Luna Kafé record review |
Canada - Luna Kafé - Full Moon 9 - 07/20/97
Digital Poodle:
Combat!
nice+smooth ultra media, 108A Roncesvalles Ave., Toronto, ON M6R 2K8, Canada. Cleopatra/Hypnotic, 8726 South Sepulveda Blvd. D-82, Los Angeles, CA 90045, USA. Copyright © 1997 Greg Clow
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| © 2011 Luna Kafé |
Rising from the ashes of the once-mighty Death Of Vinyl, nice+smooth ultra
media was founded a year or two back as both a label (licencing most of its
releases through Hypnotic/Cleopatra) and a recording/post-production studio.
These two efforts are the latest in what has been a fairly steady stream of
releases from the n+s collective, and each provides a surprising variety of
sounds. Combat!, which is the first new material from Digital Poodle in
nearly three years, starts off weak with several tracks that show little
progression from the band's once fresh but now dated tekno-industrial roots.
Further in, however, there's rapid improvement which culminates in an
excellent reworking of Crack, DP's 1993 single that provided the first
clue of their interest in trance-techno.
It was this interest that sparked
the creation of Kinder Atom, a side project which has since become
nice+smooth's flagship act. KA covers many bases on their hefty double disc
epic, so this reviewer recommends breaking it down into it's component parts
for maximum enjoyment. When you're in one of those mellow moods, break out
Super Nice, an enveloping, beatless journey of analogue bleeps and warm
synth washes that harkens back to a time when "ambient music" really was
ambient. Hippy Pants, meanwhile, breaks out the funky breakbeats and
squelchy acid techno, before chilling out in the final, fading moments.