Chicks Dig Acid

[zrath]

Here's some eMusic stuff that's been rockin' my iTunes jukebox and WinAmp playlists lately:


A brand new album by Eat Static?!? OH YES!!!
Behold your new intergalactic overlord! DE-CLASSIFIED!!
Eat Static was formed in 1990 by two members of the psychedelic space rock group "Ozric Tentacles".
They got interested in techno and trance and put out all sorts of wonderful flying saucer-influenced CDs on the always
fun Planet Dog label. I own pretty much all those CDs. The style ranges from breakbeat and drum'n'bass to psy-trance
(psychedelic trance or goa trance), with occassional sidetrips into jazz, lounge and latino grooves.
This new one, "De-Classified" contains a nice cross-section of tracks, with the focus being on psy-trance.
If you like Israeli trance pranksters Infected Mushroom and tribal gods Juno Reactor, you should already know Eat Static!
They're the Original Gangstas of psy-trance! And they have a sense of humor! Reprezent!

Here's one from an act I know nothing about: Bagman - "Trax"
The base style is drum'n'bass, with other stuff thrown at it: surf music, Indian beats, old school breakbeat, Japanese music.
Normal D'N'B is boring, and I only like it when it's unusual and/or when other stuff get mixed into it. "Trax" delivers.

Next is the oddly-named B(if)tek, whom I suspect of being French. ("Biftek" is slang for "roast", derived from "beefsteak")
So I Google them and sure enough, they're in fact a pair of Australian girls from Canberra! But of course! :D
They say "biftek" is Japanese for "steak". Something else the Japanese borrowed from the French. :)
Anyway, this is their first album, from way back in 1996: Sub-Vocal Theme Park.
There were only 500 CDs pressed, so it's awesome that eMusic got the rights to it and put it in the store.
The album is a collection of various tracks with different styles. I can't really pinpoint it neatly.
One track sound like mid-90s German trance a la Harthouse. One sounds like Hardfloor-style acid. One sounds like the suave
acid funk from Dr. Walker and his Cologne posse. One sounds like spaced-out psy-trance. One sounds like dream lounge.
I do know one thing: I like it. Give it up for the Aussie girls! They know how to make you move!

Meanwhile, DJ? Acucrack has a new album out. I pretty much download anything by these guys by default.
They're toured with KMFDM, so that gives you an idea of their style: techno-industrial-rock-breakeat-mayhem!
I remember buying an advance copy of their first album after sampling a few tracks on the store CD player and really liking
what I was hearing. This first album is called "Mutants Of Sound" and is available on eMusic, along with every single
DJ? Acucrack album released so far. Apparently, the actual name of the first album is the far less snappy title of
"The Mutants Are Coming And I Believe They Are Of Sound". And the number 420 has been added to every track name.
Not sure what's that all about. But it sounds exactly like my advance CD, so it's all good. Very good!
So anyway, the new one is called "Humanoids From The Deep". The style is more industrial doom drum'n'bass sci-fi.
I would recommend checking out "Mutants Of Sound" first. It's more versatile in style than "Humanoids".
The second album, "Sorted", is also very nice, with the totally unstoppable thumping "Chicks Dig Acid" track.
The drum'n'bass style is much more prominent in the third album ("The Dope King") and beyond.
The fourth album, "Mako VS Geist" is pretty good, using copious Gary Oldman samples from "The Professional" (aka "Léon").
"Death... . . ...Is whimsical today..."
It's pretty hardcore drum'n'bass though.

And finally, here's something I didn't even know existed: Ultramarine - "Companion"
Back in '90-'92, there was a band called Ultramarine that made really nice soothing English countryside ambient dub music.
It was a bit like Boards of Canada without the '70s weirdness, or The Orb without the space drugs.
I own two of their CDs: "United Kingdoms" and "Every Man And Woman Is A Star". "Companion" is a remix album for "Every Man".
It contains a few remixes and a lot of alternate versions probably made during the original album's recording sessions.
Guest remixers include Sweet Exorcist (aka Cabaret Voltaire), Coco Steel & Lovebombs (an early '90s favorite), and Spooky.
I relistened to the original tracks after getting "Companion" and I was amazed at how good that stuff was. Even after all
these years, this is primo noisemaking. I can't believe I forgot all about these two little gems in my vast CD collection.
Ultramarine makes for a nice contrast after listening to the robot apocalypse of DJ? Acucrack. :)


The computer here at work really sucks. For starters, it's really slow: it's a P4 running at 2ghz, but it has built-in
graphics, so it might as well be a PIII running at 500Mhz. Also, today between 1pm and 2pm (aka lunch), it completely
forgot what an M3U file was. It wasn't even listed in the file type directory. I had to manually recreate the M3U entry
and associate it with Winamp so I could accurately listen to eMusic preview snippets. Ridiculous!
My laptop at Amp'd ran rings around this thing, and it was only a mid-level spec machine.
I have an Athlon 1.7ghz machine with a 256meg video card at home and it's lightning fast compared to this thing.
Blargh, whatever...

Have a pleasant rest of day!