on this release as well, even if only for comparison to the other mixes on offer here. The Advent manage to do a passable techno attempt that is ultimately too soft when compared with the harshness of the original, and Miro's mix sounds like... well, Miro. Although in this case, I find nothing remarkable about his efforts here. It's certainly no 'E-Ville', which is another of Miro's 2002 releases. Of course, it's not meant to be, but it just doesn't have the same spark that many of his other productions have.

Mescalinum United - We Have Arrived 2003 (Remixes) - 24-Mar-06 05:35 AM
This 12" is worth having for the excellent Manu Le Malin remix. Though it does sound similar to his collaborations with Double Face at the time (see 'Zub 234' on Bloc 46 for example), it does give a nice twist to the 'We Have Arrived' sound.

The Aphex Twin remixes aren't new - they're re-releases of his 1992 remixes on R Records. They're fairly decent, but don't compare with Manu Le Malin's remix.

The Lory D mix was nothing noteworthy. I oly ever listened to it once and forgot about it. As for The Horrorist's mix, you'd have to be a fan of his style of doomcore to appreciate this mix. I've never gotten into it personally.

Malin's is the only mix on this release that genuinely offers anything new, as Promo's did on the 2002 Remixes.

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