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Various Artists, "Bip Hop Generation v.6"
The 6th clicky compilation from French label, Bip-Hop.
Bip-Hop
At this point, the click-and-cut micro-genre of electronic music's vast frontier of styles and cults and webrings has probably offered about all it can on its own. Like so many pioneering sounds before it, music like that contained on the 6th and final installment of Bip-Hop's Bip-Hop Generation series is destined to be the springboard for ideas for mainstream pop, r&b, and hip hop producers for the next several years. Like the other production trends usurped by the masses before it, the click-and-cut aesthetic and those who practice it will be forced to find a new way to express whatever it is they are trying to get at. With Volume 6, the French label that has carved a niche for itself with excellent releases from Twine, Scanner, and others, has provided a small glimpse of what might be next once someone hands Timbaland and the Neptunes a Stefan Betke 12". The prevalant sound palette here are the hisses, clicks, and blips whose description would have become redundant if they weren't precisely onomatopoeic. Collected are tracks from minimalist master Ilpo Vaisanen who shakes off the steady Pan Sonic beats for a more skittery, albeit calculated approach to rhythms. Then, Vainsanen's Angel collaboration with Schneider TM demonstrates one potential escape route for fans of the detached pulses and bursts of static that will soon be popping up everywhere: back into the void of industrial soundscapes! The Angel song "nr_aa" should provide ample comfort for those wishing that old-school industrial noise would make a post-millennial, digital comeback. Battery Operated offer another new direction which is mired in the retarded sense of humor that plagues the work of so many digital pastiche artists. Lovers of Gescom's hidden tracks of silly noise on the 0161 compilation will be pleased. Other contributions from Alejandra & Aeron, Scanner, and Bittonic offer another solid look at the filtered synths and indistinguishable samples that give this kind of music a framework. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be saying much with these songs, and as such, it becomes difficult to determine where one artists work ends and another's begins. Scanner's "Thulium Hymn" works from a pleasant melodic theme—melody being something that most of the others on this release leave alone—but even the beautiful repeating pad simply loops for five minutes with fractured voices and buzzing laid over it. This glitched-out, fuzzy approach to what is essentially stripped down techno music will eventually find its way into Sample CDs for folks who use programs like Fruity Loops and Acid to instantly compile endless variations on a theme. Bip-Hop Generation v.6 is not the definitive statement that you might look for it to be, but it perfectly wraps up a series curated by Bip-Hop by asking the all-important question: "Okay, so what's next?"
At this point, the click-and-cut micro-genre of electronic music's vast frontier of styles and cults and webrings has probably offered about all it can on its own. Like so many pioneering sounds before it, music like that contained on the 6th and final installment of Bip-Hop's Bip-Hop Generation series is destined to be the springboard for ideas for mainstream pop, r&b, and hip hop producers for the next several years. Like the other production trends usurped by the masses before it, the click-and-cut aesthetic and those who practice it will be forced to find a new way to express whatever it is they are trying to get at. With Volume 6, the French label that has carved a niche for itself with excellent releases from Twine, Scanner, and others, has provided a small glimpse of what might be next once someone hands Timbaland and the Neptunes a Stefan Betke 12". The prevalant sound palette here are the hisses, clicks, and blips whose description would have become redundant if they weren't precisely onomatopoeic. Collected are tracks from minimalist master Ilpo Vaisanen who shakes off the steady Pan Sonic beats for a more skittery, albeit calculated approach to rhythms. Then, Vainsanen's Angel collaboration with Schneider TM demonstrates one potential escape route for fans of the detached pulses and bursts of static that will soon be popping up everywhere: back into the void of industrial soundscapes! The Angel song "nr_aa" should provide ample comfort for those wishing that old-school industrial noise would make a post-millennial, digital comeback. Battery Operated offer another new direction which is mired in the retarded sense of humor that plagues the work of so many digital pastiche artists. Lovers of Gescom's hidden tracks of silly noise on the 0161 compilation will be pleased. Other contributions from Alejandra & Aeron, Scanner, and Bittonic offer another solid look at the filtered synths and indistinguishable samples that give this kind of music a framework. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be saying much with these songs, and as such, it becomes difficult to determine where one artists work ends and another's begins. Scanner's "Thulium Hymn" works from a pleasant melodic theme—melody being something that most of the others on this release leave alone—but even the beautiful repeating pad simply loops for five minutes with fractured voices and buzzing laid over it. This glitched-out, fuzzy approach to what is essentially stripped down techno music will eventually find its way into Sample CDs for folks who use programs like Fruity Loops and Acid to instantly compile endless variations on a theme. Bip-Hop Generation v.6 is not the definitive statement that you might look for it to be, but it perfectly wraps up a series curated by Bip-Hop by asking the all-important question: "Okay, so what's next?" samples:
- Scanner - Thulium Hymn
- Battery Operated - Sois Dwofe
- Angel - NR 11
