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Cornelius - Sensuous - 25-Jul-08 02:21 PM
The mastering on this album is broken. Each track includes a two-second gap, and its quite obvious that almost every track is intended to be gapless. I havent heard the Japanese version of the album, but I assume its probably mastered properly, unlike this unfortunate waste. I want my money back, EverLoving.

The music itself, however, is great. The usual Cornelius lushness is all intact, and this is probably his best work thus far. However, it still doesnt make up for the poorly-done mastering. Did they even listen to it before they packaged it?

Personal (Stereo) - 27-Jun-08 01:11 PM
From Bleep: "Unhappy with the sound quality on the original CDs, for these digital reissues Luke went through his own personal DAT archive and remastered all the tracks."

Kudos to Mr. Vibert for wanting to do this, however anti-kudos for the result. Im not familiar with the original issues of all of these works, but I dont think they could have been *that* bad.

What we get here is a series of remasters that are so bass-happy that almost every track clips and distorts, often very noticeably. Some parts of 6.07 from Visible Crater Funk become so distorted and muddled, that I found myself wanting to go back to the "inferior" version on Plug EPs 1, 2 & 3 just so I could have some sonic clarity back. Likewise, every single bassdrum on "Aerhaart ; Ahead" from Phat Lab. Nightmare distorts so much that I feared my speakers (a) were broken, or (b) would be soon broken.

Another gripe is that inter-track segues have been lost. Especially on Drum n Bass for Papa and Throbbing Pouch, segues and between-track timings appear to have been ignored or left cut-up and awkward, I wonder if Luke Vibert even wants us to listen to entire albums anymore, or just pick-and-choose particular tracks.

Overall, the rather poor quality of these remasters makes me want to find a copy of the out-of-print Phat Lab. Nightmare rather than listen this version. The loudness war is killing music.

V/Vm With True Butchers / Jansky Noise With Spiller - I'm Out Of My Mind And Bacon Rind / Groovemeat (Why Does It Feel So Sick?) - 06-Nov-07 05:39 PM
The best work of V/Vm comes in his sound hacks that are immensely more creative and listenable than the original songs. "Im out of my mind and bacon rind" is definitely one of those.

V/Vms hack of "Out of your mind" by True Steppers consists mostly of frantic pitch shifting with glitchy stutters and time shifting, the pitch shifting especially creating new melodies and chord progressions that dont exist in the original. Quite frankly, the original track is quite dull, just a straight ahead garage track without much imagination. V/Vm has created almost a whole new song that flows amazingly well even through all the awkward rhythms.

Jansky Noises hack of "Groovejet (If this aint love)" by Spiller is more straightforward than the first, mostly using pitch shifting on a low frequency oscillator, but still succeeding in making a more interesting track than the original disco/house track. Sometimes the music gets so high or low it sounds like its going to destruct and fall apart from instability. It occasionally breaks for some glitched noise inserts.

Regarding these two tracks in particular, apparently they were both originally released in the UK the same week in August of 2000. "Out of your mind" was Victoria Beckhams first single as a solo artist (well, shes hardly "solo" here, is she?), and within the week Groovejet took over the No. 1 single spot on the UK charts. It seems the British news hyped this as a personal battle of sorts between the two producers.

I hadnt heard of either of these two tracks, or even the artists until I found this on the V/Vm site, but at the end of the day, neither had made a particular interesting track without the intervention of the fine people at V/Vm Test.

Richie Hawtin - The Tunnel / Twin Cities - 03-Oct-07 08:05 PM
This is not intended to be taken as a wholly original piece. Its an EP derived from a mix album, and Im sure Hawtin is the only DJ ever to have done that. Given that, Richie Hawtins reinterpretations and reconstructions of the artists pieces are fantastic, DE9 | Transitions being maybe *the* finest and mix album ever constructed. Taken in these two ten-minute bits, you really cant get any better. Listening to it, unless youre already very familiar with the source pieces you cant even tell that there are up to maybe 6 or 8 different tracks playing at once.

Rhythm & Sound - See Mi Yah (Remixes) - 28-May-07 08:25 PM
Here it is, the first remix album on Burial Mix. With a different remixer for each track with the tracks presented in reverse order of the original See Mi Yah album, Im sure its in good luck that the track order makes sense and flows well throughout the album (for instance, the Hallucinator remix is one of the louder ones and makes a good closing for the album).

Sure there are a few stinkers here that dont really add anything (Sweet Substance, François K, and Vladislav Delay remixes, which happen to all be in a row), but most the the remixers did great interpretations of the source material (particularly Villalobos, Vainqueur, and—of course—the Basic Reshape, done by the same duo that is Rhythm & Sound/Basic Channel).

Overall, quite a good album.

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