Prex - RFN / Mandrake

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Prex - RFN / Mandrake

 

 

Artist: Prex

Title: RFN / Mandrake

Label: Spiral Trax

Date: 2000

 

Track listing:

 

01. 08'40" RFN

02. 10'02" Mandrake

 

Review:

 

For those who don't know, Prex is Noma + S-Range. Overall I think that it

sounds more like Noma than S-Range, but that's just me. RFN has a repetitive

bassline and as the minutes pass, everything gets really thick and

hypnotising. Not really varied tough. Mandrake is better, pretty close, but

with a subtile melody. A little too long though. So this is pretty good, but I

think Noma and S-Range have each produced better stuff separately.

[unit_]

I agree, RFN definitely sounds more like a Noma track. His typical baseline is

used here. But RFN is a very nice track. Great for the dance floor, builds up

slowly, just like a typical Noma track with some S-Range influences. Actually

I think RFN is the better track on this EP.. Listening to Mandrake however you

can still hear the Noma baseline, but not quite as "typical" as in RFN, but

you can easily tell Noma has a finger in the track. Here you'll find a little

more melodies and I guess a little more S-Range influences than in RFN,

especially close to the end. Still to me it sounds like Noma is dominating

with his sounds. This is a great EP. I'd love to hear more from Prex. I also

read somewhere that they were about releasing an album, can't wait to get it.

[RTP]

I generally agree with the former poster.

 

Both tracks are building slowly and monotonous, but this is the genie behind it I think. It's actually entrancing and not putting you in and out of dance mode with breaks, fancy uplifts and comedowns and whatnot. It's delivering the energy more constantly.

 

RFN (which is actually R.F.N., which stands for Right Fucking Now) is a deep and pumping track with a very dominant vibrating bassline. The Noma style is coming through very significantly here. Not only in the bassline but also in the rhythmic effects (I don't know - can you call it "percussion"?). If I wouldn't know that Prex was the artist, I'd guess for Noma. It sounds very mechanic, machine-like, almost industrial. There's some of the old S-Range style in it aswell though, you can notice it in the effects. It sounds good, like a merge between S-Range and Noma, which it is.

 

Mandrake is a slower track where the old S-Range style comes though more, especially in the melody bits. It's less vibrating, with a less dominating, less all-engulfing bassline and it feels a lot lighter than the other track. It's building slowly. I like to what it is turning in the end, there is a good rhythmic melody that makes it all the more interesting. That's the thing I love in all these old tracks (S-Range especially) ... you get presented with a solid progressive tune and in the last third or so they enhance it with a melody that makes it all the more better. Kind of "resolving the riddle to interpret the track".

 

What I find notable is that I don't really know what RPM is the correct one to play each side of the record. R.F.N. seems to be a 45RPM track. But Mandrake seems to be a 33RPM track. It doesn't state it anywhere on the record, so I have to guess. Opinions would be welcome.

 

It's no masterpiece as I would say, but it's a good release. And as this is actually the only complete Prex release out there (the rest being a few compilation tracks and a "split EP" with Vega), it's a must have I'd say. People who like Noma will like this one and people who are familiar with the old S-Range will like it too. Fans of old style progressive should look out for it.

 

Prex, by the way, was planned to be relaunched as a project recently and there is even a preview of a 2010 remix of S-Range - 2001 "PREX Edit 2010" out there. the project, however, has been put on ice for the moment according to my information.