Illbient
Illbient must be about ten years old? I've been planning putting all these discs together for ages (this is the first part part of an "dilettante's guide" to 90s Electronica), but what always troubled me is that I have practically nothing to say about them. DJ Spooky was good, and actually his music always stood up a lot better than his rhetoric, which was narcissistic and a bit theoretically spotty (much like this blog in fact). That'd be a backhanded compliment were it not for the fact that in my book the music matters so much more. The Ben Neill record is a Spooky single in all but name and crops up on the "Songs For A Dead Dreamer" LP.
"Incursions in Dub", the sampler, always struck me as a bold self-elected candidate for No New York 2. Quite like Rephlex's "Gang of Four" Grime compilation too in that sense. It's not just the ineffably bleak quality of the material that recalls No Wave either, the way all these acts engage with Black music, and yes this applies to the Spookster too, is in determinedly bleached-out way, but ironically one which seems true to that music's notional intent. Just like the way James Chance, on the surface of things seemed to miss the point of funk. The Contortions were almost too skronky and ragged to be literally funky, and yet on the philosophical level, they let it all hang out, shook it on down and ran out the voodoo. I always liked the cover art of "Incursions" as well with the bold gaffer taped edges.
The first Byzar, Sub Dub and We LPs correspond to the four corners of Illbient as mapped out by the aforementioned compilation. The sad truth about Illbient as represented by these LPs is that (whisper it), a lot of it ain't much good. (Don't email me and tell me the second Byzar LP is the one I want, because I won't believe you...) Even though I've lovingly rescued these records from the bargain bins and reunited them with their chums, I'd have to concede there's a shortage of musical ideas in them that it's a bit shocking. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have them, in all their double-LP-in-thick-card wondrousness, but I there's a little too much delight being had here in just letting the machines run.