Released
Expected September
1999

Label
Subconscious Communications
&
Metropolis Records

Reviewed by
Bill The Boy

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Last Edit/Update
05 July, 1999

"Space Cake"

    Those marijuana madmen are at it again with another sublime platEAU release, entitled "Space Cake". Where Music For Grassbars rolled along with trance inducing, minimal, mostly improvised Tracks, "Space Cake" is comprised almost entirely of programmed/composed Tracks, while still maintaining the loose, mellow feel of its predecessor. It flies into territories well beyond MFGB, cEvin described it as ""Download" Junior."
    Written and recorded in cEvin's own Subconscious studios in about two months time, "Space Cake" is a mix of minimal deep house, spacey ambience, and general electronic weirdness. This disc is definitely an excellent addition to any electronic music fan's CD collection.
    Track 1 - An off time bass line and squelchy feedback/distorted synthy thing congeal and meet up with into a rhythm that never actually solidifies. This is a real nice intro. has a bit of an underwater feel to it. the drums are real quirky, you feel that any second, its about to settle into a nice followable rhythm, and then boom... the track is over.
    Track 2 - Starts out with a funky beat the quickly evolves into a rhythm reminiscent of the song "They're Coming To Take Me Away" along with swirling ambient synth sounds that give this track a dense, underwater sort of feel.
    Track 3 - This Track is more along the lines of MFGB than the previous songs, but with a bit of a funkier feel.
    Track 4 - I'd call this subatomic funk... if there was an acid driven neotechno funk party going on in the nucleus of an atom, this is what it would sound like. Starts out with a tweeky, filter slap bass sound. Odd noises, an almost trip hop beat, and what seems to me like some live drums add up add up to make this track pretty damn groovy. This is probably one of my favorites on the disc.
    Track 5 - This track doesn't really seem to go anywhere, it just ambles along while female vocals pop in and out of the mix. Punctuated static, 808 tom drums, ambient strings, and a quirky rhythm make up the background for this song, which gradually fades into silence, and though it is interesting enough, there are far better Tracks on this CD.
    Track 6 - Beautiful lead in to this song... relaxing washes of song, and a dark droney low oscillating bass sound creeps in and starts to take over.. some heavily delayed vocal sampled drift across the stereo field.
    Track 7 - Starts off with a beautiful, tinkly melody....sounds like drops of water falling from the roof of a cave making music. Wonderfully ambient soundscape.
    Track 8 - Pounding dance floor beat, and odd squelchy noises that make me want to shake my butt. This is a very strong Track. Perhaps goes on for a bit too long, but there is enough atmospheric variety to make it interesting.
    Track 9 - Another one of the ambient pieces. Lots of spacey sci-fi sounds, and a bleep-blip-blop rhythm loop, with a wierd sample that sounds like Pinhead combing his hair. Repetitive and loopy, but quite nice.
    Track 10 - Re-occurring female vocals pop up again here.   A spacey four on the floor Track. Good background music, good dance music. There are better Tracks on here though.
    Track 11 - Starts out with a slowish funkified house-y beat, and adds a bit of native percussion. Lush synth sounds wash in the background. Begins to fade into silence after about 3 minutes.
    Track 12 - Here comes another burst of mellow ambience. Similar in feel to Track 7, a dripping melody, filtered strings, and heavy reverb. A very soothing track, beautiful.
    Track 13 - Almost cartoon like noises start this Track off, which moves from quirky to almost aggressive, or as aggressive as platEAU ever gets. This song slowly builds and heavily processed vocal samples pop up in the mix.
    Track 14 - Really smooth melodic bassline, thumping kick beat, and an almost klangy synth line. Great dance track. Bass line is damn catchy.
    Track 15 - Another ambient Track. Slightly reminiscent of the end of "Suni C" on TEOSP [The Eyes Of Stanley Pain]  (without the vocals of course). Filtered string like sounds and a very analogue sounding pad melody. Wraps itself around your head and slowly dissolves into the air, sliding smoothly into the next, final, track.
    Track 16 - cEvin and company have always known how to end an album. This song opens up with a crunchy manipulated rhythm loop. The song stays fairly understated through its duration with twisting analogue pads and a soft hat sound. There are no heavy kicks or abrasive rhythmic noises. The song fades out non-chalantly, and it takes a few minutes for the brain to register the fact that the album is over.
    Overall, despite a few inconsistencies, I think this is an incredibly strong album. Flows nicely from Track to Track, and every song, even the weaker ones, manages to maintain interest levels. Whether you're chillin' with da green guy or kicking back stone cold sober, "Space Cake" is a great album to fly along with.