From:will@panix.com (WILL-E)
Date: Sun, 27 March 1994 19:48:00 -500 (EST)
Subject:From Within (Mr. FAX & Mr. Plastikman) review
To:idm@techno.Stanford.EDU


OK, nobody has posted a review of this yet so I guess I'll write up something
short & quick.

1  121 13:25  Snake Charmer
2.     12:25  Sad Alliance
3.     29.18  A Million Miles to Earth
4. 111 12:20  Homeward Bound
5.     03:19  Lost

Well they certainly put the best tracks on the +8 record.  If you're in the US,
definitely save your money and go for the domestic record.  A Million Miles to
Earth builds slowly (with what I think is a 303) and at times washes you over 
yet manages to still sound intelligent.  Then it gently drops you off somewhere
spacey for several minutes until it builds back up again.  This goes on for
close to half an hour!  Homeward Bound is thee intelligent dance record for
1994 so far for me.  I'm not so fond of the sample but at least it's not that
frequent - perhaps because it's probably German which I can't understand - but
it's that woman's voice I've heard so many times on FAX records.  This has got
a nice shuffley beat, and everytime it breaks, it'll come back stronger with
more and different sound additions.  The production sounds great.  

The extra tracks on the CD:  
Lost sounds A LOT like something off Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works II;
very minimal & dark.  Snake Charmer is a pretty good IDM tune - again that
shuffley ambient feel to it while Sad Alliance is an OK ambient track.

I was kind of worried about this CD.  I was never really crazy about Pete
Namlook on his own.  His style is rather minimal and spacey.  I like simplicity
but I also like variety.  With Ritchie Hawtin, I dig his tranced out dance
music.  However, if you listen to some of the ambient tracks on the FUSE album,
they just don't seem that interesting to me, especially "theychx" which goes on
for over 13 minutes.  On the Plastikman album, only a couple of the songs that
lean towards the ambient side seem like filler material to me.  The good thing
though is that my roommate took the risk of buying it and it turns out to be
much better than I expected.  I think this was a really good collaboration for
the two of them.  It seems like it brought out the best of both.  I hope they
work together again.


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