DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Blame Presents – Logical Progression Level 2

1997

Good morning, or afternoon, or night, it’s time to stretch around the world for another review of music on Good Looking Records. I sincerely hope that the weekend was a good one and music found its way into your life, bringing with it the joy and heightened levels of appreciation and feelings, one gets? After that intro, let’s get down to business. 

   One year after the volcanic success of Logical Progression on FFRR, it was time for the Good Looking Records collective to launch the follow up. Like the first Logical Progression, this included many releases on 12” single, and then two tracks exclusive to the vinyl release. I should say there is also a third track with a vocal version on here too, of Blames ‘360° Clic’ with Conrad & DRS rolling out the lyrical poetry, so we’ll revisit that one. 

    The CD however has a fucking incredible mix from Blame on CD1 that has several tracks from GLR and his own off shoot at the time, through Good Looking, 720 Degrees.  CD2 has the vinyl tracks unmixed for you. The one tune I really wish had made a vinyl appearance is ‘The Breeze’ by Nookie. 

    This was a time when the deeper sounds of drum and bass had become one of the healthiest branches growing from the jungle and drum and bass tree. Bukem must have been looking back at the journey he’d traveled and thought..”fuck me…this is more than I could have possibly imagined, back in 1992”. Five years later and look where the label was and what the music had become. A flagship of mind blowing, thought provoking wonder which continues to defy the capabilities of our sometimes insignificant existence. That may sound morbid, so let’s say, the artists that make some of the tunes you are about to hear, hit realms we may never have thought existed. 

    I’m looking forward a lot to revisit this LP. Of the seven tracks on here that were released on GLR, one of them we have not already reviewed as it is the only track that came out on Looking Good. Therefore, if you want to read an in depth review of the following, then my blog is where you’ll find them. Just look for the catalogue number for check on Discogs and you’ll find it:

Chameleon – Close Your Eyes – GLR 14

Intense – Positive Notions – GLR 018

PFM – Love & Happiness – GLR 10

Source Direct – Complexities – GLR015

    The two exclusives though are absolute dynamite on this Logical Progression Level 2 LP. Seba & Lotek and Intense are the two artists involved which should automatically make you cream your pants to be honest. Those tracks we will review with gusto and upmost detail in due course.

  The artwork for Logical Progression 2 is by Jason Arber with the artist shots photography by Fiona Freund, who also worked with the GLR stable on Earth Vol 1 & 2. Here we have Bukem and Blame on the record, inner-sleeve and on the other side, Bukem doing his digging somewhere out there in clubland, for the next record. Blame mentions his shop for that Orange jacket for the shoot:

“I remember the label telling me the artwork would be based heavily on orange and red. I had to go on the hunt in London to find an orange jacket to match the theme, which I discovered wasn’t as easy as first thought!” – Conrad Shafie

    Plate 1 has two tracks on the A side. The first is that wonderful summer epic that we featured back on Good Looking Records GLR 14. Here is the review if you want to read more on this one. 

https://djalexcorton.music.blog/2025/07/07/glr-14/

   Next up is a track that we will be reviewing when we reach Looking Good Records. It is by the surgical audio technicians, ILS, Illian Walker AKA Axis, and Mark Wilkins who is DJ Solo. The temptation to just roll out words hearing it is too great, so here is a quick blurb, as it deserves a heap of praise. This track really brought an electric jolt of life into the atmospherics, as during 1995 when it was released a majority of the tunes seemed to be luring listeners into a hazy state, that settled minds and drifted conscious states into worlds of sedation and bliss. Then this track came and injected a busy, fun, bubbly character of music into the fray and the scene spun a thread of upbeat jazz funk directly at us. 

   ‘In The Area’ is a fucking classic example of removing the barriers, brick by brick and cementing a fresh dose of flexibility and movement into the mystical sounds of drum and bass. The springboard of the beats, that unbelievable bass and all the little zips, zaps and vocal swirls splatter the tune with this stylish, creative and freshly doused sound. It’s like the washer jets have sprayed the layer of grime of the windscreen, that you never really noticed, until it happens. You don’t realize just how fucking clear everything is now it’s cleaned. That’s how this tune makes your mind feel. 

   Side B has one of the pieces of music that I’m ploughing my words into. I have to start by saying I am gutted that the label is off center and that the label is a little creased. I tried correcting it but it’ll tear the label. The main thing is, the tune plays brilliantly and the label only extends a little way to the inside edge of the etching run out. 

   The tune itself is one that really pummels me with a whole heap of emotion. The three wizards of Beau Thomas, Simon Vispi and Dan Duncan, are yet again taking their skills as Intense, into the hearts of listeners, with ‘Dark Skies’. Switch the speed to 45, turn the volume up to max and feel the pads on this one soar, swoop, glide and loop, sink and orbit, as Intense strap you into their capsule of music from another dimension. Every single moment, from the crystal, pinpoint beats, stirring bass, the orgasmic impact of those electro synth stabs, all leading to a breakdown with sweet organ keys and that electric storm cloud of pads, make for a track that stops me in my tracks and conjures up the moment of devilish skies, seconds before the frantic collision of negative and positive neutrons collide in a cataclysmic crash of treacherous flashes and then wall crumbling explosions. 

  If the visual or experience of ‘Dark Skies’ ever needed a sound track, hearing this track provides the most vivid image you could ever need. Intense turned everything about their music into an art that exceeded the capability of our senses input. It became a deep soulful feeling which will always transcend possibilities. 

   A massive shout to Beau, Simon and Dan. Your music will maintain some of the most precious sounds we’ve ever heard. 

   Tomorrow we hit plate 2.