Showing posts with label Bassomatic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bassomatic. Show all posts

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Bass-O-Matic - Science & Melody - 1991

Yeah, Bass-O-Matic is a William Orbit alias.  William Orbit being a stellar musician, producer and mixer.  But, this album sounds just like the cover looks....

It is definitely Orbit work, it's blatantly obvious on every track.  And, admittedly, the music is fantastic.  Which leads me to the issue at hand.  This album would have been so so so much better if it had simply been an instrumental album.  But, he throws in vocals.  Hip Hop RnB vocals that make you feel like your listening to Heavy D & the Boys or Salt N Peppa from the early 90s.  Back then, that style was popular.  As time goes by, though, the album's credibility slips further and further as it becomes more dated.  William Orbit's music is generally timeless.  This is not.

It is a FUN album, though.  You can tell that he had a blast making it.  A lot of his solo material outside of BoM is very serious work, that's what makes him so special.  This album is him playing around, throwing things against the wall to see if they'll stick.  The song titles and subject matter are wild and fun and creative.  There's nothing revolutionary here, but it is Orbit, and a definite must have for all completists.  I missed a mix or two, as the track list would have exceeded the hour twenty mark, but you have what you need. 

Monday, May 30, 2016

Bassomatic - Set the Controls For the Heart of the Bass - 1990


I've always been a fan of William Orbit.  Every single I used to buy in the 90s and early 2000s, I used to check the track listing mixes to see if I could spot his name.  I knew that if Orbit popped up anywhere on the sleeve, I was bound to hear another "favorite" song of mine, before I even heard it.  I even play a game with my wife whenever one of his mixes come on, and I ask her "Who did this remix?"  She sighs, "William Orbit..." and I say "How'd you guess?" and she says "you only ask me when it's a William Orbit mix."

Bassomatic is a trendy dance-pop project of his that allowed him to experiment with the Electronic/Techno music that was popular at the time, without directly tying it to his Strange Cargo brand.  The music is all traditional WO sound, but throw in some beats and an urban vocal track, and you've got it.

The album is pretty good, not as good as his Strange Cargo, or his Modern Style albums, or even as good as some of his mixes.  But, even WO's marginal stuff is better than most electronic artists out there.

I redesigned the cover, making it a little more modern and a little less dated.  But, it may be a little too up-to-date for some of you, so I made a cover using the original graphics as well.  Only one b-side, but plenty of mixes.  Not all the mixes are here, but, I put the ones on that matter.