DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Intense – Solar EP 

2000

The hands of time keep ticking along and the music continues to grow in ways that defy the confines of logistics. Stamping dates on some of the work that I have been honored and lucky enough to listen to, having to hand a collection that I truly appreciate every day, seems at time pointless to mention, as if to show the distance we’ve lived between conception and now. Some music does date, but very few show their age on Good Looking Records. Yes, the production standards drape a tell tale sign of the times, but it’s the  creations that strip away any pin point year for many tracks on Good Looking. Welcome back to the world of Intense.

    I hope your weekend was a good one? This is the first week of my Christmas break so the prospect of spending time with the family and slotting in mornings of music and writing up these posts, is two fold. Let’s venture into our next release in this penthouse of the music scene.

   Artwork for this release is again, via the skilled eye of Nick Purser. The striking front is matched by the inner gatefold, smacking you in the face, presenting a visual of both images and typeface that impacts you as soon as it’s opened up. The blink of Himalayan fortresses, shapes your senses with the mass of white it penetrates. We also have the Diverse Recordings logo featured in the sleeve and labels. The one release on that label, ‘West Side Blues’ / ‘Eastern Promise’ was reviewed on Facebook some time back, but I will be adding it into the blog too. The Diverse label was originally going to be an Intense project before they decided to escape the crazy of label politics. Nick keeps an industrial, monolithic sculpture theme in his work here, using these futuristic forms, while calming the stark strength of the boldness, with the splash of yellow on the record labels.

   It was during this year that Intense had their live performance at Earls Court, leading that being transferred to the Logical Progression Level 3 LP. It was also around the same time and year that they released this ‘Solar EP’ with a couple of instrumental versions of music from that set, along with two that are exclusive to this EP. If this EP was released next week, you’d not doubt the fresh and modern sound you’d hear. This is however, an EP from 25 years ago. That’s the thing, when Beau, Simon and Dan put the pedal down, it rearranged and recharged how music should sound. The ultimate collective in writing, producing, engineering and mastering. Let’s get this glorious first plate rotating and enter into the highest VIP suite of our scene. 

    On record 1 we have ‘Solar’ which is another one from Progression Sessions 3 mixed by LTJ Bukem, from the year just before this came out. This is Intense making something that melts the moving parts into a supreme, living Goliath of musical precision and power. Everything about this carries the drum and bass Olympic torch, streaking across the landscapes, the terrains and every peak and trench is glazed by its wonder. Full beams of radiating sound clasp your thoughts and spin the steadfast admiration toward its listeners. Nothing else could ever sound like Intense, when it came to the pure surgical mastery they filled their work with. Beau, Simon and Dan were harnessing such peak performances around this time. While the classic early to mid 90s tracks remain classics in their own right by these guys, it’s this next level of their work right here, which unravels the fibers and opens up doors to the force of the Intense machine. 

   The flip side of this was one of the live tracks featured on CD 1 on Logical Progression Level 3. Featuring the streamlined guitar work of Tim Cansfield and the great, golden whispers of saxophone tones by Malcolm “Molly” Duncan (R.I.P.). As we set the mood and set the space, the sounds from that famous Earls Court performance perforate the air in the form of ‘Shara’. I get chills just hearing this one again, closing my eyes, swaying to and fro while my train of thought leaves my wheel of monotony and jettisons out into a faraway place, where nothing and no one can spoil the moment. Intense deliver a production here that will sit in the deepest part of my heart. 

    Record two is up tomorrow, so more of the music that continues to bring something that extra bit special.