"blue are single, gold are ep/lp"

 

Upside Wookie    by   Luminfire  ( 07.06.01)
release #94 

Here's a tune from a new name on Milk. Luminfire has done a nice, cool song with lots of melodies. "Upside Wookie" has a sound and style warm like summer and cool like iceream. This is a simple tune with no timing techniques or out-of-this-world sounds. This danceable but also highly listenable tune builds on lofi drums and layers of different loops like vocals and guitars. Here's one for the summer!

[83%]
 -S.Louhela

  mp3 mod
  (7.2MB | 5:03)

 D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Mixes/Remixes)  by Ceniq  ( 28.03.01 )
  ep/lp release #18

 

1. D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Bulentoi Mix) [3.8MB]
2. D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Roger That Jr. Radio Edit 1) [5.9MB]
3. D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Roger That Jr. Radio Edit 2) [8.7MB]
4. D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Vhiiula Mix) [3.9MB]
5. D.Exiguus Was Wrong (C Side) [3.6MB]

Review by O.Paasovaara:

I have heard many mixes in my life but some of the tracks on this EP made me wonder what the word "mix" actually means. Obviously the concept is likewise a bit blurry to Roger That Jr. whose mixes have absolutely nothing to do with the original "D. Exiguus Was Wrong". I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, quite the opposite. Then again, Lime and Vhiiula went the other way and made somewhat more typical mixes which balances the EP nicely.
  The EP starts off with Lime's nice and mellow track. After listening to those relaxing pads and steady beat I wondered what the hell is going on when RTJ's "Radio Mix 1" began to play. The broken speech synth and stoned harddrive sounds just made me go nanners. The third track is also from RTJ's obviously deviated mind and continues with the "original? what original?" line. This one isn't plain experimental noise like the second track but more like noisy ambient with something that could perhaps be described as melody. Moving on to the fourth track was quite a shock for me as it went back to the more typical way of remixing. Vhiiula's mix is a bit like Lime's but only a tad. Lime's mix is mellow and steady all the way but Vhiiula went for the original's style mixing up a calm melody with medium fast beats. The fifth and last piece on this mixes & remixes EP is by the man himself, Ceniq. Again the lets-forget-D.-Exiguus approach is there. This "C Side" is something I didn't expect from Ceniq because it's quite aggressive and without a proper melody. Strangely this one turned out to be my favourite of the five tunes.
  Long story short "D. Exiguus Was Wrong (Mixes & Remixes)" is a collection of tracks that have almost nothing to do with each other except for the fact that they are music (at least some of them). In my opinion that is the reason why the EP works so well. "Brilliant" is one of the words that come to my mind at the moment.

Review by Jan Robbe:

1. Ceniq - D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Bulentoi Mix)
Lime/Bulentoi did the first remix of ceniq's excellent tune. The result is a fine ambient piece with a lot of strings, and a typical relaxed everchanging beat (samples reminded me of BrothomStates). No innovation, though a nice tune.
84%

2. Ceniq - D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Roger That Jr. Radio Edit 1)
3. Ceniq - D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Roger That Jr. Radio Edit 2)
These are different, we're going way experimental here. Packed with infinite sound effects, Roger That Jr. managed to create 2 original pieces that have atmosphere written all over it. The second edit is more melodic and perhaps more mysterious than the first, which I think has better effects... Definately worth your downloading time if you're into experiments...
85%
87%

4. Ceniq - D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Vhiiula Mix)
Vhiiula brings us a happy piano-tune with complicated breaks and a lot of samples. Subtle tempochanges and dsp effects make up for the repetitive melody. I love the breaks... :)
89%

5. Ceniq - D.Exiguus Was Wrong (C Side)
C Side brings us back to the experimental side of this EP. The beats and bassline (?) are very chaotic, but in a good way. Quality haunting noisy sound effects. Short but long enough (2:37), and a nice ending.
92%

    contact ceniq

 

 

Who Needs Alice Anyway?    by   Fun-Tourist  ( 1.12.00 )
release #92 

"Who needs alice anyway?" is a marvellous track that adds iem-flavors to something that's a little like top-of-the-pops-trance basis. This is Fun-Tourist's second milk-single following partly the same path as Face On/Take One (which has gained quite amounts of radio playing here in Finland by the way): both the melody and drums are on the same line competing to take over the tune. The first three minutes are totally built on playing with beats and loops. I think there's even a loop sampled from Alice Deejay along the vocoder-lines and Kraftwerk-like sequences. Fun-Tourist is a magnificent composer even seeing from the musically traditional point of view. In this genre of music (though I feel awkward when I say the word "genre") the rhythmitechnical side (the twisted beat experiments and tempo trickery explorations, you know what i'm talking about) often takes larger part of the tune leaving the melodic part more on the background. This isn't the case on Fun-Tourist's tunes despite the fact that the wicked beats and rhythmic effects are a major content in them - especially in the 3-minute intro of "Who needs alice anyway?". This tune is definitely composed with a smile on the face as after the intro of crazy re-triggering of drum loops with varying effects on them the tempo rises and a whole other tune merges from this: an ultimate rave track. Or that's what i thought to myself when I first heard this tune at the Koneisto-festival last summer. I've never got myself that swetty raving to a tune. Anyway, after the rave part the tune gets all wicked and twisted again as the drums eat themself with the rhythmic trickery and some melodies stay to play fading the track away. A magnificent, hardly categorisable track both for party and listening.  

[95%]
 -S.Louhela

  mp3 mod
  (12.6MB | 8:44)

contact Fun-Tourist