DJ Alex Corton – Good Looking Records

Good Looking Records

LTJ Bukem – Suspended Space EP

2000

Today we have an EP that compliments LTJ Bukem’s LP ‘Journey Inwards’. This was really a snapshot of the tracks on the album, with a twist on ‘Sunrain’ that was not featured on the album, or the 12” special that we’ll review in a bit. 

   We do have 2 other tracks on this EP, that were only on the CD of ‘Journey Inwards’. All in all, we get four tracks here that highlight just how Bukem’s musical journey was developing and extending from his earlier classics, lending a forage into his early love of classical music, Motown, Soul and Jazz.

   The engineering on these four pieces is from Simon Vispi, who worked on a majority of the ‘Journey Inwards’ album, bringing that Intense lick to the forefront. This copy is No: 003754 of (an apparent) 5000, Limited Edition batch. 

   Nick Purser provides another great example of his skills in the art studio with shots of Bukem (and his glasses), in a mosaic style, along with that inner gatefold shot of someone walking along. Let us know the story here? The images work beautifully and again cement that these releases bring so much more, to my mind, in this format. Even the spine font on this release, for LTJ Bukem is in keeping with the ‘Journey Inwards’ typeface.  All round presentations like this add so much more to the sound. Big up Nick!

   ‘Suspensed Space’ is a track that flips up the switches and lights up the controls, as the Bukem tonic gets slowly poured into the crystal glasses, restoring that core, hypnotic smooth flow, we expect from the master craftsman. The snare struck rhythm, two note bass along with the movement of the pads and synths, let this one bloom in full colour.  The little sounds that drop in, the finger click, little pops, that somber acoustic guitar, all kneed together in making this enjoyable,  freshly baked musical loaf. The track can also be found on Record 3 of ‘Journey Inwards’ but they do differ slightly in the arrangement. If this is your cup a cha, then both versions are a  must have. My blog has the review (GLRAA001LP), which I’ve posted below.

    On Side B of this EP, we have one of the tracks that I was really gutted was missing on the vinyl release. It was only found on the CD. Well, not to worry, as here it is. There is an insane amount of beauty in ‘Our World’ that casts the magic that Bukem had been producing around this time. The sample seems like it’s taken from a school classroom or playground, asking kids what they think will happen to our planet in the future. It’s such a brilliant track!

 The snare break is fucking clear as glass, the pads toward the end open up channels of emotion and the bass kicks up, spilling out a whole pace increase, in vibrancy and flavour. This is a pretty short track but one that hits hard. A rolling jazz break bonanza, done Bukem style. An essential Bukem piece that deserves a place on your turntable.

“Music’s a way of life. It depends on what you believe.”

    We hit the next disc on Monday. Have a good weekend and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do… so don’t resist the power of this music. Listen and enjoy! 

Good Looking Records

Big Bud – Pure EP

1999

As we slide that first record back in the left hand gatefold, we now unfold the right hand gatefold and slip out this next 12” circular wax, of the physical ground for sound. The adventures of Big Bud, return. It was always without hesitation that his work at this time was bought and, without fail, marveled at. Everything he was making hit all the right notes both musically and mentally. We were so lucky to have had this era to enjoy so many good tunes from him. 

    ‘Emotionography Re-mix’ on Side C, launches into that Apache break in the intro, giving the DJs that perfect set up. The pads move in and out, like the steady waves breaking on the sea shore taking you to the first mini breakdown of succulent pads, altitude jazz and the little sample from Apocalypse Now. When the second layer of breaks come in, that’s when this tune really climbs onto the next level. The nuts and bolts from the original on GLR026, scuttle around a lot of this, but Big Bud changes a few filters, adds a splash of magic, pinch of audio dust and opens up a tin of soul searching Brasso, for a nip and tuck, designed to open up the corridors of your imagination. This is such a fluid and bustling piece of music. One for the distant wanderers, and the unplanned travelers. 

    Our last track on this EP is another from the ‘Late Night Blues’ LP which is also on the vinyl release. This one is ‘On The Six’, on Side D, already reviewed, but some tunes are too good to not revisit, so here is the review again from the blog: 

“The title of this track may have 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.”

    I thought I’d use my words from that earlier review as it catches everything I wanted to include. This ‘Pure EP’ is a vital accompaniment to Big Bud’s work on Good Looking. A golden bridge between albums and a bite size bonanza of his work at this time. 

   Tomorrow we move onto the Seventh EP in the series and we move back to the pioneer himself. Danny Williamson. 

Happy Christmas to all!

Good Looking Records

Big Bud – Pure EP

1999

Our next EP in this Good Looking Records series, runs in conjunction, as a kind of sampler for Big Bud’s LP, ‘Late Night Blues’. Although this is dated as a 1999 release, it was catalogue numbered after the year, 2000 Intense EP. The four pieces of music on this EP contain brilliant tracks, three of which we have investigated and spilled a smattering of words too, while the other one track is exclusive to this EP. A remix of Big Bud’s first release on Good Looking, from 1998 (GLR026). 

     The artwork on this EP is classic, Nick Purser, with the foliage and exposure tricks, along with those water drops refracting and reflected the light within. The art translates the music to a tee, which is always the sign of a great creative eye (and ear I suppose), complementing the senses perfectly. Big shout as always and if you have any clips or stories to unveil on this one for us, drop it in or I can hunt a clip if you did your video story mate? It’s better when you talk about it! 

   My Limited Edition sticker on the front of the gatefold states this release as No: 2801 (or 2891 as it’s a bit faded, so if you have either one of those, let me know and then I can establish which one mine is!) The number has also dropped from 5000 to 3000, so wasn’t this ‘Extremely Limited..rare..once in a life time. Miss it at your peril”, situation. Ha ha ha! 

   Sides A and B on the first record were both featured on ‘Late Night Blues’ but only on the CD, so having these two on vinyl is a must. We also reviewed the ‘Pure Re-Mix’ from Big Bud’s first LP, ‘Infinity + Infinity’, from 1999, which confirms how this EP was a little bridge between his two monumental LP’s on GLR. For today, we have the original ‘Pure’ to relish, here on Side A. Cast away signals that echo like the dense depths of the submerged aquatics, seem to lurk and explore out into an abyss of intrigue. It’s music like this that raises the clarity of the beats and the nourishment of the bass with such exotic pads and flavors, which Big Bud was churning out so abundantly, that makes you wonder how many tunes he was making in 1999-2000. The echoes hit the underwater sandbanks and disturb the peaks with puffs of granule explosions, ejecting the spirits of the deep into the new paths of exploration. The movement within this track is phenomenal. Let the tales of the currents and swirls carry you on that journey. ‘Pure’ takes you wherever your thoughts need to. 

    Side B is ‘My Spirit’ which is on the CD of ‘Late Night Blues’. I’m so glad that this found its way onto vinyl, as it’s one of those addictive tunes that sinks a barbel hook in from the very first electronic tech loop. The acid squelch bass and light footed beats combine, and the sail has been hoisted, welcoming the bellowing winds that stretch the fabric of your mind. Big Bud, lays out a tune here that is just fucking sublime. The breakdown has the prism of light casting a ray that has the stained glass windows collapsing as the beam pelts you with radiance and seek every color of your mood. This track is one that may not hit the dancefloors with a vengeance, but it’s got every moment that grants you a visual landscape of the spectacular, covered with ease. One of the top drawer from Big Bud’s extensive catalogue of quality. 

  Tomorrow we move onto the second record on this ‘Pure EP’ and continue the mystical drift through some of the best of Big Bud.  

Good Looking Records

Intense – Solar EP

2000

For our last record in this EP, it’s more prizewinning studio masterclasses with the Intense boys. It will be a while after this release until we play more of their work, although I do have a sneaky one on the Great Asset label from them with some music from the early 90s. We will also eventually get to a label (in the more distant future), that gave Intense some of their most impacting music, on Rugged Vinyl. 

   Today though, it’s all about the tensing and sweeping tracks on this ‘Solar EP’. 

   On Side C, ‘Witness’ flash freezes the clasping winter air that slows down life in its framework of tantalizing suspense. Ghost like pads turn the handles of the machine, laying a causeway of chilling and haunting silhouettes. Once the rolling beats and key changes inflict their own character, the bass drops into the game, knocking down the fort, manning the artillery and sweeping these fucking crystalline pads that envelope the whole package with golden folds and perfect Rhodes droplets. Molly Duncan (R.I.P.) is back sending those magical breaths into that legendary Saxophone of his. He is so sorely missed and was such a vital cog in the Intense mechanics. 

We have the privilege of this track being on the live Intense CD of Logical Progression 3. Luckily for us, we now have this treasured piece of music on vinyl too. Music this good needs its own wing of the museum. 

    Last up on Side D we have a tearing piece of music called ‘Destruction’. Intense had that ability to spread out the lazy jazz vibe, but also rip holes in the floor from the opposite side of the globe. These beats don’t just crack the surface of the earth though, they tilt all the fucking planets in our Solar System a few degrees and re-orbit the moons sending them into cast-off erratics and hyper pinball ballistics. Alarms blink, as bass lines shatter the brittle bones of the space pod and you spin out of control into the fires of the thick belts, protecting the scorching surface of a new world. You clutch the white hot rods of stability only to scream in terror as the skin unzips itself from your liquid skeletal fingers. The horrors approach and the nerves that warned you, now entwine with a chaotic spasm of fury and uncertainty that you never knew existed. There is a sadistic beauty that tears you apart but wants the process to evolve into a passion and addiction which Intense serve up in this blistering and beautiful slab of wax. Fucking burning up the speakers right now and firing out the raw energy on this. Jesus, it’s so good!

    A Big shout goes out to Beau, Simon and Dan. The music that Intense made will always hold such a priceless and timeless place in my life. It will forever be admired, enjoyed and more importantly, played as much as possible. 

Maximum respects! 

   My blog holds the other Good Looking Records write-ups, so far, including most of the 12” singles and the artist albums. I hope you enjoy scouting through some of them! 

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. 

Good Looking Records

Blu Mar Ten – Everglades EP

1999

  It’s always crazy during the week and finding time to listen to the tunes, write the reviews and take the photos. It can be tough fitting everything in life in sometimes. If it wasn’t for the passion, therapeutic gains and way that this music makes me feel, I’d probably be little less regimented. As it is, things are rolling consistently and the reviews flowing.

    Resuming the ‘Everglades EP’ it’s onto the second plate in the release and the track on Side C, ‘Santur’. For those that had Progression Sessions 3 stuck in their car CD player (did I say stuck? Well I said it was stuck but it was more a case of “why change it?”) you’ll instantly recognize this classic. 

  This track seals up the whole essence of Blu Mar Ten’s vibe, as trundling beats, vacuum poaching, riff leading bass and musically infectious pads, take us out to a cooling piano in the breakdown.  It’s not just that Chris & Leo composed with the ideas and internal drive to make good music, it was more a case of unraveling their souls into the work. The music had something a little more complex and abstract than many of the artists out there making the Cosmik airwaves gleam in the skies. They tended to redirect the expectations and add in layers of extravagant detail, making each piece a mini masterpiece. 

   ‘Blush’ is the last track on this EP. Side D holds a very special fable of true love, beauty and sweet exfoliation of the mind. Take my hand and let’s walk across the eggshells of the torment and the sorrow and when we reach the banks of safety, this poetic jazz lullaby of tenderness will grip your other hand and whisper the soft air voices of freedom and peace. This EP holds such undeniably gifted pieces of music that it takes a while to even decompress from hearing the tunes on here. ‘Blush’ moves me in a way that will always hold my heart. 

   Blu Mar Ten. Breathtaking and untouchable. Real music from the soul.

   My blog here, has a fair amount of Good Looking Records reviews, with more on the way. I hope the reading of it is enjoyed as much as I enjoy writing them!

Good Looking Records

Blu Mar Ten – Everglades EP

1999

   The music that moved us forward, flowing deeper and more incessantly into the forefronts of our mind. Yes, we are the lucky ones, having the perfect juxtaposition of escapism and grounding, the paradoxical constant of change that infuses us with the music that has a date but remains timeless. The music that provides us unconditional support when we are at our lowest, yet raises the game in our glee. Sometimes you have to look around and wonder how blazing and bright our moment has been. When it fades, it will shut its heavy eyelids with every oppositional force it can muster. I often wonder who will look back on our precious moment of electronic innovation and ever understand the core emotion. I suppose it’s like us trying to understand any of the historic musical eras though. Good Looking Records in itself, holds an underground mountain range to match the mid ocean rift of our own planet. Vast, alive and extensive. 

    Today we return to the Blu Mar Ten camp for their follow up to the 12” single release from 1997, ‘Slipstream’ / ‘Future Proof’, on Good Looking Records (GLR 021). They had released a track on Looking Good and Blame’s 720 Degrees prior to this too and for those who like to dig, check out their track on Way Out Records ‘The Fountain’. An EP with their name was not unexpected. I do have to say that it would have been amazing to have a PHD, Artemis, J Laze, or Seba EP in this series, but you know? Why moan about something we can’t change. God, I must be in a good mood today. Ha ha! 

   The time has also come, to return to the talented artwork of Nick Purser, who I hope will add in the stories behind this release. The credits also go to Chris Marigold of Blu Mar Ten for the art, so regarding this, I am eager to know about the people we see in this and the glimpse of green in the gatefold? Is someone throwing a runner bean at her? Ha ha! I’m intrigued as to the background! As with any details, I’ll add them in to the post & blog, credited to whoever provides them. The Limited Edition sticker shows this release a No: 0184 of 5000. 

    Leo Wyndham and Chris Marigold bring us the title track up first, ‘Everglades’ floating without force or resistance, into a world of completely abstract sounds. Unsterilized amphibians, retch and croak, there’s a hint of The Predator lurking up somewhere in them trees, where the Everglades rustle without reason. When the beats ignite the whole temperament changes and the pads drop onto a ceiling of low clouds, stifling the air and saturating the listers with an alkaline and purified freshness. This is Blu Mar Ten taking things way down into territories that squeeze the pitch black night out and tear open the delicate daylight fibers, picking up the tiniest vibrations of jewel dusted sound. This is music to extract the poisons and inject the antidote. The creativity is mind boggling. 

   Sides B is ‘Voidfield’ set on 45 RPM for this one, among the 3 other 33 ⅓ RPM tracks on this EP, breaking the mold given for the conforming mechanics of the mystics. If the internal visuals you conjure up when listening to this sweeping tempo, breaks liquor, are anything but tear jerking, you need your head examining. Blu Mar Ten reach out and touch nerves, capillaries and sensual DNA molecules throughout this piece of gorgeous music. This is a track I used to play on 33 ⅓ RPM at the end of a set, when I knew the bones were creaking, the muscles cramping, the stale sweat fizzing and the energy inside still wanted more. The battle of the physical and the pharmaceutical. The mental side sometimes helped them both reason with each other and this piece of downtempo music had the perfect answer. If there’s a sunrise in your lives, this has every rightful place playing as your soundtrack on that slower speed. A piece of bloody pure heaven. Fucking Stunning! 

Good Looking Records

Big Bud – Mr Nice EP

1998

Our next record from Big Bud has two more tracks on this ‘Mr Nice EP’, from one of the pace makers of the atmospheric drum and bass artists. This was a time where you’d have many producers making tunes, but there were those you’d have to consider listening too before you confirmed buying, and then there were some you’d already know, would be on your shelf before you could say “antidisestablishmentariani…” see? It’s on your shelf already! 

   It was in an abundance of top drawer music that the material Big Bud was pushing out showed it was nothing but the cream of the crop. He had formed the clarity, the engineering and the palette of full spectrum varieties, in a way only artists like Blame, Olly Artemis and Makoto were making on a consistent basis, on the GLR label. Needless to say, we have the following, classy couple of tracks to tantalize and treat the taste buds..or ear buds…it’s all Big Bud either way. 

   ‘Mr. Nice’ you’ll find on the excellent CD album of Late Night Blues, but it is not on the vinyl LP, so it’s good having this track on here, to relieve the anxiety of all that mess. Here on Side C, is the deluge, the torrent and the wave of Big Bud excelling in every corner of the outer limits of mind expanding music. The format of his tunes led you down passages, across ravines, under hillsides and over the majestic mountain tops, all the in space of time of his tracks. This one is an epic, 11+ minutes of pore sucking ecstasy. Sharp beat productions, sublime bass key changes, romantic pads and quaint jazz notes, swimming gracefully in the pool of visionary ideas and a headquarters for daydreaming bliss. When the music feels like it’s only 5 minutes long and it’s 11, then something tells you it’s more than an art form. It’s (in Big Bud terms), a way of life. 

    Side D is the track ‘Buds’. Here is the reason why I admire this guys work so much. In among the regular, expected music that one finds from the swarms of musicians that flutter and frolic around, its tracks like this that reel in the big catches and hold aloft that extra polished pedestal of achievement. The way this stirs in the dub essence, the mellow trip-hop spices and the vitamin injected vessel of ideas, is pretty fucking unreal. We have a switch for the Jazz, a button for the waltz, a codebook of contained messages, for so many listeners feelings and states of mind. I’m insanely curious as to how this wasn’t on ‘Late Night Blues’, as it was on the albums you’d expect the full entourage of explosions from an artists abilities. Big Bud is that insanely good, the ones that didn’t make it, still became highly prolific and enforced the message that some music is just above and beyond the steps of great. They shine the searchlight on everything else, just to help guide the rest to the promised land of purity. 

   What an incredible EP from Robin ‘Big Bud’ O’Reilly. A producer and engineer who conquered Good Looking Records like no other in my view. Constant quality, overly consistent output and memories to take to the grave and beyond. 

    We have another of Big Bud’s EPs heading our way very soon. He only had two in this series, so lap up the nutrients of his sound and resolve your fix very shortly. 

   My blog continues to gather these posts on Good Looking Records, with more associated with the label, to follow. As long as there is music on my shelf to share, there’ll be words for your enjoyment and some pics along the way. When we run out, there’ll be another project. Mark my word. 

Good Looking Records

Big Bud – Mr Nice EP

1998

Today, we reach the third EP in this breathtaking tapestry of the Good Looking Records EP series. If there has been one artist that we have written the most words about so far on this lab, it’s this guy. Robin O’Reilly. Big Bud. 

   The artwork continued to be contracted out to Propeller Design at this stage, and I do really like the way that they packaged these records. Saying that, this is the final Propeller Design of the series, as Nick Purser reclaims his rightful place back on the bridge, with GLREP004V (with a little collab on the design).

   This release is again, stating the Limited Edition Release of 5000, and this one is No: 0364. 

   The title of this EP was pretty much the blend of not just Big Bud’s reference to the green leaves of a cannabis nature, like that was a big surprise, but it also references the 1996 book by Howard Marks, titled ‘Mr Nice’ where the humourous exploits of a guy who had connections with all sorts of big organizations, legal and illegal, did some of the most crazy drug deals imaginable. I think a film came out eventually, but the book is a great read. 

   The track that pours paraffin on the fire is ‘Soulfood’, which was featured on Big Bud’s ‘Late Night Blues’ LP. This is prime cut Big Bud, served as the ultimate farm to market flavor of discerning distinction. The swerving, smooth slalom of sounds bubble beautifully. Huge bass, crystal beats and that piano.  As the crowd applaud, we get, Composed somewhere in Texas on the bottom of a garbage can”… ha ha, well I’ve just looked on mine and it’s just loose bits of old tarmac and ants. Robin was keeping the most lubricated machinery of his work, turning in ways that had no barriers. “Get some soul…in my soul”. Hearing this again, and not sending you back via a link, to the ‘Soulfood’ write up of mine on his ‘Late Night Blues’ LP, shows how impressive and destined this tune was for more words on it. The most perfect slice of Big Bud cut from his tiered gateaux of gourmet, musical gastronomy. 

   Side B has the track ‘Pistachio’ running a trench of lifelines through the furrows of ploughed and fertilized land. The beats sound as prominent as ever, those simple Rhodes chimes, a monstrously ear hugging bass and Big Bud yet again releases the greased chocks away from another beautifully crafted piece of music. It’s the deeper, more blues lensed jazz interpretation we have here, dancing between the darkness and the devil at times, but leaving nothing but a somber and spirit stirring digestion of emotion. I’d love to know why this track is called ‘Pistachio’? Maybe a bowl of them on the table next to the Blueberry Muffin? Ha ha! Let us know, Robin.

   This is a terrific tune and one that really rolls out of the late night and pre dawn fog and into the early fire lit streaks on the Eastern horizon. 

   What a great plate to get this EP underway. The second plate is up tomorrow. There’s a lot of Big Bud reviews on this blog if you want to dive back into some of Robins incredible music. I hope you get to enjoy the words and photos on here. For all those already checking them out, it means a lot. All for the good of the community and love of this music.

Good Looking Records

Blame – Between Worlds EP

1998

 More of the plentiful music you love, heading your way today. It’s never far from my side, although I’m sure that is pretty obvious to most. I had a 2 hour, 1992 rinse out yesterday morning. Just listening to tunes on 0 pitch and from the outer edge to the end. It flew by and really set me up right propa for the day, playing tracks on Labello Blanco, Reinforced, Basement, Suburban Base, Moving Shadow, Absolute 2, Jumpin’ & Pumpin’, Power Traxx, Formation, XL, a few white labels, and many many more. It was an extremely important year for me in terms of a fresh new world of raving, Ruth’s deeper seeking of more and more vinyl and becoming attached to the core of everything that set me up, forever more. 

   The voyage of magic moves on, only 6 years from those ‘92 days, but a million miles in musical terms, with today’s second disc in the ‘Between Worlds’ EP by Blame. 

    On Side C we have ‘Gravity Lock’, having gripped the far fetched satellites from their flotation and drawn on the temperatures that are radiating inside. Once again, the pages on this breath taking story, turn like the reversing of the waves, peeling off the sea shore. The pinched sky spits out its last precipitation of the past and as it lands, the seemingly solid ground absorbs the aftermath like a cloud absorbs the mountain tops. With this track we hit some of the most hypnotic and surreal altitudes of Blame and there is again, no question of the impact that Simon Odyssey Donahue has with these pieces, at the engineering desk. The 720 Degrees label was firing its boiler of intense killers around this time and you can hear so much of the sounds within ‘Gravity Lock’, that carried across to 720. Both artists had a spiritual connection in sound that we were so fortunate to experience. Even today, it sets a very unique podium up, that will always be loved. 

     For the last track on this EP, we have quite possibly, (highly likely in fact) one of my favorite Blame tracks of all time. While it may not be many people’s obvious choice, it casts out something that stuck with me forever. Track D, is ‘Between Worlds’, which I heard live at the time on a Bukem & Blame, Christmas Eve 1997 (well, very early Christmas morning) radio show on Kiss FM. It was the opening track of that show at around 2 or 3am and I must have been driving back from some event or party. All I know is that it was deadly quiet out, bloody cold, and this track came on. Whether it was the way it created this alternate reality, this living and breathing music which thrived on the desolate and baron world that slept around me, I do not know. It could not have gone on long enough and the journey felt like I was the only being in town. A Between Worlds state that felt was made for that exact moment in time. A time between the quiet and eerily suspended stillness and the forthcoming frantic lives of the festive Christmas Day. The mysteries and chills, mixed with the way the sounds transfixed me, to the molecules of each acutely placed sound in this fucking unbelievable piece of music. It isn’t just the visual and audio heights reached, there was a smell in the dark night and void starved air that found me and clutched that pre-morning potion of brandishing brain activity. I think the thing I became addicted to was the arrangement and style of the track. ‘Between Worlds’ was pretty much exactly how I felt listening to this. The easy swing style beats, velveteen bass and those synth pads..add in the work of a guy who had already worked so fittingly with the flute, with Blame, Gavin Tate, on ‘J-Walkin’’ and ‘Latitude’. 

   I sometimes wonder what my funeral track would be, but his is so very close to the perfect sound that I could ever wish to have. If it doesn’t come with me to my grave, at least play it to death when I’m gone. A monumental statue of musical perfection. It’s also a show well worth checking out as it does stretch the styles magnificently. 

   Blame, you are a music making god. Thank you! 

    My blog holds more Good Looking Records reviews, so I hope you get to check a few out! It’s been running since June 23rd this year of 2025, so plenty on there and a few more weeks to add more. The next EP is up, tomorrow.