Superior jazz-inflected techno from Ian O’Brien, on Ferox. One of the best labels for as long as it lasted. You can feel the roots of the genre in this one. It’s an undulating flying carpet of machine funk. Machine funk that also crosses over into jazz and house. There’s a real Brazilian feel to the percussion and a great attention to modulated detail. The dynamics are amazing and the sense of eternity implicit. Wondrous stuff.
A logical choice to follow Mark Stewart and a track that often bombs around my brain. ‘Beef’ takes me back to the heady days of 1990, the tail end of my first year at Sussex University and the Glastonbury festival. Three drug-fuelled days spent with friends from the campus. I have no idea how much I slept, or if I slept at all. I know I only went to the bog once and it was cathartic. I slept in someone else’s tent because mine had been hijacked, and there was a sound system about 50 metres in front of me blasting out ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back’ on repeat. Thankfully that changed to ‘In A Silent Way’ just before dawn. By then, however, the damage had already been done and, admitting defeat, I set off with John Hassay to the folk tent. It was in full swing and we ate ice cream and chatted to a Scottish lad there about different types of acid. ‘Beef’ was big on the main field sound system, which added to the apocalyptic nature of the whole occasion.
To my eternal regret, I never saw either The Pop Group or Mark Stewart live. And it’s too late now. We do, however, have a rich back catalogue of his uncompromising musical and idealistic vision to call upon at will. And ‘Hypnotized’ was his first solo release after the split of The pop Group, here extended and mixed into an industrial dub nightmare by Adrian Sherwood (who else?). And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just as much about the ambience as anything else here, with Mark Stewart’s vocals taking a minimal role, but overstatement is the enemy here. Concision is everything. Lovely Burroughs sample too. The instrumentation is provided, more or less, by Tackhead under the guise of Maffia Members.
Unmistakably Reed Planet, albeit not as banging,=. All of the recognisable elements are present. The string stabs, the instant groove, the spaced out, woozy synth and a constant beat. All combine to make this track one that feels more constant than most. There are some jazzy bits as well. The percussion rises and falls as if it were trying to accommodate soloists. This sounds like techno that could have been played at The Loft. It has that drama and aura of togetherness. Positive stuff.
This is from Coleman’s fourth album, and obviously a lot more conventional than what came later. And what came later is an acquired taste. ‘Ramblin’’ is aptly named. It pootles along nicely, like I do on some of my more recent runs. Loads of lovely soloes to enjoy. And, in spite of its relativity, it has a mind of its own.
The A side of a release which also has an amazing B (‘Time Is Running Out’). ‘Re-B1tch’ is one of those tracks which, contrary to popular belief, may sound a little better pitched up. ’Tis of no matter though, as pitched down it could also slide into many a psychedelic disco set. I reckon I’d refer it in full groove flow though, aligned with some very dubby house, designed to keep the beans effervescent and at peak time delirium. A permanent slow burner.
A piece of timeless vocal house music from A:xux, aka Abacus, aka Austin Bascom, who is truly one of the unsung deep house producers, even if he gets kudos what he gets isn’t enough.And this is fabulous. Atmospheric, soulful, jazzy and powerful. Taken from the film ‘Bagdad Cafe’, but nothing like the original. I’m glad about that because watching that film at the Screen on the Hill in 1987 with Peter Pulford brings back vivid memories ozone of *The* great acid trips. I have no idea where we went after the film, but before it started we went on one of those LSD walks that you do, going past and exploring the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. I mean going into the hospital and walking around it like a couple of weirdos. The film came next and was incredible, the cinema was almost as good as the film, so we had it to fall back on if things got boring, which they didn’t. One of the great acid experiences was had that night. I think it was probably when later we were on the tube and got off at Wood Green to listen to the escalators, which we thought were descending into hell. I have no idea where we ended up, but it was one of those life-defining experiences. I haven’t watched the film again, but coming across this track today has awoken all sorts of memories. All of them good.
Listening to this feels like the last thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye. Electro has been going through something of a renaissance in recent years. When this was made though, it was maybe fifteen years into its lifespan. And this, as now, didn’t sound dated at all, even if a lot of its building blocks had already been well-used within the fraternity. Anyway, this blend of handclaps, concave end, multiple uses of the “fresh`’ sample, and a vocoder, amongst many other things, show the way forward then just as they did then. A proper piece of break-dancing madness.
