not all new, but some of em havent been mentioned here I think, but please
bare with me if i just repeat old news....
short takes...
Faze Action - Plans & Designs - actually released a few months ago I think.
This is the first long player from the Nuphonic Label (run by Dave Hill
from Ballistic Brothers). Extremley nice album with heavy house beats. The
interesting thing is the hard influence from old disco tunes when it comes
to strings and basslines... actually, there is a lot of similarities to
Black Science Orchestra, but this is by far better... a great pick...
Ballistic Brothers - Rude System - long awaited new album from B-brothers.
Also released earlier this summer, but heck - what can I say - its
marvelous (love the new mix of Blacker thats nicley titeld (4 the good
times)... a bit softer than earlier material perhaps, more to the
disco/house tip here too, but still - definatley one of the best albums
this year IMHO...
Bentley Rhythm Ace - hmm.... what to say... the SKINT label definatley
rocks the place. This is how one would think the Chemical Brothers wants to
sound like but will never manage too... a bit hard on the Chems perhaps,
but this is great stuff in the same gengre...
Various - Fish Smell Like Cat - strange collection from Pussy Foot records.
Seems to bee mostly japanses stuff, not so heavy on the beat but more of a
morricone goes total ambient kinda thing (wow, i got it there didnt I??
:)... Anyway, if your into nice melodies on the ambient side, check it out,
it might suprise you...
Various - Totally Wired 16 - Acid Jazz records have been hoplesly lost for
some time IMO. But with no 16 of TW they come running back in the front
line of underground music, or something like that... This is acctually an
EXCELLENT collection of great songs. Ranging from old soul/blues like Syl
Johnsons "Is it because Im black?" to marvelous jungle tunes like the
rework of Mother Earths "Non-corporealness) makes it a must in every
beat-heads collection - I can only say welcome back - we missed you - to
the guys at Acid Jazz.....
Various - High in a basement - ok ok, this IS an old release (even from 96
i think) but I missed out on it for some reason. Heavenly has managed to
put togheter an outstanding collection of disco/house stuff on this album.
Standouts are Faze Action, but the rest is just as nice - especially the
wery groovy "Paper Music Issue One" by Downtime, that organ makes it all
worth the money...
Various - Sushi 3003 - "a spectacular collection of japanese clubpop" the
cover says proudly... well... hmm... dont know about that one... clubpop
should be a bit more underground i guess, but anyways its a great
collection of japanese pop (not club, just pop :) for thoose interested.
Pizzicato Five, Cornelius Tokyous Coolest Combo and such might be familiar.
But you also get a lot of fun stuff from more unknown artists outside the
japanese island... among them are: Les 5-4-3-2-1, K-Taro, Mari and Kahimi
Karie (wich is extremley big in japan if i understand it right...). Fun
stuff even though a bit corny from time to time. Tokyous Cooles Combo is by
far the coolest (hmm.. that was not intentional, I promise) with the
instrumental take of "Comment te dire adieu"... well... listen before you
bye it I guess...
Thats it for now, only with a litle something more to say... I had a listen
to a great remix album from UFO the other day... Dont remember what songs
were on it, but its just released in japan (or not to long ago anyway) and
I think its 4 song in about 3 takes each (all song from the new album 3d
Perspective?)... From a quick listen it sounded wery nice and well worth
buying - unfortunatley I dont think its released outside Japan and havent
heard anything about a future release either, anyone else got more info on
that one perhaps??
well, that only leaves to say over and out for this time...
peace...
/marten
marten.brink@mbox200.swipnet.se