Miles Corbin - Sounds from the Tiki Hut (2000)

ARTIST`````Miles Corbin
ALBUM`````Sounds from the Tiki Hut
GENRE`````Lounge, Easy, Nu Surf, Exotica, Kitsch

YEAR````````2000

What?
The laziest sound possible. A very interesting production mix: stripped down, retro soft synth beats entangled in classical Hawaiian/surf guitar melodies. All songs have thin basslines so the whole album is mostly in mid and high range (love those cheap, crisp snares) mostly sounding like some rare exotic vintage gem. A truly unpretentious record that takes you far, far away from the suffocating, confusing world of today's showy, charts aiming bands.

Miles Corbin is the bandleader guitarist of The Aqua Velvets whose music is featured in many Film and TV soundtracks. The whole crew seriously lacks promotion and support but after viewing their stunningly badly composed but charming website it seems they really don't give a flying fuck.

DOWNLOAD

The Micronauts - From Bleep to Bleep (2000)

NO BULLSHIT HERE
ARTIST`````The Micronauts
ALBUM`````From Bleep To Bleep
GENRE`````Techno, House
YEAR````````2000

WHY?
I've heard this album a week ago for the first time and was blown away. This is one of the rawest, fearless tech-house albums ever. For the fullest effect listen on some bigass headphones.

ALBUM REVIEW: The title of the Micronauts' (mini-)LP debut is just as good as any, considering all but one of the songs feature "bleep" in the title, and there's a four-part series entitled "Baby Wants to Bleep." It's also completely in keeping with the duo's aesthetic, which injects a sense of humor and off-hand charm into the often sterile and increasingly academic field of acid techno. They function as a near-perfect incarnation of classic acid acts like Altern-8 or the KLF, both of whom produced great music but also recognized and exploited, for comic effect, Britain's acid revolution during the early '90s. With all the mayhem and track-to-track flow of the best hip-hop DJs (even though they're performing on 303s and 909s instead of turntables), the Micronauts tear their way through squelchy acid hysteria and continually test the upper limits of the frequency range. Though most of the humor is inherent in the track titles, the music is so kinetic that it's easy to envision Monier and Issakidis smirking behind their boxes even as they were programming the album. Except for the heavily processed freeform-electronics piece ("Bleeper 0+2") that cuts the album in two, Bleep to Bleep offers plenty of tweaked acid patterns and quite a few trips through heavy reverb.

DOWNLOAD

I-F (VARIOUS ARTISTS) - MIXED UP IN THE HAGUE VOL. 01 (2000)

THE MOST IMPORTANT ITALO-DISCO LESSON TO LEARN
ARTIST`````I-F
ALBUM`````MIXED UP IN THE HAGUE VOL. 01
GENRE`````ELECTRO, ITALO-DISCO, EARLY TECHNO
YEAR````````2000

REVIEW BY JOHN BUSH:
I-f's Mixed Up in the Hague is an excellent dance-history lesson focusing on the electro-disco that's been such an influence on his productions. Wisely avoiding most of the endlessly compiled electro classics ("Planet Rock," "Rockit," "Clear") that tend to bore advanced listeners, I-f instead looks back to the motorized sequencer disco of the late '70s and early '80s with a parade of excellent obscurities. (Featuring track titles but no list of performers is undoubtedly not an oversight but a challenge to potential trainspotters out there.)

REVIEW BY BOOMKAT.COM:
I-F's 'Mixed Up In The Hague Vol. 1' - an uber-limited reissue of a record that is widely credited as being the best Italo/Electro mix of the past decade and accordingly changes hands for the kind of £££ that makes your eyes water despite it only ever being released on measly CDR. A crafty adjunct of the Parallax Corporation, I-F's legendary mix is a masterclass in the art of mixing, taking the blueprint as classic Italio-disco and the golden-age of European electro.

I-F capitalises on his keen ear by constructing a mix so intuitive it'll have you wondering how two decks and a mixer can sound so damn good. Great fun, a big recommendation.

DOWNLOAD HAGUE

CHRIS MORRIS - BLUE JAM (2000)

ABSTRACT, CONTROVERSIAL, AND GORGEOUSLY PRODUCED ENGLISH SICK COMEDY
ARTIST``````CHRIS MORRIS
MIX```````````BLUE JAM
GENRE``````COMEDY, DRAMA
YEAR````````2000

DESCRIPTION:
Ladies and gentlemen, you are floating in farce. And Chris Morris wouldn't have it any other way. But first, the back-story: After his vicious, satirical television shows The Day Today and Brass Eye were cancelled, BBC's Radio 1 bought up his new series of dark, comedic ambient sketches entitled Blue Jam. This album collects the highlights. So to speak. From skits about evil four-year-olds, knob harmony, and a couple who is so apathetic that their only worry over their kidnapped son is whether or not to cancel the baby sitter -- all wrapped in a fug of electronic accompaniment by the likes of Aphex Twin and Brian Eno -- the jokes here are as black as soot. Think Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis or those censored skits from The Kids in the Hall. Abhorrent tragi-comedy that would leave absurdists green with envy. Especially with ironic pillow talk like "Push your balls up my nose." Terrifying. Deeply hilarious. Like John Waters, you may often find Morris childish and repellant -- but you're glad he's out there.

TRACKLIST:
01 Blue Jam Intro
02 Doc Phone
03 Lamacq Sting
04 4ft Car
05 Suicide Journalist
06 Acupuncture
07 Bad Sex 2
08 Mayo Sting
09 Unflustered Parents
10 Moyles Sting
11 TV Lizards
12 Doc Cock
13 Hobbs Sting
14 Morton Interview
15 Fixit Girl
16 Porn
17 Kids Party
18 Club News
19 Whiley Sting
20 Little Girl Balls
21 Blue Jam Outro

DOWNLOAD

JEFF MILLS - THE ART OF CONNECTING (2000)

THIS ALBUM SHOULD BE CALLED "THE BIBLE OF DETROIT TECHNO"
ARTIST``````````````JEFF MILLS
ALBUM``````````````THE ART OF CONNECTING
GENRE```````````````MINIMAL DETROIT TECHNO
YEAR`````````````````2000

MY VIEW:
The only minimal techno producer/DJ I still like. As far as I am concerned, this album is one of the best minimal techno albums ever published. In terms of Detroit techno style - this was and is groundbreaking stuff from a groundbreaking producer. The song "The Bells" was one of few reason I went to techno parties in years 1999-2001.

ALBUM REVIEW:
Though Jeff Mills compiles previously released tracks for The Art of Connecting, the ten-track CD plays like a traditional album rather than a compilation. These ten tracks are culled from vinyl-only releases on Mills' Axis and Purpose Maker labels, and some of them, such as "The Bells" and "Java," are quite old, originally released in the mid-'90s. Yet, despite the thrown-together nature of The Art of Connecting and its old source material, it sounds surprisingly fresh, even if you're already familiar with these tracks. There's a careful balance of Mills' spacy, cinematic ambient recordings (here represented by album opener "Deckard" and closer "Utopia" as well as elements of "Nepta" and "Cobalt") offset some of his best Purpose Maker-style dancefloor tracks ("The Bells," "Java," "UFO") and his dystopian Axis-style work ("Pacific State of Mind," "Gamma Player," "4art"). The Art of Connecting overall functions well as an accessible sampler for anyone casually interested in Mills' diversity of output. You get a little taste of everything here while many of Mills' other CD releases tend to emphasize a particular style of his work, such as how From the 21st collects his spacy, cinematic ambient techno, Purpose Maker Collection his dancefloor tracks, and The Other Day his dystopian work. More than anything, The Art of Connecting succinctly showcases precisely how ably Mills has mastered all corners of the techno spectrum.

DOWNLOAD