Various Artists: voodoo roux

va-vr.jpg (15k) Various Artists: voodoo roux
(Waveform - 2001)

When I think "voodoo", I think Jamaica or New Orleans, but this particular batch of voodoo roux is a zesty/mellow mostly-European stew; but let's not quibble over geographics or semantics while this tasty dish is simmering fresh from Waveform's steamy kitchen. These Various Artists do cast spells... though with synth and drumtronics, instead of chicken feet and mojo hands. Just enough cooks and just the right sauce!

Trickling notes decorate the sinuous low-end of Tosca's "Annanas.g-corporation.dub" (4:50); gentle flute tweedles, womanly croons and other atmospheric effects drift upon the thrumming Austrian energies. Give in to the deep undertow of "Underdub" by Omnimotion and be swept into a pleasantly blurred world of echoey feminine intonations, vibraphonics and intriguingly clunky rhythms. Spoken female word (repetitiously) refers to "Paris", a mellow, beat'n'brass-infused number from Germany's Trance Groove.

More Deutschtronics strut in as X.I.S.'s strummy, drummy "Sun Walker" strides a strip of dreamily blurred soundstreams and an incorrigible bassline. Korean Potlatch sprinkles spacey twinkles and more-aggressive impulses over their celestially trancey "Vacuum Conversation". The U.K.'s Journeyman (also known as Woob, or even as Paul Frankland) adds his dub-flavored seasonings with closing track, "3001 (matrix II)" (12:17); bass pulsations propel through fluttery rivulets of ephemeral waves and stringsounds stirred by churning cymbalism and direct-hit beats.

Other contributors include deep-dive-corp. (Germany), , eer (France) and MK-Ultra (Canada/France).

With spicy ingredients from all over the world (and all over the e-musical spectrum) voodoo roux is a tasty and intoxicating brew. Mid-tempo beats are blended with smooth-flowing synthscapes and more. A thoroughly spellbound 8.5.

See also Canadian-born sunset magnetic north, another new Waveform comp.

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This review posted November 4, 2001

AmbiEntrance © 2001-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).