Dec 1, 2007

Rhotation, (08) Into BPM

Hello, Into BPM features two electronic artists/dj's that have made their mark on the techno/dance scene these past 15 years, both have been crossing over too music scores aswell, yet both trod very different paths. BT studied music, flunked and concentrated on writing his own work, the US market was troublesome but over in the UK, BT music was popular and here he signed his first record contract and together with 'local' DJ's scene scored a number of dancefloorhits, in the proces laying the foundation what was to becomethe Trancemusic. Not wanting to get bogged down he kept developping his music(style) and meanwhile has very successfully expanded into film and videogames scoring,  aswell as developping his BT stutter into a software package.
Jeff Mills is another flunked student-architecture this time, he made a name creating little mix sets for radio and progressed into the hard edged Urban Resistance 'movement' where he laid out a confrontational style, he didnt stick around in Detroit but went to New York and Berlin before ending up in Chicago. There in 1992, teaming up with fellow Detroit native Robert Hood, he set up his most important record label, Axis, aiming for a simpler more minimal sound than most of the techno being produced in those years. His big breakthru came with a live set put to disc "Mix Up vol 2" a showcase of his nineties dj style, the acclaim got him touring to no end. Still he managed to break free and pursue some other ambitious projects like a Metropolis filmscore and tour.

Both albums are around 75min so needed to be split to assure good sound quality, well there's no Rapid (haha) Share waiting here so that shouldnt be a problem..

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BT - ESCM ( 97 ^ 76min. 178mb)

Brian Wayne Transeau is better known by his stage name, BT. He has been called the "Father of Trance" for his pioneering in the trance genre and "Prince of Dance Music" for his multi-instrumentalist skills recently he has gained additional fame for producing Hollywood film scores. BT is known in production circles for his signature technique, the stutter edit, also known as the BT stutter, this technique consists of taking a small sample of a sound and then repeating it in a musical as well as mathematical way.

Transeau showed an early interest in music, playing the piano from the age of two , as an adolescent, electronic music from New Order and Depeche Mode made an impact. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts for one year before dropping out and moving to Los Angeles, where he found himself largely an outsider , he moved back to the Washington, DC area where he grew up and collaborated there with his friends Ali and Sharam of Deep Dish in the early 1990s. Transeau's productions were not popular in the United States, and he had no idea that he had become a sensation across the Atlantic, where UK DJs like Sasha and Paul Oakenfold were regularly spinning his music to the delight of crowds. Sasha bought Transeau a ticket to London, where BT witnessed his own massive success, consequently BT was soon signed to Oakenfold's record label.

In the early years of BT's career (roughly 1995-2000), he pioneered the trance genre, which was less hyper and more soothing than most other types of dance music. His popular debut album IMA helped shape the future of the burgeoning progressive house scene as it merged with, and later came to define, the trance music style. While Ima was comprised solely of the "progressive" sound, 1997's ESCM was more experimental (although it still produced several big records for the electronic dance music scene). The album featured more complex melodies and more traditional harmonies along with a heavier use of vocals. The tone of the album is darker and less whimsical than Ima. The album, as a whole, is much more diverse than BT's debut album. The biggest hit from ESCM was arguably the trance classic, " Flaming June", a collaboration with German trance meister Paul Van Dyk. With hindsight it becomes clear that BT owes a lot of his club success to established DJs like Paul Van Dyk, Sasha and Paul Oakenfold.

His 1999 album Movement in Still Life album continued his previous experimentation outside of the trance genre, it features a strong element of nu skool breaks, a genre he helped define with the popular "Hip-Hop Phenomenon", in collaboration with Tsunami One.
BT's 4th album was largely (11 tracks) stolen including $ 75,000 of equipment it set the release back a year. Emotional Technology (2003)was BT's least experimental album to date, and many consider it the "popiest" of all of his work. The big single from the album, Somnambulist, draws heavily from the breakbeats and new wave dance.

BT's fifth studio album, This Binary Universe, released in 2006, is his second studio album released in 5.1 surround sound, the first being the soundtrack to the motion picture Monster. The album features a mix of many genres, including jazz, breakbeats, and classical music. Three songs feature a full 110-piece orchestra. Unlike his last two albums, which featured vocals on almost every track, this album contains none. The tracks also change genres constantly throughout. BT has written his own software called BreakTweaker for his latest album. He will be releasing it in 2007 under his software company, Sonik Architects. He plans to then come out with a line of tools and plugins specifically aimed at musicians and DJs, including his signature stutter edit.

In recent years, BT has moved into film and videogame scoring, creating the scores for Go (1999), Under Suspicion (2000), Driven (2001), The Fast and the Furious (2001), Stealth (2005), Underclassman (2005), Look (2006) and Catch and Release (2007). His score for the film Monster (2003) has received particular acclaim. Transeau has also done the score for video games Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas (2000), Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions (2002) and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (2004).



BT - ESCM ( 97 ^ 98mb)

01 - Firewater (8:44)
02 - Orbitus Teranium (8:11)
03 - Flaming June ( Rmx Paul van Dyk) (8:25)
04 - The Road To Lostwithiel (8:35)
05 - Memories In A Sea Of Forgetfulness (7:40)

BT - ESCM ( 97 ^ 79mb)

06 - Solar Plexus (4:14)
07 - Nectar (5:55)
08 - Remember ( Voc. Jan Johnston) (8:00)
09 - Love, Peace And Grease (5:21)
10 - Content (10:51)
10 - hidden Flaming June (Simon Hale's Orchestral Performance)" – 1:07

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Jeff Mills - The Other Day (97, 74min, 169mb)

In the course of the eighties Mills was an influential radio DJ on WJLB under the pseudonym "The Wizard." Mills' sets were a highlight of the nightly show from "The Electrifying Mojo," Charles Johnson, mixing obscure Detroit Techno, Miami Bass, Chicago House and classic New Wave tracks both live and using a multi track when pre recorded. Mills has been credited with laying the foundations for the highly influential Detroit Techno collective, Underground Resistance, alongside 'Mad' Mike Banks, a former Parliament bass player, they confronted the mainstream music industry with revolutionary rhetoric. Dressed in uniforms with skimasks and black combat suits, they were ‘men on a mission’, aiming at giving techno more content and meaning.

Mills would never leave UR officially, but later on he still went his own way. He moved to New York and after a short stay in Berlin (Tresor) ended up in Chicago. There in 1992, with fellow Detroit native Robert Hood, he set up his most important record label, Axis, aiming for a simpler more minimal sound than most of the techno being produced in those years.

His albums and EPs are mostly separate tracks of his compositions, which Mills would mix into the live DJ sets for which he became a legend. Mills has been credited for his exceptional turntable skills. Tracks are almost chopped to bits to showcase the strongest fragments for his relentless sound collages. Three decks, a Roland 909 drum-machine and seventy records in one hour: at breakneck speed Mills manipulates beats and basslines, vinyl and frequencies.The live DJ-mix album Mix-Up Volume 2 is a highly-regarded example of Mills' 1990s stage show, recorded at the Liquid Room in Tokyo.

In 2000, Mills took more memorable action by scoring a new soundtrack for Fritz Lang's 1926 film Metropolis, screened around the world at venues including the Museum of Music in Paris, London's Royal Albert Hall, and the Vienna International Film Festival. The album Metropolis documented the project in 2000, the same year that the compilation The Art of Connecting and the new album Every Dog Has Its Day both arrived. In 2004 the Exhibitionist mix CD appeared, as did a mix DVD of the same name. More recently he appears to be taking extended forays into epic techno, his 2006 album Blue Potential was recorded with the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra under Alain Altinoglu. There is a DVD of the concert at which the album was recorded, an opportunity to see Mills in action, live on stage.



Jeff Mills - The Other Day ( ^ 169mb)

01 - Solarized (3:54)
02 - Gamma Player (5:32)
03 - Sleeping Giants (3:59)
04 - i9 (4:53)
05 - Time Out Of Mind (2:59)
06 - Growth (5:10)
07 - Gateway Of Zen (5:55)
08 - Medusa (4:38)
09 - Man From Tomorrow (3:28)
10 - Spider Formation (4:23)
11 - Childhood (Maria's Mix) (4:50)
12 - Humana (4:58)
13 - Inner Life (529) (4:33)
14 - Eclipse (4:51)
15 - Nepta (4:54)
16 - Mercury (5:37)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for the posts, they're great, but I think you should check your claim that an American invented (ok, 'pioneered') trance in 1995.

    > With hindsight it becomes clear that BT owes a lot of his club success to established DJs like Paul Van Dyk, Sasha and Paul Oakenfold.

    Well, yes. They were internationally established trance DJs by the time BT began 'pioneering' the genre. While we're at it, see also: Goa.

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  2. hello jcartledge, you are right of cause and sure it were DJ's pushing-expanding the sound , but BT sort of brought it back to the States, which in return brought mentioned DJ's lucrative deals to work in NY and Miami strong cross fertilisation going on, build on a 'closed shop' vinyl culture.

    That said BT's work did get picked up by the likes of Oakenfold before 95. Its always difficult to point to the start of a label as it is awarded afterwards and by the then big names/clubs.

    Best of luck,

    Rho

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rho,

    I don't want to harp on this, so I'll keep it brief now. BT may well have broken trance in the US (and you could argue the conditions had to be right for that to happen in the first place) but there was a thriving European trance scene for at least 5 years prior to that. This is not conjecture or interpretation. I've never had the sense that European dance music (while taking a lot of inspiration from US scenes) looks to the US for commercial or critical validation.

    Anyway, a couple of links if you're still not sure what I'm talking about:

    The Trancemaster series of compilations have showcased the more commercial end of the sound since 1992 and are, I believe, still being issued:
    http://www.kompaktkiste.de/vision_soundcarriers.htm#3024001

    The mixes of early-90's trance linked below are fairly legendary free to download:
    When Trance was Good -
    http://www.discogs.com/groups/topic/87769

    ReplyDelete