Free-Music Review — 12th June, 1999

"Swing It"

Damn Funkies

For fans of big beat, a very funky track. I liked this track a lot from the moment I heard it, although I'm a big fan of the electronic dance style. The track combines fast drum with horns, synthesizers, a polite bassline, and short vocal samples. And it works very nicely.

"Kickin Hardcore"

Jinx

For those of you not familiar with gabber hardcore, it's basically a very heavy bassline and drum beats at several hundred beats per minute, often with vocal sample trying to keep up with the pounding beat. And Kickin Hardcore is a fine example, as good as commercial gabber I've heard. Sound quality is very good.

"Where are my Pants?"

Keteela

Given that this file came from the unclassifiable category, I was expecting very bad things for this track; and I got them. I hated this track the first time I heard it; the next time I heard it, I found it amusing; the next time, I thought it was pretty cool in a genuinely bizarre way. The track really is unclassifiable, but try to imagine two drunk men who sound like the makers of South Park singing in desperation about their missing legwear while swearing a lot. Sound quality ain't superb (but that'd be because this is a live recording) and the third verse kind of loses its flow. But a very amusing track if you've got a sense of humour and can live without any electronic or synthetic component in your music.

"Out Of Space (THE STATIC EDIT)"

Extreme Skillz

I'm not sure what Liam Howlett (of Prodigy) would make of this track, an acid reversion of his famous Out Of Space. But I like it. Don't take the phrase Static Edit lightly, though: the sound quality is deliberately distored to insane levels to achieve an interesting background to the rest of the sound. What's most impressive is that Extreme Skillz has managed to make the track undeniably Out Of Space without using the key vocal samples (and who hasn't heard "I'll take your brain to another dimension" at least once) for more than a brief burst.

"jungle warfare"

The Stereo Logic

Ah, good old jungle. Reminds me of the days before hardcore drum and bass took over. This is an interesting jungle track sunk in amongst radio traffic from the Vietnam war.

"The Red Rocket"

Benn L Jordan

This track calls itself drum & bass, and certainly it is. But it's not like any d&b I've heard before. Actually, I think it would fit in absolutely perfectly on MTV's Alternative Nation slot. This track is nicely made although a little sparse, but this makes it almost soothing. In fact, the main problem with this track is the fact that it's catchy: when a track has the lyric "I wish I had a greyhound with a big blue rubber dick", you don't want to find yourself idly singing the words to yourself in public. Definitely for fans of the weird and unique.

"Prodigy Demise"

JameZ The Giant Hamster

Noise by name, noise by nature. This track is pretty good, but it doesn't have enough structure for my liking. It's lacking something.

"Doom Level 1"

Technician2

I don't like this track at all. I think it's my fault, though. I downloaded it thinking I was getting that catchy Doom music, then realised that the music I wanted came from Doom2. The sound quality is good, though the generation sounds quite low-budget, like a direct MIDI recording rather than a remake. But Technician2 can't be held responsible for the boring nature of the music... I think that's exactly how it sounded in the computer game itself.

"I Don't Give a F*CK"

KINGS OF FEEDBACK

A slow guitar element, a steady drum beat and a lot of interesting samples. But no real structure. This would work perfectly as background music for a TV commercial that wanted to invoke dark feelings, if it didn't have so much swearing.

"Don't Play Chicken With Amtrak"

KAOS!

It'll never cease to amaze me what Americans will label punk. This is a good guitar track, but nothing about it suggests punk. There's no obnoxious message, no irony, no rebellion. It's just not what I'd call punk. Moaning about the classification aside, this is a good track. A catchy main lyric and some good guitar and drum make it worth listening to for any rock metal fans. And maybe even punk fans.

"KemoSabe"

DJ Soap

This is a very confused track. Never sure what it's trying to be, it goes for everything at once and makes itself almost impossible to listen to. At times it sounds like a DJ fighting to be heard over a television set, with random samples appearing everywhere.