great writing as usual Brendan, cheers for the reviews.. a few
pile-ons below ;)
On Dec 4, 2003, at 6:21 AM, Brendan Nelson wrote:
Tang - Nightfall EP (Emphasis)
When I got it home and took it out of the sleeve, it turned out to be
on clear vinyl, which was a good start. But when I played it, I was
even more impressed! This record is *right* up my street - sounding
like it could have been made right at the end of the 1980s, or right
at the beginning of the 1990s, it strikes a perfect balance between
the sophisticated synthy Chicago/Detroit sound and the early-90s UK
electronic listening music sound.
This by Chicago techno producer and DJ Steve Tang, Emphasis is his
label. I agree this record is really well done! Steve is a brilliant
DJ too, he grew up on the 80's mix show radio culture here, WMBX, WGCI,
etc. and italo disco, synthy house music, etc. etc... so it's nice
you picked up on those classic influences in his music, he has a
collection of that era of music to die for. He also played at DEMF...
a great techno DJ and producer and super nice and humble guy, who IMHO
is destined for success. Nice score if it was a random buy, too! :)
V/A - A Secret History (New Religion)
What can I say that hasn't already been said - this compilation of
obscure and hard-to-find electronic gems from the early days is
remarkable not just for the quality of the music to be found on it,
but also from the effort that's been put into the package as a whole.
Ditto - this collection is essential. The pressing is so loud and
great! Really clean and clear and well mastered! That mix of
'Problems'.. it's not on the Fuzz Dance 12" that I have, is that
someone's remix? THAT IS MY FAVORITE MIX OF IT! It's got reverb
stop/starts at the beginning and extra sounds towards the end that are
not in the original version. I had only heard this mix on some old
tapes but never on vinyl. Maybe Commander Bond can shed some light?
This is an important collection and so well-done, esp. when compared to
the typical dodgy pressings on legal and not-so-legal compilations of
all this stuff lately. Artwork is ace too...
Los Hermanos - Tres (Los Hermanos)
Hopefully I won't get flamed too badly for saying this, but I was
definitely quite disappointed with this release. The first LH record
was a blinder, IMHO, and the second was nearly as good if not so much
of an outright classic. But I get the feeling that there was a bit of
a "will this do?" attitude at work in the making of this EP. None of
the tracks would be out of place on a Los Hermanos EP, not to get me
wrong - but they're all filler tracks, in a way. There's nothing that
"leads" the EP in the way that "Birth of 3000" or "Quetzal" do, and I
think the record suffers for that.
Yeah I tend to agree here... not as good as the previous two releases
anyway. In a mix they're solid tracks I guess but nothing really a
standout "on it's own" the way the previous releases had.
