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- Rob Devlin
- Albums and Singles
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- Pedro - Seven Eight
- Empire State - The Elements of a Wish
- Minotaur Shock - Lady Came From Baltic Wharf
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'Technoir', the first Hymen Records compilation was one of the best experimental compilations ever. Showcasing then-nobodies along with exclusive cuts from the popular Ant-Zen post-industrial roster, critics everywhere began to pay attention to the growing Hymen sub-label. 'Masonic' has a hard act to follow, but Hymen's evolution into "IDM for Rivetheads" and its ability to distance itself from the parent label paid off. With even the best of compilations, there are going to be at least some misses among the hits, so rather than humiliate those who do not shine as brightly (or are as dim as eclipses), I'll only focus on some of the very best of the bunch. If I had to choose the best track of the entire CD, then Beefcake would take the proverbial cake... errrr yeah.Hymen
Being completely fascinated by the consistently incredible output of these sleek plunderphonic masters, it was hard not to fall in love with their eclectic contribution to Disc One. Imagine an ADD-afflicted music prodigy composing a 4 minute track, and you'll get a sense of "ct2": DSP-effected drill n' bass, cinematic strings, and some jazzy horns. The king of sub-bass, Scorn (a.k.a. Mick Harris of Napalm Death and Painkiller), graces the same disc with more of his highly original dark dub on "The Distance Between". Picking up where his last Hymen gem ('Greetings From Birmingham') left off, this should hold over his fans temporarily until the 'Governor' EP and 'Plan B' CD, both due out shortly. Funkstorung's "Beinh" (from one of their Musik.Aus.Strom 12" releases) mixes machine clangs with overdriven bass pulses and clever lowpass filtering. Schizophrenic breakbeat wunderkind Aaron Funk drops another bizarre cut entitled "Parasitus" under his Venetian Snares moniker that is very much in line with his Planet Mu material. The disc ends with Sonic Draglogo's dirty 80's-esque pop song "Sister". Infested with distortion, banging drum loops, and quirky guitar hooks, this is quite possibly the weirdest thing Hymen has ever attached its name to... and I can't stop playing it. Gridlock open the second disc with the ambient "36:6:115." For the uninitiated, this track might almost be seen as uncharacteristic of the Hymen sound, but then the duo's rhythmic barrage bursts out of the speakers sometime around the 3 minute mark, and it all becomes clear. Somatic Responses offer "Whatever," a shattered breakbeat track with otherworldly strings and relentless noisy squelches. I never really got into their 'Augmented Lines' album, but now I understand what the fuss is all about. While the electroclash movement has embraced some of the crappiest retro new wave garbage possible, acts like Lilienthal, Red Sparrow, and Bochum Welt entertain with their respective oldschool sounds that are far more deserving of the attention wasted on the likes of Fischerspooner. In the midst of all this 8 bit glory, Xanopticon plops out a heaping pile of Squarepusher diarrhea on "Phase", exploding stuttering beat fragments and undigested corn kernals all over the place. This guy could be the next Venetian Snares. And you can fucking quote me on that. In that same vein, Fanny (formerly of punk heroes The Exploited) closes out this beefy compilation with an incoherant slab of cut-up, mashed-up electronic junk noise rhythms. So in conclusion: Hymen makes Warp seem gay as a cricket, and Alicia Keys is really hot. I mean, she's really really hot.
 
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The vast worldwide sea of laptop and desktop musicians has simply become far too predictable with atonal noise-bursts and rhythmic clicking. While the revisit of Klang Krieg's 'American Breakbeat' album has some wonderful highlights, it's almost way too excessive at a staggering 34 tracks. Presented here are remixes and reinterpretations of the original release—29 contributions from North American electronic artists—by electronic artists from (almost*) elsewhere in the world. [*Note to Klang Krieg: Mexico is still part of North America.]Klang Krieg
Tracks like the reinterpretation of Matmos's "Count Tweekula" from Japan's Sonic Dragolo add a clever and even more comical twist by hijacking j-pop and exotica influences, cutting and pasting them into a vocalized mix that would make Ms. Solex proud. Chris Wood's string arrangement on Timeblind's "Jitter" is possibly one of the most beautiful songs on the compilation along with Syntetika's labelmates, Ambidextrous, (do yourself a favor and re-read the Syntetika review) make a serene, languid, melodic reconstruction of "Salty" by Blink Blink. I'm also epecially fond of "Melancholic Music Box," the Rosy Parlane reinterpretation of Hrvatski's "Insect Digestion Melody," reformatted for a thunderous music box and the Fibla remix of Marumari's "Super Botany," with pleasant Morr-like guitar sounds that easily jumps the tracks from the nerdy laptop boy express into the chin-scratching pseudo-electronica post-post-post rock shuttle. There's too many electro-fart remixes of Kid 606, however, and the good parts just don't seem to go on long enough. At the super-cheap price I paid for this set, however, those few low points can easily be overlooked.
 
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- Buug - Kaylek 2 (remixed by Plastacas)
- Matmos - Count Tweekula (remixed by Sonic Dragolo
- Timeblind - Jitter (remixed by Chris Wood)
- Marumari - Sonic Botany (remixed by Fibla)
 
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This four-track EP, the third release from Scott Herren on the Warp label under his Prefuse 73 alias, makes for a broad yet fleeting assortment of instrumental HipHop inspired music. The absence of vocalists and/or MCs has the listener focused on the behind the scenes make-up of some great compositions. Not to say that the right vocalists and/or MCs wouldn't enhance things, as evident on 2001's "Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives."Warp
The opening track "Desks.Pencils.Bottles" names the elements used to provide the busy melodic percussion and distant drones, anchored with a synth-heavy bassline and a shuffle rhythm (coupled with a human beatbox) which skips the tune along perfectly. "When Irony Wears Thin" kicks it with the big band-esque shots of a reworked horn section over Moogish sounds and the bells, bips and bleeps of a gear-shifting rhythm track. "It Never Entered" lays down an "old school" styled funk groove as the base for the calm and collected sampled progressions of what sounds like a choir, eventually going to a serene half-time feel. "Love You Bring" closes off the disc with a sampled string section, acoustic guitar, droning keyboards and some pleasant female vocal clippings over a groove with a kick drum that'll get you right in the chest. Being called a collection, one may expect a lot more than four tracks over a ten year period. This may be that Mr. Herren has been a busy guy with his other projects (Savath+Savalas, Eastern Developments label) which differ from Prefuse to accumulate a lot of extra material. Here's hoping for another full lengther.
 
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