I thought it was fantastic, as is so much of their work, but wow, that debut album was such a disappointment. So much buildup, too. All those great remixes in the years prior: Eclipse, Second Sun, Forme, Crayons, all leading up to...something as flat and forgettable as Common Ground.
To be fair, they had been growing apart musically, so I get why the aptly named 'Common Ground' sounded so middling in the end. Seems like they just wanted to put an LP capstone on their storied collaboration and go their separate ways, as those two never did anything again after that.
Originally posted by Paradox Lost
This got no attention when it came out (except from Skyonee, and it was not positive)
Er... I reviewed OID on TC years before my erstwhile partner in crime got there on his blog, and I was surprisingly positive about it, apparently writing this in January 2007:
quote:
The last track is titled merely The Seventh Planet on the back of the album, although a spot of reconnaissance in the inlay reveals it’s actually the Leama & Moor mix, which leaves you wondering what happened to the original. Despite being the work of another pair of producers, the track fits in nicely, continuing the cosmic-breaks tip. No matter what the title tells you, it appears to be simply a downbeat breaks remix of Stage One, with some widescreen pads and lush pianos thrown in.
Misread your post. I think I remember that review on TC, though I suppose I just more remember Sykonee rolling his eyes at The Seventh Planet.
In a way I suppose it makes sense that this was titled differently, as I feel it takes the melody from Stage One and ‘brings it home.’ Still have no idea what happened to the original, though it wouldn’t surprise me if there never was one.
Continuing on the theme of the Quivver/Parks & Wilson/Leama/Moor collective and late 90s sci-fi thrillers, I've always liked the way Odessi - Moments Of Space makes use of the chopped sample from the film 'Sphere'.
Going off on a tangent, I only finally listened to Leama & Moor's Common Ground about a year ago and felt that my reservations at the time were justified. But I was surprised that I'd never heard 'Waiting' before, as surely in 2005/6 a Leama & Moor collaboration with Jan Johnston in the style of Whiteroom would have been some sort of holy grail. I never encountered it in any DJ sets despite being all over that stuff at the time.
You can add Tilt's Explorer to the list of anticlimactic albums from that group too.
May-04-2020 14:45
Sykonee
Supreme EMCritic
Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Vancouver, Canada
quote:
Originally posted by Paradox Lost
Misread your post. I think I remember that review on TC, though I suppose I just more remember Sykonee rolling his eyes at The Seventh Planet.
Re-listening to that, and while not amazing, I do wonder why I would have had negative things to write about it. What did I write about it?
*checks*
OOOHHH, I compared it to what Ultimae was releasing that same year (2005). Yeah, no way it could have lived up to such comparisons. Might also explain J's mostly-positive words back-when too, as neither of us had 'discovered' Ultimae until *much* later in 2007.
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May-04-2020 15:06
SYSTEM-J
IDKFA.
Registered: Sep 2003
Location: Manchester
Since we all seem to be interpreting Matt's question to refer to spoken word samples (rather than, y'know, music), this one springs to mind.
Rather than rehash myself, I'll just copy and paste my own review over at Discogs.
quote:
What a brilliant vocal sample. Never has the ambivalence of the drug experience been more suggestively poised. The music itself couldn't be finer tuned to the question - blissful, brittle, contemplative. Laconic philosophy on wax.
Registered: Oct 2005
Location: Limburg, Netherlands
Next to the intro sample I think Arjan used that Mexican sample very nice:
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May-04-2020 21:52
Midlothian
Reaping the percussions
Registered: Jan 2018
Location: Polder
quote:
Originally posted by Paradox Lost
In a way I suppose it makes sense that this was titled differently, as I feel it takes the melody from Stage One and ‘brings it home.’ Still have no idea what happened to the original, though it wouldn’t surprise me if there never was one.
There is however the Leama & Moor remix of Stage One, released on OID EP 1 (and on Tirade Records).
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quote:
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Last edited by Midlothian on May-05-2020 at 09:33
May-05-2020 09:26
Paradox Lost
In This Twilight
Registered: Aug 2007
Location: San Francisco
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Since we all seem to be interpreting Matt's question to refer to spoken word samples (rather than, y'know, music
I suppose it makes sense that spoken samples would be some of the first to come to mind, since they tend to stand out more as...well, samples, compared to instrumental pieces that, like I mentioned earlier, most of us would be surprised to learn were actually samples.
It's also the latter that reminds me why I will never become a musician of any sort, as I would have never in a million years thought to sample any of this stuff in the way it was sampled. I'm always just completely taken by the artist's imaginativeness and ingenuity when they talk about it in an interview, always saying something like "oh, yeah, that instrumental was actually lifted from an early Prince record, which I distorted through a guitar pedal and recorded to cassette to give it that denser feel." Like...why? What? What on earth made you want to sample that incredibly specific piece of music in that incredibly specific way? It's one thing to have a macro-idea for a track, but it's all those micro-ideas that really breathe life into it, and that are just beyond my creative process.
But anyway, as far as famous, non-spoken samples go, yet another record I can't believe none of us mentioned...
...and a spoken sample worth mentioning. Not exactly the most creative sample, even for '90, but It really gives the track its identity:
Last edited by Paradox Lost on May-05-2020 at 10:13
May-05-2020 09:54
Paradox Lost
In This Twilight
Registered: Aug 2007
Location: San Francisco
quote:
Originally posted by Sykonee
Re-listening to that, and while not amazing, I do wonder why I would have had negative things to write about it. What did I write about it?
*checks*
OOOHHH, I compared it to what Ultimae was releasing that same year (2005). Yeah, no way it could have lived up to such comparisons. Might also explain J's mostly-positive words back-when too, as neither of us had 'discovered' Ultimae until *much* later in 2007.
For me, Ultimae was just those CD's at Tower Records with the intriguing but completely nondescript cover art that told you nothing about what to expect, certainly not enough to take the gamble on those exorbitant price tags.
