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Various - Música Sin Fronteras Vol. I - 09-Jul-09 03:03 PM
GASA, the record label created for and by the wonderful spanish group Esclarecidos, did something unexpected at the mid 90's: sell a very risky compilation, and selling it very well, disguising it as New Age, and popularizing lots of artists unknown in Spain because of it. New Age sounded good as a label of music, like that kind of music that opened your spirit and enhanced your mind - here there was no knowledge of ambient music or such - so, when this was released, lots of spaniards were introduced, in a sudden, to chillout (Frank Fischer), new clasical and minimalistic (Philip Glass, Wim Mertens - who gained nearly absurd reputation then -, Michael Nyman), real new age (Suzanne Ciani, Lito Vitale), some ethnic mixes (Luis Delgado, Le Mystere des Voixes Bulgares) and some experimental jazz (Lounge Lizards). Even Anne Clark is featured here! There are moments when quality is sold in a very broad scale and with unexpected success, and I love when those things happens. Thanks to that this kind of music grew on many people, and in years to come, opened the gates to styles like electronica. I'm sure Suso Saiz had something to do with the compilation, and I'm sure he must be proud of it. What it's better: it works perfectly as relaxing music, and has a really unknown marvel: "Galapagos" by Never Been There, which somehow is standing the test of time.

Monophace - Random Factor - 15-Feb-09 03:19 AM
Right now this album style is set in discogs as "breaks/electro". That gives a certain idea of what to expect on the follower of the fantastic "Cinemascope": less drum 'n bass patterns, more glitches. If the previous album had some bits of the clicks 'n cuts (and microhouse) fashion that made Mille Plateaux and Force Inc/Tracks dominate the electronic world back then, in this one the idea spreads through all the album, making it sound less than a Kabuki side project and more like the rest of the albums of this duo. This, again, makes their tracks sound unique and intriguing, but the sense of melody is weaker this time, some samples are definitively annoying (Time to Function), some tracks seem more underdeveloped than minimal (Lense), and some effects sound more funny than intriguing. Anyway, there is a reason to get this album, the nightmarish, obsessive and powerful "The Need", which sets the psychotic mood perfectly with the vocals by Dahlia Strecker and suggests a lots of terrifying things with her whispering with anger and dispair "how can you say our story comes to an end". Beautiful and scary, it's one of the highlights of Bleckmann/Wenner long and interesting career as electronic producers/composers.

Monophace - Cinemascope - 11-Feb-09 10:28 AM
I've found myself many times realizing that this is my most favourite drum 'n bass album... maybe ever. Yes, among all that amen break craze, then the metalheadz dark sounds, then the organic trends brought by 4 hero, and then the liquid stuff... this is still the album that I find groovy and fascinating from beginning to end, whose rhythm progression I enjoy most, whose melody I dig most.

Why is that? The men behind Clubsessel, Niederflur, Misc. and Van Delta play here their glitchy sounds in a drum 'n bass context but keeping all the style tricks in its most Good Looking Records style. The melodies are in the same fashion, but the sound tricks give them a surprising interest to a tired-and-true style of composition. This means that you have a huge bass for every track, yes, but the rhythm patterns are more complex than usual, with lots of microhouse tricks (a click there, a chop here), not so present than in their following album "Random Factor" (which IMHO is a bit worse) but still necessary to give an intriguing feel to passages like the fantastic "The Ever Present Past". Everything is "synthetic" (the label name, "Precision Breakbeat", described its releases perfectly), and the highest and lowest frequencies blend together in 11 monster tunes. Still sounding like very few things before or after, I think that this is THE neglected masterpiece of the subgenre, and the best thing this talented pair has ever released. Not only recommended: mandatory.

Numbers (2) - Safety In Numbers - 10-Jan-09 02:41 AM
Fantastic album. The Galliano crew and fellow Demus, before deciding on stablishing in the Two Banks Of Four moniker, released this album for the IG Culture label, when they began to appear in lots of albums of the genre. Demus takes the director seat here to make a bunch of songs that sounds a lot more like Afronaught/IG than their previous acid jazz works, with a bit of the craziest experimentation they have in their most inspiring 2bo4 moments. After a gentle cover of Africa, Carleen Anderson and Valerie Etienne begin to shine in maybe their most inspired interpretations so far, taking the monikers of Mardou Fox and Jean Caramouce, and even Gallagher (Earl Zinger) himself gives back vocals and a bit more in most of the tracks. The sound is the most opaque variant of the genre, like the likwid biskit productions, but they manage to blend the vocals in a way that the final tracks sound like a prayer or a lament, very heartfelt. The rhytms are complex as ever, the approach to the Bugz people tricks is noticeable, and the highlights are many, ending with a kind of mad dance around the firing invoking spirits of lust that is "Moonblood". It's so good that many times I miss this approach when I listen to the cheesiest moments of Two Banks Of Four. Very recommended, and more than that if you have followed/liked either of the mentioned groups above.

Earth (2) - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull - 25-Sep-08 05:19 AM
Like other reviewers say, this album is a bit difficult to label unless you listen to it, given the stoner/metal/whatever style that this group has been attached to. I knew Earth thanks to that wonderful gig called "Primavera Club" in Barcelona, where they presented this album and its characteristics: slow, slooow, slooooow jams of echoed guitars with westerner chords that made it a kind of heroine-influenced post-rock, with very subtle progression during the tracks, but post-rock after all. Even with its jazzy bits.

After labeling it, this is a wonderful album too, with its peak just in the middle: the riff of "Engine of Ruin" is addictive and describes the relaxed, just a bit doomed athmosphere of the whole disc. Very recommended, and see them live if you can.

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