The standout track here is B1 "I Want You Girl," a dirty booty hip-house banger. Sort of a Chicago 4/4 house take on the sex-laden Miami bass that was popular at the time (think housed-up 2 Live Crew). About what you'd expect from a booty track, with the goofy narrative of a sexual pursuit gone wrong. Nothing special, but sure to get asses moving. Also has a catchy chorus with a squelchy lead that almost resembles mid-00's electrohouse.

I was fortunate enough to pick up on this through Frankie Bones' 1990 Quadrant Park mix, and it's a good thing I did. What an uplifting, soulful house track. It has just about everything you could want: funky basslines, nice disco-y strings, and a cool rhythm with fills, breakdowns, and woodblock noises. The tracks have a lot of variation with many different sounds coming in, and the basslines switch up and change at different points. It wreaks of a late-80's sound in the best way possible, with a kind of innocence and positive attitude that's rare to find in electronic music.

This is classic Chicago acid house in its truest form. It has perhaps one of the most memorable basslines of the style, and a distinct chopped vocal sample. The theme of the track is about what you'd expect... calling a ladyfriend a hoe for dancing with another man! Obviously that doesn't go over on all dancefloors, but it's the musical content that counts. The variation of the bassline -- as well as the contrast between breakdown and buildup points -- work to give the tracks a nice progression. At the same time, the sound is quite minimal and never too squelchy or ostentatious. Also unique is the lack of dependence on offbeat high hats - instead there's more of a raw "hissing" in a staggered pattern. This is in my opinion one of the best Chicago acid house tracks, and it definitely shouldn't be overlooked.

This is a contemporary acid house track somewhat questionably masquerading as a classic Chicago one. The label design is an obvious nod to Trax, and they even went so far as to hand-etch "RELEASE DATE: MARCH 1988" in the runoff groove. It's "distributed" by "Chicago Records," which has an office on "2 ST PLACE," of all places. Hmm, never been there!

The 303 (or more likely, 303 emulation) is resonant and squelchy, which gives the track some rawness, although not to the point of convincing me it's a true '88 track. There's also a long, washy, heavily DSP'd sample of what sounds to be a British Green Party member giving a speech about marijuana. That kind of works against the authenticity as far as being a true Chicago homage.

I was almost duped with this one. Good thing I have a sense of humor. The blank side will have the honor of meeting my stylus whenever I need to balance my tonearm.

This record is pretty amusing. It's a blatant sound-alike of Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock," complete with trademark Arthur Baker-style beat and the pitched-up Kraftwerk "Trans-Europe Express" sample. To top it off, it's pressed on some truly flimsy vinyl... sketchy. It adds some goofy samples, a keyboard solo, and a somewhat cool vocoded chorus. A testament to the direct influence of New York electro onto the Miami bass scene.

At the end of the day though, records like this are still fun (you can pretend it's a super-rare remix of the original!). Forgotten novelty records like this are one of the many joys of digging the $1 bins.

Heavily sampled in the pop rap hit "Shake" by Ying Yang Twins. Also used in the Microsoft XBox 360 "Jumprope" commercial, possibly because it was recognizable from the YYT track... possibly because it was cheaper to license? Or just because it's a sweet kitschy track!

This release is such a great idea. As noted above, it's the beatless (and bass-lightened) versions of some of Kaito's melodic house tracks.

First, these songs sound beautiful without beats (seriously, how much house pays this much attention to the melodic orchestration? No beats *or* basslines, and it still sounds great). Hugely listenable melodic ambience.

But this is also a DJ and remixer heaven -- put any beats and basslines you want under these tracks, and they're bound to sound good. Great tracks for DJ sets like "Air Rider" have a whole new life and become customizable. House it up, house it down, it's all good. Or just sit back and listen.

A great album that I despised on my first listen. The first track sounded totally dissonant to me, and the others just sounded disorienting and noisy. I stopped the CD half-way and tossed it in storage. A month or so later, I decided to give it a second listen, and the difference in my perception was amazing. Everything that put me off the first time seemed to come through expressively, and the first track now sounds great to my ears.

I would have to say that My Bloody Valentine were a really influential band, and at the risk of cliche, "ahead of their time." Just look at the album cover -- I can't believe that's from 1988 because it looks like something that could have been released today. "Isn't Anything" makes clear that MBV were deeply rooted in rock, and some of the tracks on here are tainted yet relatively straightforward (punk?) rock songs. But the more interesting tracks are mixed in highly novel ways, with atmospheric, highly filtered sounds -- I'd call it "pretty noise" -- enveloping and transforming the traditional rock ensemble.

The fact that electronic instruments are apparent on some tracks (that has to be a drum machine on the first track, right?) isn't what makes this interesting as influential electronic music. What's really interesting here is the production style: mixing and manipulation of the recorded material as means of composition. This album doesn't seem to suggest that you're hearing a facsimile of a live performance; instead, it's a composition that exists as a unique work within the recorded medium. That is really the essence of electronic music.

The album does seem a little disjointed, like maybe the various tracks were recorded at different times or in different modes (different studios, setups, etc. -- I could be mistaken). But I don't really see that as a flaw, because it makes for interesting pacing and dynamic changes. You get stuck in a droning, washy track, then you're immediately jolted back into up-front guitar riffs. It's a difficult listen and may require some adjustment, but I think it's worth it.

MBV has definitely influenced contemporary electronic artists -- not surprisingly the "indietronica" acts in particular, but many others as well. Dntel's "Life is Full of Possibilites" has been one of my favorite records for several years, and certain tracks on that record are indebted to MBV. But in a broader sense, I think they really pioneered a new style of composition that pushed rock in a different direction, resulting in some of the most expressive "noise" I've heard.

Not engaging for me all the way through, but beautiful in places nonetheless. I don't consider it a disappointment at all -- did people expect them to keep looping "Born Slippy" for all eternity? The fact that they took on a lot of odd directions for this album confirms for me that Underworld is an art collective, not just a bunch of pop stars. (But they probably like being pop stars too.) As noted above and rarely contested, Two Months Off is an epic track on a level of success with Born Slippy. Completely beautiful and bright to me -- it's a song about naive love and the inspiration that comes with. It's why I like Underworld so much -- on one hand they're a true "electronic" act, but on the other hand they make songs about life more than tracks about machines. Their songs are about something sorta consistent I think (maybe inner conflict and loss involving love interests?), and so I feel them in a completely different vein than most other tech/house. Anyway, I'm getting off track.

So yeah, Two Months Off is without a doubt the highlight of the record and a nice thing to hear after the melancholy and somewhat anxious opening (which is covered with a beautiful stream of vocals by the way -- I can't overlook how nice Hyde's voice sounds even when his lyrics reach the point of absurdity). What a great freakin' track. The thickest bursts of synths, samples, pads, chords and whatever the hell you could imagine crammed into the mix. The beat almost seems like an afterthought. I admire the engineering on this track because the percussion is unusually concealed in the mix -- you could probably take it out and still have a great track. But it's 909 programming at its best and goes a bit beyond the thump-thump underpinning of most Underworld tracks ("not that there's anything wrong with that") by getting quite spastic in the breakiest kind of 2-step manner. You do sorta have to turn this track up though, since it's not super-maximized and can sound a little washed out -- at lower volumes -- next to the flaringly finalized DSP sounds of today.

Next up they take the "let's get kind of chilled and conventionally instrumented" route which is fine by me. Why should they have to keep churning out dance anthems? Smith seems to know a thing or two about music and plays some nice stuff here. But no, wait, no.... -- hey, it turns into a dance track! And a quite nice deep techy housey thing nonetheless. Lingerings of Detroit. Good.

I'm not going to go through all the tracks, but basically they're very good until I hit "Trim." They were definitely trying to be "creative" here with some kind of folk/country/808 fusion thing going on. Doesn't work for me. It's not totally bad, it's just a case of, if I want to hear that kind of music I'll put on a different kind of album. Oh yeah, then they get into a classical guitar thing, which is kinda the same deal for me. But damnit, it's what no one expected them to do, and that's why they did it and that's why people hate on it and that's what makes this album awesome.

Dinosaur Adventure 3D is yet another decent high-energy sawtooth banger. Leutin is an deep, entrancing epic about loss, disillusionment, and depressed states. It closes the album very, very nicely. I like this a lot. If you don't like the "alternative direction" tracks, skip them, but this is without a doubt the container for some of Underworld's truly memorable work.

I heard track B2 "Caution Radiation Norton" from this release on an Autechre Solid Steel radio mix. It's actually quite visionary for 1984. It has disorienting, syncopated rhythms, a pseudorandom arpeggiated "melody," and very cool robotic/alien ambience. A mysterious precursor to our much more contemporary ideas of the "IDM" sound. Interesting. I have no idea where I'd find this release, but I'd love to hear the other tracks.