Reviews by markjazz

This album took me nearly 10 years to finally get and listen to for the first time. I was so use to hearing the remixed versions of these tracks on The Remix Wars Strike 1 - :wumpscut: vs. Haujobb and Frames: The Remix Album that this was some what refreshing. This album is an excellent blend of industrial and electronics with some guitar samples in some tracks. Probably the most he ever used for one album. Cold Comfort surprised me a lot because of how metal it sounds. I think I prefer the remixes of that track. This issue contains a remix of Yearning by Mentallo & the Fixer, which also appeared as a shorter version on Frames: The Remix Album. It's not that great of a track. There's no beats and it's slow and goes no where so I wouldn't go hunting for this issue just for this "bonus".

I noticed that there are two tracks that contain samples from the movie Single White Female, Solid State Logic and Perfect Average. I thought it was pretty cool because I like that movie a lot and Daniel Myer must too. Probably because there's a Front 242 song in the movie...ha.

The album that popularized Brazilian jazz music in America. This is a classic and I can't find any thing wrong with the album. One of those insant 5/5 albums simply for it's place in American music history and for setting the standard for Latin-Jazz to come. The follow up that Stan Getz would do, Getz/Gilberto [featuring Antônio Carlos Jobim], turned out even to be more popular as well. A classic piece of jazz culture that is nearly impossible not to like if your any fan of jazz. The feel and mood of the album is awesome and every cafe in the World should have it in their library!

Cover Painting by - Olga Albizu
Bass - Keter Betts
Guitar - Charlie Byrd
Drums - Bill Reichenbach , Buddy Deppenschmidt
Engineer - Ed Green
Producer - Creed Taylor
Saxophone - Stan Getz

Notes: Recorded in Pierce Hall, All Souls Unitarian Church, Washington D.C., February 13, 1962.

This is a live compilation disc featuring 3 different sets that Stan Getz did from 1987 - 1991. At this point he's a pretty old man and has over come a lot of personal problems in his life, like his drug abuse, a little did we know these would be one of his last live recordings. However, all these tracks are great and it's cool jazz done live at it's best. The crowd is a bit annoying to hear on a couple tracks clapping after every solo and it's doesn't sound like there's no more than 100 people at these sets. There's no quick paced tracks on here and it's something to just relax to after a hard days work, or over a nice dinner. Sounds a bit cheesy but it's the feeling you get with most cool jazz and even the artwork on the digipak suggests a nice walk in the town while listening to this disc. Stan Getz plays is usual greatness on these sets but the piano by Kenny Barron is perfect as well. In short, this is a beautiful disc to by if your the type to have some jazz just to relax to.

I had bought this album on a whim for $8.99 at a used record shop. I bought it because I read the insert and it talk about how rare this release was. I don't own much British jazz so I thought; "What the heck? I'll get it." I got home, put it in my stereo and pressed play. I was floored for 22 minutes! This is some of the best trio jazz I've ever heard and it's mastered pretty well too. The liner notes say this was mastered from the original 10" because there was no master tapes from this album. Some of the music in this album is pretty haunting too, especially the title track. Anyway, this is a one of a kind album and if you own the original, keep it! Only 99 were made and some sell for over $4000.

A surprising single from Funker Vogt as there was a lot of good tracks from the album Survivor, which is still my favorite from the band. I, however, am glad it was released as a single because it's a strong track and features some very well done metaphorical lyrics. There a four remixes of it and the remixers were all cleverly named after various characters from the movie Alice and Wonderland, as the song title suggests.

The remix closest sounding to the original is the first one done by The Mad Hatter and it shows off some great EBM beats that aren't fast paced and the vocals move with the keys very well too. The next remix, done by The Cheshire Cat is even slower moving and as a sad tone to it, almost ambient you could say. The backing vocals are a bit over done though but overall it's fairly beautiful sounding. We then get the B-side track, Chessmen's Square, which is a track I think to be better than half the one's from the album Survivor. It's a hard pounding instrumental EBM track with some great bassline work and after the half way point it gets even better as the key patterns kick up make the track sound even more danceable and blissful. The 3rd remix of Red Queen is done by Humpty Dumpty and uses the sounds that were on the end of the original version from the album that extended the track past 12 minutes. This version is over 7 minutes and starts off ambient like before it goes into the distorted drum pattern. The acoustic guitar is feature the most in this version as well. The final remix, done by The White Rabbit is the most "club" sounding one on here and thus, my least favorite. It's an ok track and they did a good job remixing the original but I like it better as a slower, acoustic ambient piece myself. Overall, a great single that's hard to find now-a-days.

I've been going backwards with this group, listening to their newer material before their older stuff. I must say that this album is not bad but I still prefer some of their newer material over this album. There's some good tracks on here and I especially like Nothing to Include. I like the overall theme of this album but there's just something lacking in it that I can't pin point. It may just be there isn't enough catchy tunes for me. I also prefer the remix of Under Deck on t than this album version. The remix by Beborn Beton is wicked and it was the first Funker Vogt track I ever heard. That being said I would recommend this album to any fan of the group as it sounds very much like a true Funker Vogt album. Well produced!

This is pretty much your standard jazz album of the time, sound wise anyway. I think it has a "cooler" sound then most from the late 50's but it's headlined by the trombone, which is such a great lead instrument for jazz that I wish it was more prevalent. For the time Curtis Fuller was doing something different. No one gave two shits about the trombone unless it was part of big bang ensemble. Anyway, this album is some great hard bop jazz and although it doesn't really stand too far out there it is a great start if your new to this artist. This one was recommended to me by a RYM user and it definatly has me wanting more of this guys works. The title track is probably the weakest one on here and it's the only slow track too. Bang Bang is awesome and one of my favourite jazz tracks from this era.

I've owned this album for over 13 years now and after finally watching Hellraiser: Bloodline [Hellraiser IV - Bloodline] for the first time this year I realized that FLA sampled the hell out of that movie on this album. They even sampled a half second sound of the robot just before it blows up on the very start of the track Sado-Masochist...ha! Not sure why either because it's the shittiest of the Hellraiser films. But getting to the album this is one that I have mixed feelings about. It was the start of them changing their sound and going way more electro than they ever would, even though they said they wouldn't in an interview a couple years earlier. Sampling The Chemical Brothers doesn't help either. It has it's good moments but it's obviously not my favourite being more of a fan of actual industrial music.

This was an album I had wanted for a while and I finally got it. I must say that, although the sound is different, I do like it, but there are also some bad tracks on here too. Animal (Zoo) is probably the worst Front 242 track ever. I was kind of laughing when I first heard it. I think Front 242 were trying something different because the market for techno music was starting to get big at this time so I think they wanted to try and cash in a bit. The female vocals are pretty cool but I'm glad they just kept it to a few songs. Overall it's a pretty good album but not the best I've heard by them.

A very unique release from the masters of industrial goth, Die Form. I have different feelings about this release however. At times it can be a bit boring, but hey, it's classical music filtered through Die Form so it's what I was expecting. What I wasn't expecting was how well they pulled it off. I also like the fact that most of the tracks are instumentals as well. This is probably gonna be one of favorite releases of 2008 simply cause of the project they attempted with this release and I truely hope they do a part II. I will say that if you don't like classical music then your probably not gonna like this release. But hey, maybe this will turn some new people on to the 400 year old genre.