Sunday 19 April 2015

Various Artists [Monolithic Minds 2]

Now for something completely different, away from the usual Classical, yes i do listen to all sorts of music, and i'm always trying to delve into new forms of music, and since this little compilation looked nice, i thought i'd delve in, i played this while travelling on the bus to and from Church today, i liked the variety, of course there's a degree of monotony, but in a way that's the point of the music.

This compilation comes from Artelier Records, put together in 1998, the front cover is superb, the shoes are by Johan Von Friedrichs, sort of like a bed of nails, except for the feet, 'these shoes are killing me' is very appropriate, though of course 'whats it got to do with the music?', the black lettering underneath is excellent, very sparse, on a white background, i guess the red of the insoles have some sort of meaning eh?.

Now this is the first time i've listened to this disc, and first impressions are a bit suspect, but already i can feel that there's things to like a lot here, my second listening in the future should really reveal a lot more, on this spin i found tracks 5, 8 & 10 to be the most exciting, here's a little synopsis,
5 Friend - Rama Rally [6:37] - This has the feel of steel drums about it, love the start, sort of bleeps at the beginning, and then the strong hard drums come in, so treble that they almost sounds like a cross between drums and cymbals, there's a logical rhythm to it but the drums are all over the place, i can hear all sorts of things going on in the mix, and like layers things are added, what sounds like hollow bamboo or woodblocks [0:34+] really effective, and the low screeching comes in [1:00+], sounds like every half a minute something else is thrown in the pot for luck, and the music quietens out somewhat to reveal tribal drumming [2:50+], a really good drumming frenzy starts [3:58+], sounds like a lot of different drums trying to outdo each other, just when you think the thing is coming to an end, the thing explodes into life again [5:35+].
8 Quant - Dark Phat Fukka [5:57] - A lot more electronic, a mechanical machinery chug at first, with synth doodlings, and then drum knocking sounds come in [0:50+], really effective, it's layered nicely so that themes keep coming back in and building up into a nice frenzy, and like the last track, it comes to a close, only for the thing to explode into life again [4:15+].
10 Perphane - Ezy Modos [6:44] - Ah the opening synth sounds like the aural equivalent of 'cooee', really effective, i love it!, almost random drumming just for the sake of it, and what sounds like vinyl scratchings, lots of drum smashes and hits, and it's the synth 'cooee' that has almost the last word!.

Here's some samples on the AllMusic website, though of course 30 second samples doesn't do the album justice.