DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Blame Presents – Logical Progression Level 2 – Side C / D 

1997

For today’s review, we get to three more classic pieces of music courtesy of the selective choices of Conrad Blame on this second plate on Logical Progression Level 2. 

   The inner sleeve pictures on this one, have one side with the microphone maestros, MC Conrad and Delroy ‘DRS’ Pottinger. The picture looks like they’ve made it to final round of a Musical Chairs contest and things are getting serious. Ha ha! Joking aside, we have a picture here that captures two of the best there has ever been, in this world of our music. The way they complimented each other when they worked together, was outstanding, as it seemed they not only gave space for each other with their different styles, but when they did harmonize, it cross-haired the center of their lyrical Venn diagram with a unique and unmatched quality, that really has not been rivaled. Conrad may have left our lives in person, but if there is ever a presence that we still feel when we hear some of these tunes, it’s his lyrics, body dipping swagger and connection between the music and his words, providing listeners with something unmatched, that is as strong as ever. 

   DRS is ‘Dirty Rap Scallion’ who began MC’ing in the 90s, and someone who Conrad had wanted to join the GLR stable as a second MC. Delroy was a good friend of Marcus Intallex, hailing from the Manchester area, and on hearing his style of MCing it was a perfect fit for Conrad and the team. 

   The other side of the sleeve is an interesting picture as I feel like the figures in the shot are a tad mysterious. It must be Bukem in the foreground with those glasses and that hat, but who are the other two figures? One has long hair it looks like, so who is that? Anyone who has a background on this, please let us know so I can add it in. The booklet has pictures of Seba & Lotek, the Intense trio, Tayla and Olly Artemis, all showing us the spritely youth of 28 years ago. 

   Now we turn to the main event. The music. It’s Side A that we kick off with and a track that I feel needs its own red carpet of distinction. Seba & Lotek with ‘Universal Music’. Seba had become one of the new artists on Bukem’s, Looking Good Records with his debut release on LGR 005, ‘Sonic Winds’ and ‘So Long’ which gave us a taste of the way he was defining a very different blend of Scandinavian folklore and temperature plummeting soundscapes with the chillingly beautiful echoes of the mystics of drum and bass. It is on this same ilk that today’s incredible piece of music, unfurls. 

   The track can also be heard on the Modern Times documentary from 1996 as the soundtrack to Mr. Tony Fordham making his way over to Japan “to sell some more fuckin’ records”. The label was in very safe hands then…regardless, he had some ideas which gave us some bloody good music. 

  ‘Universal Music’ for me is one of Seba’s most incredible pieces of work. He was still working at this stage, with Staffan Soderman from his earlier Planet Peanut days around 1995 to 1996 (Lo-Tek or Lotek) on Fluid Recordings. 

   As this track begins, life slams to a halt immediately. We enter the gaping caverns of orchestral enlightenment without raising the chest cavity for a single breath in, or eyelid blink, or landing on your skin from a floating molecule of dust. Every single space of your surroundings holds still and the only funnel of feelings, is channeled through the music you are about to experience. The way this tune transports you is like nothing else. The beats hold a pattern and accumulation of high level creativity, the bass saunters along with a majestic and suave temperament, while the fjord filled spirits hark, wail, whisper and echo their dreams, fears and untold fables for the generations that follow. If there was a piece of music to blanket the world in a single moment, with untamed radiance from the center of our universe, it would arrive with this track to wrap us in unrivaled perfection. ‘Universal Music’ will remain as one of my favorite pieces of music in the history of drum and bass.     Listening again to this masterpiece continues to confirm that there may be something more meaningful than life as we experience it. When these sounds hit the receptive life forms out there somewhere in our universe, they might begin to realize that we are more than mere humans. Seba and Staffan go above those capabilities of the average music makers and take our levels of creation into a realm that still beckons our discovery and understanding. 

  Breathtaking, unequalled music. 

 Side D on this LP has two classic tracks from the Good Looking Records label. We have already reviewed the music on both of the following, so please dive into those links as it’s plenty of writing to give you a very deserved overview of both mesmerizing pieces of music. 

Intense – Positive Notions on GLR018

review can be found here: 

https://djalexcorton.music.blog/2025/07/11/glr-18/

PFM – Love & Happiness on GLR 010

can be found here:

https://djalexcorton.music.blog/2025/07/01/glr-10/

Tomorrow we reach the third disc on this essential LP. An LP that belongs in every electronic music lovers collection and an LP that seals its importance and prowess in defying time and emotions with music.