Labels:text | screenshot OCR: AM/FM BASEMENT TAPES: MINIMAL ART - "SIMPLICITY" Reviewed by Bjºrn A. Lynne Minimal Art is: - Volker Tripp (Jester/Sanity) - Carsten Klein-Hitpa AM/FM ratings: (0-10) Compositions: 8 (Actual musical originality and qualities) Production: (Sound quality and choice of instruments) (Packaging) Presentation: Contact: Volker "Jester" Tripp In Der Ziegelheide 15 4290 Bocholt GERMANY Minimal Intro Infectious Ignorance Kids of Prosperity Got To Be Grey Against The Tide Fatal Minimal Art How to get the tape: Send 15 Deutsche Marks or 10 US Dollars to the address above. Don't Send Any Other Currencies Or US Coins. Also see separate advertisement in this AM/FM. Equipment used: - Roland D10 - Korg 03/W Yamaha TG33 Yamaha PSR 400 Amiga 500+ 1MB (Used as a sampler) Fostex 4-track recorder Technics DAT recorder Yamaha EMP 100 (Effects) - Phillips Microphones - Onkyo TA 2750 tape deck for final recording - Software: MED Review: I was very excited when I opened the envelope I had received and found this tape. The tape looks 110% (!) professional - the packaging is just as good also says "Minimal (or even better) as any tape you will find on the shelves in a record-store. The inlay card is black, with the exception of a small photo of a little figure with shades of yellow lights shining upon it. It Art" printed with a small but easily readable font. professional and tasteful. The inside of the inlay-card is a separate sheet of paper is inserted within the fold. This sheet is also black, with all the lyrics, credits, greetings etc. printed in white. Everything looks folded double, and The tape itself though, was a standard C60 Maxell-tape, without any kind of label on it. Maybe Minimal Art could have made some small labels to put on the tape itself too? As it is, someone might mistake the tape for an empty Maxell tape and (God help him) record Phil Collins on it! This is the only reason that I didn't give this tape "10" on Presentation. Before continuing with this review, I have to admit that the composer of the music on this tape is a good friend of mine, a musician who's work I have always admired, and whom I also in fact work together with in the music label DENS Design. This may make the review a bit subjective, but I will try to be honest anyway. Even though I work with Volker "Jester" Tripp in DENS Design, this tape is a project that has had nothing to do with DENS Design, and I have mot in any way taken part in the creation of this tape. (I'm greeted on the cover tho'! :-) It was with great expectations that I put the tape in the deck and pressed Play. The first song, Minimal Intro, started, and was absolutely thrilled! Lovely strings, orchestra hits, sampled bits of speech, later to be joined by an incredibly funky bass line and a dance beat. This is superb stuff! For those of you who know Jester's "Amiga-only" music from many demos and music disk, Minimal Intro is Jester at his very best, only with professional equipment! I could already easily say that this was the best Basement Tape I'd received so far! And I think it's going to be hard to beat. With the exception of the opening track "Minimal Intro", which is a piece made and performed by Volker (Jester) only, Volker is joined on all the other songs by a friend of him, Karsten Klein-Hitpa", who is a singer. As the second song on the tape, "Infectious Ignorance, started, I still thought everything sounded damn good, and listened with both ears wide open. Sure, the vocals could have been better, and the production could have been a little cleaner and crispier, but it still hit me how professional everything on this tape Even the lyrics, which I admit weren't up to Rush standards, but were just as good as any of the stuff released today. And much better than, say, Curtis Stigers or Ace of Base! The lyrics are also written by Volker "Jester" Tripp. was. news. During the third song, which was the second including vocals, it hit me that it all sounded pretty much like Pet Shop Boys. I'm not really a big fan of Pet Shop Boys, actually I don't like them one bit, so for me, this wasn't good I think perhaps the vocals were a bit too "sleepy" for me, maybe a bit monotonous. The rhythm track also got me thinking about Pet Shop Boys. I know there are a lot of Pet Shop Boys fans out there, so don't think that I mean this in a negative way I'm sure, for lots of people, this is good news! Only; not for me. For me, the best track was, without doubt, the first one; "Minimal Intro". Still, as the songs passed by, I must say I was very impressed of what Volker and Karsten has achieved on this tape. My only "complaint" must be that I think it was too short. The tape contains less than 30 minutes of music, and the whole tape is recorded twice - once on each side of the cassette! Well, I guess this was a good idea, it means people won't have to rewind the tape so often, but I still think the tape would have been twice as good if it was twice as long! In this age of CDs etc, I have come to expect more than 28 minutes of music on a "project" like this. The last song on the tape features Volker "Jester" Tripp himself on vocals too. He throws himself into a fast rap, and actually gets away with it reasonably well... The song is dance track, also accompanied with some girls on background vocals, and I think it sounded pretty good, however it wasn't "unique" or special in any way. Jester sings "That's the nature of Minimal Art" towards the end of the tune, as different variations on the rhythm twists and turns. W All in all, I'm impressed over how professionally these two guys have managed to put this tape together. The music can only be described as pretty damn good pop music ok, we're not breaking barriers here, but Volker proves that he can write and play pop music which is just as good as any of the stuff they show on MTV these days. And that's more than anyone can ask from an AM/FM Basement Tape! Conclusion: What a great tape! I can heartly recommend it - the opening track "Minimal Intro" alone is enough reason to support one of the best musicians in the Amiga scene by buying his tape. AM/FM 8 9 Songs:
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