Various – Thisoriented

Some years ago the guy behind this label ran the tape-only SPH - consisting mainly of harsh, fairly extreme experimental music by artists both big and small within the field (and to name-drop, they had at least one MERZBOW release). A transitional period (dealing with releases from their own country for a while) led them here, to a place where such violent extremes are thin on the ground (ULTRA MILKMAIDS, while not attempting to fry your nerves with sonic rays, manage to outweight the rhythmic side of their music with noise experimentation, MLADA FRONTA's harder, more in your face assault).

Overall though, this might be regarded as an easy listening album. The majority of pieces use rhythm and beat, and overall there are some nice grooves happening. But this certainly isn't a dance album - there's a soft bassy warmth to this music - hell, its lounge music for my generation.

And while there's the ubiquitous Drum 'n Bass paradiddlin' popping up here and there, the hand on that particular rein is slack, perhaps signaling the coming of a post-Jungle period, a final assimilation of that wildcat style into electronic music as a omni-genre whole?

This album spreads it's style wide without actually ever leaving the central warm theme. Too early really to tell, but this might just join the ranks of 'Classic' compilations - a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining 'whole' rather than an interesting collection of tracks.

Originally reviewed for Metamorphic Journeyman.