On Sat, 26 May 2001, Arne Weinberg wrote: > Can anybody tell me which records of Kirk DeGiorgio are his best???? > I know his newer stuff with some broken "Nu-Jazz" beats. I don´t like > that too much but the older stuff seems to be great. I know the > Future/Past "Hyperspace" on R&S. Greeeaaattttt!!!!! > At first I thought this was on the IDM list, but it seems that for some obscure reason a question on Kirk DeGiorgio has strayed on 313. How nice. I'm going to involve some hubris in this and post this on 313 anyway, though it might have been better suited for the IDM list. You've been warned, a lot of trainspotting ensues.
You probably should start off with a now-defunct New Electronica label, though the releases are getting scarcer by the day. Starting off with his first album, ``Reflections'' (ELEC5LP/CD, 1994), an excellent piece of electronica, and it's companion 12" (ELEC6T) with the tracks ``Mihara'' and ``Dance Of The Uighurs''. This is early, melodic, detroit-influenced material and very much worth searching for. Staying with New Electronica, they released a vinyl-only compilation of the first four A.R.T. (DeGiorgio's own label) releases with some tracks by the man himself, as Future/Past (``Clinically Inclined'', ``Nebula Variations'') and As One (``Amalia'' and ``Isatai''). Limited to 1000 copies, ``Objets d'A.R.T. (ELEC9LP, 1994) is very hard to come by - but not as hard as the original ART1, ART2.1, ART2.2 and ART3 compiled on that release. As a side note, ART3 is all by Carl Craig under the monikers Psyche and B.F.C. - as a returned favour Craig released a slightly different version of ART1 on Planet E as PEART1. There is yet another version of ART1 on R&S, RS92010. Still on New Electronica, the remix album of ``Reflections'', not surprisingly called ``Reflections On Reflections'' (ELEC23LP/CD, 1995) contains probably some of the best remixes ever made out of DeGiorgio material, from Balil (Black Dog Productions), Carl Craig, B12, Russ Gabriel, Urban Tribe and the likes. Very much worth searching for (I have an extra copy without proper covers if you'd like to have it). ``We No Longer Understand'' (12", ELEC25T, 1995) starts to display the signs of jazz permeating DeGiorgio's music. From percussion-based samba/jazz to detroit-influenced electronica, this 12" would lead the way to a more experimental As One direction. ``Celestial Soul'' (ELEC26LP/CD, 1995) is the first "new" album by As One, with more and more evident jazz influences. Excellent album, though, but not as detroit-ish as his earlier material. ``Objets d'A.R.T. 92::95'' (ELEC27CD, 1996, 2xCD only) collected some of the best A.R.T. material from the now already defunct label (DeGiorgio moved on to run Op-Art since the acronym A.R.T. (Applied Rhythmic Technology) was already in use, thus Op-Art - Operation Applied Rhythmic Technology). Future/Past, Balil, Psyche, B.F.C., Esoterik (another DeGiorgio alias), Phenomyna (Steve Pickton alias Stasis), Elegy (DeGiorgio) and Redcell (Golding/Rutter of B12) - a beautiful compilation of early IDM. New Electronica saw one more compilation with DeGiorgio ties, ``Objets D'A.R.T. III'' with some of the best released Op-Art tracks - with two tracks from the very sought after Likemind series, Elegy's ``Flights Of Fantasy'' and As One's ``Lights''. Other featured artists are Autocreation, Paul W. Teebrooke (another Steve Pickton alias), The 4th Wave (Steve Paton), Sensurreal and Photek. Fabulous. On to Likemind, a very short-lived but fabulous label with four releases, LM-04 (1996) featuring the abovementioned Elegy's ``Flights Of Fantasy'' and As One's ``Lights'' There is the Future/Past release on R&S that you mentioned, ``Hyperspace'' (RS96098) - similar to that I would recommend Future/Past and As One's release on B12 (B1203), but I don't think that one can be found anywhere anymore. On the French Shield label, there is an album called ``The Art Of Prophecy'', a bit of a return for DeGiorgio to his earlier detroit-influenced material, with even some drum'n'bass thrown in for good measure. Then there is the (also very scarce nowadays) Clear label, run by Clair who is alson responsible for one of the recent years' best new labels, deFocus. There is an album called ``The Message In Herbie's Shirts'' (CLR417), released on vinyl only but later released on CD with extra tracks, renamed ``In With Their Arps And Moogs And Jazz And Things'' (CLR430CD). The three extra tracks were also released on vinyl for us vinyl freaks as CLR430 12". But they are still worth searching for, especially for one of my all-time favourite As One tracks, the 12 minute ``Epic''. On Mo'Wax, ``Planetary Folklore'' is definitely DeGiorgio's jazziest endeavour. I haven't got anything by him after that, because I just don't have enough time to keep following everything I'd like. There are also two mixed CD compilations on Extreme, mixed by the man himself and displaying his prowess in combining electronica with jazz and new breakbeat, drum'n'bass and other music that has influenced him. There are the 2xCD ``Checkone'' (XTR22CDM, 1996) and ``Synthesis'' (XTR48CDM, 1998). Both well worth checking out - even just for the mixing. It's not impeccable, but the diversity of music makes it all click. There are some that I must be forgetting since there is so much output by DeGiorgio, but the above is probably the meat of the matter. I'm prepared to go out at the moment, so I'm a bit too fidgety to ransack my shelves for the one-offs and remixes he has made, but if you want some more information, check out http://www.kirkdegiorgio.com/ - that should give you the fix you need. The original question - what are his best releases - truthfully, I'm totally unable to answer that. I love the diversity of his work, so I'd probably have to recommend everything. There are high and low moments. As Beaumont Hannant states on his collection of "out of context" tracks (his own words), ``Sculptured'' (GPRLP9, 1994, on the now also defunct GPR label): "I want you all to hear my failings as well as my successful compositions, so you will then have a true representation of my work." Cheers, I'm off to a party. -- nuutti-iivari meriläinen gordon at diversion dot org http colon slash slash www dot diversion dot org slash --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
