Basilisk

Maskalin - Way Of Life Artist: Maskalin Title: Way Of Life Label: Balloonia Date: 2001 Track listing: 01. Freakish 02. Music 03. Ride On 04. Turtle House Review: Freakish opens with subtle reversed kicks and sliding samples, slowly grooving into predictable territory. With only a minute and a half left to go of this housey number a beautiful melody enters and plays around for a while, but this is one track that suffers from "too little too late" - not to mention a bad choice of samples. Nothing special, but a great warm groove. 'Musik' is slowly building, much more subtlety and low-end bass with little melodic tricks. A voice drops in to remind you what the name of the song is - that's always very helpful so you don't have to check the tracklist [nyuk]. Breaky, progressive, throbbing in intensity with thick rolls of hairy bass, this is a monster tune that still doesn't excite me so much. Ride On is lush with bass bubbles and squelching effects - a much more promising intro here. Doesn't go too far though... suffers less than the other tunes though! Turtle House closes off this four-tracker and again, it is a good loop plus some tasteless samples and doesn't live up to its full potential. The repeating "droids" sample really gets irritating when it is used over and over without being dynamic or 'smart'. On the whole, the EP has a good modern sound which will surely capture the listener's ear for a second... but it also is hurt by the failings of the modern vibe to have much more than a superficial impact on the listener's ear. I'd want 'Freakish' sans samples with that great melody kicking off a minute and a half INTO the track, not 1m30s before it ends. There should ideally be no period in music where the listener is just waiting around for the artist to get to the point... but that's what I found happening here. Got bored, waited for the good part... ah well, it goes without saying that the two artists here have made much better work in the past but regardless of what I think of the music I hope people enjoy it since it was a nice attempt at capturing something halcyon.

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if its anything like aspirin then... booo

i should also mention that they supply great add-ins like magazines, flyers, and promo material... and they are the best and most professional packagers out there i would say! everything is always safe and in perfect condition when it arrives.

i'm not even much into it! i mean, sure, use BPMs if you like... i mostly found that one comment irritating (the implication that DJs are LAZY if they DONT use bpms is ridiculous!)

will you ever get that knowledge if you always rely on them? thats what i'd want to know. personally i don't have to consult a list. i think in my head, i visualize, i get a sense for what's next... and it just flows. when you spend time with your record collection you'll probably realize what is quick and what is slow... maybe it'll take you longer but won't you end up more skilled?

haha i'm from canada toronto actually - which is further east from you and thus further away the package they sent went out last friday and arrived yesterday. that's basically 3 days [not counting the weekend] and they've ALWAYS been this quick... maybe they read this forum and like to antagonize you?

dont they have like 25 tracks out? i hear an album is on the way.....

No, I didn't like it.

Interesting & abstract minimal/tech/prog mish-mash.

E X C E S S _ H E A D = S T R A N G E _ T H I N G

quoting tom jaimz: I can't possibly understand why any half-decent DJ would not want to know the BPMs of their tracks, other than pure laziness. === that is a laugh. how is it lazy to actually work with your ear and gain a deeper understanding of a song through having a sense at the speed of it? DJing shouldn't be anything like arithmetic... i would say that those that mix with BPMs are the lazy ones - not using the skills you have available, not troubling to actually bother to do what any proper DJ does. you're not supposed to consult a list nor calculate the pitch shifts while you're spinning those records - you're supposed to be feeling the vibe of it all and carefully selecting the next track to weave into your storytelling. does the music not have a soul? use BPMs if you will... but don't make comments such as what you have said - you are obviously misguided or perhaps we all misunderstand. perhaps music doesn't mean the same thing to you... is it a joke? or a science? or something from the heart?

it is against evolution... a crutch, a handicap. why do it?

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Groundbreaking for the time... By The Rivers was my favourite, but the other big names delivered some good stuff as well. Too bad about where this all went...

tim schuldt's remix of front line assembly... reason enough to disprove your shadow of a point.

i bet some eastern european national anthems would sound cool as psy!! burrup burupua buprupurpua!

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i'm going to have to change my nickname then

when will they call it MINIMAL HEAD?

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it is horribly designed but brings a smile to my face i like the cheezy ufo on the highway.

yah well @!#$ you

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