DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Rantoul / Intersperse – On The Edge / Haunting Winds

1999

For the last Good Looking Records of the year, the decade and the millenium, we have our second on the label from two seperate artists. They both deserve a respectful acknowledgment of the quality of work they produced for Good Looking. From Rantoul, we have his second release on GLR and then we open the door to a couple who make up a new artist to Good Looking. 

    On Side A is ‘On The Edge’ slicing up more interplanetary dispositions, with those futuristic expansions across space. I fucking love this tune from Rantoul. The way it builds toward that first breakdown sets the scene for a journey that sends the hairs on end as the sensual nerve endings catching the full dose of this brilliant piece of music. There is a fine bass line in this track too, which holds this deep coarsening flavor while pumping funk through it. ‘On The Edge’ is one of those tunes that gathers the key elements of the atmospheric sounds of the later 90s and spoon feeds you movements which jolt adrenaline through your body, in the most sedative and smooth fashion. You can’t help but nourish the fibers of life while listing to this tune. Amazing music!

   For the AA side of this plate we have the Greek duo of Aris Koukouselis and Bill Maktis make their debut on Good Looking. As artists from Greece go, they were I believe some of the earliest drum and bass producers from Greece? They went by the name Intersperse, and made many epic tracks in the world of the deeper atmospherics of drum and bass. Theis Good Looking Records catalogue of their work is immaculate. In all, they released about 13 tracks on GLR, plus a release on the Soulfood album on Cookin’ Records, which we reviewed a while back. I know their work really kicked off a movement in Greece, that honed in on the sounds, which in turn spurred artists like MsDos, Greekboy and the now defunct but incredible label, Criterion. 

  ‘Haunting Winds’ will forever be etched in my heart as I remember first hearing this and being blown away by the story that unraveled while listing to it. If the dynamic pads and eerie piano don’t grab you to begin with then buckle up for the beats…the barrels of amens just roll and roll like the first screen of the orange, hand-held Donkey Kong game. Leading into that second magical breakdown, the air of suspense can be burst by the faintest brush. It’s mystical, nerve racking and thunderously romantic all at the same time. If you need a track with several layers of emotion and all bases covered, then ‘Haunting Winds’ will carry you over the differentiating landscapes in a way, quite like no other.  

    The cover has this sense of wishing to remain camouflaged. My home town in the UK  gets Chinhook helicopters flying over it a fair bit as RAF Odiham is just up the M3. When I travel back I always enjoy hearing them again and get flashbacks to my younger years. This cover has me reminiscing a lot because of the image. Big up Nick as always! 

   This 12” is all the more poignant as it marks the closing of the 90s era. If the 

music on this release acts as a seal to the golden moments, sounds, progress, and memories of that decade, then I can’t ask for a better way to close the curtain. This was a very special disc in that respect.