Title: If You're Into It, I'm Out Of It
Format: Double LP
Label: Digital Hardcore
Catalogue Number: DHR LP8
Year of Release: 1997
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Tracklisting:
A1 Opium (15:29)
B1 Nostep (3:38)
B2 Expressure (5:01)
B3 What You Call A Life (5:00)
B4 Water (4:39)
C1 Brilliance (7:10)
C2 Dead (Too) (6:10)
C3 Damaged III (4:29)
C4 Release (4:26)
D1 High Life (Theme) (11:05)
D2 My Confession (9:53)
First of all, gotta love that title. There's an element of sticking-up-two-fingers punk attitude about it that I like. I also like the ambiguity - it could, and most probably, means that if you like what you're listening to, I won't (like the Your Favourite Band Sucks T-shirt), and that's either through deliberate contrariness or it's a comment on you having rather mainstream tastes compared to me - but it could also mean that for me to like whatever it is that you like, I'd have to be off my face on horse tranquilizers.
Or Opium. The opening track is quite astonishing. If you aren't familiar with Digital Hardcore Recordings, then please check out their website: http://www.digitalhardcore.com/ but it's the home of Alec Empire and Nic Endo, which should tell you all you need to know. Suffice it to say I was expecting a riot of noise and overdriven beats, and what you get is a dark, brooding, slightly threatening piece of ambient (or what was once called illbient, but that's a silly name). It's a bit like a more interesting (and 1/5th of the length) version of Chris Meloche's Fax CD (more info on the 2350 site). Nice.
The second side is more like what I was expecting, but none of it reaches the harshness of some other DHR releases, and that brooding droney-ness is always in the background.
Some of the breakbeat-based pieces have dated a little, but they hold their own well enough. Side C closers Damaged III and Release are probably the highlights for me.
The final side has another excellent long piece, High Life (Theme), and then finishes with a track that showcases the beat programming and drones together very well. It isn't Autechre by any means, but it's competent and engaging.
