Reviews by markjazz

I thought this groups last album, Selim Sivad, was their most african sounding, until I got this album. It's a pretty good example of jazz mixed with african elements including druming and chanting and it took about 3 years to make. The choral chants are very plesant, as on the track M'Bizo. They are repedative but that's how most african chants are anyway. It doesn't take away from the track at all though. What I like best about this disc is that the M'Bizo suite runs as one long track and the drum cross over from track Africa - Europe - Asia to Sizelapha is simply awesome. Mixes perfectly! There's this wierd garble sounding hand clapping thing that fades in on the track Africa - Europe - Asia at about the half way point. I thought this was so odd. How often do you hear a fade in of any instrument on a jazz album? The second thing I thought was that it was a skipping record scratching sound at first. Overall I think it's a wierd sound to have. It's neat but I wish it was without the hand clapping as sometimes it doesn't seem to be in rhythm. This is a good album and I highly recommend it your a fan of this group or african world music in general.

This album is so damn awesome. It has so much replay value because there's a ton of things going on, and that's rare for death metal/ cybergrind. I also love this because I hear a lot of use of the digital delay and I used that a ton myself for vocals for my noise project so I really know how it works...and this group works it well. I love the samples used, even the classical piece. Awesome shit and EP is just as good!

This is a tribute album celebrating the 80th birthday of Weston. However, to me, it falls short. It reaks of african images and song titles but I was expecting more african sound from this. The first two tracks seem very unfocused and more like jam sessions where artists are working out certain cords to see what fits right. Some tracks are pure piano solos, which are nice but they have nothing african about them. What I do love about this album is the bass and the piano. Both are flawless and I wish it was a duo album between the two with 3+ african rythyms setting the pace. This is my first taste of Randy Weston and I'm sure he's had better albums. I just need to find them now.

This is a rare thing for me. I actually like the remix disc more than the album. I think that's a first for an genre of music. The odd thing about this type of music is that every time an album is released I love it but after a few listens I soon find out there's a lot of tracks I don't like. I think it just the idea of hearing new distorted beats mixed with noise and then finding out which ones your brain likes after a few listens. It goes the same with noise in general for me too. One thing is for sure, the louder you play this music the better it sounds! I thought the track Omega 3000 was neat to hear. It sounds like a demo version of the track Omega 3, which happens to be one of my favourite power noise tracks ever. Hearing the demo was neat and it's pretty damn good too. In short, this album doesn't offer anything new for the genre of power noise but it is pretty good, like much of W.A.S.T.E.'s material.

OK, the title track is a classic goth-rock tune and the two that follow it are not bad but tracks 4-5 are just plain garbage. Their remixes but the just sound so soft and are pretty much one big mess. Masked (Re-Mix 2.6 Whatever) is hardly 2 minutes long and I'm not sure if it even qualifies as a song. The hidden track, Siren, is a gem. It's a bit too long but the basic sound is really chill and relaxing. It's an instrumental and kinda has an ambient guitar quality to it as well. I wish this was just a 3 track single and not a mess of an EP...could have been rated higher if it was.

This is a hard album for me to rate. Normally when I have an album that I don't find myself skipping any tracks on I rate it pretty high. This album is one of those rare exceptions. I can't find myself rating this over anything than a 7/10 but I play it all the time and overall it's an awesome album. Far better than The Art of Breaking Apart. I guess I'm just not moved by these tracks, even though I like pretty much all of them overall. I really love the two bonus tracks at the end of this and and VAC has always been really great at instrumentals to begin with.

Now the big negative I have with this album is the artwork. I think it sucks and it's lame, even on the insert. The album to follow wouldn't get any better either. But in the end I don't care too much about the artwork when enjoying an album. So, not VAC's best album but it's pretty damn killer from start to finish and if your a fan getting this one is a no-brainer.

Of the Four Part series for these compilations this one isn't my favourite, but it's still ok. This one features earlier tracks from the album Church of Acid and the one's before it. If you already own the early albums it's pointless to get this compilation but if not it's has some worth while tracks on here. I think it's funny that he puts on extended version of We Have to See, We Have to Know because the shorter album version gets boring as it is so I never play this track on here, puts me to sleep. Since I love the album Church of Acid I like hearing the tracks on here remastered. This is some good mid 90's industrial and it was during this time when I think Bryan was his most creative with his writting and his music. He talks a lot about his problems with his drug abuse the view of the World through his eyes. To think this is all done by one guy, for the most part, is pretty awesome. He has a good depressing view of the World and it works well. I'm not a fan of his slower tracks, like Pain, but he makes up for it with the awesome Dark Lights and Decent to Darkness. Overall this album is actually pretty chill, for industrial music and the Vol. after this one would pick up the pace a lot, which happens to be favourite Vol. from the series.

This album is still my favourite one from Velvet Acid Christ. It's a solid release without much negative things to say about it. There's a variaty of music on on this disc too, from the slow moving There Is no God, the classic acid grooved tracks like Decypher and Fun With Drugs, the fast paced hard hitting Speedball O.D., and the angelic vocals done on Slut. Of all the tracks on here I would think that Icon is my favourite. Such a beautiful rythem in it. I also like the track Psycho because it's broken up into 3 parts and has numerous quotes from a young killer, which is always fun to hear since I'm a true crime fan. The album flows so well and the secret track Futile is a good mix. I think it's a 7 minute version with a long quote from the movie Event Horizon at the start...love it. This is the only artist that could get away with sampling Star Trek and make it sound cool.

I've loved this album since my mother was playing it over her stereo when I was very very young. It's not a perfect album to me but it has some tracks that I still love to this day. I think overall I prefer the B-side as I don't dislike any of the tracks on there but my absolute favourite track on here would have to be The Wizard. I've played this track countless times and I pretend that the lyrics are about "The Feathered Serpent", and when I think about it that way it makes me enjoy the track even more. This is probably the only rock song that I know all the lyrics off by heart. A great album and probably the groups best one ever.

This is a great jazz/world album and my first listen from Martin Tillman. It sounds like what it's called, Eastern Twin. Great eastern style sounds mixed with some electronic instuments, such as cello and keyboards. The album is fairly laid back, nothing to heavy but all fairly good in thier own right. There's a couple vocals tracks as well, like Nothing on my Mind and Close to Water. When listening to this I can't help but compare it to groups like Delerium, Conjure One and even Morcheeba at times. Very ambient worldly jazz and if your a fan of the artists mentioned you have to try this album out.