"Drug Test One" Invisible Records INV 081CD 1997
Disc 1 (54:24) Disc 2 (40:20)
Not Breathing Sheep
on Drugs
"Kundalini Distort" (19:19) "X-lover"
(4:02)
"Crime
Time" (4:01)
"WCFM"
(3:28)
"Waiting
for the Man" (4:31)
Dead Voices on Air Test
Dept
"Vuls-rasse" (11:53) "Tabla
Rosa" (6:36)
"Flatte-bastards" (6:34) "Genius"
(4:58)
"Eadiglice-mons" (7:44) "Al'
Rabih (the Spring)" (6:45)
"Drumm and Basse-II" (8:52) "High
Resolution Retina" (5:59)
At the time, Not Breathing were Dave Wright, Bruce Brindamour, Drew Fitzgerald and Ron Chimera. Dead Voices on Air were Mark Spybey, Eric Pounder, David Marine, Sheldon Drake and Martin Atkins. Sheep on Drugs were Duncan "Rex" X and Lee "Bagman" Fraser. And, Test Dept were Paul Jamrozy, Graham Cunningham, Gus Ferguson, Martin King, Simon Hyde and Russ McDonald.
Overall impression: excellent! This is the 1st installment of the Drug Test serics of compilations from Invisible. It's a 2 cd live document of the '96 "X-tacy Under Duress" that featured Test Dept and Sheep on Drugs, with Dead Voices on Air and Not Breathing in select cities. I somehow foolishly missed this tour, but this set lets me re-live it as if I was there. The Not Breathing track is an awesome journey through building ambience/beats and occasional bass (a bit distorted) that would fit right in on Not Breathing's "Sangre Azul" or "The Starry Wisdom". The DVOA tracks are typical DVOA fare: ambient sound loops/stringed instruments/screams and such, except that Mark Spybey is augmented live by DJ Sheldon (turntables), Dave Marine (theremin), Eric Pounder (guitar) and Martin Atkins (percussion). The added players make for more variety in the sound ... these four tracks are my favorite recorded pieces from any of Mark Spybey's projects. The first 3 tracks are highly textured ambient pieces (beatless), Mark goes off screaming at the end of "Eadiglice-mons" which leads into the ultra-cool bass/rhythm of "Drumm and Basse-II". Hopefully I'll get to see a DVOA show like this someday. The Sheep on Drugs aren't that much different from the album versions (pretty much playing along with the DAT), but the added live energy and banter by Ducan makes for fun. The Test Dept tracks are excellent. This is how they should sound on their studio albums! You can feel the percussive energy in these tracks, and the addition of Bobdog's sitar playing and the cool use of horn and tribal loop samples only helps to enhance the hi-tempo, live rave techno sound. As usual with Invisible, this 2 disc set comes with great artwork and an insert chock full of pics from the tour and comments about the shows from various internet fans. Also, it's a 2 disc set for the price of a single cd. A really great compilation, just like "Drug Test Two" and "Drug Test Three", and an essential for fans of any of the bands.
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