Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor (WEA)

In a 1998 edition of DJ I referred to ‘Ray Of Light’ as “a great William Orbit album that just happens to have Madonna signing on it.” The same could almost be said of this new one, in which Stuart Price a/k/a Les Rhythmes Digitales packs a big, throbbing, non-stop punch disco while Madonna surfs the wave and interrupts the occasionally genius house with tales of New York city freaks and, ahem, domestic bliss in Wiltshire. Aside from the lead single ‘Hung Up’, the Chicane-esque ‘Get Together’ and the Mirwais reunion for a Moroder-sampling ‘Future Lovers’ are the main highlights.

Various - Nataraja 2 (POF)

Shimmering, colourful and moving, Nataraja 2 catalogues the best of a relatively new art form - "la trance psychedelique". Building BPMs onto soundtrack vocal samples and layers upon layers of atmosphere has never sounded so effortless as on this latest edition from France's increasingly groovy POF label. 18 tracks across a superbly packaged 2-disc digipack set and available in the UK as a Virgin import. There's nothing hard-core about most of the tracks on this set - in fact the French techno scene oozes a thirst-quenchingly refreshing quality that sets it apart from it's German and, lately UK relatives. From the opener, Vaporum's 'The Platform', things take decidedly trippy turn. Remember Loengard's final LSD trip in the penultimate episode of 'Dark Skies'? Well this would have been the perfect backdrop! POF Records sit perfectly in the area of hypertension where psychedelia and futuristic high-paced dance beets mesh. Blue Planet Corporation, Joking Sphinx stand out and Universal Island take things to a logical, hypnotic conclusion. Disc 2 kicks of with a more artcore, rootsy approach before piling on the BPM and steering into French hi-NRG. Stand-out artists here are Toi Doi, Denshi Danshi and Imago. By the looks of the party pictures on the sleeve, trance is being taken to the next level in France. High times indeed. 8/10

Muslimgauze – Narcotic (Staalplaat)

It seems like never a month goes by without a new Muslimgauze release and their Dutch label, Staalplaat has even set up a subscription system where listeners can receive each new release, with the cost being deducted from their virtual balance. 'Narcotic' is full of Eastern promise and is probably one of Muslimgauze (a/k/a Bryn Jones) most colourful works to date. Think of the percussion you hear from world music artists like percussionist Hossam Ramzy (which often show up as samples in tracks by William Orbit and 808 State) and you're half way there. But this album is more than just a collection of samples, or a mere replication of other styles. There's a fusion going on that you can actually here developing across the first few tracks. The pounding rhythms of 'Medina Flight' soon give way to more Gulf Stream backstreet atmospheres on 'Ramadan' and 'Effendi'. But when the two merge (and some western production is brought into full effect) you get the most unlikely - yet truly unique - trance sound ever in tracks such as 'Believers of the Blind Sheikh' and 'Gulf Between Us'. This album rises to a climax with three different versions of the title track, the first a pulsating, repetitive eastern percussion work-out which - following an interlude - builds into perfect chill-out soundtrack music. Perfect for any club with an international attitude in its more laid back areas. 7/10

Colin Newman – Bastard (swim~)

An aeon after Wire - the seminal '70s guitar outfit - Bruce Gilbert is working with Elastica, but Colin Newman has just released his first solo album in over ten years and is mixing a new, melodic approach to drum & bass and elctronica. 'Sticky' is where it all starts - an edgy, beat-driven wind-down of a track that calms the listener, rather than prepare them for anything that might lay in store. Tracks such as 'May' show just what a boost being an accomplished guitarist can be when it comes to making cutting edge '90s trip-hop. Whereas the first obviously jungle-inspired piece 'Slowfast' (naturally subtitled 'Falling down the stairs with a drum kit'!) is a little naive and best avoided, 'Spiked' adds a funky live bass and drums to for a serious new angle on the genre. But Newman excels in tracks such as 'Without', which continue the thoughtful strands started earlier in the album. While it's easy to spot musical similarities with the artist's other projects - Immersion, wife Malka Spigel and his own Swim~ label being the main ones - this LP does achieve a logical progression. You can chill out and hear an evolution taking place. And the album title is certainly memorable, but how many people will have the nerve to ask for it at the record shop counter? 8/10

Charlemagne Palestine – Godbear (Barooni)

Caution: you should only read this review (and contemplating buying Godbear) if you regularly visit the outer limits and are open to the world of extreme possibilities. Coming out of the Netherlands' Barooni Records, this is one of the most enticing packages of the fortnight: a re-evaluation of Palestine's work from the seventies, which was recorded in the late eighties and finally released in the late nineties. But who on earth is Charlemagne Palestine? Well if the names La Monte Young, Philip Glass or Steve Reich ring any bells, read on. Along with those, Palestine was one of the originators of minimal music, an unplanned, escapist force that pre-dated ambient, unwittingly shaped techno and quietly oversaw everything that has happened since. The minimalists may be heald in high regard in left-field classical circles, but after all it was Glass that worked with S'Express and La Monte Young that challenged the boundaries of jazz before this whole contemporary dance thing started. And now there's Palestine, whose three pieces on this CD are performed purely on his fist love - the Bosendorfer Imperial Grand piano - and are dedicated to his other great passion, teddy bears. But minimalist only means a minimal regards for tradition as there is little time to chill out during the three lengthy pieces here - 'The Lower Depths', Strumming Music' and 'Timbral Assault'. Check this out if you dare. 8/10

Sukia - Contacto Espacial Con El Tercer Sexo (Mo'Wax)

Merging 60s US schlock with mellow 90s dance vibes, Sukia sound like nothing on Earth. But probably something on Mars. Contacto Espacial Con El Tercer Sexo mixes samples from weird B-movie classics into hypnotic grooves performed on Moogs, multi bass orchestras and Wurlitzers. Tracks such as 'The Dream Machine' and 'Feel N' Free' take this surf-style loungecore to it's inevitable, creepy conclusion, whereas other tracks ('Play Colt' and 'Gary Super Macho' being notable high points) are strange sound clashes. Imagine Miles Davis accidentally walking in on a Residents gig (and grooving to it) or the Ninja Tunes collective on a day out to a freak show with the B-52s during their cheesiest heights. Apparently inspired by a Colombian sleaze comic (I can believe it), this is Sukia's debut LP though it sounds like they've been around for years. And they deserve to be around for some time more, thanks not least to some hot home-grown remixes on offer here as bonus tracks. 9/10

Salaryman – Salaryman (City Slang)

Low-mono samples, Theremin, telephones, live TV snippets. These are just some of the low-tech elements used in creating the funky trip-hop muzak of Salaryman. Whereas most bands are striving to use the most high-tech and expensive equipment on the market, Salaryman are the sort of band you find recording tracks in old TV repair shops. And the finished result is intended for purely "basement" listening. Funky live drumming is mixed with keyboard jamming and there's a live feel throughout tracks like 'New Centurions' and the more hard-core 'Burning at the Stakes'. They're at their most accessible with tracks like 'Voids' and Superclusters' (full of epic big-beat histrionics) and 'Rather' (set for the 12" and remix treatment later this year). But the thing that makes this album - and band - unique is something which is more than extra instrument (in fact more like a fifth element). Through all seven tracks Salaryman use TV samples, recorded live and in one-take. Whatever was on TV during the recording process has become part of the finished product. This works to great effect on tracks like 'Inca Picnic' and 'Hummous' and takes the music into a whole new dimension. As the band recently told DJ, "The TV broadcasts ensure not only that each of our performances will be unique but also that each performance will contain an element that someone out of the performance arena will be able to participate in." So if you cant find this album in the shops, try the Innovations catalogue. 7/10

Various - Chinese Whispers (Sprawl)

In the last breath of the millennium, it's beginning to become clear that DJs have become the curators of modern music and with that remixers are the most important artists. At least that was the view from the likes of DJ Spooky and Brian Eno at last year's Hypersymposium at the South Bank's 'Now You See It' festival. Perhaps the proof (hit the roof) of the pudding will be in the listening to Chinese Whispers from the Sprawl collective. Here a host of celebs from the Sprawl club (bang down the door) have spent a whole year remixing mixes of each other.

This is a compilation reminiscent of Endlessnessism, which appeared last year on Sweden's Dot Records and actually billed itself as "the musical equivalent of Chinese whispers or an Olympic relay race". On this compilation, Si Begg, Subtropic, T-Power, Stereolab, Sons Of Silence, Bedouin Ascent, Ultramarine, Mike Paradinas and Slang are all in evidence. But is it actually music? Well the mix from Slang certainly is - very mixable and down to earth. Mike Paradinas turns in something as confidently mad as you would expect, as do Ultramarine. T-Power's track is truly experimental and, like Si Begg's, beat-based yet always pushing the envelope.such albums of thought and theme plugged into one mixed-up melting pot of beginning, middle and end really be the future? Total recycling! The musical equivalent of what we do with air and water every day. Fingers crossed Chinese Whispers itself becomes an on-going project - here's to Volume 2. 10/10

Fridge - Eph (Go Beat)

Fridge have promised much since their bizarre debut album, Ceefax and certain improvements to their sound are instantly obvious on Eph. They've gone from recording tracks in minutes in their front room to extending the recording process in the more salubrious environment of a recently built home studio in London's swinging Clerkenwell (also home to Mixmaster Morris). The resulting vibes are more like beaten-up Bond epics ('Ark') than the made-for-TV specials of Ceefax.

'Meum' is very much back to their roots. Tumbling acoustic drums and scrambled guitars, but with now with an added thematic resonance. Eph also has a rather old fashioned air in that it's only forty two minutes long and their latest single 'Kinoshita Terasaka' isn’t included. Which is a pity as it was a blinder. Perhaps they'll save it for another compilation, a la last years self-explanatory 'Sevens And Twelves' CD set. Other stand-out tracks include the one minute wonder of 'Tuum' and the lush 'Yttrium'.

And if you're into this LP, make a point of checking out Four Tet's recent long player, Dialogue (Output) released a couple of months ago as an off-shoot project from Fridge's Kieran Hebden. 6.5/10

The Black Dog – Babylon (warner.esp)

The Black Dog is the sort of artist that, just as you are wondering what they're doing or where they've been, come back at you with the – always surprising - answers. Last time it was a set of remixes of Lalo Schrifrin's Bullitt (from the 60's movie, as used in the Ford Puma ad.). Now we are presented with a collaboration with Israeli vocal sculptress Ofra Haza, with a raft of remixes from Lazonby, Terminalhead, Scanner and an obscure genius masquerading under the pseudonym of The Scourge Of The Earth. I think I'll raise a few eyebrows when I "exclusively" reveal that said Scourge is the latest trading name of none other than The KLF's Jimmy Cauty. And it's a classic return to form - screaming babies, warplanes, tanks, bombs and all!

As for Babylon, the music is like nothing I've heard before. Egyptian downbeat, anyone? Ofra Haza's vocalisings, frankly, haven't changed much since Paid in Full. But at least here they're used in a fresh way, so maximum points to the Dog (and "nul" points to Mystery Year favourites the Sisters of Mercy). Scanner's remix is very standard, so skip straight for the Terminalhead mix – with which Nick Warren recently opened his set at Cream! Peter Lazonby has apparently described his interpretation as "my best work to date", although you should be the judge of that.

'Babylon' is as frighteningly pioneering as the mystical civilisation that inspired it. The Black Dog continues to confuse and entertain in equal measures. 9/10

Low Res - Approximate Love Boat (Plug Research)

Low Res is Milwaukee-based (via Hollywood and Tokyo) Danny Zelomky. Previously appearing as Crank on a Plug Research compilation, you may have also spotted Juan Atkins' Low Res collaborations on R&S and Metroplex. Approximate Love Boat, Zelomky's debut LP is 14 tracks of black-and-white suspense film electronica. The whole thing is a concept album based around the story of an abortive trip into space to collect sounds and substances from the planet Love Boat. But when our hero's computer crashed they had to recreate what they found - what we have here - an "Approximate Love Boat".

Convinced?

Nothing is more freaky than the track 'Sinister Ice Cream Truck' which, along with 'GeneK' and 'Field Holler', reminds me of the brilliant debut last year from City Slang's 8 Frozen Modules. Hiss, crackle, humm, beat and pulses - mixed in with dark tempo downbeat are the key elements that unite both of those albums. There is madness too – and, in tracks like Wag, Evansence (Reprise) and Anestheme, the Juan Atkins connections becomes crystal clear. 7/10


This review also published in: DJ magazine

Scanner - Sound for Spaces (Sub Rosa)

Las time I reviewed a Scanner LP I gave it 10/10. Not because I thought I'd discovered the future of music (as Thomas H Green suggested in his recent review of Neil Landstrumm), but because it was one of those LPs that we always strive to find in the shops - the sort that you have doubts about, bring back home anyway, but then turn out to love every single track. Is Scanner's new LP equally awesome? I can't give you the answer to that as this is not exactly a new LP. Sound for Spaces is a collection of Scanner's best unreleased works, running in reverse chronological order from 1997 back to 1984. There are certainly some brilliant tracks here - 'Documenta X' is the sort of ambient music that gives your bass bins some serious trouble.

The sleeve notes make for fascinating reading. Tracks from sound symposiums, ANAT (Australian Network for Art and Technology), the European Broadcasting Union and Video Positive 95 show just how active Robin Rimbaud has been outside of his album work. Although most of the pieces have been created with the public in mind, it's surprising how much personal feeling lay behind these tracks. 'Invisible Choirs' (ambience that sounds like a five minute root through the inner workings of an immense cathedral organ, complete with pulses of light and percussion bouncing around inside), for example is a very personal homage to a friend that passed away.

Compilations that run in reverse chronological order are rare but work really well. Another that springs to mind is Die Krupps' Past Forward. Especially as when you reach the end of this LP (or rather the beginning) you find that Scanners tracks from over ten years ago are well worth a listen. Call me retro but I still love the feel of randomised reel-to-reel tape loops. This compilation could actually be Scanner's most complete work to date. 8/10


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Various - Offering Vol. 2 (Studio K7)

This might be the coolest compilation you'll find for summer listening. The label that bought you the legendary X-Mix video compilations (now into their fifteenth year, believe it or not!), the Freestyle Files and Electro Boogieists from around the planet are back with more juice which, like the opener from Terranova, opens up a whole world of European drum & bass. The perfect summer cocktail.

Alongside archive tracks, Offering 2 showcases some new-found talents, like the band Khao, whose debut LP appeared on K7 last year. Their 'No Compromise' - featured here remixed by Smith & Mighty - sounds worryingly like a ruffed-up version of Culture Beat (seriously!) but fortunately their other contribution (a William Orbit meets Zion Train-style rant) is much more on the mark. As if to redeem themselves, Smith & Mighty turn in their own track - a rollicking 12" mix from the brilliant K7 imprint DJ Kicks series which has seen input from the likes of Stacey Pullen and Claude Young, who both went on to release stand-out albums on Elypsia last year.

There are some middle-of-the-road tracks, like Shantal's 'Tell Me Why Is It Oh So Hard To Be Oh So Lovely' and some tripped-out beats from Sample OS. But even these are worth checking out and keep you entranced enough to get into K7 stuff like Impulse's two contributions here - one of which is brilliant ('Wall of Pressure'), the other of which is awful ('Wall of Deceit')! 7/10

Various - Spunk Jazz (iLL)

Don't be mislead by the "Jazz" part of this album's title - this compilation is an explosive fusion of drum & bass and industrial (drill & bass?) that's mad, bad and dangerous to know.

'Hate Me', the opening track from Animals On Wheels, leaves nothing to the imagination. Carrying on from where Future Sound Of London ('We Have Explosive'-style) left off, 'Hate Me' brings to mind images of musicians creating tracks by propelling oil drums off the roof of a building onto the passing traffic. But that belies the immense precision in what sounds like Throbbing Gristle covering drum & bass (only a centipede could tap its feet to this...). If you can take the pace, this album is full of gems of an emerging breed of cut-up dance. Bubbah's Tuma, Value Ape impress and I want to see Hoarse Operator score the next Star Wars movie. Now that's what I call space-age.

The only mellow moments come from Milky Boy (on loan from Bovinyl) and Si Begg (one third of No Future with Christian Vogel and Neil Landstrumm). His 'You're On Your Own' brings things back into more chartered electronica territory. I'd love to find a club that spun this sort of vinyl, but for home listeners the CD version has the bonus of another mental cut Animals On Wheels. Also look out for Paddington Breaks, whose 'Wet Wang' is the first drill & bass classic. With 'Spunk Jazz' as the debut release from the new iLL label, this could be the beginning of a very disturbed life. 7/10


This review also published in: DJ magazine

Bullet - The Hanged Man (DC Recordings)

The Hanged Man is a must for the sort of people who were into Trunk Records' Battle Of Bosworth remix album and Bungalow's recent reissue of the Peter-Thomas-Sound-Orchester's Space Patrol soundtrack. It's what the people at DC call a "connoisseur special". And what I call a very obscure - but ultimately supercool - rerelease of a 1975 Yorkshire TV thriller soundtrack. If this doesn't put you off then you're info a musical treat of rare grooves and street funk. Stuff that's appearing for the first time on CD having already been sampled by the likes of Jurassic 5 and the Street Smartz.

Although DC first got into the Hanged Man soundtrack from a second hand version they'd found for 20p, copies have been selling between US aficionados for upwards of $300 for some years. The opening theme portrays the Hanged Man exactly as he should be - Shaft in Yorkshire! With 'GBH', 'The Heist' and 'Blue Panther' you have the soundtrack to an imaginary visit from Huggy Bear into the wold of The Sweeny. Memories are made of this. 9/10


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Esthero - Breath From Another (Columbia)

In which 19-year old singer Esthero doubles up with fellow Canadian, producer Martin McKinney for eleven tracks that set out to combine just about every current style of dance music into one ever-evolving soup. Despite this description, Breath From Another is not some cheesy world-beat voyage, but more a short-wave surf into credible X Files territory. The title track is as poppy as they come, elsewhere (on 'Heaven Sent' and others), the pre-millenium female vocalist and male beat junky combination is highly Portishead and lightly Smoke City. More precisely, elements from Esthero are uncannily similar to Bristol's Easter Island art pop duo.

Can sonic Bond extravagances really combine with drum and bass and jazz samples to make a coherent full-length album? Well, ask Bjork for the answer to that one. A fine debut, Esthero lack the crazy edge of an equally mixed-up act like Koop, but come out sounding equally accomplished. 7/10


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Pablo's Eye - Everything She Wants Grows Blue (Swim)

It's rare to find A) an album that actually carries the sleeve note "use of headphones is recommended" and B) a new release from long-term sound collage artists Pablo's Eye. This new offering - yet more quality from the Swim label - is not a million miles away from the trio GOL, last spotted on China Records covering Art of Noise and sounding like a '90s 4AD version of Propaganda.

All tracks on Everything She Wants Grows Blue merge into one seamless chill out or rather chiller, some of the sounds are certainly mined from horror and high tension soundtrack material. But the finished product - ranging from soft drum & bass with sensitive female vocal narration ('The Episodic Nature of Life') to spooky ambient orchestricks with backwards vocals ('The Adjuster') is definitely worth checking out. Strange to note the inclusion of Celtic strings - proving to be the perfect accompaniment to post-club, post-dance beats. Stand-out tracks are the hypnotic 'A Sermon on the Radio' and 'That Night Together With Her' - which sum up all the albums good points in one five minute session. 8/10


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Various - Lost In Space soundtrack (Epic)

What with Spawn, The Jackal and most recently Godzilla, US film soundtracks are becoming useful Best Of selectors of new and second-hand UK big beat tracks. Lost In Space is a little different in that, following Orbital's lead, it features some pieces of original dance score. This time the title track comes from Apollo 440, who turn in the rampage of the 'Lost In Space Theme'. More comic than cosmic but made for the silver screen and a track that should also translate well into everyday life with some decent remixes.

This soundtrack is also the one to get for a superb vocal excursion from Juno Reactor & The Creatures. Surely not THE Creatures in the throbbing techno environment? Fatboy Slim's 'Everybody Needs A 303' is another highlight, as is @440's mellow 'Will & Penny's Theme' and a track from Space with their ruffed-up dancefloor hats on. With only eight dance tracks, the CD also includes ten parts of the original motion picture score by Bruce Broughton. Less than attention-grabbing, but worth a listen for the Terminatoresque 'Spiders Attack'. Possibly the best of the summer's blockbuster soundtracks. 6/10


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The Egg - Travelator (China)

I've always shuddered at the thought of "dance bands that can actually play live", but The Egg can be forgiven just about anything after their demented debut LP of last year, Albumen. This year's offering carries on from where they left off, but because of the their dance viewpoint they've moved with the times. As a result you get tracks like 'Number Cruncher'. Ever wondered how blunted melodies (from the big beat vibe) sound against an acid jazz style funk jam? 'Number Cruncher' has the answer.
Travelator has much more variation than its predecessor. Like the live drum & bass skank of 'Bunmela' and 'Getting Away With It', which vocally is a full-on Brian Eno homage. All of these experiments with different styles certainly work well on plastic. And I'd love to hear tracks like 'Bunmela' pounding away from a live stage in a club.

Other experiments don't work as well. 'Willow' is full of brilliant melodies, classic Egg-style melodies in fact (if there is such a thing already). But whether it works performing them with a mix of drum & bass and classic strings & woodwind is another matter entirely!

Perhaps the continual experimentation is also The Egg's downfall on this LP. Whereas Albumen had a heads down, "let's play live and tape it!" feel, Travelator sounds altogether more prepared and measured. But the mixture is great. Totally refreshing and summery. 8/10


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World Standard - Country Gazette (Asphodel)

Don't be fooled by the country & western packaging and titles, the banjos on this LP are merely crackly samples mixed into bigger picture. This is on Asphodedel after all; wide-screen panoramas from the one of the few legendary US ambient labels. Country Gazette compiles 14 mostly very short tracks all of which follow very similar themes - old vinyl samples, banjos, wind sound effects and true grit. This strange concoction comes courtesy of Sohichiro Suziki and Haruomi Honsono, the latter of which was a founding father of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, the legendary Japanese experimentalist group that also spawned Ryuchi Sakamoto.

So imagine YMO being cut-and-pasted into an obscure cameo appearance in a legendary leftfield western like The Misfits and you'd have this album as the soundtrack. It's hypnotic and so perfectly produced that you can't help but listen to the whole thing, in one go, without pauses. It's one of those. 7/10


This review also published in: DJ magazine