Nuphonic & Faze Action

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ok, so what about Nuphonic? The Loft comps don't count here because they were just reissued by nuphonic. what about their own shit? i don't know any of their stuff. i've always had this picture of them as, well, too classicist. part of me thinks its all too close to stuff like Jazzanova but houseified, and that they might all be the kind of people that would turn up remixing Weller, and that they're unreconstructed soul boys with a Boys Own/JBO outlook and that its all too self-consciously soulful. but is this really true? because part of me thinks, they might have some really good records. but which ones?

― gareth, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Very much taken with their own cool, there’s an irritating ethno/eclecto conceit to their records. Of course, they’re due credit for smearing house across genres before Basement Jaxx’s Remedy, like a more subdued Masters-at-Work . But, their backcatalogue’s very patchy, they always turn up a couple of stunning tracks on their compilations if you can be bothered to wade through them. I have time for Faze Action – Moving Cities (the track not the album), In the trees (there's more, but I'm unsure of the names). Head-phone house with occasional highlights, too smooth for me.

― K-reg, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

heheheh Faze Action as the Weller of house. Anyway Faze Action's 'Plan & Designs' justifies their existence, esp. the title track = massive disco symphony. The rest of the album is pretty great too. But that's it really, I suspect 'Moving Cities' the album is geared towards the use of "real" instruments creating proper songs, so I didn't check it out.

― Omar, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i've heard them described as 'dad-house'. they dj a lot in London, and are pretty good. not heard any whole albums, but have some good and not so good 12"s. the Ashley Beedle ones (as Black Jazz Chronicles) are alright. everyone's been pretty accurate so far. the Block 16 (on Nuphonic) could be very good - have a couple of 12s from it.

― m jemmeson, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ashley Beedle is better as a remixer than as a producer in his own right, methinks. When he's got decent material to work with he can make rather gorgeous flourishes, but his own work isn't meaty enough.

Faze Action are patchy but their title tracks are always brilliant. "Plans & Designs" is indeed an overblown-but-in-a-good-way masterpiece complete with enthusiastic timpani, and the track "Moving Cities" is one of the most gorgeous things ever committed to tape - those strings! Nothing on Plans & Designs is quite as good as the title track but it's all of a high standard, whereas elsewhere on Moving Cities things get a bit icky, reminding me thematically (if not exactly musically) of the worst bits of Goldie's Timeless.

And Gareth I've always been surprised by your hatred of Jazzanova - I can see why you wouldn't like them, but as their style goes they're more inoffensive than most.

― Tim, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

its not that i hate, or even dislike, Jazzanova per se, its one of those personal things, ie: an old flatmate liked them, and they summed that whole "mmm, nice" thing. i don't even really know much of their stuff, it could be that i'm being unfair

― gareth, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

nuphonic WILL be my heroes when they RELEASE THE FUCKING RUSSELL MATERIAL. jeebers.

time for mort britney, methinks.

― jess, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

jemmeson, Tim, others - what do y'all think of Ashley Beedle's sometimes groop, Black Science Orchestra? the songs on the Afro-Art record (philadelphia, porn box, etc) are great fun to dance to.

faze action - don't know em so much but their remix of 'the CHild' was kind of lame retro waka waka stuff.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nortec will kill you all! MUAHAHAHAHAHHA! Erk, Faze Action was so disappointing! Moving Cities just had that elevator music sheen, because it seems they were so intent on being "real" that they didn't realise how different it is to compose for live strings without sounding like Yanni. Jazzanova auch. Herbert's last one is the only thing in recent memory that didn't sound awful with live stuff-- although his "jazz" quartet writing is pretty boring. 4Hero and Beanfield should go shoot themselves.

― Mickey Black Eyes, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jazzanova = never quite irritating enough to provoke outright hatred, OK for background music. The Muzak of the nu-jazz genre? As far as Nuphonic goes, I have the Adam Goldstone 'Summer Dubs' EP, which is, er, nice...

― turner, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Black Science Orchestra is GRATE! or at least the album i heard the other day was. no idea of the name, date etc, but prob a couple of years old at least [was on a colleague's unlabeled tape]

― michael, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually what I've heard of Nortek is good - seems to be a nice compromise between this sort of lush traditionalist stuff and my usual fare of minimal/tech-flavoured house.

Black Science Orchestra are often excellent, for some reason much better than Ashley solo (obviously someone in the group realises the necessity for a groove), although as I said he's a good remixer. However, the best Beedle production this year is not by Beedle at all, but the Moloko remix of Jean Jacques Smoothie's "2 People", which outclasses 99.9% of all the other classicist disco stuff around.

― Tim, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two weeks pass...

got both Plans & Designs and Moving Cities from Reckless last week. disappointed in both, really quite drab. i didn't think any of it was overblown disco symphony, i would have liked it if it was! i think i was hoping for stuff that might have sounded a bit like Sun Palace's Rude Movements, but the dadhouse epithet seems to suit i'm afraid

― gareth, Tuesday, 4 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually Gareth if I'd thought about it when answering this question I would have suggested that you stay away from Faze Action, as I could have guessed that you in particular wouldn't warm to it. So, apologies.

But... (in a very small voice) don't you even like "Moving Cities" the song at all?

― Tim, Tuesday, 4 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

six years pass...

i bought nuphonic vol 2 for 8 bucks today cuz i listened to the born under punches rmx and it seemed kinda fun, does this stuff seem better now w/ the beardo stuff kind of following it stylistically? i know im kinda out of my element here and apologies if its been discussed but altho this comp is hit or miss the discussion upthread seemed sorta mean, this stuff aint that bad

― deej, Monday, 9 June 2008 05:00 (seventeen years ago)

it all is hit and miss, Faze Action were frequently brilliant though. I like both the first two albums now more than I did then and I already liked them a lot.

But I think all of those labels (Nuphonic, Paper etc.) struggled to put out really good consistent compilations.

― Tim F, Monday, 9 June 2008 05:32 (seventeen years ago)

"hit or miss"?!?!? more like 100% awesome!!

― moonship journey to baja, Monday, 9 June 2008 05:38 (seventeen years ago)

everyone on this thread afraid that a grime blogger would call them out for being friends w/ kirk degiorgio, or something.

― moonship journey to baja, Monday, 9 June 2008 05:39 (seventeen years ago)

I just said I love Faze Action's albums!

― Tim F, Monday, 9 June 2008 06:34 (seventeen years ago)

i'm friends with Kirk Degiorgio, I ain't ashamed!

― BATTAGS, Monday, 9 June 2008 06:39 (seventeen years ago)

born under punches rmx

not a remix, a cover!

― moonship journey to baja, Monday, 9 June 2008 07:03 (seventeen years ago)

that cover had a remix itself, by dj harvey i think!

this is great. (x-press 2 were amazing at one point weren't they.) also 'the sky is not crying'!!

the recent faze action stuff since they reactivated all sounds the same. this one is good.

― haitch, Monday, 9 June 2008 08:25 (seventeen years ago)

i believe i posted about that being better than maurizio ...

i'm trying to write a "most overhyped record of year" thing about this for my neglected blog, but i barely even understand why people are hyping this in the first place, which is making it really hard to explain how it's been over-hyped.
OK "i feel space" is fine (if you missed out on faze action and yellow sox and the rest of the great lost first and second wave of space-disco on nuphonic and u-star and versatile and discfunction and repap in the first place) but this album ... GAH ... it really IS fila brazilia all over again!

-- vahid (vahid), Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:34 PM (Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:34 PM) Bookmark Link

BTW in one month it is the TENTH ANNIVERSARY of the release of faze action's "in the trees", dig it out if you need to (although i've always had it on hand for the TEN YEARS) and it'll take your head off.
that single is ETERNAL and PERFECT like the first NEU album or like "in the light of the miracle". we'll see if people remember lindstrom a year from now.

also, while you are at it, dig out yellow sox "flim flam", another space disco track from ten years ago that ruins all nu-nu-space-disco pretenders.

-- vahid (vahid), Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:40 PM (Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:40 PM) Bookmark Link

Vahid, please stop hurting me.
-- Imaginary ILM strawman, Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:43 PM (Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:43 PM) Bookmark Link

I WAS THERE...when Faze Action released "In the Trees"
-- jeffery (jeffery), Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:47 PM (Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:47 PM) Bookmark Link

― moonship journey to baja, Monday, 9 June 2008 08:40 (seventeen years ago)

no i didn't, i guess, but it is

― moonship journey to baja, Monday, 9 June 2008 08:41 (seventeen years ago)

we'll see if people remember lindstrom a year from now.

-- vahid (vahid), Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:40 PM (Thursday, January 5, 2006 10:40 PM) Bookmark Link

nice

― deej, Monday, 9 June 2008 12:54 (seventeen years ago)

five months pass...

this label really kicks ass.
i'm obsessed with stuff like this and the "street" mix of "bug in the bassbin" lately... (don't know the exact sonic relationship there)

but i am going to have to denounce the organ in "in the trees" as totally cheesy. i think it works well in the song from a functional standpoint and it kind of gives it more dimension... but it just sounds like flat shit next to those frostbitten lush live strings...

― winston, Sunday, 23 November 2008 00:48 (seventeen years ago)

does anybody care about lindstrom anymore?

― moonship journey to baja, Sunday, 23 November 2008 07:50 (seventeen years ago)

his album this year was great!

― t_g, Sunday, 23 November 2008 12:00 (seventeen years ago)

pretty damn boring to me but maybe i need to try again

― winston, Tuesday, 25 November 2008 06:34 (seventeen years ago)

five months pass...

should i buy stratus energy

― autogucci cru (deej), Thursday, 21 May 2009 09:28 (seventeen years ago)

personally not that into the prog-spacy italo side of things but if you are then yeah, no doubt. along more straight-up boogie and disco lines then 'hypnotic' and 'i wanna dancer' are dope, 'hypnotic' particularly so - looove that shit.

― r|t|c, Thursday, 21 May 2009 11:58 (seventeen years ago)

'hypnotic's been out on 12 for over a year? someone shoulda said!

― r|t|c, Thursday, 21 May 2009 12:05 (seventeen years ago)

wish I had a copy of "the sky is not crying"

― Local Garda, Thursday, 21 May 2009 12:07 (seventeen years ago)

^^^

― Tim F, Thursday, 21 May 2009 12:08 (seventeen years ago)

http://www.residentadvisor.net/images/events/flyer/2009/uk-0523-90020-front.jpg

― Jamie T Smith, Thursday, 21 May 2009 12:27 (seventeen years ago)

think i prefer the non-vocal tracks on Stratus Energy, some of it's a bit flouncy

― zone 1 penguin (braveclub), Thursday, 21 May 2009 13:38 (seventeen years ago)

what is that even a picture of

― moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 21 May 2009 15:31 (seventeen years ago)

i'm going to vote "no" on "stratus energy" based on the samples i've heard.

buy an old copy of this instead

― moonship journey to baja, Thursday, 21 May 2009 15:32 (seventeen years ago)

three years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBRd-pJNrb0&feature=player_embedded

― owenf, Sunday, 24 June 2012 13:01 (thirteen years ago)

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