DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Motive One – Cosmik / Loop Progression

1997

If you’re going to roll out the top shelf music in style, you need look no further than today’s release on the legendary Good Looking Records.

    Having already graced Certificate 18 and Fresh ‘86 (under their One Motive alias), Mike Pears & Danny C switch the words in their artist name and go back to Motive One, as they did for their earlier Cert 18 releases. Having them drop this 12” on Good Looking was a big deal and they provide here two of the most amazing pieces of music. A balance of drifting and all out brut energy that capitalized on the contours that lay within the deeper moods of drum and bass at the time. 

   ‘Cosmik’ is a clear indication of just how far production wise, that Danny & Mike had come in terms of the depth of their work. We slide into a vast reel of their chemistry and get a piece of their diamond material on this side of the 12”, hitting us with a fucking smooth and rolling break that has this meandering swing attitude through the snares and those high hat drills. I love the pitch bends and all the delicate and flavorful pads in here. There is only one word to sum up this track and it’s titled as such. ‘Cosmik’. I often overlooked this side due to the other, but you’d be a hard nut to crack if this one didn’t rattle some emotions across your being. It’s a really impressive piece of music. 

   On the AA Side, this one was an immediate conjoined twin brother to Blu Mar Ten’s ‘Loop Progression’ for me as they lived next to each other in the record box for absolutely fucking ages. You have your blissful, traditional gateway to stress free paradise with GLR and then along comes tunes like these ones to raise the blood pressure up and carve out a complete tear out. The extra gears added so much to the stereotypical monging out that sometimes people just expected with the deeper sounds. It was tracks like ‘Loop Progression’ & ‘Future Proof’ which proved that the spice and flavor could very easily arrive. It also helped that DJs like Bukem could cut and chop those frantic, manic breaks over the other tracks playing and it teased you into anticipatory heaven. 

   ‘Loop Progression’ is a tune that blows my mind every time I hear it. The way those beats and the bassline work together pours highly flammable materials onto the raging fire and everything just ignites and swells into this engulfing cloud of heat and intensity. The great thing is that once the impact of the bass leaves the beats, it allows you to widen your horizon to the undiluted depths of the sounds swirling around in this tune. This was a tune that used to get rinsed more than Hilda Ogden’s hair. Just push the levels up loud and let yourself sink into this assault of killer beats, velvet pads and enjoy the way that the sounds within the scene were stepping up the rough with the smooth to expand the tapestry of how much wonder you could receive with this side of the music scene. Sound vibrational poetry. 

“Here’s looking to the future”

Hats off, boys.