Propellerheads 'n' stuff

Bijan Pesaran (bijan@charybdis.caltech.edu)
Fri, 16 May 1997 19:51:05 -0700


I picked up a couple of wall of sound tracks recently,
"spybreak" by the propellerheads and hypnotizin' by the dirty beatniks
(on a 'recorded live at the blue note' promo). Both are great, but
what I *really* loved was the song 'velvet pants' on the b-side of
spybreak. Pretty basic beat, but all the elements combine to make a
great track. The trademark propellerheads break was in there, but
there are some 'cool' vocal samples in there ('he's got a great body,
and he's wearing velvet pants' - any aj fashion consultants want to
comment on that one? :) and they use cheesy pianos/organs as well.
Love that tune so much I put it on my answering machine!

Other good stuff I have picked up:

Casanova 70 by Air: My favourite of the Air releases I've heard
recently. On the song, Les Professionelles (sp?) there is a
frustratingly short piece of guitar playing at the end that is
exquisite. Casanova and the remixes sound a _little_ like Funki Porcini's
hed phone sex. Lots of sounds in reverse, you really feel like you
are floating on air. Lovely use of simple sounds that transports you
to another place.

Natural Born Chillers 'Rock the Funky Beat'
Lotsa chopped up beats together with a chuck d sample that gets ya
moving! I like this sound a lot - similar to the 'new style'
track on breakbeat science vol 1 where the beats chop and change every
40 seconds or so and the shy fx killer - "the wolf"

Tipper's mix cd on creative trip hop:
More big beat style trip-hop starting out with a fat boy slim
classic. If you like slim's better living ... or the "amyl hop brit
pop" release i would recommend this one. is this "four-on-the-floor"?

Tipper also has a good song on Dig the Nu Breed, "vanishing point".
Different in style, this song builds up an electronic collage that
conjures up for me: empty warehouse with metallic robots working inside
my g'friend: forest/jungle aural imagery with crickets and the like
so you could say it is open to interpretation :)

bye,
bijan