From Discogs.com -
BADltd008 - Various - "Memetrix" (ltd CDR compilation)
"Bad Sekta are an independent label from the UK, specialising in what they call "wonky electronic music". I've been monitoring / enjoying their output for a while now & so thought I'd write a short review of their latest CDR compilation -
Titled "Memetrix", the CD is a limited edition of 123 & comprises 18 tracks for a fiver, which I reckon is pretty good value. There's quite a nice variety of styles included here, covering a large section of where this "scene" is currently at, from the heavily insane to the softly plinky & from older, more established acts like Stitch (Headfuk) or Fzv (Ai / Rag & Bone) through to some newer acts like 18 year old winner of the recent Bristol Laptop Battle, The Fez!, or the tenderly-aged (15!) Tryptomatik.
Like many of the recent releases from Bad Sekta, this comes with colour artwork in a plastic slipcase & also has some weird black & white art on the CD itself.
Anyway, in the interest of brevity I shall just list a few of the tracks that standout most for me, although lots of the others are good too...
(in no order of preference) :
Bleak Reference - "Karmic Reconstruction Unit"
This track is rather good, if a little long at 7m44s. Excellent production & a sparse, thoughtful arrangement - punishingly distorted breaks, imaginitively cutup with murky snips of voices & some really nice, heavily processed synths / ambiences, breaking out into hard as nails, full on breakcore skullduggery - mmm!
DJ Richard Hillman - "Derek Acorahs Laser Eyes"
Schizophrenically veering between shards of sound, this is scarily dark rave/breakcore, done in a pretty original-sounding way. Ultra-fractured & frenetic yet eminently foot-tappable!
DJ Ultimate Kevin - "Shitter, Fatter, Balder, Sadder"
I'm voting for this guy to be voted "Greatest Nom de Plume Ever"! Anyway, this for me is an amazing tune - all the sounds are well-produced & well old-skool, with nice pads, phatty-boom bass, crispy bit-reduction breaks & some hugely original vocal samples (honest!), & the track is really classic sounding - enjoying the bass!
Lastboss - "Maricone Roads"
Apparently this track is derived from a Frank Zappa piece - I for one would have been very interested in hearing Mr. Zappa's opinion of it!
The afore-mentioned song, heavy-as bass, computer game samples & some wicked synth / noise fx, all cutup with the precision & groove I've come to expect from Lastboss - a name to watch, I think...
Randomoidz - "Raggage Baggage"
This just makes me want to dance every time I listen - phat bass, some impeccable arrangement & typically wicked production combined with loads of nicely organic filtering & distortion, with just enough invention & repetition to really work the dancefloor.
All in all, I'd say a pretty successful release, although the one gripe I have is that I think they could have balanced the order / levels out a bit, but then maybe that's the point with these kind of releases?"
- Praetorius, Discogs, Mar 21, 2008