Metalheadz Platinum Breakz - why is Doc Scott's Unofficial Ghost retitiled on the US version of the PB set?

Lemon D's In My Life is simultaneously tender and brutal.

Heh, quite. I was looking at that and my old Speed Limit comps the other day...

I sent you an email about what you might like in trade for the reinforced cd. Let me know what I can send to you.

Just got a copy of Shy FX's "Sound of the Beast" EP in the mail today...

well the lst bit isn't true, but it was still bloody scary

have been grabbing a load of John B stuff from around 2 years ago - it's fucking superb, the man is a god

I listened to this a couple of weeks ago. I put it in expecting it to sound awfully dated, but that wasn't the case at all. It sounded amazing.

I was going to start a thread about it, but never did.

they did a track called "dark jazZoR"!! the eps that they stole the tracks for the platinum breakz from are probably their best output.

definitely search their remix of "the wall with paintings" by reflection. it starts out with plucked bass and an almost two-steppy drum pattern. then odd treated guitar plucks start bouncing around, first hanging in space like chimes, then stretching across the stereofield like honey. there's a bit of static that comes out of the left channel, shaped like a icicle, stretching into the right channel, ascending, then filtered until it breaks up into a weird skitter, like talons unfolding or something. but the whole thing has this very 70s mellow jazz vibe - someone called it "slowed-down cop show theme music" and i might agree with that. anyway, it's hot.

source direct had the "two masks / black domina" ep that people should have been paying attention to instead of "ni ten ichi ryu". "stonekiller" a bit over the top but "mind weaver" off their album is pretty great in technicalitch style. actually tech itch kind of makes later "source direct" irrelevant for me. (did anybody else ever hear "diagnostics"??)

photek was always listenable but looking back the tracks haven't so much dated, it's just that they're awfully ... quiet. i put on middle section of "modus operandi" at full blast a couple weeks ago expecting to be blown back against the wall but it just sort of clattered away in the background. the super-minimal oriental tracks would be great if those cymbal crashes really made your head ring and eyes wobble or if the big kodo drum shook your knees but the sound is so bone-dry it just doesn't have an impact. anybody care for the tracks he does as "special forces"

j. majik = has gone completely to shit

I'm going to find my copy of Diagnostics and reacquaint myself.

Didn't Technical Itch become Kosheen?

Yes! "Dispatch "2" FOREVER!!!!

But yeah I concur with Platinum Breakz and esp. "The Unofficial Ghost" being the immortal shiznit. That whole rhythmic danger thing I was banging on about a few months ago was inspired by the snares in "The Unofficial Ghost".

With Substance, right? Plus the singer obv?

I can remember when "Hide U" first hit d&b clubs. It was like the most amazing thing in the world at the time, esp. because DJs used to sandwich it right between really hard evil stuff like Total Science or Bad Company.

How happy I'd be, for one, if Reinforced did exactly that!

if by "atmosphere" you mean the aura of anticipation and hype surrounding the guy in 1995-1997 then yeah i'd say you're right. i've never been as excited to hear an album as i was "modus operandi" ... then i puzzled over it for weeks trying to figure it out ... i thought i had the key when i realized the cover was a the photek symbol projected through a lightbox onto a wall. eventually i gave up. all the excitement made the eventual letdown that much worse!

what are the opinions here on solaris?

i always preferred tracks like k.j.z. to modus... same period, but it didn't suffer from the necessity of being included in an album.

one of my favorite dnb tunes is demonseed by exocet. it's uh, goth dnb.

there's no doubt in my mind that the first two metalheadz comps still sound great...to shape the future!

When the 12" themselves were released I hunted them down one by one as they came out cause no one had his touch at that time. I remember being really blown away the first time I heard water margin (didn't age well) or the seven samuri (can still easily groove to it in my head). He was ahead of the game there for a while and then just kind of fell in line with the rest.

The prototype years by grooverider is an excellent comp of early stuff in the same vein as much of the discussion below. Locust by Ed Rush was and is awesome.

That's not Modus Operandi. That's Form & Function which would have been fine if it hadn't include 6 superflous remixes.

word to that. don't forget lemon d's "city lights" and dillinjas "silver blade". even better if you can find the 2cd version with the mix, it's got the dom & roland with optical remix of boymerang's "still", which is "absolutely devestating - LIKE THE BORG" (i think that's what grooverider says in the liner notes)

see, though, that comp had the cover where you would tilt it to one side and groove's head would cut away to reveal the x-rayed skull beneath. like a biohazard cover or something, a bad sign of things to come.

both are 95

[also, check gareth's charlton lido's folder for that "a london sumtin" bbc docu i talked about on technicolor a while back...worth downloading if you havent already.)

also i am drunk.

what with most people here being sus about any gentrification/bastardisation of rave, i reckon su is the purest a label has got to the rave ethic (even when they were doing sub-par speed garage tunes). i just love the parochial, crowd-pleasing rave-as-community feel to it. there was one mark ryder tune that was like helicopter tune but was so bludgeoned by its constant ups and downs that it sounded like the blades were gonna come off. any ideas?

x-post - are you talking about 'the formula', i love how it sounds like shy is playing the basslines on his keyboard in real time. the year it came out it was picked by tortoise as one of their records of the year in the wire (sorry)

one of my earlier threads...

What's your opinion on Hidden Agenda's "Whatever happened to" album? I just bought a copy from Half.com.

That it's on Straight Ahead confuses me.

Cheers,
paul

that shy fx album is blinding. (he sure did like him some goodfellas.)

these threads always make me feel warm and fuzzy.

Ha ha Vahid what's the relationship b/w what you say about Photek in this thread and what you say about him in the other thread. Apart from four years and more whiskers.

well i don't think i really listen to d'n'b expecting to be "blown back against the wall" so it's easier for me to listen to photek without being upset by the quiet. similarly the overbearing loudness / toughness / aggressiveness of source direct isn't necessarily as impressive as it used to be. mind you that at the time, i might've said that ram trilogy's "molten beats" was in my top 5 d'n'b albums. of course i still rank those early hidden agenda tracks over photek and source direct.

as far as the qualities of the music, i think they read the same way to me - it's just that i'm more or less receptive to those qualities based on, uh, years and whiskers.

it's always weird, how some stuff that seems really really weak in the context of a cultural moment can seem really amazing a few years down the line ...

i'd like to find a copy of "risc vs reward" ... and i'd like to get some opinions about ram trilogy's "molten beats"

i'd like to find a copy of "risc vs reward" ... and i'd like to get some opinions about ram trilogy's "molten beats"

-- moonship journey to baja,

they have a copy in my local record shop (or they used to). where do you live vahid?

bay area

i'm in tokyo right now so p&p could be a bit dear. cd is cheap though.

Do you mean the Photek EP collection thing, vahid? Cuz that's cheaply/easily obtainable online (amazon z-shops, ebay, et all) even if you can't find it at Amoeba?

there's copies for $2 on amazon, i know. i would like to see it in person because it would be a nice impulse buy ...

Haha it's actually pretty good. It's just the right amount of Photek for me.

I picked up the Metalheadz' represses of Photek's Natural Born Killers EP, Goldie & Doc Scott's "VIP Drumz/VIP Ghosts" and Doc Scott's "Drumz '95/Blue Skiez" the other day.

Photek's "The Rain" is pretty amazing, as good or almost as good as "Consciousness". "Into The 90s" is downtempo but for once not embarrassing.

embarrassing downtempo?

Drum & bass guys doing downtempo was usually embarrassing IMO, like DJ Cam with worse production. The drums often sound really bad. Admittedly not a problem with Photek but this is actually pleasant not boring.

hmm that's interesting. 'Into The 90s' was one of the first tracks of that kind by DnB dude that I heard. it was on a Muzik giveaway tape and Goldie claimed it was proof they could do Mo Wax type stuff no problem. there wasn't really a lot of downtempo stuff from their ilk after that tho? I like a lot of the 'Box Set' stuff tho - and Earth 3...nothing where the drums seem particularly bad tho - any specific examples you have in mind?

Ha ha check the Fanu album, the downtempo stuff on that is awful.

But i'm also thinking of stuff like the downtempo tracks on the Foul Play album, the album version of Reprazent's "Watching Windows" which I never much liked, "State of Mind" obviously... I'll have to remind myself of the others.

love that version of 'Watching Windows'! plus the first four tracks on this - nothing amazing but v pleasant, competent stuff

did love 'State Of Mind' at the time but less so now - 'Believe' on 'Saturnz Return' still sounds nice tho, got that Loose Ends 808 nod

Yeah "Believe" is good.

Much prefer the version of "Watching Windows" that was released with the video clip, though I don't have a copy.

Drufftape 03 – Ed Rush & Doc Scott Feat. MC Flux

Those were the days...