Dance Reviews

Rip It Up, Issue 235, 1 March 1997, Page 25

Dance Reviews

NONPLACE URBAN FIELD Goldenstar (Incoming!) A collection of remixes plus a few new tracks from German Incoming! Records artist Burned Friedman, mainly drawing from his two excellent previous albums, NUF Said and Raum Furnotizem. The material, fiddled with by both NUF and others such as Muslimgauze and Scanner, ranges from quirky drum ’n’ bass reminiscent of Funki Porcini to tracks that have been so worked over by the digital meat grinder they don’t even have the same titles as the original. Some of the stuff in this latter category seems a little annoying at first, but does grow on you over time. Goldenstar’s highlights are the three consecutive reworkings of the track ‘Whimp’, by Porter Ricks, NUF and Scanner respectively — a sublime rhythmic journey of over 18 minutes that sounds at times* like there’s a dwarf standing by your speakers tapping two pieces of wood together. Eerie. JUSTIN REDDING

APHEX TWIN Singles Collection (Warners) Richard D James, aka the Aphex Twin, is one strange hombre. This compilation, produced to coincide with his Australian Big Day Out performances, features material from his Donkey Rhubarb, Ventolin and On Remixes EPs, and would make a good ‘my first Aphex Twin CD’ for the as

yet uninitiated. A wide variety of Aphex styles are covered, from the prettiness of ‘On’ through to the abrasive ‘73 Yips’ and ‘lcct Hedral’, his orchestral collaboration with celebrated composer Philip Glass. Worth having as an entree to his soon to be released new album, which promises to chart even stranger new territories. JUSTIN REDDING DAFT PUNK Homework (Virgin) This is quite simply the best dance album released this year. Daft Punk are a couple of French lads with a penchant for Brian Wilson, Bob Marley, the Black Crowes, Carl Craig, Eric B and Rakim, Todd Terry and, well, just good music in general really. All these influences have been thrown together into one of the most outstanding house albums ever made. What really sets them apart is that vital ingredient in dance music — tha phonk — and Homework is overflowing with it. They also have a tendency to do very strange things with the EQ settings, as heard on their fantastic ‘Musique’ single, which results in music with depth, an almost 3D sound. I won’t bother singling out particular tracks, just rest assured, this is an album proper as opposed to a collection of club tracks. Absolutely tearing 909 drums, 303 acid, mind warping studio tomfoolery, and lashings of French style and wit. Like the Chemicals, Leftfield, Underworld and the Prodigy before them, Daft Punk are the next dance act to cross over, and on the strength of their music alone. As inspirational as it is essential, Homework is disturbingly good. ANDY PICKERING WESTCOAST CONNECTION Bowdown (Virgin) Ice Cube: “Our initial intent [as Westside Connection] was to dominate everything west of the Mississippi, then to take over everything east of the Mississippi, and eventually worldwide domination.” Yeah, well, fuck you Cube, ’cause honestly, bro, from where I’m sitting this whole East vs. West Coast thing is played out. This whole album is a testament to what is wrong with hiphop. Almost every lyric that comes from Cube, Mack 10 and WC (Westside Connection) is negative, and most of it is either dissing East Coast, as on ‘All The Critics in New

York’, bragging about guns and killing (er, pretty much every track really), or disrespecting women in a most unsavoury fashion (‘Westward Ho’). Along the way they dis Cypress Hill and Q-Tip, who could rap the ass of any of the Westside Connection any day. Musically, this is above average West Coast gangsta groove — hell, they even sample Nine Inch Nails on ‘The Gangsta, The Killa and The Dope Dealer’ — but lyrically, this is so behind, it’s not worth your time. ANDY PICKERING SOURCE DIRECT Two Masks/Black Domina (Science) After a couple of dark singles from Photek, this is the latest release from Virgin’s breakbeat imprint. It’s encouraging to see a major label that is not afraid to release the real deal, and in signing Photek, and close associates Source Direct, it’s fairly safe to say they are not interested in releasing watered down drum ’n’ bass for mass consumption. No, Source Direct have always made totally uncompromising, deep, moody, experimental breakbeat, and this single is more of the same. ‘Two Masks’ is an eerie passage through murky synth’s and edgy samples, with drums that are nice and loose. ‘Black Domina’ is a bit more purposeful with a fuller bass, but the drums are still very live sounding. Both cuts sound like the soundtrack to Friday the 13th, ‘Jason Does Kung Fu’. The two lads who are Source Direct are aged about 19 and 20, and they already have considerable studio knowledge — their future is exciting in the extreme. ANDY PICKERING

TONIC Renegade/Delta (SOUR/Subtronix) Absolutely storming new single from the new look SOUR camp. If you’re familiar with ‘De Niro’ by the Disco Evangelists, then ‘Delta’ is like the breakbeat equivalent — epic chimes, deep atmosphere, and sharp trancey breaks. ‘Renegade’ has slightly ruffer beats, and a sample that goes something like, ‘You just wanted to go out like a soldier, standing up, not like some rag ass renegade in the dirt.’ Edgy breakbeat that sucks you in and spits you out. Nice one. ANDY PICKERING VARIOUS ARTISTS Urban Electronic Disorder (Emotif/Subtronix) Effectively, this is Techsteppin' volume two. Volume one came out last year and virtually invented a whole new sound in breakbeat, which we can loosely, call techstep. It’s the sound favoured by the likes of Trace and Ed Rush — you know the score, metronome, stepping breaks, hoover bass and a general sense of uneasy paranoia. It’s a hydroponic thing, apparently. Anyway, Emotif have done it again. Urban Electronic Disorder takes things to a whole new level, make no mistake, this is a no-com-promise soundtrack to urban chaos. With tracks called ‘Tha Shadow’, ‘The Anger’, ‘Biohazard’, and ‘lmplants’, and artists like Genetix and Freq Nasty..; well, you get the general idea. If you heard Trace and came away with your sanity intact, this is probably the best place to continue on another mission to the edge of futurescape drum ’n’ bass.

ANDY PICKERING