DJ Alex Corton – Good Looking Records

Good Looking Records

Artemis – Inner Worlds / Sun Stars

1998

After nearly Six years operating a label with the extensive and solid back catalogue we’ve covered so far, Good Looking was heading into 1998 with its flight path stretching onwards. Earth, 720, Diverse (just the single release), Ascendent Grooves and Looking Good were all boosting the output too, by this time. 

  Now, I do have a question as to whether this is the promo of the main release in a Promo sleeve? Both labels on both releases look identical, and I bought this at Record Basement where I was getting a fair number of promos, but I just never really knew which release I had, unless it’s denoted by being in a Promo sleeve? Can anyone dig further into this? Paul Bendell, you may have some answers? Needless to say, the music is all gravy and that’s all that matters, but it would be good to confirm. 

   The design duties had also been shifted from Public Art, to Propeller Ltd. Obviously on this release we don’t get the images, but there’s a good amount to follow on some others, just around the corner. 

   Artemis returns for his second 12” single release on Good Looking Records, with yet another serving of those unrivaled spells he cast out to us cravers of this sweet music. ‘Inner Worlds’ spins you out of the trajectory you had always come to know and love, and raises things even further than you could possibly imagine. Oliver Lomax had a talent for making wave after wave of the most textured and sensational music. This is not just high quality drum and bass, but a godly descent into the whole music world. When you send that volume control clockwise a few more degrees, you get to absorb every little note, key, beat, and sound as it conjures up one of those moments where life can take a back seat at the far end of your mind and you can split open the cranial desires and sonic flavors in its most wondrous season of natural elegance. This tune sends you to the furthest escape possible and lets the soul become free. Artemis made life become real. The perspective his music gave was out of this world and put so many areas into the sidelines of priority. Nothing was ever less than perfection. A true talent of our times. If the breakdown in this tune doesn’t leave you in a state of transfixed ecstasy then you’ll have to check yourself in I’m afraid. Medicine like this cures the phantoms and bursts the seeds of heaven throughout its duration.  

    On the reverse side of this plate for Side AA, is ‘Sun Stars’ and a soothing bass infused journey through the mystical realms of Artemis’ tools and creative channels. This side has a more live approach and nets the almost evangelical flush of pure radiance, coursing a glow within while listening to it. The attention to all the details, the levels, the natural balance that you know doesn’t come easy, is portrayed within this track. 

   Olly Artemis could be blindfolded with his hands tied, and pushed into a river and he’d walk across it. The guy had something in his artillery that very few producers find. He had a knack for putting out and demonstrating the strength in music while turning acoustic art into a highly emotional and mind travelling backdrop to sweep the hurdles away and extend a glass runway for the voyage into a world that sets this one to the side. 

  Olly Shogun was truly sitting on a summit that many only caught glimpses of, up there in the clouds. 

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. 

Good Looking Records

Blame – Visions Of Mars / Centuries

1997

Today we have the second release on Good Looking Records from Conrad Blame. Sometimes I feel we fly through the tunes too quickly, as many deserve more time to focus on. Time is pressing on though and you can always venture into the blog more to visit the GLR releases in one packed keep-net of goodness. 

   Blame has always been an artist who sets his sights through his periscope in locating a sound a little ahead of the curve. During 1997, the foundational jungle sounds were finding scattered rooms to slot into and while the music was moving between a hard hitting, tech step darkness and the tropical glow of the deeper tidings within the scene, Blame was plotting a course with the latter, while also bringing his futuristic flight path into deep space with some of the technical machinery off the sizzling circuit boards on the flight deck. Having already delivered ‘360’ & ‘Overhead Projections’ he was now ready to cross the wires and send us out into the visions of things to come. It was these sounds that enriched Bukem’s label to hand Blame his 720 Degrees label which carried these sounds forward through Good Looking and then on via Blames own hands. Engineered by Simon Donohue (Odyssey) we have here two giants in Blames catalogue and also two big hitters within the submerged stirrings of the chilled out sounds. Having Odyssey work with Blame was to be a vital combination considering those early 720 plates too. I’m sure you have some stories Conrad? 

   ‘Visions Of Mars’ is up there with the red carpet walkers, of atmospherics. From its stationary lock onto the orbiting space station we unlock the latches, release the pressure in the valves and align the instrument panel displays to send us creeping away from all that we know. Time becomes irrelevant and the expanse of the impossible a reality. The music creates a reinvention of the melodic escape into the unknown. As the bass gently buffers the ship and the beats hold a steady course, it’s the fading and emerging lights and clouds of sensory gas and rock that sieve the incredible pads and synths through an invisible net, delivering the purest, filtered elements of the vibe. ‘Visions Of Mars’ may have become something we have now seen through rovers on the surface, but we as humans are still a little off that journey. To be honest, listening to this music takes me further than any planet in our solar system, and listening to it on the most beautifully geographic planet we know of, is all the impact needed. 

A little fact about ‘Visions Of Mars’, is that Blame put on an American accent for the Astronaut talking sample on the intro. Love it!

   On the AA Side, is ‘Centuries’ with more plotted points on the flight path of Blames Journey. The continuation of the Solar systems influences provide this beautifully composed, stuttered, jazz swing break. The flight deck is transfixed into a hyper speed to allow the inverting of time and its crew to momentarily age backwards before leaping into a vacuum of stars that die and rebirth within seconds. Your crew becomes a merging of the space inside and outside the craft, blurring and fading before reemerging into new forms and identities. The ship slows and you look around at the smoldering and blinking controls that show that within the duration of the track, you have gained years in age but look younger, and lost concepts of placement within this new star cluster that was once our solar system, and now shows no familiarity. ‘Centuries’ in a blink and insomnia for a second. This is how Blame works his magic. 

   I’d be interested to know if anyone has an idea about the cover for this release? It has a lot of ‘Fluxus’ images on it ranging from 6.2 to 6.19? Does anyone know what this could refer to? I’m sure the designer could explain more but I’m not connected to them. I’d be interested to know. 

    A big shout as always to Conrad. This work will never ever get old. We will hit some more of his work when we get to the EP’s and the albums (although his solo album is only on CD which always baffled me, but we’ll review it anyway). 

Good Looking Records

Total Science – Algebra / Forcefield

1997

Today we head onto a couple of artists who are probably one of the most well known, and broadest in terms of musical output and without doubt, die hard workaholics in the studio. Whereas most people who have been in the game as long as they have, may find a box of DATs or a draw of lost floppy discs, these guys may have about 50-60 houses filled floor to ceiling, with music that they created. We did venture into Total Science during C.I.A. a fair bit, and it was their work on Timeless, C.I.A and the many projects as solo artists (as Q Project & Spinback) on Legend Records, that had them destined to make an appearance on Good Looking. I’m sure Graham Mew, Invisible Man, may have provided pretty decent references too, having worked with TS at Legend Records and having already released on GLR with ‘The Bell Tune’. Needless to say, the work here has an interesting tale from my own personal perspective. 

    First of all, I really struggled with accepting the tunes on this 12” back when I was 22 years old and forever seeking the something in life. The years between then and now have provided many de-misting moments when it comes to music though. Prime example right here. Of all the Good Looking music, the Total Science work has to be the music that has turned me around, switched the way I look at things and transformed this one wilting weed into the full blooming rose of sound. The true art of the music on this plate is in its mission to rejuvenate my soul.

   ‘Algebra’ on Side A is such a fucking incredible piece of music, and how it’s grown and grown in my own appreciation of it is one I’d never thought would happen in quite the sheer volume it has. Just take the beats for example. That pattern is one completely off the norm and works in ways I’d never imagined it could. The bass pinballs along with a sincerity and well mannered respect. The pitch ups and downs were a real trademark of their work around this time, and while at the time I thought it a little cheesy, it now sits in my head as touches of spellbinding creativity. ‘Algebra’ has this knack of getting inside your mind and throwing away the key. Don’t bother looking for it though, as it’s worth storing this for the rest of your days. The main riff provides a sensation of hovering above the prey below and tensing up every muscle before releasing the expulsion of stress and floating down for a banquet of paradise. 

   Side AA slides another first class envelope through the mailbox and tows ‘Forcefield’ from its orbit and across the galaxy, burning its underbelly and streaking across the canopy of the skies below, The beats are a little more snare based, as the bass hits the key riff, and the pitch bends work their magic again. It’s incredible how most of the music on my shelf provides me with the living photos of the time. Tunes like this though, feel like it is a wiser head on my shoulders these days, as it’s not a recollection, it feel it more a deeper understanding and historical appreciation of the music. Maybe that’s the teacher in me. Like I always say to my students, “I’m open to learning just as much as you”. Listening to the two tunes on this plate are probably the most prime examples that my learning still occurs with it every time I listen to it. Even after 33 years of spinning. My own personal future is on this record. It’s only now I seem to be grasping just how fucking incredible the tunes on here are. 

   A big shout to the Total Science legends, Jason Greenhalgh and Paul Smith. I just wonder how many tunes around this era they must have made and not been released. That would be one hell of a DAT dump and with the labels out there repressing, god only knows how much they’d gift us. We’ll have more from Jason ‘Q Project’ on both GLR & LGR. Total Science could turn exceptionally good tunes to practically any label. They’ll always be top rung in that aspect. 

Good Looking Records

Blu Mar Ten – Slipstream / Future Proof

1997

As the calendar turns into 1997 we move onto the next Good Looking release and the first release on the label for an artist who we reviewed on their own label, around three years ago in the reviews and also on 720° & Ascendent Grooves. They are the mighty, Blu Mar Ten. A big shout as always to Chris Marigold & Leo Wyndham! This releases their second official release, following their amazing Way Out Records release ‘The Fountain’ in 1996.

    Before we launch into the magic, It’s crazy first of all to think how long these words have been falling onto the pages. I always knew this project would be like a long therapy session and at times, wondered if I could keep going. Now I’m this far into it, I realize I have no reason to slow down, nor want to. Not only has it been a passion creating this and now the blog (see link on end of this post), but having the connections with everyone who reads and comments means a lot. You are all a huge incentive to do this, so thank you to everyone who takes time to read, leave comments and study the photos. 

   The other crazy aspect is how this label between 1992 and 1997, gave us not only music that will cement in history, but the way the music was developing. If you were to dive into any years after 1992 and take a five year snapshot, where else would you find the speed of evolving and change like 92-97? Where have we come, from 2020 for example? I always wonder if there is a jolt in the navigation looming with jungle and drum and bass. Technology has made things easy but also created a crux in how things are created. Who knows, the standard of music is still out there as many of us that dive in deep and seek the good stuff can still extract incredible music. 

   Having shampoo’d and rinsed that out my hair, let’s move into the high end world of Blu Mar Ten. Todays release is a real gem of a 12”, catapulting just how musically gifted their work is. The atmospherics were becoming a palette of grandiose pads that rolled out landscapes on which musicians were peppering their personal colours onto. This plate was such a huge impact for me, that of nearly all the yellow spine releases, it remains in the record box on pretty much every occasion. 

   ‘Slipstream’ sweeps the loose granules off the ramp that leads onto the rolling sand banks,  unlocking the beach of lucid dreams with a tender expression. Blu Mar Ten worked such a vast array of sounds behind their drum and bass that you almost forget that these key two components are even in here at times. Such is the glucose enriched purity of the sound. This track is really one of the most laid back on the label, since Remnants on GLR 002. The way it can make the most crazed, caffeine filled nutcase become transfixed, statuesque and calm is one that Blu Mar Ten could always produce. That might not surprise you as the follow up to ‘The Fountain’ which also had that deep, spiritual hypnotic thread of bliss. This track ‘Slipstream’ is one that you’ll awaken to after listening and realize that the clocks, money and energy you thought you needed, can wait for another listen to this diamond encrusted piece of music.

   And the balance that comes from Side A is now equated with something that shuttles you away from the tranquil and into a slice of Blu Mar Ten’s top gear of dance floor movement. ‘Future Proof’ has that warm tempting intro before the killer, sub-bass pads and synths create this black hole scarred portal into the depths of the mind. The amen build up just lets the lights glow in intensity, until the main break just smacks you hard. This tune explodes and carries with it every steel girder, concrete block and cast iron furnace, disintegrating every molecule and melting it to an organic plasma of intense, rich musical prowess. The jazz notes from the saxophone season the tune, rounding off the edges and sanding the borders, making it a masterpiece of tearing atmospheric gold. Once we’d heard this from BMT, it was only a matter of time before the spectrum of their abilities were truly in full flow. Listening to this one again has brought back a shit load of memories as it was in a lot of my mixes back then. Many people were surprised when they saw it was a Good Looking tune, as they nearly always expected something more like the A Side. With the live jazz sounds opening one door, the slamming amen bordered rinse outs were prizing open another. The moods could now shift within its own circle and the journeys now available were forever expanding. What a time to soak it all up, and now squeeze it out for today’s listeners. A real treat of music. 

   The last time I heard from Chris from BMTM they were moving to a new studio. I’m sure things must be close, if not ready, to start pushing the music out again. I saw ‘Wardance III’ had been released recently so that’s a good sign. Big respects to Chris, Leo and Mike. 

Good Looking Records

Artemis – Elysian Fields / Desideradi

1996

Today we move onto yet another promo release on Good Looking Records. The music by now was recognized in a vast number of pockets in the UK and the movement that once put its head down, taking risks and sticking to the principles, was now not just being warmly accepted, but standing with chest puffed out and head held high. The label was on its Twentieth release and the prospect of growth in its foundational years, was now a very firm reality. The label was up there with the big hitters and not just that, had a very bright future ahead. The artists that kept this happening include today’s studio wizard. 

    When Oliver Lomax handed his musical output to any label, it was not just good news for the us, but it usually resulted in the label gaining added attention. We have dropped reviews on Olly, during Earth & Cookin’ and will have plenty more on GLR. The master of frantic, hailstorms of beats makes his GLR debut, following a rather impressive assortment of work on Renegade Recordings. His time working such golden tracks was of course not one that stayed with us, and his whereabouts and coaxing as to getting him back in the music game, is one I think we have in all due respect, agreed is something he feels needs to remain adrift from. GLR will always be a label I hold most dear to my heart, although one reason why artists did hang up their coats and say “enough” was through management of the money that artists did not get. Artemis was one who may have been stung and it knocked trust and support onto the floor. Music like this deserves the compliments and the earned recognition. I’m going to jump this ship though as it’s the music we’re focused on. The debate on money and artists is another story. Let’s get these fine pieces of work playing loud. Olly used his Artemis name for this release but you may have heard him under the Shogun name too. He was also reviewed a little while back on Creative Wax (hmmm..I hear you say).. as Machine who is Dan Coffey (Tertius). Let’s get this disc rotating. 

   Side A falls into the canopies of the glistening forest of Babylon, ‘Elysian Fields’ makes you stop whatever you are doing and pour liquid souled caviar across the network of your mind. Artemis not only churned out some of the most stirring and sweeping sounds of the 90s, but he also had that fingerprint of his, that left listeners knowing it was his work. With the raining chops of the beats, a blissful bassline and then those keys and pads that he was always able to lay down in his own majestic fashion. Artemis carved out some of the most intricate and lavish soundscapes within his music. The production for him by this time had grown exponentially, from his earlier Renegade material. His arrival on GLR was timed perfectly to radiate his unique sounds. 

   On the flip is ‘Desideradi’ which I used to batter when I played a deeper drum and bass set. We are reminded yet again here of how infectious and wonderful Artemis could relay the ideas he had, into the music we could, and still do, enjoy so much. The galloping breaks, harmonious chords and the overflowing toolkit of sounds all congregate to form this executive seat in the 360 degree vantage point of the scenery. Tunes like this still make me feel more alive and open to ways this music can take a path and hit synapses that once seemed fading, and light them up like Blackpool illuminations. ‘Desideradi’ is a tune that you’ll gaze up toward in the night sky and will extract the light from the stars, hitting your eyes with the cosmic atoms and connecting the source with your being while the sounds on this tune course through the light years between. 

   The talents of Olly Lomax will forever be a major pillar of this music.

Good Looking Records

Blame – 360° Clic / Overhead Projections

1996

It’s time for another batch of blog reviews on Good Looking Records and time for the next five releases. It’s crazy how quickly we seem to be going through the label. I always felt that with the weight and presence of the tunes on GLR, that they deserved more than a day of appreciation. The problem there, would mean never progressing through the tunes in my lifetime. I am putting each one of these Good Looking Records into my blog, which I’ve been posting at the bottom of my posts, so if you’ve missed any, they’re all on there in one place. I’ll be eventually adding other labels bit by bit too.

We had plenty of accolade and honorable mentions with this guy, during his own 720° Recordings and his work on Cookin’ and Earth, all within the Good Looking circle. It’s always a pleasure and privilege to review his work, and luckily we have a lot more to go through after today. He is, Mr. Conrad Shafie. Blame. 

   1996 was a busy year of releases for Blame, having already marked his territory within the Moving Shadow and Section 5 (as artist Kay 9) labels during the early to mid 90s. For today’s release, we get a piece of music that reset the way the 4/4 style of music needn’t have to be adhered too, reflecting a jazz propulsion of ripe and nectar laced temptation with an overhaul on the atmospheric layout.

   Side A is ‘360° Clic’. From its live bass and cymbal tapping opening and snare infused beat, the keyboard hits the off beats and we swing into the to and fro of icy momentum, gliding along like the law of friction has been eradicated. I can hear MC Conrad in my head when this one plays (as there is a vocal version out there that we’ll get to). Blame was turning everything he touched to gold at this time and no wonder he was venturing  on the GLR tours with Bukem and his elite team. It was definitely on the strength of his releases that Bukem handed the opportunity of his own side label within the Good Looking Organization. 

    For the flip side of this, we have a tune that for me sits in the top 3 Blame tracks in his vast catalogue of treasures. It was on Kiss FM in July of 1996 that I was recording one of Bukem’s shows onto my cassette, where I first heard this next track, ‘Overhead Projections’. Now, if like me you were close enough to pick up Kiss FM on the radio but had the occasional static crackling while Henry Kelly on Classic FM was trying to fight the airwaves with them, then you’ll know that when this tune came on, I wasn’t sure if the interference was on the tune or my radio signal. Luckily, I managed to get a fair bit of recording done, after a few repositions of the aerial, which only led to my quest to buy everything he ever played. For all the futuristic mechanisms and sounds of distant machines computing these new sounds, it was Blame who unraveled this unopened world of mysticism, igniting this living and breathing universe within the Good Looking camp. The way ‘Overhead Projections’ burrows into your mind is quite simply a work of beauty. The future is still destined to be met with this nourishing snapshot of worlds beyond time. 

   Public Art were still designing the main release sleeves for Good Looking. I just seem to have a smattering of promos around this era though. Thank goodness I got the Promo outer sleeves for each of them when I was at Record Basement. Just missing a few inlays. 

    More GLR coming up as we work through this torrent of killer music. 

Big up Blame, more from him in the near future.

Good Looking Records

Intense – Positive Notions / Careless

Minds

1996

It’s our next plate on Good Looking and we now feature an artist that we’ve spilled admiration toward on occasions during Creative Source and Earth, and now for that parent label, Good Looking. By 1996, the trio of Dan Duncan, Beau Thomas and Simon Vispi had given us some of the most memorable and finely produced pieces of music in the scene. With tracks on Great Asset, Underground Level, the mighty works of art on Rugged Vinyl and working with the label Tooz Up, they were already in a very well established position to create their first incredible release on GLR. This was always going to be a special plate, and Intense did not let us down one bit. 

   Charged had fully taken over the distribution of Good Looking and Public Art worked the main release design. We were also hitting the end of 1996 with this release. Let’s put a stick through the spinning spokes and dismount (or fly over the handle bars) for the main purpose of these reviews.  The music. I picked this up around the same time as ‘The Sax Lick / Morions’ on Way Out Records. Both sublime.

   Side A is ‘Positive Notions’ unleashing those high quality bongos and high hats from the intro. We also have a mix of soothing pads and then the sax from Molly Duncan who features with Intense on a number of their tunes. He was Dan Duncan’s dad from the group and such a key component of the live sound and performance. We sadly lost Molly in 2019 – R.I.P. His history in the music industry speaks for itself, having worked with many legendary artists such as Ben E King, Chaka Khan, Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler’s, Dire Straits. 

   When you listen to tracks like this, you realize not only how sublime the music is but also how expertly produced, engineered and mastered Intense were. I know I’ve mentioned this before but having Beau & Simon working in the group just added to the expertise in sound engineering and working the levels. Dan went on to house music eventually, and his work with Pig & Dan is well worth checking out. I love ‘Saints & Sinners’ by them. 

   On Side AA is ‘Careless Minds’ taking you out into the constellations of the stars we have yet to receive the light from. The wind clips the tips of the sand dunes, sending the fragile clouds of particles across the musical landscape. This tune is one that I feel takes all the Intense blueprints and builds a steadfast structure of all their qualities. Molly’s saxophone carries gifts from the gods into the air and swirls between those feather-down pads, while the breaks trundle, the bass bubbles and we recline into the unrivaled wonders of Intense. Whatever label they were releasing on, you’d be a fool not to have bagged their work. 

Good Looking Records was not slowing down on the output of masterful music and if, like me, you felt that every step you took with this label was going to arouse and douse the senses and feelings with more impact than any other music at the time, you’d not hesitate on buying each release when it arrived. 

    I also saw recently that Beau & Dan had reunited recently via Instagram. Is this a sign of something brewing from the vaults or a new project? We are definitely watching that space for more details..

   More from Intense on GLR to follow at a later date. 

Good Looking Records

Axis – One In Ten / Dusted

1996

Good Looking Records had been pushing and breaking the confines of music, since 1992 and now it was in a transition as a label, in regards to distribution of its records. Up until now, Vinyl Distribution, run out of Record Basement in Reading, had been the sole fountain of spreading the gospels of the label out to the world. This release today is labelled as primarily a Vital Distribution 12” although Charged (the dance side of Vital), are both credited on the release. 

   I remember being in 1996 in Record Basement, upstairs choosing tunes to take back to Dance Easy in Basingstoke and I could see through the glass window, Bukem was in Basement Phil’s office, and I often wonder if this meeting was the detaching of the Good Looking Records relationship with Vinyl Distribution. The new design of the promo, which came in the sleeve pictured, was a big graphic overhaul. The main release was designed by Public Art from Germany. The inlay sheet is included in the photos with the historic and predicted (G Force..we see you) details of new releases and upcoming releases on both GLR, LGR and Earth.  

  The 12” release today is by Illian Walker who began releasing tunes in 1993 under the name Confusion. He also produced under Ils and teamed up for a very successful run with Solo (from Production House). His first outing as Axis occurred with this move toward a fresh and eclectic jazz ensemble on the Good Looking label. Remember in my review on ‘Links’ by The Chameleon I mentioned that it was a release that set a new course of music? Well this release today was handed that raised, burning torch out for the next leg of the journey on this label. One thing that you’ll discover (or recall), is his ability to enhance the sounds within his work. Illian always took pride and precision to a new level with his work as we’ll reminisce on, today. 

    Side A is ‘One In Ten’ and for those that dedicate their ears and mind to those Bukem Essential mixes from 1995 & 1996, will immediately know this as the intro to the 1996 mix.

  The lightness and massaging relaxation you get with this tune, the distribution of feel good atoms bouncing through you and out to the world, is something which GLR were to harness more and more. The deep meditation and raw mechanics of the chillers corner from the early grandfather plates of unparalleled distinction of GLR, was now placing these new electrodes on a bubbling, jiving and shaking movement of assorted beats, world jazz pipette drops and a live dynamic within its composition. ‘One In Ten’ delivers a tune which may not have the ‘classic’ label associated as heavily as every other plate before hand, but you cannot deny that it continued a route which allowed this music to incorporate another way of infusing emotions on the atmospheric plain. 

   ‘Dusted’ springboards off the other side with more experimental sounds within the vortex of techy, jazz stabs and another serving of ludicrously polished live sounding beats. The bassline on this one is a real treat too, being heavy and busy. Ils made a big impact with this release and Bukem was scouting for new artists to take on the ever expanding shifts that the label was looking for. 

   One thing that also is apparent is the duration of the tracks on this release too. It threw out the structure of many of the previous releases and used a shorter format, which works perfectly for tracks like these two. It’s maybe not that important but it was a different approach from an artist we’d not had much music from. The boldness was continuing and the results kept coming for Good Looking, who were about to kick off a whole new label with Earth, just around the corner (see inlay sheet). Then the music was going to be more diverse than nearly any other drum and bass label, had ever been. 

   If you search Earth Records you can read the reviews I did on the seven volumes, some time back. I will be eventually transferring all my reviews across to my blog, but that’s another project, for another time. Until then, enjoy the reading and hopefully playing some of these tunes again and I’ll keep duplicating these GLR’s onto my blog too. 

  Next GLR up tomorrow.

Good Looking Records

P.F.M. – For All Of Us / Mystics

1996

P.F.M. are back with another brandy soaked slice of lightly textured sponge, on the Good Looking label. Not only had they provided two releases already on Good Looking, they were now the only artist so far (apart from Bukem) to have a third release on GLR. 

   Now, I did say GLR. Aquarius had 3 by this time, but one was on LGR (Drift To The Centre). P.F.M. also had the godly track ‘One & Only’ on LGR which came out just before this. I would say that expectations were through the roof for this release, and as you’ve probably guessed it does not disappoint. It’s probably not the track you’d think of out the two, that I rate as a top 3 P.F.M. tune in my view though. As you can see, this is the promo release and no inlays came with mine so I made my own which at leasts help me know which release it is on the fly. Did anyone else receive an official inlay sheet if you also got the promo? If so please let us know. 

    I heard Bukem drop this at The Final Countdown, Dreamscape 21 (or XXI for those that know, or still get something from the BBC’s Roman numerals). It was yet again one of those memorable sets that had an incredible selection of tunes and the lyrical ingenuity of the great MC Conrad (R.I.P.). It still stings knowing he’s not with us anymore, but the number of mixes and tunes attached to his time on this planet, are continually revisited with a mixture of unrivaled enjoyment with pinches of sadness. Only Monday, I rolled out the ‘95 Essential mix for the 3,000th time. 

    Let’s get the tunes rolling, with ‘For All Of Us’ on Side A of this plate. I personally felt that having had the level of work by PFM so far, be the noctilucent clouds of the sky, that  this was a return to some more cirrus work from them. I believe Jamie Saker was still with Mike as PFM for this one? So before the knives come out, I’m not saying that ‘For All Of Us’ is not good. Far from it. The quality and impact that it made still gives us the tremors and aftershocks from its rotations back in ‘96. The memories are yet again the keys for the meanings of these tunes. Places, people and situations become the illustrated backdrops for the music in our lives. The intro is another work of art though, with its deep armchair chords, electrified gun shots and delicate drops of seducing chimes. “It’s for you, it’s for all of us”. This is a peach of an amen roller (the perfect example really). Massive pads and a pretty easy bass takes you up into the breakdown. Those looped echoing wails, the penetrative beauty of the full scope of the PFM tools. Listening again to this, it does raise a number of glasses in toasting its lure and treasures, I do admit. This has a magic within it to coax any doubts out about a dip in standards and I’m now eating my words aren’t I? Maybe the volume I’m cranking this out at and the times of ‘96 just washed over me. It really does make me nostalgic. 

    The other side of this plate though, holds one of the most special places in my heart. First of all, it appeared in Bukem’s Essential Mix in July 1995 on Radio One (months before its release). Second, it feels like three tunes rolled into one. Third, the story that unfolds with this tune is something that I feel makes this one of the best pieces of work that PFM made. To vary along the spectrum with the music in this track is nothing short of gob snacking. From those stirrings within the introduction, we are blessed with a sound that puts a thick fog in the valleys of the highlands with no control over the unintended appearances that leer toward you. ‘The Mystics’ broods its eerie beginnings with that trademark killer bass that had a riff all of its own. The beats kick in for the ride of your life, promenading down the trail of heightened emotions and thrills that balance on the threshold of forgotten dreams and vivid terrors. It’s such a collision of worlds that evokes feelings of millions of memories and a tranquility beyond the realms of time. Part two of this tune has the cheeky laugh sample, peak whispering pipes and then we switch to phase three with the keyboards unpacking the suitcases and throwing open the curtains for the rays of light to drown your stress. This tune is the gleaming jewel in the treasure box of PFM’s work in my opinion. A work of art which will be forever a part of my being. Pure genius.

     PFM maintained an unreachable level of performance across the 94-96 years. We will have more from PFM at a later date as we trek on through the label of other worldly delights and move to our next Good Looking Records write up. We also head towards a new Good Looking Promo design to freshen up the visual vultures out there.