| #530 |
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2000 |
Ju Ju Space Jazz certainly put on a big show at the Metro two weeks back. The promise of fourteen musicians on stage came to life in a show that was very engaging to watch and highly theatrical. Horn players moved from the stage to pop up in the middle of the audience and ‘extras’ wearing strange costumes moved around the crowd. There were even several costume changes during the set. The lighting and the decision to go with slides rather than video visuals was excellent. For some reason the Metro PA was not running at full volume and there were moments where it was easier to engage with the visual spectacular more than the music, but all-in-all a quite amazing level of production and a great show even if one track – the Transylvanian/vampire-themed number edged a little to close to Andrew Lloyd Webber for my liking. New Music #3 : Two worthwhile collections of interesting rare tunes other than the Ian O’Brien/Kirk DeGeorgio compiled Soul Of Science are the Emperor Norton compile of ‘library music’ Cinemaphonic – a selection of short, often funky, moody session tracks for soundtracks, and Andy Votel’s 60s/70s psychedelic Finders Keepers. Votel brings together strange German funk with psych-rockers US69 and a lush track from Dorothy Ashby as well as two short Votel tracks. Keep an eye out Votel’s own new mini-album out and about in the next week or so. Also out in the next week or two is the new Boards Of Canada EP called In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country. Warp is being locally distributed now by Creative Vibes, and this EP which is one of a swag of good pre-christmas Warp releases, continues further down BOC’s well established formula of nostalgic warm synths over slow hip hop breaks, even a little Air-styled vocoder on one track here. Production-wise the sound is more expansive than on Music Has The Right To Children, the sounds are rounder and although its not a move in a new direction this EP bodes well for the forthcoming album. After a few lacklustre recent releases on Chain Reaction, Fluxion brings back some quality with a second album Vibrant Forms II. A double package with 19 deep dubby reduced techno tracks, long filtered static and synth pads, and constant muted kickdrums. Vibrant Forms II is a extremely immersive sound space – a cavernous ambient space of serious headphone listening. On the local front, Deep Child has his mini-album Hymns From Babylon out through Clan Analogue via Festival. Nine tracks and three remixes long there is the still-formidable Rachel’s Meadow with two interesting deconstructive remixes by Meem, Clone remixing Nomads Awaiting Zion and some top new tracks including Babylon’s Confusion, Conspiracies In A Quiet Room and Yak Secret Technology. Priced as a CD-single track one down. Also keep an eye out for the compilation of Canberra label Geometrik. With one album release from Stalker of Chain Reaction-style techno made up of filtered elements of natural sounds (leaf rustle, water, birds), the Geometrik compilation features other Canberra-based artists including a 45 minute track from Dark Network. Frigid returns to reggae on December 3 with another Version Excursion (look out for the Version Excursion ultra-cheap New Year’s Eve at Frigid as well, while the normal Frigid crew are up the coast in Bellingen for Ganymede) then its Prop and hip hop cut-up kid Adi-B on the 10th. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
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