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Cognition's September 1999 Electronics Report and Chart
Summer’s out for school, and labels seem to have gotten off their lazy asses to start releasing again. Be sure to tell your mom the cafeteria has jacked up its prices so you’ll have more lunch money to spend on headphone food cos music is the food of life (or something like that), ain’t it? Anyway, get hopping and tell your local record emporium to get these aural goodies in for ya. The soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” gets mangled and fed through the V/VM crew’s soundgrinder on The Caretaker’s “Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom.” Who is The Caretaker? Why, you are The Caretaker. You’ve always been The Caretaker. Vox Barbara’s “The Five Senses” (US Little Man) strips things down further with its dark ambient and industrial sounds; originally released on cassette a couple of years back, this is now on CD with special handmade packaging. Next on your list, Johnny, should be the forthcoming album from Patio on the New Zealand based Involve label. And who is Patio? Aspen + Jet Jaguar = Patio. Aspen’s “Are You That Retail Snob?” had Bevan Smith debuting the Involve imprint, Michael Upton’s Jet Jaguar followed with a selftitled LP, and then the two spent a few Saturdays together to come up with Patio’s “Parallel Play”. Something for the lover of electronics, from downtempo to uptempo, electro and everything in between. It’s damn good, and perfect for all those scaredy cats that can’t handle the pressure of the release sitting at #1 on this month’s chart. Antarktika joins the list of American electronic wunderkids with his sametitled debut EP that is already winning him much favor. And from Canada--the wee country that many a tourist is shocked to find ain’t really the land of igloos and nothing much else—Montreal’s MP3 label No Type (www.notype.com) has online a variety of electronic music from the likes of Thomas Jirku, Oeuf Korreckt, and others for you to check out and potentially purchase. This quaint town is also the home of the Canadian HQ for the mighty Ninja Tune, who’s about to unveil beaucoup de quality beats and rhymes on DJ Vadim’s “USSR: Life From The Other Side” and The Cinematic Orchestra’s “Motion” that is pretty darn brilliant and full of jazzy rhythms and Nina Simone-esque vocals jostling with assorted soundscapes and studio trickery. On the Ntone sublabel is Si Begg’s Cabbage Boy producing some “Genetically Modified” wacky electronics that have the funk and then some. Back to the UK and Warp moves from Squarepusher’s “Maximum Priest” EP to an album from Plone; “For Beginner Piano” is sorta like a more wigged out Jimi Tenor (minus the vocals) and features plenty of vocoder, organ, and bucketloads of analog keyboards. Looking for some downtempo delights? The Dub Funk Association follows up their “Enter The Chuzzler” 7” with a full length release—“Sounds Of The Heavyweight” that stays true to the dub foundations while dragging them forward to the year 2000. Peter Kruder takes a break from working with Richard Dorfmeister and comes up with a selftitled LP from his Peace Orchestra project that, while in the K & D way of doing things, manages to sound fresh and different nonetheless. The Kaleidoscope have our ears on alert for their forthcoming album due in the fall on their PiknMix imprint; try to grab the limited edition sampler that’s floating around right now for an advance taste. If you’re looking for some straight up jazz with no fooling, Compost nevers fails to please. New on the label is the fine funkage of Procreation’s “Us vs. Them” EP; look for an album soon. And you definitely need to give Vanessa Daou’s new project a listen; “Dear John Coltrane,” (US/UK Oxygen Music Works) is a sensual ode and tribute to the great man as only Daou could do. For the drum n bass addict, you’ll want to investigate “Hell’s Kitchen” for the Junkyard sound of Ming + FS (Om), the dark, tearing force of Keltech’s “Carbonised” 12” (UK Pyraplastic), and the “Metro Breaks 99” compilation on Nice + Smooth out of Toronto for some of the latest local up and comers plus a few heavyweights too. Gotta go, the teacher just noticed me scribbling this note. Write back soon. Cognition Electronics Top 30 1. The Caretaker—Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom (UK V/VM
Test promo)
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