|
(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary.
Ambient house was given artistic depth by pioneers such as Irresistible Force, the project of disc-jockey Mixmaster Morris (Morris Gould). Flying High (1992) was inspired by avantgarde composers such as Harry Partch and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and was reminiscent of Brian Eno, Steve Reich and Tangerine Dream, while revealing affinities with Terence McKenna's hallucinogenic metaphysica.
Global Chillage (1994) showcased both the psychedelic factor and the (almost baroque) producer's skills, thus wedding the postmodernist aesthetics of assemblage and acid-rock (after all, his suites were merely a new take on the old form of the free-form jam).
Full bio
The
intellectual who pioneered the merge of ambient house and avantgarde electronic
music was
Mixmaster Morris Gould, a British disc jockey Britannico who entered the
legend of popular music with his
"Mongolian Hip Hop Show", broadcast from a private radio in
1985.
In 1987 he debuted his project
Irresistible Force, which was followed by open-air raves all over Europe,
starting with "The Madhouse" (1988), possibly the first live techno
event in London.
His free sunday show at the Dogstar club in Brixton, to which the main techno musicians were invited, was legendary.
Meanwhile,
Irresistible Force was releasing the singles
I Want To/Guns (Red Megaphone, 1988),
Freestyle (Greedybeat, 1989),
Space is the Place (Rising High, 1990) and
Underground/ Flow Motion (Rising High, 1991 - Instinct, 1993).
After collaborating with
Shamen and
Orb, he released the double album
Flying High (Rising High, 1992 - Instinct, 1993),
for which he was inspired by
Harry Partch, Karlheinz Stockhausen,
Brian Eno
Steve Reich and
Tangerine Dream.
Compositions such as
Spiritual High (7:47),
Sky High (12:11),
Flying High (15:33),
High Frequency (9:42)
explain his
philo-hallucinogenic philosophy a` la Terence McKenna, while
Symphony in E (8:47) displays his compositional ambitions.
Both Flying High and Symphony in E sampled and warped Spacemen 3's Ecstasy.
The title-track of the EP Underground (Instinct, 1994) is instead
simply hedonistic dance-music.
The seven impeccable, extended trances of
Global Chillage (Rising High, 1994 - Astralwerks, 1994)
showcase mainly the producer's skills.
The psychedelic factor is prominent in the 14-minute suite
Natural Frequency, a concert of
disjointed polyrhythms that propels an intense "om"-like prayer, a carnival of
ever mutating timbres, an absurdist ballet of chirping androids,
a sort of parody of Terry Riley's In C.
But Morris is more interested in the postmodernist aesthetics of assemblage.
Snowstorm is an elegant essay in the process of destructuring a simple
melody and turning it into a feast of stormy beats
It takes seven minutes and scores of synthesizers before
the wild metal machine music of Waveform coalesces into a middle-eastern
dance for caravans in the desert, and the remaining five minutes scientifically
undresses it of all its musical elements until only a shapeless noise is left.
The looping patterns are abused in Downstream, chill-out music inspired
by cosmic music, replete with galactic dissonances, but the piece is almost
avantgarde. Moonrise is an even more abstract painting.
Morris' sense of humour is evident in a few self-parodying moments.
A magma of hallucinatory drones initiates the pulsing base of
Sunstroke, but the rhythm decomposes in a chaotic industrial beat that
harbors a loop of easy-listening "ba-da-ba-da-ba" vocals.
The album has little to do with dance music and even less with techno in
particular, but advanced the understanding of how electronic music can be
incorporated in rock structures. After all, this album's suites are merely
a new take on the old form of the acid-rock jam.
As a journalist, he helped an entire generation of techno musician to emerge.
Mixmaster Morris also collaborated with
Pete Namlook on
Dreamfish (1993) and Dreamfish 2 (1995) and
with Jonah Sharp of
Spacetime Continuum on
Quiet Logic (Daisyworld, 1998).
It's Tomorrow Already (Ninja Tune, 1998) is a mediocre imitation of
his early albums and of a multitude of other styles, with rare highlights
(Nepalese Bliss, It's Tomorrow Already, Fish Dances).
|
