Drew Neumann, Eye Spy, Ears Only: Confidential – Tone Casualties – 1997

  

  

Drew Neumann, Eye Spy, Ears Only: Confidential Review

This CD is the soundtrack to the awesome original animated short series ‘Aeon Flux’ which blew me away in ’92 on BBC Two’s ‘Liquid Television’. A little bit of an outsider in the company of the usual mix CD’s I post about but this is so good it had to be included. It’s full on electronic theme and background music from the show and it just oozes atmosphere and tension.

The whole CD has a very distinct sound, all made from the same group of electronic synth instruments but each track has it’s own character and the range of styles used varies widely while all still fitting together at the same time.

If you’re like me and are into film/theme music and you can track a copy down then I would definitely recommend it for you even if you haven’t seen the show as there really isn’t anything else out there quite like it. Very clever stuff.

‘Hero’s’ is one of my favourite tracks on here, there’s a lot going on, it tells it’s own story and is from one of what I believe to be one of the best episodes. Just playing the music back I can see the whole episode played back in my mind, I must have watched it like 50 times so no wonder really!

Disc 1 is full of mainly shorter tracks with the odd longer example included, disc 2 is mainly the longer tracks running at around 12 minutes each.

This release was my very first online purchase, ever!

Disc 1
1. Intro
2. Ultimate AF
3. Train Station
4. Monican Jam
5. The Torturer
6. Train Cars
7. Breen Lounge Lizard
8. Computera
9. Heroes (Excerpt)
10. Marche
11. Errors Of The Night
12. Gravity
13. Alien Leisure
14. The Dark Prison
15. Phobia Suite
16. The Dictator’s Office
17. Demigods
18. Windtunnel
19. Memory Lapse

Disc 2
1. Choice
2. Clones
3. Paradise
4. The Tragedy Of Flight
5. Underwater Suite
6. Time Pretzel Paradox
7. Closure

Renaissance Masters Series Part 18 – Nick Warren – 2013

  

  

Another much anticipated release for me by Nick Warren, regular followers may have seen the count down timer I had running up to the release of this over on the left column, it takes quite a lot to get me excited usually but for this I was literally counting the days!

I’m going to let you all into a little secret now, Nick Warren’s music is the real reason I started Electronica Restoration, it was originally going to be called something else and be just about his releases. I figured that would be a nice little project to work on but then it grew and grew in my mind until it became what you see before you now.

I told you I found some old boxes in my garage with some CD’s missing, what I didn’t tell you was the panic and horror of realising that, amongst others it was Nick warren’s Global Underground #28 Shanghai and Global Underground #24 Reykjavik that were missing! They eventually turned up, thankfully, as even the second hand prices on those two are astronomical!

With this release Nick Warren has put something together which is truly sublime. Disc 1 is slow and smooth, this moves between chill out and blissed out, there are some incredible atmospheres and soundscapes on here Tripswitch’s ‘Still Seas’ being my pick a real shame it’s only 1:36 long, also DFRNT’s El Spirito has that ‘otherness’ sound to it that fits well here. James Munro’s ‘Ambientworkx7’ is another favourite of mine from this set. This is a lock the front door, lights off, headphones on disc for sure!

Disc 2  changes direction slightly into a more traditional dance mix but keeps the quality and the ‘feel’ of the first disc, the two definitely compliment each other. SimpliCity’s ‘Singing Or Speaking’ stands out for me, there’s a quote in that track that you should recognise, I won’t spoil it for you though. Sam Waller’s ‘I Pointi Pointi’, David Calo’s ‘Moving To Myself’ has a warm and deeply hypnotic quality to it, Tom Glass’s ‘Welcome To The Sun’ is probably my most listened to track across both CD’s. The back end of Disc 2 melds back into the familiar territory of progressive house with some really stunning tracks, which after the already excellent track selection is an added bonus.

My only regret with this release is that I didn’t buy it through Renaissance directly and so missed out on a signed copy! If only Id’ve known! Nevermind, there’s always next time.

Anyway, enough hero worshiping for one review I think, there’s only one course of action for you to take now, buy it, play it, love it!

Disc 1
1. Aurtas – Introduction
2. DFRNT – Nocturn Part 1 (feat. Annabelle Guilhem)
3. Tripswitch – Still Seas
4. Pedro Aguia – The Voices In My Head
5. I Awake – Labryinth
6. SCSI-9 – Ellsworth Land
7. DFRNT – El Spirito (Beatless Version)
8. Circular – City Pulse
9. Cell – Take Off
10. Terje Seather – Oia
11. Nick Warren – Buenos Aires (Luis Bondio Dub)
12. Trip Switch – Sick Teckers
13. Nick Warren – Devil’s Elbow
14. Excession – Amblight
15. Audioglider – Summer Rainstorm
16. Levente – Naja Haje (Amibient Mix)
17. Bubble Club – The Goddess
18. James Munro – Ambientworkx7
19. Yppah – Blue Schwinn

Disc 2
1. Levente – Tunneling
2. Cristian R – Deimos
3. Darren Flecta – In Moments
4. Darin Epsilon – Shine The Light
5. Levente – Csillagok
6. SimpliCity – Singing Or Speaking
7. Doomwork – All About
8. Sam Waller – I Pointi Pointi
9. Cesar Lombardi and Luis Bondio – Toro
10. David Calo – Moving To Myself
11. Tom Glass – Welcome To The Sun
12. Nicholas Ruiz and Marko Zalezar – Choir
13. Miraculum – Constellation
14. Verche – Corals

DJ Culture 2 – Stress Records – 1995

  
  

  

  

This is the one I’ve been waiting for! It’s crazy for me to think I’ve loved these tracks so much for so long and have only just done something about it. As I mentioned in an earlier post I never actually owned this set but was leant it in 1995 (and yes, of course I returned it!) and instantly it burned itself into my mind as a key moment in my own music history. But try as I might I couldn’t get hold of a copy anywhere, thinking about it I should’ve contacted Stress Records directly and got myself a copy sorted.

Nevermind, it’s here now and making up for lost time. This set is so important because it’s the only time I’ve ever come across any disc with my all time favourite track Sunday Club’s ‘Paladian Dawn’ I’m quite certain there will never be another occasion in my life where music stops me in my tracks like hearing this for the first time did, an epic track by anyone’s standards.

Incredibly it also features my other long standing favourite Desert ‘Moods’ a haunting piano track well thought out (apart from the ear splitting sine sweep on the intro keep the volume down for that bit!), a very personal, special track to me at least. The last of the ‘big three’ as I call them on here is Brothers Love Dubs ‘Mighty Ming’ another amazing track, watch for the break down just before the 4 minute mark, awesome.

To this day Dave Seaman and Nick Warren are in my top 5 favourite DJ’s and I’m slowly buying up a lot of their older stuff, having just bought Dave Seaman’s Global Underground 39 Lithuania and Nick Warren’s freshly released Renaissance Masters Series Part 18. On DJ Culture 2 these two share the progressive house sound both distinctive but with their own stamp on each mix. Alister Whitehead’s mix takes a slightly different direction into deeper house with a disco twist, it’s good but my least liked of the three mixes.

Naturally I would recommend this set, but it is more of a history lesson than entertainment, I love it because it connects me to a time when I was just discovering these sounds but it might now be lost on the casual listener.

The packaging on this CD has some very distinctive triangular damage on the cover, maybe it was once yours? It’s gone to a good home.

DJ Culture 1 is virtually impossible to get hold of now but I will keep an eye out for it.

Disc 1 Dave Seaman
1. Sunday Club – Paladian Dawn
2. Reefa! – Inner Fantasy (Incensed Mix)
3. Balouga Boys Vs. Blue Amazon – Gobstopper Soundclash
4. Tabasco – Fixed & Addicted (Dub Mix)
5. Chris & James – Fox Force Five (Play Boys Fully Loaded Dub/Big C’s Break Of Dawn Mix)
6. Claudio Coccoluto – One Love Mix
7. Desert – Moods (Club Mix)
8. Daphne – Change (Fathers Of Sound Sunday AM Dub/Brothers In Rhythm Mix)
9. Coyote – For The Night
10. Route 66 – Revolution (Pappa & Gomez Remix)
11. Chris & James – Ying & Yang
12. Eurythmics – Here Comes The Rain Again (Brothers In Rhythm Remix)

Disc 2 Allister Whitehead
1. Kathy Brown – Can’t Play Around (Big Bump Mix)
2. Daphne – Change (Fathers Of Sound Classic Vocal Mix)
3. Anthony White – Love Me Tonight (Jimmy Gomez Rocks The Joint)
4. Gerideau – Back To Love (Association Remix)
5. Kathy Brown – Turn Me Out (Hardcorey Pump Mix)
6. Joy For Life – Warm It Up (Dub Mix)
7. Full Intention – Tell Me (Vocal Mix)
8. Full Intention – I Miss You
9. Brothers Love Dubs – Ming’s Incredible Disco Machine
10. Alex Neri – Planet Funk (Saxapella)
11. Hustlers Convention – Get Yourself Together (Extended Disco Groovathon)
12. Rusty – Everything Is Gonna Change (Sasha’s Vocal Mix)
13. Brothers In Rhythm – Forever And A Day (Play Boys Mix)
14. Brothers Love Dubs – Mighty Ming (Original Club Mix)

Disc 3 Nick Warren
1. Desert – Moods (Club Mix)
2. Alex Neri – Planet Funk (Chris & James Remix)
3. Tabasco – Fired & Addicted
4. Dubstar – Stars (Way Out West Remix)
5. Markus Schulz presents Spastik Plastic – Engine No.9
6. Alex Natale – Angel Pie
7. Chris & James – Calm Down (King Size remix)
8. Sunday Club – Archive Nova
9. Anthony White – Love Me Tonight (Way Out West Remix)
10. Reefa! -Decadance (Scope Remix)
11. Kamasutra – Censored (Way Out West Remix)
12. Route 66 – Revolution (Nick Hook’s Wobbly Dub Mix)