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ZIQ016
Luke Vibert
'95-'99
Released 22-05-2000
ZIQ016_LukeVibert_95-99-1-650x650.jpg
Planet Mu site: https://planet.mu/releases/95-99/
Planet Mu store: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/69274-luke-vibert-95-99
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7ABHF7CFpwUzTOtrbtseug?si=nHVTSVoTQwSzrTIABazNUw

 

I’m sure you all know Luke from his releases on RePhleX, Mo’Wax, Ninja Tune, Rising High, Astralwerks, Warp and Ninja Tune, under pseudonyms such as Wagon Christ, Plug and Vibert/Simmonds (with Jeremy Simmonds).


1. Flyover - 6:54
2. Prick Tat - 3:25
3. Funky Acid Stuff - 4:41
4. Analord - 4:54

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i'm listening to 25 tracks fer 1 tracks again and it feels like all the good sections (of which there are quite a few) are buried, either in the track itself (eg. 7 minutes into a very dense 14 minute track) or under a bunch of layers or noise. Curious about No One Said You Didnt now

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ZIQ023 / ZIQ023V
Hellfish & Producer
Constant Mutation
Released 04-09-2000
ZIQ023_HellfishProducer_ConstantMutation
Planet Mu site: https://planet.mu/releases/constant-mutation-mixed/ // https://planet.mu/releases/constant-mutation-unmixed-tracks/
Planet Mu store: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/72196-hellfish-and-producer-constant-mutation-mixed // https://planet.mu/releases/constant-mutation-unmixed-tracks/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5wcfsMmzU9MFFskXkT5aen // https://open.spotify.com/album/6d7bdFXDsteLeDTjTg6b2c

 

When Hellfish first met The DJ Producer, they both knew it was the start of something special.

Maybe it was the look in Hellfish’s eyes as he handed the record to The DJ producer at that fateful Helter Skelter rave back in 1995, daring him to play it. Maybe it was the respect they’d had for one another since the scene’s early-’90s halcyon period. Maybe they just liked each other’s haircuts.

Whatever the reason, the five-year DJing, production and drinking partnership of quiet 28-year-old Essex man Julian Cobb (Hellfish) and Bath-based Luke McMillan (The DJ Producer), 27, has ripped a swathe through the hardcore techno rave underground.

Today, after dozens of “sewer-level” releases on their own Deathchant and Rebel Scum labels, the pair are coming to terms with their first overtly commercial project: “Constant Mutation”, a brutal mix album of seismic terror-techno hip-hop that rarely dips below 200bpm, for Mike “µ-Ziq” Paradinas’ Planet µ imprint.

“The record is an encapsulation of the way we’ve brought ourselves through ten years of raving and we’ve now turned into the bastard sons of rave. this was the eventual outcome,” enthuses McMillan. “Everything we’ve acquired knowledge-wise from the music we just beat together in one mass of energy. It was never preconceived, never like, “Oh we’re gonna make music this fast”. It just happened.”

With tracks as uncompromisingly savage as their titles – “Head Grit”, “Spitting Blood” – it’s not a music for the faint-hearted or mentally fragile. While most DJs aim to take you on a journey, Hellfish & Producer complete the journey in record time, smash you over the head, lock you in the boot and then dump your body in a lay-by.

“You’re either gonna love it or you’re gonna fucking hate it!” grins McMillan, a globe-trotting hardcore DJ of ten years. “Either way we still get a result because it’s about a reaction. If you’ve never heard this music before it’ll take you a minute to adjust to it because you don’t know what speed it’s meant to be. Is it half-speed or double speed? Is double-speed really double-speed or is double-speed the right speed? You know what I’m saying?”

We get the idea, as do avant-rave luminaries like Aphex Twin and Paradinas, who frequently spin Hellfish & Producer’s apocalyptic missives knowing full well that nothing damages a dancefloor with as much conviction. But can the authors of this deviant techno strain really claim to enjoy their twisted sound?

“I think it’s great,” asserts McMillan. “Use as many filthy words to describe it as you like, I love it. I believe in it so strongly because it has sustained me a living. It’s not like we do it because we want to or we like to, we do it because we have to. I have to output it in the computer and make that horrible noise.”

Hellfish & Producer: they are, always have been and always will be, hardcore.

 

Mixed
1. Kicks In Unparalleled - 3:58
2. No More Rock'n'Roll (Koala Fish Mutant Bird Mix) - 4:00
3. The Way Of The Homeboy Pt.2 (The Winter Of Discontent) - 6:59
4. The Teknologikal Revolutionary - 4:11
5. Compression Warrior - 4:34
6. Ultimate Damage '98 - 2:34
7. The Uridium Project - 4:43
8. Deck Fuel (Adventures For The Sonically Deprivated) - 3:34
9. First Wave - 4:46
10. Turntable Savage - 4:12
11. Head Grit - 5:48
12. Spitting Blood - 4:05
 
Unmixed
1. Kicks In Unparalleled - 4:35
2. No More Rock'n'Roll (Koala Fish Mutant Bird Mix) - 7:40
3. The Way Of The Homeboy Pt.2 (The Winter Of Discontent) - 12:18
4. The Uridium Project - 5:06
5. Compression Warrior - 5:55
6. Megafish - 8:07
7. First Wave - 9:38
8. Turntable Savage - 7:11
9. Hardcore Body Harvest (Bunker Clot Mix) - 5:11
10. Deck Fuel (Adventures For The Sonically Deprivated) - 5:58
11. Head Grit - 7:08

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I like the hardcore elements that do popup on dnb, breakcore etc, but I don't think straight up hardcore is for me... Maybe one day I'll feel like listening 909 kicks at the same tempo with various breaks and samples layered on top for a full hour, but not today. Maybe the unmixed tracks are a more enjoyable listen with the added time to breathe between tracks, but I doubt it

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I like the hardcore elements that do popup on dnb, breakcore etc, but I don't think straight up hardcore is for me... Maybe one day I'll feel like listening 909 kicks at the same tempo with various breaks and samples layered on top for a full hour, but not today. Maybe the unmixed tracks are a more enjoyable listen with the added time to breathe between tracks, but I doubt it

 

100%. I could never get into straight up HC. I don't mind the little nod to it here and there but yeah. 

 

Gives me ear fatigue as well lol.

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ZIQ025
Mu Allstars
Criminal
Released 30-10-2000 / 05-02-2001 (repress)
ZIQ025_Various_Criminal-old-650x650.jpg
Planet Mu site: https://planet.mu/releases/criminal/
Planet Mu store: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/68882-various-artists-mu-allstars-criminal
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5pUKP7YAS41jZex8uwSrnu?si=Js9t7Z7RRG6Qh1TKbTBKxg


1. Rude Ass Tinker - U Can't Touch This - 3:05
2. Butler Kiev - Rewind Selecta - 4:38
3. Taut French Joel - We Will Rock You - 3:14
4. Hellfish - Crinimal - 5:13
5. Bit_Meddler - Genie In A Bottle - 3:46
6. Jolt The Furnace - Yammertime - 2:15

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I like the hardcore elements that do popup on dnb, breakcore etc, but I don't think straight up hardcore is for me... Maybe one day I'll feel like listening 909 kicks at the same tempo with various breaks and samples layered on top for a full hour, but not today. Maybe the unmixed tracks are a more enjoyable listen with the added time to breathe between tracks, but I doubt it

 

100%. I could never get into straight up HC. I don't mind the little nod to it here and there but yeah.

 

Gives me ear fatigue as well lol.

na man I've got a real soft spot for hours and hours of 4-to-the-floor madness when done well

 

edit: maybe it has to do something with me listening to 2ktechno/trance for like 2 years straight when I was 10 or so

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ZIQ018 / XLCD147
Capitol K
Island Row
Released 09-10-2000 / 18-03-2002 (XL reissue)
ZIQ018_CapitolK_Island1-1-650x650.jpgZIQ018_CapitolK_IslandRow-650x650.jpg
Planet Mu site: https://planet.mu/releases/island-row/ // https://planet.mu/releases/island-row-re-issue/
Bandcamp: https://capitolk.bandcamp.com/album/island-row-2000-to-2002-reissue
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6fXKvdb6rTnTiBKb6oCKm2?si=7YycGddWRySUV1xbQz1DeA

 

Original tracklist

1. Heat - 5:44

2. God Ohm - 3:33

3. City - 5:21
4. Pillow - 3:12

5. Is It U? - 3:23

6. Breakers - 6:13

7. Monster - 4:53

8. Lion Anon - 6:07

9. Dance On - 4:36

10. Capitol Beat Sticky - 4:51

11. Forgotten Duffle Coat - 3:59

XL Recordings reissue / Bandcamp tracklist
1. City - 5:21
2. Pillow - 3:12
3. Anon - 6:07
4. Soundwaves - 5:26
5. Capitol Beat Sticky - 4:51
6. Darussalam - 4:30
7. God Ohm - 3:33
8. Breakers - 6:13
9. Heat - 5:44
10. Monster - 4:53
11. Duffle Coat - 3:59
12. Capitol Beat Sticky (Posh Mix) - 5:24
13. Is It U? - 3:23
14. Dance On - 4:36
15. Pillow (Leafcutter John's Playtime Mix) - 3:39

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yeah this album is truly great! Sounds of the empire was alright, but after listening to Pillow and the one track with vocals on Empire I just wanted more of that. One of my fav albums on this thread so far. Both the XL and Mu versions flow well, but I think I prefer the Mu tracklist. It's funny hearing the cut-up vocals on Capitol Beat Sticky, seeing how they're so prevalent on current electronic music... I'm not gonna say this could've been released today because it does sound of its time, but it does hold up

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good memories of being in high school and only having like 1 other friend who really gave a shit about electronic music. we'd always play autechre and aphex at house parties over the speakers and see how long it'd take before people would complain and turn it off (normally before 1 song was done).... 

 

"pillow" went down really well though and resulted in people doing big group hug, arm in arm singalong :-) 

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ZIQ012
Jega
Geometry
Released 16-10-2000
ZIQ012_Jega_Geometry-650x650.jpg
Planet Mu site: https://planet.mu/releases/jega-geometry/
Planet Mu store: https://planetmu.bleepstores.com/release/68847-jega-geometry
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4PIi0kXuDot4DgdjKqq6NC?si=wYiAHYI8ShCbw833mLOMiA


There’s an old quip that writing about art is like dancing about architecture. (Yes, that old thing.) Well, Jega went to architecture school with µ-ziq and Aphex Twin, so he’d know more about that than most. Unsurprisingly, Jega sounds not unlike his better-known classmates. Falling squarely into the this-is-techno-but-don’t-dance-to-it camp, Dylan Nathan tics and quirks like any addled British gent with too much time, an ugly beard (I presume) and an 808 should. But, distinguishing him from the rest of the “Look, ma! I’m a genius” dance music crowd, Nathan clearly took better notes in architecture than the rest of the IDM crowd ever bothered to.

Far more than his stateside debut, Spectrum, Jega’s Geometry is preoccupied with questions of space. The record opens with a vast humming sound, as if Nathan were demonstrating how big a space he’s working in by recording a huge wind rushing through it. Though the first appearance of actual music diminishes that scale down to the humble bleeps and clicks of “Alternating Bit,” a caustic little digibyte of electro-inspired troublemaking, every piece here is as carefully thought out as a building might be.

Principally, Geometry supplants the fury and blistering speed of the first few Jega offerings with a glassy, almost pretty surface. Where the last record took a page from Squarepusher’s relentless, haywire jitteriness, many pieces here sound like Philip Glass with a shorter attention span and no interest in opera. Keyboards slither between, over and under beats; songs move with almost mathematic precision (Geometry, get it?). If the last Jega album, as some pundits remarked, invented drill-n-bass, this is “chill-n-bass.” This isn’t the chamber-music transcendence of Aphex Twin’s slower moments; it’s a gorgeous absense of feeling. The tracks work like clockwork and with approximately as much emotional commitment. And just because it won’t make you cry doesn’t mean you won’t nod your head.

Still, anyone who’s looking to techno like this stuff for matters of the heart is missing the point. The stuttering beats and languid melodies at once conceal and describe the undergirdings beneath them, making Geometry a fascinating, if not moving, musical experience. This is music about the experience of listening to music. It’s like singing about dancing about architecture.


1. Alternating Bit - 4:08
2. Syntax Tree - 4:00
3. Recursion - 4:26
4. Geometry - 4:35
5. Rigid Body Dynamics - 3:56
6. Doric - 5:15
7. Breakpoint Envelope - 4:48
8. Inertia - 5:50
9. Binary Space - 2:55
10. Static - 4:12
11. Post Mid Arc - 4:11
12. Motion Math - 4:44
13. Subdivision - Surfaces 3:08

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