Artist: As One
Title: Mihara/Dance of the Uighurs
Format: 12" single
Label: New Electronica
Catalogue Number: elec6t
Year of Release: 1994
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The label New Electronica was momentarily fashionable in the mid- to late-90s ambient dance scene, making their name with compilations that showcased electronic music from around the world, with a definite bent towards the home listener. The last release, elec36lp/cd, was 1998's Ultramarine album A User's Guide, which was pretty much the last we heard from Ultramarine as well. So, a label definitely of a specific time period then.
Listening to the A-side of this 12", you wouldn't be hard pressed to to guess the year of release. Obvious reference points are Bandulu's Phaze In Version, Black Dog Productions Bytes (put out as one of rival electronica label Warp's Artificial Intelligence series), and early Rephlex. Mihara is decent enough, but doesn't really get interesting, despite multiple layers of synths coming and going. Some predictable breakdowns towards the end as well. I don't have the LP Reflections that this came off, but as album opener's go it ain't impressive.
Side B's Dance of the Uighurs fares slightly better, if only because it doesn't get too ambitious, just plods along with a nice groove. This reminded me more of a later album that I heard and liked In With Their Arps, And Moogs, And Jazz And Things, on Clear in 1997, which showed off his soul and jazz leanings more, of which this track is just and inkling.
It's hard to argue with the verdict that has been written on the sleeve by one of the staff at Vinyl Exchange (where I bought this for £1.99 in, I would guess, 1995-6), "Good Digeorgio on New Electronica. Clear Vinyl". You could say correct him, in that the guy from As One spells his surname Degiorgio, but in every other respect he's spot on.
