Download The EXPERIMENT - What Goes Up? [DUKE059CD]

Music/Style Electronic, Breaks, Downtempo, Experimental
Date 22/05/1999
Quality 320 kbps MP3
Imprint Hydrogen Dukebox
Nr# DUKE059CD
Format Album

The production and mixological assemblage team of London's Nick Hale and Gez Dewar grew straight out of Ministry of Sound's bedroom studios to become their own staple in the world of electronica's generic paradise garage. There's plenty to like about the ten tracks on this album, especially the "Baba O' Riley" midsection rip on "Walk Away," and its moaning feminine choruses layered throughout the rhythm. But that's just it - it's all fragments of things to like, recognizable or not, which subsumes the primary musical idea. You're not sure if you're hearing Renegade Soundwave ("Point Blank"), Kraftwerk remixes ("Subway"), or a Terence Parker Detroit house tune ("Hotel"). Elements of techno, dub, drum'n'bass, house, and hard trance cascade over one another in this mess of a mix job by the producers. They call this an original soundtrack on the sleeve, but it's more like "How many ideas can we cram into one place, then cover them over with stuff we mixed out of other stuff we couldn't use in full?" It's chemistry all right, but bad juju nonetheless. This is where the DJ element gets watered down, covered over in its own record collections and mixing board; the question becomes, "How do we get everything in?" rather than, "How can we make what we have work?" When something as exciting as electronica happens and so many are utilizing its many proffered freedoms for the creative edification of so many, it's a real bit to hear the obvious rip-off move being played so close to the surface of the real thing.

1. The Experiment - Walk Away [5:41]
2. The Experiment - Point Blank [5:16]
3. The Experiment - Subway [5:02]
4. The Experiment - Brain Drain [3:35]
5. The Experiment - Hotel [5:04]
6. The Experiment - Holes [3:58]
7. The Experiment - Blue [6:49]
8. The Experiment - This Is What The Funk Is For [3:21]
9. The Experiment - Cowboy Hero [5:07]
10. The Experiment - Chronicles [12:52]

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