Editorial Reviews
From URB Magazine
Out last year in Japan, Flatspin is Ken Ishii's fourth album since hitting the international techno scene in '95 with Jellytones and the magnificently metallic banger "Extra." Like his countryman Satoshi Tomeii, Ishii rides the most razor-sharp of fine lines between appealing to critics and aesthetes with signature auteur sounds and mind-numbingly basic trance and techno loops and motifs for the dancing masses who couldn't care less. Thus Flatspin sits on the fence between engaging in the home and employable in the clubs, an album where you're not sure if you should turn it up on the hi-fi or sit down on the dance floor as the lights whiz on.
Ishii starts the LP off with the Whiteout soundtrack single "Iceblink," a track that begins with his processed Kodo drum breakbeat in a savory quick house sauce but quickly simmers down under worthless vocals by Inner City. But he thoroughly redeems himself by leaving real Kodo drums intact for the martial "Drums in Friction," which with its Photek-ish touches of Asian rhythm patterns married to a full array of percussion textures and a neck-cracking build, is a potential masterpiece. Also to the album's credit are three wildly different-flavored "Flatspinning Loop" tracks meant solely for the DJ. "Infrangible" and "Moonquake," however, toe closer to that frustrating line parsing original from commercial, where the former jacks up stock techno beats into predictable four/four cubes while the latter takes the rave chorus melody into slightly epic areas: It's a toss-up. So's the album, really.
Heath K. Hignight
Detroit - History, Pt. 1,K. Hand,Efa (Caroline),Dance Music,Detroit Techno,Electronic,Hardcore Techno,Pop,Techno
Music Review:
Recommended Music:
Music CD: Charlie Parker and Miles Davis
Las Románticas de los Tucanes de Tijuana
International Music: 1 Of The Starz
Love Me Or Leave Me Alone [Import]
Rimsky-Korsakov: Coq D'or; Tale of the Tsar Saltan
Harry James & His Orchestra Play 22 Original Big Band Recordings