SequenceC
Polyfusion Modular
Kaptain Karma
Noise, glorious noise
Posts: 17,648
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Mutiny
Jul 16, 2010 12:52:30 GMT
Post by SequenceC on Jul 16, 2010 12:52:30 GMT
I can't count how many times you've made me laugh out loud.
BTW is the music similar to Wife Beater and Pylene 50?
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Mutiny
Jul 16, 2010 13:04:40 GMT
Post by hashtronaut on Jul 16, 2010 13:04:40 GMT
I can't count how many times you've made me laugh out loud. BTW is the music similar to Wife Beater and Pylene 50? P is just the WB under a diff name, edited differently iirc, but we relised that WB was just not gonna sit right with some
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SequenceC
Polyfusion Modular
Kaptain Karma
Noise, glorious noise
Posts: 17,648
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Mutiny
Jul 16, 2010 13:08:40 GMT
Post by SequenceC on Jul 16, 2010 13:08:40 GMT
I can't count how many times you've made me laugh out loud. BTW is the music similar to Wife Beater and Pylene 50? P is just the WB under a diff name, edited differently iirc, but we relised that WB was just not gonna sit right with some You can say that again Wasn't the WB logo in the same style as a certain Hollywood company? ;D fu.cking hell I'm cracking up now
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Seeker
Arrick Modular
Stuart
Dun dun duuunnnn!!!
Posts: 15,337
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Mutiny
Jul 17, 2010 20:37:24 GMT
Post by Seeker on Jul 17, 2010 20:37:24 GMT
A small review:
A really easy way to start the review of this CD would be to bill it as “The CD from Pollard Daniel and Booth without Pollard” but I won’t. That’s too easy. But then again, that’s exactly what I’ve done in an arch, post-modern way. How Paul Morley of me.
Back to the CD. Let’s deal with the aesthetics first. This CD, like all releases from EEMC (and the Pollard, Daniel, Booth) it doesn’t have a five minute Photoshop crimp-off with track and gear list, it has cover ART (a portrait of the artists to be precise; a concept often missing from EM releases and betters quite a few commercial releases I can think of.
Artwork is one thing, but what does it sound like? Well, if you read the description on at least one well known EM download seller’s site, it has “A darker more experimental edge than the PDB recordings” and "in yer face". But, given that their previous recordings as “Wifebeater” and then as “Pylene 50” were dark, claustrophobic and just a bit scary in places, how dark can it be? Well, because I have slightly wussy tendencies, I waited until there was daylight before I played the disk, just in case.
Track 1. “Mutiny”. This album sets it stall out pretty quickly and doesn’t hang around with the usual ‘cosmic’ beginnings – no drones, no noises just straight into the meat of it with some crisp, John Carpenter style, synthetic percussion, a solo sounding like it’s played on Rick Wright’s Farfisa and a single sequence starts which is joined by some subtle effects and given a bit of room to breathe before the percussion morphs into electronic cymbals and paves the way for Michael Daniel’s busy guitar solo which then proceeds to dominate the middle half of the track. This guitar / sequence section is redolent of Hoenig / Gottsching’s “Early Water” but with a heavier guitar sound and doesn’t meander for 45 minutes. The guitar stops, some more FX, a subtle lead line and then we’re back into more of the guitar work-out to the end.
Track 2. “Rogue Sentinel”. This is the ‘odd one out’ on this release. Whisper it softly; this one is not “Berlin School”. It starts off like it is with FX and slowly filtered lines straight and a soft lead that wouldn’t be out of place on “Picture Music” and all very Berliny and dreamy it is too until a couple of cymbal hits and *BOOF* it launches into a power trio workout between (real) drums, fuzz bass and more of that lovely busy guitar. And not that awful leaden four-to-the-floor drumming you normally get with EN either, this is pretty inventive stuff that owes more to Jack DeJohnette than Harald Grosskopf. The overall effect is like Side 1 of Terje Rypdal’s “Whenever I seem to be Far Away”, or if you don’t know that, the nearest EM equivalent would be Richard Pinhas either on his own “Paul Atreides” or on Heldon’s “Perspective IV”. And if you don’t know either of those, shame on you, you should. More sequences and lead synths see the track out before it’s hijacked by a drum flurry and rides out back through the soundscape from the beginning of the track. Phew.
Track 3. “Morphotron”. Calms the whole thing down. No guitar on this one, just silky pads and a slow, lazy sequence that evolves over the 20 minutes joined by other sequences, soft leads and complements the 50 minutes that precedes it Can I add more than that, no, other than to say it sounds like something from Schulze’s more recent period. Not the stand-out track from this album but sounds like it belongs.
So, the summary. Or, the bit you’re more likely to read than the rest. How does it compare to PDB? Is it darker? Should you buy it? Well, it isn’t like PDB - there’s none of that Moog modular shenanigans and, horror of horrors, no Mellotron. I wouldn’t say darker either, just different. Although you can never get away from the gravitational pull of TD or KS when you make sequencer based music, Daniel and Booth haven’t followed a stylistic path of least resistance to make a “PDB-Lite” album. This album has enough familiar elements in it to ‘click’ with fans of EM and then takes a left turn to take you a bit further to give something a bit different and if not immediately satisfying, it will reward with a few listens.
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Concept Devices
Roland System 700
Martyn
keep right on going and dont look back
Posts: 10,742
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Mutiny
Jul 17, 2010 22:30:52 GMT
Post by Concept Devices on Jul 17, 2010 22:30:52 GMT
Nice revue Mr Bazoomas
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create
Korg Mono/Poly
Steve H
There is more to life than EM.
Posts: 498
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Mutiny
Jul 17, 2010 22:33:45 GMT
Post by create on Jul 17, 2010 22:33:45 GMT
Stu's review is good as it was an album that didn't impress me on first listen.
Maybe time for another listen.
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SequenceC
Polyfusion Modular
Kaptain Karma
Noise, glorious noise
Posts: 17,648
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Mutiny
Jul 17, 2010 22:39:03 GMT
Post by SequenceC on Jul 17, 2010 22:39:03 GMT
Nice in depth review Stuart
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Mutiny
Jul 19, 2010 7:28:50 GMT
Post by hashtronaut on Jul 19, 2010 7:28:50 GMT
Cheers Stuart - thats a very nice review - thank you
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Seeker
Arrick Modular
Stuart
Dun dun duuunnnn!!!
Posts: 15,337
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Mutiny
Jul 19, 2010 7:44:43 GMT
Post by Seeker on Jul 19, 2010 7:44:43 GMT
Cheers Stuart - thats a very nice review - thank you YW Please feel free to use any bits you like.
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Mutiny
Jul 19, 2010 7:48:58 GMT
Post by hashtronaut on Jul 19, 2010 7:48:58 GMT
Cheers Stuart - thats a very nice review - thank you YW Please feel free to use any bits you like. all of it - just gotta bulid the fu.cking site now am i ok to post on EMportal if it aint already?
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Mutiny
Jul 19, 2010 7:53:48 GMT
Post by hashtronaut on Jul 19, 2010 7:53:48 GMT
oh - youve done it already - nice one - your faster than a rat out of an aquaduct you are
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Mutiny
Jul 19, 2010 8:04:33 GMT
Post by hashtronaut on Jul 19, 2010 8:04:33 GMT
s'pose I ought to do a review of the PDB ones now.... its a good way to get free copies from now on ;D
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Seeker
Arrick Modular
Stuart
Dun dun duuunnnn!!!
Posts: 15,337
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Mutiny
Jul 19, 2010 8:07:08 GMT
Post by Seeker on Jul 19, 2010 8:07:08 GMT
s'pose I ought to do a review of the PDB ones now.... its a good way to get free copies from now on ;D That's not the motivation. If the best review is the SMD one's, they're a bit, er, terse.
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Mutiny
Jul 19, 2010 8:15:19 GMT
Post by hashtronaut on Jul 19, 2010 8:15:19 GMT
its a good way to get free copies from now on ;D That's not the motivation. If the best review is the SMD one's, they're a bit, er, terse. i never thought that was the motivation, silly moo. But you do write a nice review, so youve just been promoted (or demoted haha) to "staff listener" cos i just never want to write about anything ive ever been on
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