Various - Nitrogen - Trip Hop Sources From The Past FLAC download

PLACEBO's track is a sort of Jazzy Funk improv-ish short journey set against a constant single note sequence. At first I though of CAN and 23 SKIDOO, but the JAMES BROWN brass punctuation and YES like keyboard meanderings made me feel this is a assimilating hybrid thing which absorbs almost any and every style, but has a 60s atmosphere to it. ALBERTO BALDAN BEMBO's piece reiterates the very improv-y Jazz flavour, and follows the opening track neatly. Partly sleazy Porn 'B' movie background music, partly mad-for-it spaced-out wizardry which makes me wish all Jazz was as wonderful as this. No real tune as such - the track's more about punctuation, which it uses to great effect. MICHAEL BUNDT chooses to open his track with a 'found' tape of someone presumably leaving a prison cell (that's my guess), journeying through whiteish noise atmospherics (which they later revisit with 'Cowboy And Indian' sounds) before becoming another improvish piece, as at home with Krautrock Electronica as it is with Jazz - not as burning as the previous two pieces, but they do make a hard act to follow. Again, there's a tint of CAN and even a more pedestrian TANGERINE DREAM to the music - busy rhythms over languid drones. JAN JANKEJE closes play on this slight compilation, taking us more into a Folksy realm, a flight of fancy with flutes soaring, gliding and diving like a colony of white birds.Even at only four tracks, and a running time of just under 21 minutes, this is a bit of an uneven record. The first two tracks are blistering - mad improvs, wild thrashing around central cores. The second two are - okay - but not really in the same league. Altogether good recording, with none of the pieces any younger than 1982.Originally reviewed for Soft Watch.