Ultravod

Name: Dan the Illuminator
Home Page: http://testtone.net
Member Since: Sep 14, 2002
Rank: 3086
Average Vote Received: Correct (3.78, 18 votes)
last 10 days: Correct (3.69, 13 votes)
Rated 913 releases, average: 4.14
Location: Western Massachusetts, USA
Profile: Top artists for the previous week:

Hells bells, I haven't updated this in forever. I'm still a grouchy Yankee. I'm still an electronic music snob. I'm now so old an hopelessly unhip that I haven't foggiest idea what the current genres of electronic dance music are. Given how awful they sound, I can't say I'm sorry. I've just completed work on a mix project I started in 2004. Link finally available. Go here and download it in your choice of formats.

I like ...anything that doesn't suck. I'm generally in favor of Oliver Lieb tracks, and generally opposed to female vocals (unless it's Emiliana Torrini ...mmm).

Requests for records in my collection or CDRs/mp3s will be mercilessly ignored. Trades and offers for things in my wishlist welcome. However, I have absolutely zero interest in guessing at what you want for something. Requests to "make an offer" will be met with stony silence.

These days I don't do much online that doesn't invole music.
See the link above for my radio show.

last.fm profile.
MySpace page.
Flickr photostream.
My lighting company.

I've successfully done business with the following oggers:
md
tilted
JDubs
TIM
djbrian
thegreg
flosi79
simplygrooves

Buyer Rating:

100.0% positive (1 rating)

Ultravod's groups (24)

Reviews:

Morcheeba - What New York Couples Fight About - 25-Jul-08 04:19 PM
Ive been listening to Morcheeba for over a decade at this point, and Ive always enjoyed their music. Its smooth, groovy trip hop, and makes for delicious ear candy. That said, its never carried much emotional impact for me. No ones going mistake Morcheebas sound for the work of Portishead. This song is a notable exception in Morcheebas catalog in that its painfully emotive. I first heard it in 2002 on Charango, when its unusual title attracted my attention. The song gripped me right away, and quickly became my favorite, even above the dreamy "Otherwise," and wickedly humorous "Women Lose Weight." The reason for the songs impact is no secret. Kurt Wagners vocals lend a confessional feeling and somber tone not normally part of the Morcheeba palette. Skyes arrival mid-verse offers a shimering counterpoint to Kurts lament. The truth is What New York Couples Fight About is really a Kurt Wagner song with Morcheeba guesting, and not the other way round.

DJ High (2) - Ambient Planet Vol. 1 - 16-Jul-07 12:09 PM
Quite a strange release here. Purported to be a DJ mix, its hardly mixed at all. Each track stands on its own, with only slight crossfading at the end. The track selection is fairly incongruous, and not in a clever, juxtaposed way. I have no idea who DJ High is, but I am thinking he lives up to his name. Furthermore, this is one difficult CD to find. It was released on a small label in Brazil with terrible distribution. All of that said, it really is worth tracking down. There are several exclusive tracks here, and most of them are quite good. Kode IVs "Helios" is catchy accessibly progressive trance thinly disguised as goa. CBLs remix of their own "Silent Running" is possibly the best thing theyve ever done. They took the already-excellent original and made it substantially more emotive and compelling. It is worth employing whatever means necessary to get a copy of this disk.

Andreas Krämer & Thomas Pogadl - Lecker Mädche' EP - 04-Apr-07 05:25 AM
I am by no means an expert in German, but "Lecker Mädche" roughly translates to "Licking Girl." It follows then that track B1 contains the spoken sample "Give me head / Until Im dead" continually looped throughout it. Krämer & Pogadl have visited similar lascivious themes on other records. Schranz is not generally to my taste, but this record is a notable exception. If pitched all the way down, its mostly mixable with more traditional techno.

Chino (4) - Winding Down / Copantl - 14-May-06 04:01 AM
To those unhip to drum n bass parlance, the terminology of the genre can seem rather odd and obscure. While there isnt a dnb glossary printed on the label of this release, the A-side will clear up at least one junglist definition: it is the embodiment of a "roller." Like many great tracks, its deceptively simple. The beat is straightforward 2-step made with standard thwack-a drum hits. The build up to the bass drop is well executed but largely textbook. In fact the whole arrangement has very effective tension and release, but its nothing remotely new. Whats brilliant here is the main riff, which has more groove than a ribbed condom. "Winding Down" is a case where the synergy between the different elements makes the whole far more than the sum of its parts. It is a shining example of what drum n bass can be, funky, uplifting, and loaded with energy.

Chris.Su - Sphere EP - 14-Feb-06 04:49 AM
Quite a mixed bag here, really. "Need You Tonight" is not awful, but is ultimately forgettable. "Bad Girls" is one of the most painfully annoying dnb tracks I had the misfortune to hear in aught four. "Do you know that bad girls have to listen to this track?" "Futile," on the other hand, is much better. The main bass riff is a bit lacking, but the track overall is a decent-ish piece of creepy neurofunk. The real gem here is the title track, with its claustrophobic menace, uber-tight percussion and well-spaced development, it is top flight neuro. What raises it head and shoulders above the deluge of similar tracks is the clever sample of the breakdown from The Prodigys "Smack My Bitch Up." Even sped up and slightly filtered, its very recognizable for those who know. Brilliant.

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