From: Al Crawford <awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Subject: Review: ClockDVA - Bitstream
Followup-To: rec.music.industrial
Originator: recmusic@galaxy
Reply-To: Al Crawford <awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 13:49:10 GMT

ClockDVA		Bitstream		Contempo TEMPODISC 183 [Ita]

	Total Running Time: 43 min 15 sec

	1.	Bitstream		5:51
	2.	Virtual Flesh		5:56
	3.	Bitstream II		6:27
	4.	Bitstream H_3O^2	6:08
	5.	Bitstream III		6:30
	6.	Bitstream H_3O		6:12
	7.	Bitstream I		5:56

All mixes by ClockDVA except 4 and 6 by Andrew Mackenzie and Sbigniew
Karkowski.

It's been a while in coming, but here at last is the second single from
ClockDVA's _Man-Amplified_ album and it makes up for the delay by including
no less than seven tracks, including two remixes by Andrew "Hafler Trio"
Mackenzie and Zbigniew Karkowski.

The packaging is, as is normal for a ClockDVA release, exemplary. Despite
this being just a CD single, the booklet includes a two page treatise by
Adi Newton on the effects of electronic sex and teledildonics on society,
complete with references. For the most part Newton does seem to tie his
source material together quite well but one does have to question just what
the photo of Alan Turing is doing on the back of the booklet. OK, so Turing
was a computer scientist and his suicide was tied into his sexuality, but
it has *zilch* to do with what Newton's discussing inside the booklet.

Onto the music though. What we have here are six mixes of "Bitstream" and
one new track called "Virtual Flesh". None of the mixes here are the same
as the original version on _Man-Amplified_ but most don't differ by so
great a degree as to be unrecognisable. "Bitstream" is a difficult song to
classify, being a little too elaborate lyrically to classify as techno, but
rather more rhythmic and dance-oriented than most of Newton's intelligent
synth-based industrial. I've been rather amused by recent music mag
articles trying to portray Newton's music as techno. While some of their
recent material ("Bitstream" being the best example) is certainly firmly
placed in the crossover between dance-industrial and techno, your average
rave kid is likely to be disappointed with most of the material on
_Man-Amplified_, a lot of which is eminently undancable (not always
intentionally).

"Bitstream", however, *could* be played in a club but while the beat is
strong, it's not as dominant as in most techno, being partly submerged
beneath chittering electronics and Newton's droning vocals (the bits where
he intones "Feel the energy" in a voice that suggests he's suffering from
narcolepsy and about to doze off at any minute are difficult not to smirk
at). The disc is kicked off by what I at first assumed to be the standard
album mix. It quickly becomes apparent that it isn't, since this mix is
rather more intricate than the original. While there's not much in the way
of melody in this track, what few gaps there were in the sound originally
have been filled with an assortment of electronic effects making the track,
if not hugely interesting, then at least very busy.

"Virtual Flesh" is more rhythmic and repetitive, probably the most
dance-oriented track Newton has ever done. His vocals are rarely
intelligible, but this isn't that unusual for a ClockDVA song and the
principal annoyance is the use of a chirping effect that sounds like a
cybernetic starling with a stuck needle and continues right through the
track. It'd have been a much more interesting track without the starling
but your mind eventually becomes numbed to the chirping anyway.

"Bitstream II" doesn't differ noticeably from track 1, with some additional
synth twiddles being about the limit of the modifications.

The first Mackenzie/Karkowski remix, "Bitstream H_3O^2" (apologies for the
use of TeX notation, but it's the best way I can think of to get the
subscripted 3 and superscripted 2 across in plain text) is very interesting
indeed. While they seem to have retained little more than the original
rhythm track and built up a whole new structure of their own around it,
it's still quite clearly "Bitstream". If you're going to do a drastic remix
of a track, *this* is the way to do it.

"Bitstream III" has also been quite heavily reconstructed. While it's still
primarily a dance track it's so damn intricate sonically it's entrancing.
It's very spacious yet there's always a lot happening, with effects
wandering in and out.

"Bitstream H_3O" takes the middle ground, hovering halfway between
stripping down the track completely and just remixing it. The results are
decent enough, although not up to the standard of the other
Mackenzie/Karkowski remix.

"Bitstream I" rounds off the disc with a beefed up mix featuring an added
synth line that's almost as annoying as the starling. Different but
unexceptional

Overall, a pretty good disc, and good value for a single. Normally
something this dance oriented wouldn't grab me particularly, but while
"Bitstream" is big on rhythm and short on melody, the sonic vocabulary
(gaak!) seems completely devoid of the cliches that turn me off modern
techno to such a degree. It's as though Newton had tried to create a techno
record after hearing the style *described* by someone else but without
actually hearing the music. The end result manages to be busy and
interesting with the result that I almost completely failed to notice that
it's a type of music I don't like very much. Almost.

Erland Rating: +2
Crawford Rating: Red/Grape/Lhasa Apso

--
			Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk
	  Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh
   Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland
	     Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165  Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209

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