| Designer Beatnik | |
|---|---|
| Studio album by | |
| Released | 4 August 1986 |
| Recorded | 1984–1986 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 41:05 |
| Label | 10 |
| Producer |
|
Journeys by DJ: 70 Minutes of Madness is a DJ mix album by English electronic duo, released on 16 October 1995. It was the eighth instalment in the Journeys by DJ series of mix albums released by the label of the same name. Unlike previous editions, which focused on house music, Coldcut's mix profiles the act's 'freestyle' mixing approach, blending 35 tracks that span many genres, including techno, hip hop, electro, jungle and funk, into an eclectic, frenetic DJ set.
Inspired by their Kiss FM radio series Solid Steel, Coldcut created Journeys by DJ: 70 Minutes of Madness with collaborators Kevin Foakes and Patrick Carpenter. The team were motivated to prove what could be achieved with a DJ mix and to exhibit true DJ culture. Licensing some songs proved difficult, resulting in several last minute replacements. The final mix incorporates rapid changes in tempo, spoken word samples, scratching and heavy layering.
On release, the album received wide critical acclaim for its diverse track selection, dextrous mixing and originality, becoming the best reviewed DJ mix album of the era. It has since been widely described as one of the greatest DJ mix albums ever released, featuring in lists compiled by Q, Spin, The Quietus and DJ Magazine. In 1998, it was named the best compilation album ever by Jockey Slut. It has also been cited as an influence on big beat and mashup music. Originally reaching number 41 on the UK Compilation Chart and falling out of print in 1998 following the expiration of the track licenses, Journeys by DJ was re-released in May 2002, allowing it to reach a new peak of number 28.
"...in a bid to bump up the running time, [Ezrin] added sound collages at the start and close. An eerie 86-second coda mixes backward bits of Destroyer with a snippet from Alive!"[1]
Music critic Richard S. Ginell called it the culmination of Morrison's spiritual jazz period and "perhaps not coincidentally" his final Warner Bros. album, in which the "deepest, most inward areas" of the singer's "renegade Irish soul" are explored.[2] The record is largely mellow and includes four instrumentals.[2] "Higher Than the World" features a choir-like synthesizer form Mark Isham. The instrumental "Connswater" is considered by Ginell to be Morrison's most Irish-flavoured piece up to that point and until the 1988 Chieftans record. "Rave on, John Donne" is "in part a recitation invoking a roster of writers over a supple two-chord vamp" while the only rock song, "The Street Only Knew Your Name", is still layered with synths.[2]
Writing for AllMusic, Ginell wrote that the almost "forgotten" album sold poorly and perplexed contemporary rick critics with its high number of instrumentals, but believed that those who bought the album "consider it one of the most cherished items in their Van Morrison collections." He wrote that although mellow, the record is "never flacid or complacent; there is a radiance that glows throughout."[2]
Timothy and Elizabeth Bracy of Stereogum call it a "bizarre, but still thrilling" album that "does its level best to defy categorization." They add:
"Awash in a placid stream of atmospherics, it barely touches on the rock and soul idiom that has so long been Morrison's template. Like a distinctly Irish take on late period Roxy Music, the release seems eager to challenge the album form altogether. Gorgeous instrumental digressions morph into romantic pop, balladry and then digress formless again. Melodies occur seemingly haphazard and improvised and then reoccur as though conjured. Some believed Van had gone crazy by this point. Another interpretation is that he had finally figured out yet more things the rest of us don't know."[3]
NEOTROPIC https://www.treblezine.com/34054-top-50-best-electronic-albums-of-the-90s/
All songs written by Dr Calculus.
Adapted from the liner notes of Designer Beatnik.[4]
| "Late for Supper" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Genre | |
| "Spidergwad" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Genre | |
| "Eep hour" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Genre | |
Adapted from the liner notes of Avant Slant.[13]
Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune included it "The avant-garde on disc: An introduction to avant-garde rock on CD." They write, "A jumpy but fascinating glimpse into what happened in a farmhouse-turned-sound-laboratory in northern Germany more than two decades ago."[15]
Jon Savage of The Observer reviewed the 1987 reissue (Recommended RR6). "Faust's inspired collages" still sound timeless, and are "still best heard on The Faust Tapes", but notes So Far and Faust as very good also.[16]
1973 Reading Evening Post Review[17]
1973 Cambridge Evening News article[18]
1973 Bracknell and Ascot Times review[19]
"At Island, one of the strangest stories we heard was about" The Faust Tapes, released by Virgin and distributed by Island Records. "This album of private tapes ... is selling for 34 pence (about 85 cents) as a publicity gimmick and is having an amazing success, although Virgin Records loses money on every copy. The music is a strange kind of electronic rock, the kind that is beginning to be heard in America too."[20]
Evening Standard: "When an album has sold a healthy 60,000 copies in the first few weeks of release, it hardly seems logical to delete the title. But this is what Virgin Records is" doing, "for the simple reason that each album sold loses the company about 1p. The LP sells for the same price as a single and was issued as a promotional gimmick to help establish Faust, one of Germany's most significant avant garde rock groups in Britain."[21]
"Still pleasingly avant-garde", "marketed to British audiences by the fledging Virgin label for the price of a single."[22]
First for Virgin after being dropped by Polydor. "A generation bought the 49p Faust Tapes LP, promptly dumped it at the local record exchange, waited 10 years and then re-bought it on the realisation that it was a masterpiece."[23]
One of "the most listened to bands in the mid-Seventies, thanks to Virgin Records which put out their Faust Tapes album for the cost of about two Curlywurlys. A fantastic sound collage, it was proper hippie music and it's only right that they are having something of a renaissance in this age of electro beats."[24]
Shane Brown of The Dispatch Sun-Argus named it his fifth favourite album of 1997, commenting that Carr is arguably "the most gifted songwriter of the last decade". Calls it "their most experimental offering to date, matching Carr's lyrics with an array of sonic soundscapes from Beach Boys harmonies to dance beats to an avant garde extremism reminiscent of Frank Zappa".[25]
Sean Leary of the same paper in a best albums of 1996 list said the album grew on him, dubbing it a true "pastiche of style and influences, linked together by a distinctly pop sensibility."[26]
The News Journal review (1997, 4 stars): album is "an extremist reaction" to the commercial success of Wake Up. "While Wake Up was an infectious album of three-minute quick-hook Britpop, C'mon Kids is obviously meant to alienate any fans who weren't true fans." "It is an eclectic, avant-garde, experimental album featuring two hard rock albums assuring the album of a quick exit from the UK charts." Alongside those singles, there is "two trip-hop songs, a few ballads, a few experimental guitar rock tracks and even a few acoustic efforts." Considers it "brilliant, albeit confused" but it won't crack the US charts.[27]