DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Makoto – Human Elements

2004

Plate 1 & 2 – Side A / B & C / D

As the weekend disappears and another new week of reviews begins, we hit our fifth album in the Good Looking catalogue. I hope everyone is doing ok and you had some time to enjoy some good music? I’m sure those that made it to The Runout yesterday had another incredible time mingling with the legends, friends and bagging some top tunes! One day, I’ll visit this Eighth wonder of the world. 🙂

   For this week we will focus on musical talents from a guy we’ve reviewed during the Good Looking 12” singles. His style of drum and bass, future jazz and funk based fender guitar and bass playing prowess, unleashing orchestral warmth in arranging journeys in sound, pinpoint the artists approach. The two albums up on the podium came 4 years apart. The first one is today’s feature, so let’s draw back the curtain and applaud Makoto Shimizu, who composes  the album, ‘Human Elements’. We also get a smattering of guests on this album, worthy of a mention. MC Conrad (R.I.P), Cleveland Watkiss (both on the CD) and Lori Fine, along with an assortment of artists that Makoto included. 

   The tracks chosen for this vinyl release are a pretty decent selection too. The CD has a few that didn’t make the wax pressings but all in all it’s a strong snapshot. The CD also has a few bonus remixes too, from John B, Kyoto Jazz Massive and Nookie. 

   Artwork for this release is courtesy of Gareth Paul Jones who brings a contrasting style and a dash of the symmetrical prints on the inside of the booklet in the CD. I also really like the figures with the backdrop filling in as silhouettes. I’m opening up the floor for Gareth to give us the lowdown on things:

“Another special one for me. It was MAKOTOs debut album on GLR, and we wanted to create a slightly different look and feel for this one. Nick Purser was the master when it came to illustration, but I wanted to flex out some of that style in my own way too. So I came up with a more illustrated / graphic style that was a bit more ‘Manga’ in approach, an obvious route with Makoto’s Japanese heritage. It was also a way for his releases to have their own vibe within the labels roster of artists. I did some initial photos with him and then worked from a few selects for the artwork itself. My symmetry / repeat style is then deployed in some of the inner artwork, creating these abstract worlds. The style was also adapted to number of other releases including his Progression Sessions mix release. Makoto is another artist I’ve been lucky to collaborate with recently, continuing a connection that stretches back nearly 25 years”

Thanks to Gareth for this info!

   Let’s get these discs rotating and review the first two plates in ‘Human Elements’ today and the last one, tomorrow. 

   ‘Where Are You Going’ is our first track on Side A of the album. Makoto brews up one of his hot servings of free-styling, jazz infused drum and bass in a fashion that has his name coursing through it. The choral drops, fresh snare snapping rhythm, live guitar, the switch in chords and radiating bass, combine for a hearty ladle of damn fine music. You can picture a stage full of people just playing their hearts out and moving in their own individual fashion. Each person, an expression of identity, yet working together to form an exotic jigsaw of complete beauty. The fingerprint of Makoto is unmistakable. If you’re thinking of leaving before the end of this track, you may well be asked, “Where are you going?”

    On Side B we have ‘Sky High’, streaking across the barriers of magnetic fields, alternating cloud formations and arching your back as the winds take you higher and higher. I fucking love this one, largely due to that bass line which is fucking brilliantly put together. It compensates the airy music by showing you the shadows which lurk on the underside, creating the full dimensional sound of this track. On a big system, this one delivers a perfect balance of the deep atmospherics and something to move your body too, as you grind your feet through the ground. Makoto was dropping some incredible work around this time. This tune sums up just how addictive and unique his sound was. 

    Disc Two has the remix on Side C, of 2001’s ‘Take My Soul Baby’ from Logical Progression Level 4. From the first snare-clap beats and the drip feeding of the Fender Rhodes, the beautiful guitar work from Takashi Chida, and then the way that unmistakeable bass work lifts out the main riff and expels a wave of pure funk finesse, hits you with nothing but smiles. Makoto already had so much of the groundwork for this track in his original mix, but the little adds and tweaks keep it flowing. Lori Fine adds her vocals into the breakdown in this remix too. One of those jam sessions that slots into any part of your day. I love the way that as the tune starts to end, you can hear the background crowd starting to chat and mingle as they start to depart from the club, after a bloody good night listening to the sound of a funky D&B, jazz fused artist like Makoto. 

   Side D has ‘Treasure Towers’ to end this first day of Makoto music. This is probably my favorite track of his on this album. While we still have the majestic sweeps of pads and firmly placed snare percussion, there is a darker, mysterious layer in this track. The strings speak of a suspenseful, derelict meadow of blind corners and uncertainty. The bass hums, the brass wafts the last breaths of the departed over you, and you become transfixed in the beauty and the glory. It’s haunting, pure and genteel in a manner that works. I really love this side of Makoto, which spins his style into a heart racing, chair gripping tease, throwing the music into a jet stream of emotions. 

   More up tomorrow, from the last plate on this album, and four more tracks and a good mix of styles. 

   My blog has the Good Looking Records that I’ve reviewed so far. You’ve reached it, so hope you enjoy perusing back over the reviews so far. Thanks for checking it out!

Good Looking Records

Blame – Into The Void

2002

For the next review we arrive at the only album in this Good Looking artist series that never got a full vinyl release. Conrad Shafie wrote and produced this album and it spun the whole fucking genre into another dimension. 

   As we’ll cover four of the twelve tracks on this album when we get to Blame’s ‘Firestorm EP’, it’s the other eight we’ll be summarizing in this very special post. Blame had already churned out a heap of classics on Moving Shadow, prior to blitzing the Good Looking stable with his ‘Overhead Projects’, ‘360 Clic’ and ‘Visions Of Mars’ releases and then the jaw dropping, ‘Between Worlds EP’ and ‘Sigma EP’. The music on this release was about to take things into a whole new realm of futuristic, innovative possibilities that this music had not ventured toward. It also provided his 720 Degrees project more incentives to then venture away from GLR.

   Get ready for the voyage into a galaxy that sits light years ahead. 

   Let’s hit play on the CD and get rolling with the first three tunes. ‘Sirenoid (Creation)’ shreds the mists, opening up a gigantic launch pad of molten steel and fuel tanks bursting, prior to the countdown for this explosion out into the stars. The humans step on board and it’s not long before the vast sky above races toward this catapulted jettison into space. 

‘Into The Void’ is the title track on this album, configuring the early stages of separation that begin to loosen the grip on mankind. Our minds dive in and out of hypersleep and time becomes fractions of seconds, equaling hundreds of years. The body is maintaining a constant state of mechanical resistance, eventually reaching a point that hands over control to the computers and navigation of uncertainty. 

   Our solar system is of insignificance now, and as we slide into the track ‘Chimera’, the next wave of this journey begins. The huge piano in here and the easy jazz swing almost stuns the spacecraft into a frozen state of bliss.  Blame always has this incredible knack for the tricky alternative bar arrangements. This is a fine example of his expertise, delivering a piece of music to unravel your mind and break your heart, simultaneously. A musical moment to fill your soul. 

   ‘Firestorm’ we’ll cover on the EP of the same name. It’s a belter, but I want to save the write up for the EP, let’s just say we hurtle out further than we’ve gone before, so we will move on with ‘Tuscan’. Blame’s vessel of discovery reached the coldest and darkest moons here. The echoes of chaos and nightmares are filtered through the chambers of dread and failed nervous systems. The fear and suspense in this tune will frighten the spine out your back, as you catch glimpses of the ghosts that haunt the corners of your skull. This tune is so unique too as it’s built on nothing but the force of a black hole vacuum of noises, keys, brass blasts and those metallic nails on the icy glass screen of reason. 

  ‘Immortal’ ejects the landing pod onto the untamed terrain. As we land, the overwhelming panic flows as the billions of mass produced killer bots, pump gases and venom into the air, burning the choral stretched faces of the sinners and dissolving the evidence of life. The machines have secured the planet and we are left with an external brain of fury and total uncontrollable computations beyond our understanding, keeping this invisible identity from growing. We can merely watch, without grasping the volume and intensity of such horror and beauty.

     ‘Lifeform’ is next but it’s another from the ‘Firestorm EP’, so we’ll place in the side pocket for now. Again, it’s an incubated beauty. Blame spiraling a message that we’ll never catch up to, holding the future to ransom. 

   ‘Oceans Of Hope’ drops the weights of anxiety down into the high pressure canyons  of natural wonders. As the malfunctions of society rage above the surface, it’s the coolness and selective sedations which float like misguided jellyfish, into the coma of force fields and unblocked signals. We race through the stars and see the familar patterns from our own recognitions and senses.

  ‘Mechanism 02’ is the follow up to Mechanism from the spellbinding ‘Between Worlds EP’ from 1998. The tune keeps that metallic beat of the original along with the humming data sheets and control panel bleeps, setting off rapid circuit board pulses that break switches and sneak sparks off the electrifying memory banks. The return to the Earth we once knew is a scarring one. Its core, a mass of gnarled fusion. 

  The debriefing is held and the consensus brings the past and future together with a military snared break, a splash of space poltergeists and the crime scene tape reads  ‘Steelback’ as its warning. The trauma within the crews return is measured by seconds of dissected images of the deepest signals from space.  While the reviews show nothing to its onlookers, it’s the updated thought controls of the sheer terror and seething power from the unlocked dimensions. 

    ‘Forest Of Pagodas’ is on the Firestorm

EP and is our penultimate piece of music on this album. It’s a fantastic track which we’ll dive into during the EP review. 

   We end with the unwound and declassified return to human kind, with ‘Sirenoid (Prologue)’ rounding off this epic journey of distant futures, unfathomable distances and the knowledge that while we maintain the intelligence of this planet, our insignificance is beyond our understanding. The music has this ability to lift that. Thanks to Blame. 

   Before we break for the weekend, I must mention the artwork here by Nick Purser. The joy of owning the physical releases will forever hold a special place. Collections of visual concepts to accompany the sound. 

Gareth Jones provides some background here for the art:

“There were a number of concepts that were created whilst myself and Nick Purser were exploring ideas for Blame’s ‘Into The Void’ LP. We wanted something obviously futuristic and also a bit different. The ‘Void’ was a great theme to explore and we created numerous visuals before Nick finally arrived at the final artwork concept that was used. A beautifully rendered, futuristic visual with echos of Philip K. Dick’s ‘A Scanner Darkly’ film aesthetic. No photoshop filters here, just hours of craft.
Blame, being an ex-designer, always had input into his artwork and often had great ideas to build from. One of the unused concepts by myself, ended up being developed into the artwork for Nookie’s debut LP, and in that way finally found its true place.” – Gareth Jones

Big shout to Gareth for providing this. Respects to you my friend!

    Conrad Blame. A huge big up and respects as always. Maybe when the Earth has repaid the gods, this music will communicate to the further reaches and the message to whatever is out there will realize that the superior beings on our planet had the capability to make music like this 

   Have a marvelous weekend everyone and make sure the music flows in some way, into your life. Next week we begin a deluge of work from a couple of albums by, Makoto. Until then. Cheers! 

Good Looking Records

Nookie – In @ The Deep End

2001

Plate 2: Side C / D

Plate 3: Side E / F

For today, we finish 2/3 of the discs on ‘In @ The Deep End’ with four more terrific tunes from Nookie. I wanted to complete this album and leave Friday with a one day review on the only CD album from an artist, that didn’t get pressed on vinyl. I don’t normally review CDs but I feel most obliged with this one. 

    Without further ado…Nookie.

   ‘Pushing The Vibe’ features DRS who at this time was a regular Good Looking fixture in the artist and tour collective. MC Conrad, rest his soul, had been selective in needing a fellow MC in the entourage and it was Delroy, DRS’s talents that complimented and worked with not only Conrad, but the vibe of the time. Nookie snakes another work of funk laced jazz over the lawn and around the fringes, nurturing this organic sculpture of sound onto another blueprint of his work. Again, the riff of the bass sets off the bells and whistles, driving a groove that pierces the mind like an ecstasy laced pin cushion. Live, colorful, gifting us with a jam session that could only be from Nookie. 

   Side D has the tune that for me is the best one on this album. This track ‘Innerspace’ sends us signals from the dimensions of past and future, sandwiched in the folds of space that we have not yet understood. Sacred voids between everything we know and the vast emptiness of nothing. The blips signal a pulse of grounding to hold onto, but it’s the build of this cataclysmic track which clinches the edges of the known and unknown while pads flood in, the beats roll and the music spins in a direction that only means it’s heading beyond our reasoning. Nookie sets this flight path with a simple task of transforming our emotional capabilities and we get something so advanced in thought, we might reach it in a thousand light years. A mind blowing experience that will always hit me in ways that liquify everything around it. ‘Innerspace’ is just  as sick as fuck! 

     Decompressing…one two, one two..that tune..every-time. I feel like my legs are shaky after that journey. Last plate is up now. 

   Side E is ‘Dimension Of Sound’ slamming  drum funk intro out and reverberating those fundamental key stabs. The bass drum taps subtly, then the high hats pick up the pace. Once the foundation of that free rolling percussion is set, it’s back to another funk fueled bass guitar to jive with. Nookie kicked up the heat with this one in a spellbinding fashion. The pads seep through with grace and fluidity, rounding off a real taste of that Nookie glaze. Check the warbling trumpet blast in this one too. Utter class! This tune switches up the swagger and funk like no  other. I’d love to hear this one as a live rendition on stage today. Boy, would that be something. 

   Last up is Side F with ‘Blu Funk’ hitting the orbits of distant gravitational maneuvers and reflecting back the memoirs of those resonating sounds that Gavin sends with a gift that sets its own path. The blend of furrowed atmospherics and jazz funk in this tune is just pure magic. The chiseled edges are rounded out from fine angled fractures to gloriously arched sweeps over the gleaming landscapes as this one just infiltrates your mind. Nookie is such a supreme musician that I often wonder if he’s landed from another planet with his capabilities. One of our most prolific and respected producers and we got to experience his art in our life time. How god damn lucky we are. 

   Nookie, ya baaaaad! The good news is that we have a few EP’s of his heading our way in the not too distant future. 

   Tomorrow we have a little one-off CD review as it’s the next album in the series, which oddly never got pressed to vinyl? Don’t ask me why, but I’m sure someone may have a background on that one..more on it tomorrow. 

  There’s a blog here with some of my reviews on Good Looking. More to follow and eventually I’ll add in the sub labels. I’ve reviewed some already and just not put them in. Looking Good and Nexus is still to come too. Patience is a virtue, but in this game, time is precious too. I get it. 

Good Looking Records

Nookie – In @ The Deep End

2001

Plate 1: A / B 

For our third artist album on Good Looking Records, we return to a music producer who remains one of the key figures of the scene. A clinically high level producer, one of the best remixers that’s ever graced our world and an engineer of renowned distinction. Gavin Cheung – Nookie. 

   This was what must have been his 3rd or 4th project on specifically the Good Looking Records label, following his release under the Second Vision alias, his Lost File release and then the ‘First Light EP’? I know there were Cookin’ and Looking Good releases out there but I’m just talking Good Looking for now. His Oceanic EP was probably quite close to this one being released too. 

    Artwork duties fall to Gareth Jones, using shots of Gav standing in those sunglass donning poses. Big props out to you mate and loving the productions and artwork you’ve done recently. Here is a little info from Gareth on the art:

“Such a great LP this one. Innerspace gets me everytime. So, this was the first album sleeve artwork, Nick Purser let me loose on. I’d done a few artworks with Gavin Cheung and this artwork led on (or was around the same time as) the EP. Gav was always invested in the artwork and often gave us photos from his travels. I Can’t remember if we did a shoot for this, possibly we did at GLR hq? We were playing around with early 3D software (Stratavision) and I was looking to create this kind of suspended space, a digital realm that Gavin was almost suspended in. In at the deep end. Such an important one for me and still proud of it to this day 🫡❤️.

   As you can see, the CD accompanies the three disc vinyl set. Six tracks (one per side) reviewed over the next few days. Gavin was plugged into the atmospherics in a big way with his releases on the label, and the musical creativity and exuberance shone through like the flame through a petrol soaked handkerchief. The tracks that didn’t make the vinyl cut are ‘Beyond Therapy’, ‘Stepping Back (Made In Detroit Mix)’ and ‘My Lovin’’, none of which appeared on a vinyl release. At least we get the sounds of six belters from Gavin, on this package of wax plates. 

   Today we review the first disc. Side A has ‘Disillusion’ bringing that fuzed jazz funk swinging in from the rafters and flexing its live twists and turns. Nookie was always rolling out a style that exuded the elbow greased polish of finesse. Maintaining the dynamo of rapid snared percussion, that spectacular bass guitar and the soft cushioning of the pads, wrap this crisp and clean cut rhythm and future jazz cocoon up with a perfect balance of dance floor delights and zest filled oxygen for the intake. 

   On the flip side is ‘Natural Experience’ on Side B. This is one seriously beautiful piece of work. When Nookie lays down those piano keys in his tunes you know it’s a lit match to the firework sitting above. Elegance, finesse, an audio-stocricy of sound, where the combination of elements creates the desired in your mind. The vocals stretch the pliable dough of the music into wafer thin casts, tipping the sweetest of icebergs into a sea of pure heaven. This track sums up the way you could unmistakably realize this was 100% a Nookie track. No one else did it quite like him. 

Check that percussion rinse toward the end of the tune too. Fucking as stylish as Bond winning against the odds at the poker table and strolling up to the Vantage with the lady in his arm. Debonair to a tee! 

    Up tomorrow is plate 2 & 3. Keep your seatbelt on for more of the immersive sounds of Nookie. Big up to Gav every time. 

   Here’s that blog everyone keeps on about…all 2 of you. Ha ha! It’s part of my process now. I hope you get to venture back through the Good Looking vault of reviews on there at some point. 

Good Looking Records

Big Bud – Late Night Blues

2001

The last of the four plates in this album, heads our way today and it’s a plate that places the glistening cherry, on the icing, on the cake. Take down the fence and let the whistling winds carry you across unrestricted landscapes for this record of unparalleled creativity and joy.

    Side G has two tracks. The first is ‘On The Six’. I’m not certain, but I believe the title of this has something to do with the added string in playing a chord on a guitar? Or it’s the sixth part of a scale (3/4 of the 8 bar)? It sounds like it’s the change up, on the sixth bar though..I’d love to know more about the title of this one, Robin? 

   Big Bud spins out a really tropical stroll with this one, mixing those live elements with help from Les Lyons breathing out those tasty sax notes. It’s tracks like this that serve the ace that Robin sliced gracefully through the air with his music writing. Vibrant, bursting with flavour, setting the Good Looking sound bar at a surreal height. 

    Next up is ‘Baby’, featuring Ellen Causey on the vocals. Having this fourth plate of Big Bud’s diverted sounds from the drum and bass path was essential in this package. This calm and thoughtful drop in the smooth, deep house pool is beautiful. I’d have loved to have heard him issue some tunes on this ilk, on Deep Rooted, as part of the Good Looking Records stable. It’s almost as though GLR had this incredibly diverse tree of musical styles growing and then chain sawed it down. Things could have been so different. Sit back and relish this amazing piece of music as it’s one of my favorites of Big Bud’s, on a level other than D&B. Let your mind capture this in its full glory. 

    The last side is Side H with the last two tracks on this superb album of Robin O’Reilly. The real essence behind this side though, comes from the late, great American, Weldon Irvine. We did cover the track he wrote with Robin from Earth Volume 4, ‘Amigo Mio’ back during those Earth reviews, however he deserves another mention here. 

      Weldon was a legendary jazz-funk musician, black arts movement beacon, and was behind 100s of tunes and more than a few theatrical scripts too. He led Nina Simone’s jazz group and helped work with, and promote a vast number of today’s renowned jazz musicians. The man was beyond the voice and musical talents of what we are about to hear. To have had him join Robin so close to his leaving our world, was precious. How did you manage to hook up with him, Robin? What a skin pinching moment! 

   Up first is ‘Persian Blues’ with Weldon on the keys, stings and vocals. He also wrote both tracks on this side. The cultural diversity within this track sums up how both Weldon and Robin were incorporating old and renovating new sounds from across the globe. There’s a taste of the full course banquet of sounds filling every molecule of music here. If you don’t travel through nearly every continent while listening to this, you need to pick up that needle and drop it back to the start. 

   Last up is ‘Return Of Spiritman’ which gets Weldon narrating the words of a true jazz don. He brings a heartbeat that pulses a chain of emotions you can’t honestly put words to. Fucking insanely good. 

   Robin, you must have felt the luckiest guy alive to have finalized this album and have it sealed with Weldon’s unique and core awakening presence. “We got the drum and the bass and the funk!” 

  R.I.P Weldon Irvine – 1943-2002

Good Looking Records 

Big Bud – Late Night Blues

2001

Part two of our focus on Big Bud’s second album on Good Looking Records, features the next plate in the package. 

   I hope everyone had a joyous and satisfying weekend, and you found time to cherish the music along the way? 

    Today we hit plate 3 which I was originally going to review with the last plate too. As there are 4 tracks on the last record though, I thought it best to review these two tunes today and then end with the last 4 tunes tomorrow. It spaces things out a little more which allows you to soak in the Big Bud bath of musical brilliance. My fingers get a brief rest typing too. 

   ‘Mombasa’ on Side E, is named from the southern Kenyan town that must have held a special place with Robin. Everything in this tune is extracted from the African, Indian and Arabic influences, blending the cultural landscapes of land and sea in a vibrant and diverse way. It’s unlike anything Big Bud had delivered, knocking out a house tempo in a purely acoustic style, pushing the rhythm and blues into the spiritual, tribal dance. The congas are brilliantly talked by Ali Gudgeon and Alex Orba is back on flute. Sometimes you get a tune that just bursts the mold of ideas from an artist. This is one of them. 

   On Side F is vocalist Paul Gordon who we featured in last week’s review of ‘A Way Of Life’ from Infinity + Infinity. Here he sits on a more prominent vocal tune with Robin for this groovy move into a house tune called ‘All Over The World’. Personally, I find the tune a little too fast, but it’s got a real grab and go element. Having been through the many styles that Big Bud could produce, from his Dub, Down tempo, and Drum and Bass, it’s the notch of house on his belt of work that only strengthens his catalogue of abilities. If you’re going to look for an album with a bit of everything on Good Looking, and you’ve caned the shit out the Earth albums, then this album will fit your needs, mighty well.

   The last plate on this album we reach tomorrow and then we move onto the next artist album. I have a blog of the Good Looking Records catalogue so far, incase you fancy diving back into the 12” singles. I hope you enjoy perusing it. 

Good Looking Records

Big Bud – Late Night Blues

2001

We end the week with the start of the follow up album to ‘Infinity + Infinity’ from one of Good Looking’s stalwart artists, Big Bud. To have albums back to back in the space of a year or so, just confirms how prolific and busy Robin was at this time. This album takes us slightly away from the deep emotional pads and releases Robin’s diversity and ability to mesh the live jazz orientations within his work. 

   I also managed to have the advertising sticker to plop inside the outer plastic sleeve, so a big shout to David Stock for getting that to me.

   Artwork for this album, gives credit to that man again, Nick Purser. He provides this incredible collage of shots of Robin on the banks of this lakeside backdrop. The other side of the sleeve has a mock up poster, advertising this album as a live show. One that I feel would have been something incredible to witness if it were to happen. Weldon Irvine is the name blocked by the “Sold Out” sign on that poster. The colours used are so beautiful on this too. You can almost smell the jazz club just looking at them! 

   Please let us know any stories that you have on this one Nick. 

   We will review the first two discs today as we cover 4 tracks. The other two discs I will review at the start of next week. Writing up albums always takes a bit more time and with the next few weeks lined up with them, I’ll do my best to keep it flowing. There is one album which didn’t get a vinyl release, but we’ll just make it an interlude of a day as I do want to go over some of the tracks still. 

   Plate 1 has ‘Bluegrass’ on Side A, or ‘Blugrass’ on the label and inner sleeve. Robin takes the colossus of the atmospherics and manages to blend in the roots of blues, jazz and folk to capture a traditional, rapid strumming essence of the Bluegrass style within this tune. It mixes that old world folklore acoustic with some of Big Bud’s best era of music. The rolling beats and trance state of mind that the bass drops you into, lay the bed for the dreams to follow. Big Bud uses the sweet acoustic string loop with the tempo that matches the song title, putting little snippets and reverses here and there. 

   At just over 10 minutes in length it doesn’t piss around with a smack in the face, rather the building and nurturing of a soul filing experience. Just like we used to know. Let this one bleed into your mind and rest assured you’ll feel 100 times better than before you listened to this. The rise into this track, the volume of pleasure within and descent out, portray a wonderful story telling through sound. 

   On Side B is the wonderful ‘Hypnosis’ entering with a punchy beat, almost unrelated to the sounds Big Bud usually provides. It makes sense though as the encroaching pads rise like the steam off the cold water surface in the morning sun. Once the bass arrives, the rush of force takes hold in ways that send ultra sensual shock waves to your inner core. ‘Hypnosis’ unravels the subconscious memories and dreams, channeling your fears, your desires and your capabilities into a trench of filtered chapters to piece together. Once you awaken from the music, the mind and body returns with a fresh and pure perspective on the life that surrounds you. Big Bud presses all the buttons here. Mesmerizing, infectious and beautiful. 

   Plate 2 gives us two incredible pieces of music. Side A has ‘Listen’ taking us through the washing and swaying reeds of the estuary, providing a bongo lined percussion and tribal rhythm, backed with snares. The first breakdown casts the first gust of fiery warmth. This piece of music showcases another of Big Bud’s focus on the deepest concentration within the music. The volume is turned way up on this and the sounds, balance and production is just fucking unreal. If you ever feel like your missing the soundtrack to that solitary voyage into the abyss, that soaring push in the jet steams of high altitude, or the escape into the dead silent asteroid belts of distant planetary systems, it’s all within this tune. Let the tune fill your escape and let me know how you feel after. 

  Last up on Plate 2 is ‘Spacedub’ flexing the slightly different intro of high pitched beats. Thermals of voluminous pads soak through the membrane and the strands of Big Bud’s talents roll into your life. The little space beeps and pin point sounds have this ASC sound (before ASC had the sound to be honest). The alien language and communications of bass hit sound molecules out onto a maze of high octane, pac-man chasing chaos, taking the whole platform of music from a static, flat slab of movement and unfolding into a multi dimensional world of possibilities. When you realize just how intense and powerful this tune is, it’s only then you realize that your listening to an album with some of the most mind expanding and immersive sounds, that this music has ever given us. Robin had started the new decade like he had ended the last, with an impact that would be forever remembered. 

  Ending the week with half this album reviewed only wets the beak more for the continuation next week. Incredible music that I’ll always cherish to the core. Have a superb weekend and thanks for being on board! 

  My blog is here, featuring the journey through Good Looking Records so far. Plenty more to add and I’m sure we’ll attach Looking Good Records and eventually go back into 720 Degrees, Ascendent Grooves, Diverse, Blue, Cookin’, Deep Rooted and then also swing in Nexus. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy putting these together. 

Good Looking Records

Big Bud – Infinity + Infinity 

1999

Plate 3: Side E / F

Our final 12” plate in this album has Big Bud serving us two more banquets of breathtaking music. If the 90s were going to sign off on the journey of this decade, do it in style. Good Looking Records had been active and undeniably prominent in shaping the drum and bass scene for 80% of the decade setting a bar that continues to be adhered too. We have a number of new excellent labels these days pushing the deeper sounds, but I do wonder if the sounds will stand the test of time or the labels will evolve with something yet to reach us? It’s an Interesting thought. Without a crystal ball, we look the other direction to the history books for now. 

   For Side E we get Les Lyons joining Robin for ‘Ellen’s Song’ on the Soprano Saxophone. Les featured on ‘Blueberry Muffins’ which we reviewed back on Earth Vol 4 and will also be on Big Bud’s next album, starting tomorrow. This down tempo cut of distinguished musical concentrate, sends you into the free flowing future jazz hub, pulling you in with a silent suction, teaching the listeners of Big Bud’s drum and bass world that there is more to his talents. The number of down tempo pieces he made of this class, is quite exceptional. Tunes like ‘Ellen’s Song’ shines out an extra flash in the beacon of light that Robin projects. Pure magic. I am putting two and two together here, in saying Ellen is Robin’s daughter? The end of the song has a girls voice saying “Daddy…what’s this recording?” Nice touch there. 

   The final track on this album is ‘Stone Groove’. We have here another delightful down tempo piece, produced and written with such flair and precision, you’ll be hard pushed to find music that’s balanced and as harmonious as this. Those keyboard chords and the Balearic string plucked bass tend to the invisible ailments in your mind and release a drug of the sweetest sensations you could ever need. A beautiful ending to an album that will always hits you in ways that you never imagined. A voyage through the stars. 

   We end this Big Bud album today, tomorrow we move onto the next one from him. I cannot wait to hear it again and get more words out to express his musical talents. Big shout to Robin as always. 

   My blog is here, as I know everyone has so much time on their hands, or can’t sleep…ha ha! 

Good Looking Records

Big Bud – Infinity + Infinity 

1999

Plate 2: Side C / D

Time to move onto the next two tracks on Big Bud’s essential installment of ‘Infinity + Infinity’. The two tracks for today continue the highly accomplished work of Robin O’Reilly, at a time when he was producing some of the best atmospheric drum and bass on the circuit. 

   ‘Chill’ is a tune that was featured on Progression Sessions 5, mixed by Bukem and featuring the lyrical harmonies of MC Conrad (R.I.P.) and Del ‘DRS’. It’s a great fun one to mix with too. Even from the beats which start this track, the liveliness and fusion slots into the psyche with ease. The first little breakdown injects the musical morphine and all the kaliedescopic flashbacks zoom in and out, blurring and fading, triggering the distant past of treasured days gone by. It’s a fantastic tune this which mellows out the tightly wound frustrations by untwisting the stress and laying out the pleasure in a potion of enlightenment and calm. The bassline bubbles along so fucking subtly, bringing a pretty complex harmony to the tune if you listen closely. It has its own riff in there. Brilliantly put together and another reason why this album is a must for every GLR head. 

    Speaking of must have tracks, this next one on Side D is up there with the very best of Big Bud’s music. ‘A Way Of Life’ demonstrates that music can be part of the daily living, breathing and blinking, in ways that go beyond our understanding. Bring a smoothly delivered beat up to a selection of broad sweeping pads, a fucking ludicrously infectious bass and then why not add in that sax for good measure. The good thing is with this is we get more.. the added break drops in and we then reach a breakdown that shreds the heart with pure, nerve aching emotion.  Paul Gordon is more known from the late 90s and early 2000s as an R&B vocalist, with his track featuring on all sorts of compilations, ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’. His vocals in here elevate the breakdown into a level of altitude we rarely hear. “Ahhhh wahaaa…Yeah yeaaaahh…how I’m feeling…it’s way of life”. 

   For those that know about the influence, the inner passion and way this music holds onto the seconds, minutes and hours within each day, you’ll know that tunes like this sum up our daily lives. Its the air we breath and the endless thoughts through time. It’s more than music. It is ‘A Way Of Life’.

   Disc three is up tomorrow with the last two tracks on this 3 x vinyl album. The good news is, we have the next Big Bud album up after this one. 

  My blog is continuing the journey through the catalogue too. I hope you enjoy reading it!

Good Looking Records

Big Bud – Infinity + Infinity 

1999

Plate 1: Side A / B

Our next review will capture another of Good Looking Records supreme artists. We reviewed  3 of his 12” singles on GLR during those 4 months of posts, and then 3 more were on Fabio’s Creative Source label, plus the Earth tracks that we covered. It’s now the first of his two albums that take us into the sacred and mesmerizing world of the ultra talented, Robin O’Reilly. Big Bud. 

    By 1999, Big Bud had already set the tone of his work and provided some incredible pieces of music. I’ve said it before, Robin seemed to churn out so much quality, it was hard to imagine just where his bursts of creativity and studio knowledge, came from in this span of time. This was not just a case of quality, it also a rare case of both quality and quantity, and both never dipped in brilliance for one second of his sound. 

   We are blessed with more outstanding artwork from Nick Purser, using the infinity symbol in a way that crosses the static representation of its form with a sense of movement in its underwater, creature like depiction. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it a garden hose that you used in providing the basis for the art? The back of the main sleeve is fucking amazing too with the refracted images and then the dispersed, submerged drifting of the main symbol. Maybe I dreamt the hose though, but please add your story mate. It’s always great insight! 

   The music on ‘Infinity + Infinity’ takes listeners into some of the echelons of the highest order. The only tracks that do not appear on the vinyl, which are on the CD, are ‘Indian Summer’ which is on Logical Progression Level 4 and the Big Bud ‘Producer 07’ CD. Also, ‘High Times’ & ‘Blunt’ on sides A & B on GLR040. What can’t be denied is the perfect choice of tunes that are on this album.

   Side A is basically one of the most valid reasons why you should own this album. The opening stirrings barber hook your brain in a way that extends the fabrics of possibility. ‘Darker Than Blue’ tunes the molecules that vibrate as sound, placing them with the succulent and expressive tenderness deserved. Snapping beats, an earth drilling bass line and then the pipes and extra layer of beats which take off. The backing loop constantly infects you with a drug so incessant, you’ll never want anything more. Once the breakdown arrives, things raise the game even more. A chilling piano and those pads and sax fracture the mists and gape open the heavens. This is probably one of my favorite tunes of Robin’s. His ability to compose such a moving, haunting, spiritual and magical piece of music cannot be praised enough. Pure fucking perfection. 

  On the B Side is ‘Pure Re-Mix’ which takes the title track off Big Bud’s ‘Pure EP’ from 1999, GLREP006V and revamps it for this album. We have yet to hit the EP’s so it’s seems off reviewing the remix before the original. I always found this version to be a good counter, with its eclectic congregation of rattling beats, monstrous bass, slightly briefer breakdown and sultry dance along the corridors of echoing tranquility and shaking craze of energy. The siphon of plasmic musical gold leaves you mesmerized and chilled. This is one fine plate to get this album rolling. 

   With an album like this we’ll go through one disc a day, as you’d expect to have patience letting the finest wines breathe, so too, the senses clamour the desired effect of this magnificent music. Disc two up tomorrow. 

  My blog is here, under your nose, if you’re interested in reading about the Good Looking posts from GLR 001 up through the singles (minus 75, 78 and 79). More will follow too.