SIMM - Welcome (1998)

When I posted Tapping the Conversation, I found myself wondering what other releases could be filed under "forgotten and overlooked". I began a short, but rather intensive, staring contest with my record collection. Through all the blur, my eyes slowly began to affix on SIMM. Yes indeed! The world needs more Eraldo Bernocchi.

Sadly the case with SIMM, like with many good and promising projects, turned out to be yet another short-lived experiment, only releasing one 12"EP, this full length and a handful of compilation tracks. Both the EP and Welcome were released by Mick Harris' now-defunct Possible Recs.

While the first press was released back in 1996, this reissue came out two years later and featured two additional tracks, namely Him and Backstage sonic, created and recorded in February 1997.

"OK! Enough with the history lesson, how are the sounds?" Eraldo is up for the challenge, trust me. Combining dark and brooding ambient atmospheres, looped beats, his signature guitar manipulations and deep bass into a nicely flowing stream of ambient dub.

It's actually hard for me to pick out standout tracks, as the whole album flows very smoothly from start to finish. If I had to pick a personal favourite, I'd go with the second track, Some silences. Lovely basswork, the restrained beat and the synthbleeps emerging halway through the track. Mesmerizing stuff.

SIMM is an almost hypnotic approach to dark soundscapes and groovy beats. Very calm and laid back, but still packing some serious sonic punch, SIMM and Welcome deserve way more recognition, indeed. Highly recommended, enjoy!

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(95+47MB/320CBR)

The Bug - Tapping the Conversation (1997)

Audio surveillance, invasion of privacy, paranoia and guilt.

They are all themes explored in Francis Ford Coppola's movie The Conversation from 1974. The troubled main character Harry Caul, portrayed by Gene Hackman, is an audio surveillance expert capable of bugging any conversation between a group of people. For a price, of course. Not to give away too much of the plot, especially for those who haven't seen the movie and plan on doing so, let's just say that one seemingly small and irrational piece of conversation will change the lives of Harry and the people involved.

Let's skip forward in time, twenty-three years to be exact. It's 1997, and this is where The Bug, at this time a co-op between Kevin Martin and Andre Gurov, better known as DJ Vadim, comes in. When you combine these highly productive musicians with the additional help of Dave Cochrane on bass, Simon Hopkins on guitar and Alex Buess on bass clarinet, you get Tapping the Conversation.

This dub-hop rendition of the movie is truely a dive into the deep end. Cochrane's basslines combined with Vadim's beats are the foundation on which the audials and visuals of the movie are reinterpreted on. While the sparse beats advance rather slowly, the textures are constantly moving with K-Mart squeezing tones from his synthesizers, some distorted guitars or the laid-back howls of the bass clarinet.

Although there is a heavy emphasis in the booklet that "absolutely no sonic or visual samples" are taken from the movie, watching the film in advance will help you enjoy the album to the fullest, as the track names are tied to scenes appearing in the movie.

Luckily for us The Bug goes beyond just reheating the suspense and feeling of the original motion picture. Instead, presenting us with their modern take on the menacing and paranoid vibe, this is infectiously catchy cinema for the mind. Enjoy!

"The issues of privacy and individuality, and issues of spying and listening, are as relevant now as they've ever been."

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(95+32MB/320CBR)

Equations Of Eternity - Vevè (1998)

Harris, Laswell and Bernocchi return for another collaborative effort under their Equations Of Eternity-moniker. Vevè picks up where their self titled left off, spicing things up with even more magick references than on their previous album. Let's sneak a peek behind the veil of secrets, shall we?

Many building blocks of the previous album are left intact. If it works, why mess with it? Laswell simply let's his bass do the talking. The throbbing lines of low-pitched goodness flow onward like a thick stream of glue, gently binding all elements together.

The beat constructions are signature Harris. Like the whole album, they're slowly evolving, and in absolutely no rush to get anywhere fast. Everything is nicely topped off with Bernocchi layering his gloomy soundscapes around the listener. The programmed electronics, manipulated guitar tones and ritual chants really bring the tracks to life. Slowly unfolding and subtle audial movements, constantly floating in and out on the listener. Again and again.

Reading about the track titles and studying their themes will flesh out the tracks even more, and maybe even open up new worlds for the interested and uninitiated. Going through nine tracks of smoothly flowing soundscapes in 56 minutes, everybody is allowed along for the trip. The sounds are certainly worth a listen, even if you don't care for the occult references and themes within.

"But the aim is to go behind the word to find the meaning, and to go beyond the sound to find the wisdom."

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(95+27MB/320CBR)

Godflesh - Messiah (2000)

All roads must come to an end, and even my stream of Godflesh EP's is starting to run dry.

There's this certain missing gem though, namely Messiah.

The material featured on the disc is some of the gloomiest stuff ever presented by the band. The source material was recorded and mixed between 1994-1995, and put out on Justin's own Avalanche Inc. on CDr, in a limited run of 1000 copies. In 2003 Relapse records reissued Messiah with new artwork on CD.

The disc features eight songs, four tracks and their dub counterparts, with a running time of 50 minutes. The first four tracks present us with a broad spectrum of music and emotion.

Beginning with the desolate and hopeless atmosphere of Messiah, which in my opinion features some of the best vocal performances in a Godflesh song ever. Going through the beatfueled Wilderness of mirrors, the bass-heavy Sungod and ending up with the slowly creeping and erupting rage of Scapegoat.

Up next are the dub counterparts of the aforementioned songs. Justin used recognizable chunks of the original songs, threw in some dense and fat beats and reworked them into these massive sensory assaults. Blissful!

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(95+18MB/320CBR)

Godflesh - Love and hate in dub (1997)

Love and hate in dub. For some it's a curseword, a time when Broadrick's influences and other projects finally mixed into Godflesh. For others it was an eye-opener into more experimental and sample-based music. I witnessed a few, let's say rather close-minded, metalheads taking a surprising turn in audial interests after taking a few listens to this.

In all simplicity, Love and hate in dub is the band remixing their own Songs of love and hate, leaving out Amoral and Hunter. Like with any good dub, the emphasis lies heavily on the bass and beats. And trust me, there's plenty of those elements to share.

While Justin's guitars are mostly stripped away or buried in the mix, Benny's bass is pushed to the front of the mix, distorted and bellowing. Alongside this bass-heavy mayhem there's a wide array of beats thrown in. There's thunderous hip-hop beats, raging jungle- and breakbeats, cut-up and rearranged washes of white noise .. and most surprisingly, all of this seems to work out in the end.

A very diverse record, and one of the strongest remix albums to ever hit the market. The constant battle of the raging beats against the warm drones floating in the background is truely enthralling. Reflecting upon it today, I think the album has stood the test of time with flying colours. It's still that raging monster today, just like it was back then.

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(95+57MB/320CBR)

Equations Of Eternity - Equations Of Eternity (1996)

Mick Harris, Bill Laswell and Eraldo Bernocchi. Three prolific musicians. Three different countries. Two continents.

Judging by the liner notes, the material for this album was created by each participant, own their own, in their own studios, and finally arranged, mixed down and produced by Bernocchi. Luckily for us, the international mail system was still working to some degree during the late 90's, thus making this collabration possible.

Harris provides some noisy samples and his instantly recognizable spare beats, although for this record he has spiced them up with a touch of tribal feel, sounding almost ritualistic at times.

Laswell provides the driving force of the album. His signature bass sound, thick and groovy, has been mixed decisively into the foreground for the listener to catch on to. It's almost like a steady flow of thick tar oozing from your speakers.

Bernocchi, with whose work I wasn't too familiar during the time of the release, except for a few compilation casette appearances with his group Sigillum S, is the puppetmaster of this show, pulling the strings, providing programmed electronics and manipulated guitar sounds to accompany Mick's beatwork.

Throw in a healthy dose of mysticism, specifically Haitian vodou-references, some distorted chants and a Crowley-quote to boot, and you get this dark, beat-heavy monster of a ritual record. Originally released by Wordsound in 1996, the disc features nine tracks with a running time of 55 minutes.

Enough with words, it's time for you to get lost in this thick concoction of dubby drone. Enjoy!

"Things connect in the end, somehow, mysteriously".

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(95+23MB/320CBR)

Terminal Cheesecake - Angels in pigtails (1990)

Don't worry, it can't get much crazier than 'Angels in pigtails'. This is another colorful acid freakout of epic proportions; A riff-filled wall of psychedelic noise, Funkadelic beats over a chorus consisting of hand drills, the right amount of crunch and punch covered with those human howls and wails bouncing all over the place. It even features a cover by the Residents, Hello Skinny.

As on the original CD, there are 11 songs (the ninth track consists of three parts) crammed into one track with 43 minutes in length. Because I'm a decent bloke, I've even included my version of a cue sheet for your listening pleasure (Feel free to split the tunes into individual tracks for portable players). Hope you enjoy!

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(94MB/320CBR)

PS: Once you're done here, this bloke has V.C.L. in decent quality, go and grab it!

Terminal Cheesecake - Pearlesque kings of the Jewmost (1992)

Often called the "love child of Butthole Surfers and Godflesh", Terminal Cheesecake are really hard to pin down and describe. Most of the time they are bouncing all over the place: heavy and relentless bass, massive amount of reverb, plenty of drug references and accompanying samples.

So if you have no problems with the aforementioned drug slang, a freaky TV evangelist, late-night radio talk show-recordings, heavy use of the delay-effect and a healthy dose of that "industrial feel", I recommend you grab this now.

Before you dive headfirst into the sounds, I would also recommend smoking some of your favourite herb. It just might make the digestion of this monster a wee bit easier. Hope you enjoy!

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(95+23MB/320CBR)