Milk – Netlabel Archive

Luminfire – Upside Wookie {release #94}

Artist: Luminfire
Title: Upside Wookie
Label: Milk
Catalog #: release #94
Release Date: 2001/06/07

Here’s a tune from a new name on Milk. Luminfire has done a nice, cool song with lots of melodies. “Upside Wookie” has a sound and style warm like summer and cool like iceream. This is a simple tune with no timing techniques or out-of-this-world sounds. This danceable but also highly listenable tune builds on lofi drums and layers of different loops like vocals and guitars. Here’s one for the summer!

[83%]
-S.Louhela

Tracklist:
01 – Upside Wookie

Additional Files:
luminfire_-_upside_wookie [DIZ] [PNG]

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Ceniq – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Mixes/Remixes) {ep/lp release #18}

Artist: Ceniq
Title: D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Mixes/Remixes)
Label: Milk
Catalog #: ep/lp release #18
Release Date: 2001/03/28

Review by O.Paasovaara:

I have heard many mixes in my life but some of the tracks on this EP made me wonder what the word “mix” actually means. Obviously the concept is likewise a bit blurry to Roger That Jr. whose mixes have absolutely nothing to do with the original “D. Exiguus Was Wrong”. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, quite the opposite. Then again, Lime and Vhiiula went the other way and made somewhat more typical mixes which balances the EP nicely.

The EP starts off with Lime’s nice and mellow track. After listening to those relaxing pads and steady beat I wondered what the hell is going on when RTJ’s “Radio Mix 1” began to play. The broken speech synth and stoned harddrive sounds just made me go nanners. The third track is also from RTJ’s obviously deviated mind and continues with the “original? what original?” line. This one isn’t plain experimental noise like the second track but more like noisy ambient with something that could perhaps be described as melody. Moving on to the fourth track was quite a shock for me as it went back to the more typical way of remixing. Vhiiula’s mix is a bit like Lime’s but only a tad. Lime’s mix is mellow and steady all the way but Vhiiula went for the original’s style mixing up a calm melody with medium fast beats. The fifth and last piece on this mixes & remixes EP is by the man himself, Ceniq. Again the lets-forget-D.-Exiguus approach is there. This “C Side” is something I didn’t expect from Ceniq because it’s quiteaggressive and without a proper melody. Strangely this one turned out to be my favourite of the five tunes.

Long story short “D. Exiguus Was Wrong (Mixes & Remixes)” is a collection of tracks that have almost nothing to do with each other except for the fact that they are music (at least some of them). In my opinion that is the reason why the EP works so well. “Brilliant” is one of the words that come to my mind at the moment.

Review by Jan Robbe:

1. Ceniq – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Bulentoi Mix)
Lime/Bulentoi did the first remix of ceniq’s excellent tune. The result is a fine ambient piece with a lot of strings, and a typical relaxed everchanging beat (samples reminded me of BrothomStates). No innovation, though a nice tune.
84%

2. Ceniq – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Roger That Jr. Radio Edit 1)
3. Ceniq – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Roger That Jr. Radio Edit 2)
These are different, we’re going way experimental here. Packed with infinite sound effects, Roger That Jr. managed to create 2 original pieces that have atmosphere written all over it. The second edit is more melodic and perhaps more mysterious than the first, which I think has better effects… Definately worth your downloading time if you’re into experiments…
85%
87%

4. Ceniq – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Vhiiula Mix)
Vhiiula brings us a happy piano-tune with complicated breaks and a lot of samples. Subtle tempochanges and dsp effects make up for the repetitive melody. I love the breaks… 🙂
89%

5. Ceniq – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (C Side)
C Side brings us back to the experimental side of this EP. The beats and bassline (?) are very chaotic, but in a good way. Quality haunting noisy sound effects. Short but long enough (2:37), and a nice ending.
92%

Tracklist:
01 – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Bulentoi Mix)
02 – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Roger That Jr. Radio Edit 1)
03 – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Roger That Jr. Radio Edit 2)
04 – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (Vhiiula Mix)
05 – D.Exiguus Was Wrong (C Side)

Artwork:
Front Cover

Additional Files:
ceniq-d.exiguus_was_wrong_(mixes_&_remixes)_info [TXT]

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Fun-Tourist – Who Needs Alice Anyway? {release #92}

Artist: Fun-Tourist
Title: Who Needs Alice Anyway?
Label: Milk
Catalog #: release #92
Release Date: 2000/12/01

“Who needs alice anyway?” is a marvellous track that adds iem-flavors to something that’s a little like top-of-the-pops-trance basis. This is Fun-Tourist’s second milk-single following partly the same path as Face On/Take One (which has gained quite amounts of radio playing here in Finland by the way): both the melody and drums are on the same line competing to take over the tune. The first three minutes are totally built on playing with beats and loops. I think there’s even a loop sampled from Alice Deejay along the vocoder-lines and Kraftwerk-like sequences. Fun-Tourist is a magnificent composer even seeing from the musically traditional point of view. In this genre of music (though I feel awkward when I say the word “genre”) the rhythmitechnical side (the twisted beat experiments and tempo trickery explorations, you know what i’m talking about) often takes larger part of the tune leaving the melodic part more on the background. This isn’t the case on Fun-Tourist’s tunes despite the fact that the wicked beats and rhythmic effects are a major content in them – especially in the 3-minute intro of “Who needs alice anyway?”. This tune is definitely composed with a smile on the face as after the intro of crazy retriggering of drum loops with varying effects on them the tempo rises and a whole other tune merges from this: an ultimate rave track. Or that’s what i thought to myself when I first heard this tune at the Koneisto-festival last summer. I’ve never got myself that swetty raving to a tune. Anyway, after the rave part the tune gets all wicked and twisted again as the drums eat themself with the rhythmic trickery and some melodies stay to play fading the track away. A magnificent, hardly categorisable track both for party and listening.

[95%]
-S.Louhela

Tracklist:
01 – Who Needs Alice Anyway?

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Spark – Fingers {release #91}

Artist: Spark
Title: Fingers
Label: Milk
Catalog #: release #91
Release Date: 2000/11/20

A nice catchy melody and sweeping pads on a synth sequence that starts from the very beginning of the tune build a catchy on-going iem track. The pads really add a nice edge to this tune. Almost from the beginning comes along also the drum line. The comp is fast and simple. The drum sounds are maybe a bit too thin though. A bit more bass and punchier drums would suit this track perfectly if you ask me. Though there’s not much happening in this tune it still doesn’t get boring – the clever usage of fading out drum or melody tracks keeps this tune going.

[89%]
-S.Louhela

Tracklist:
01 – Fingers

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Spark – Fotoc {release #90}

Artist: Spark
Title: Fotoc
Label: Milk
Catalog #: release #90
Release Date: 2000/11/20

“Fotoc” is a beautiful combination of chillout ambient melodies and harsh distorted drum line. The drums aren’t aggressive and don’t take over the tune as they often tend to do in this genre of music. The comp is rather a minimal brushing sound of some kind. The main thing in this track are the melodies. They are played with sine-like leads and a harsher lo-fi electronic sound. Fotoc is a nice ambient tune that will stay on my playlist for the rest of the winter. And there are plenty more Spark tunes available at mp3.com/spark.

[89%]
-S.Louhela

Tracklist:
01 – Fotoc

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K.Ylikulju – Memories Of Tomorrow {ep/lp release #17}

Artist: K.Ylikulju
Title: Memories Of Tomorrow
Label: Milk
Catalog #: ep/lp release #17
Release Date: 2000/09/19

If you’ve been waiting for a second Clayderman from K.Ylikulju’s new ep you might be dissapointed because Memories Of Tomorrow is a three-track ambient ep so there’s no fast beats or raving basslines. Though, If you ask me this is as good as Clayderman, maybe even better: Memories Of Tomorrow has a clear melancholic theme and I’d say the soundscape is richer than on Clayderman.
At[1] is build on a pulsating sequence pad with layers of organ and a choir. Later on the heavily compressed drums come along still keeping the tune on it’s slow tempo melancholic way.
At[2] was released earlier this year on the Rikos Records Promo CD. Defeneately one of the best tunes on that compilation. At[2] also builds on a sequence (like At[1]) which plays more or less on the back ground for the whole song. A string pad and a bass line forms a perfect harmonic combination with the sequence and the fading-in piano loop really hits the spot. This is the best ambient track I’ve heard this year.
As at[1] and at[2] are very similar to each other (the sequences and harmony combinations and all that) “chored” the track between them is more minimal – mainly played on strings and a sine bell of some kind. Still this track has a moving and memorable melody and fits on the album.

All three tracks are great compositions and real masterpieces that will move you for sure. Only thing to critisize here is the album’s name which reminds me of Enya. Oh yeah, and as usual you can get this album on CD too. It even includes a 22 min bonus track (called Don’t listen) which more than doubles the running time. Just contact Kyösti below.

[95%]
-S.Louhela

Tracklist:
01 – At[1]
02 – Chored
03 – At[2]
04 – Don’t Listen

Artwork:
Front Cover

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8bit Rockers – Arcade Hits {ep/lp release #16}

Artist: 8bit Rockers
Title: Arcade Hits
Label: Milk
Catalog #: ep/lp release #16
Release Date: 2000/09/19

Arcade Hits is a full-length album with 15 tracks of music you could call game-electro sound. A heavy influence of music from late 80’s/early 90’s console or c64 games is heard on the whole album made by the man behind the names Illusion and ShamusCase, Sami Liuski. This isn’t the real retro electro though because he made the sounds with modern synthesizers using today’s sound manipulation (or that’s how it sounds like anyway).

Some of the tracks are made clearly from the comical view of things (as “russian kowboy” and “kittys theme”). Still this shouldn’t be thought as a parody or a joke – Arcade Hits is more of a salute to the c64 or nintedo music scene. All the tracks really aren’t game-electro: “estee lauder” is an ambient track (with a little harsh sound though) and tracks like “squareballs”, “kittys theme” and “sugardrunk” have crazy filtered jungle beats (the squarepusher-kind). “dolf” even samples acoustic guitar. The bonus tracks are more like 80’s disco tunes (“electro disco” even has great vocoder vocals).This is a must for people who get shivers in their spine when hearing chip or sid music. Though I didn’t spend my youth playing nintendo or c64 I like this album a lot. So I can recommend this for everyone.

[92%]
-S.Louhela

Tracklist:
01 – Electronic Musiek
02 – Bonusround
03 – Russian Kowboy
04 – Estee Lauder
05 – Monsters Cave
06 – Kittys Theme
07 – c+vg
08 – Squareballs
09 – Upbeat Simon
10 – Sugardrunk
11 – Underwater Sequence
12 – Dolf
13 – BONUS TRACK Electro Disco (I want you back girl)
14 – BONUS TRACK Mr. Beat Showdown
15 – BONUS TRACK Lovebomb

Additional Files:
8bit_rockers-arcade_hits_info [TXT]
readme [RTF]

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JJe – Children Of The Light {rel#87}

Artist: JJe
Title: Children Of The Light
Label: Milk
Catalog #: rel#87
Release Date: 2000/08/26

Tiger is back with us this time under the alias JJe. “Children Of Light” despite it’s a tad cheesy name is an ambient tune that works and has it’s own strong feeling. “Children Of Light” consists of various layers of melody, harmony and noise. Everything builds up on a simple three chord base. The result is a beautiful “nature ambient” tune in stead of “sci-fi ambient” (as on Sirius EP) if you know what I mean.

[90%]
-S.Louhela

Tracklist:
01 – Children Of The Light

Additional Files:
FILE_ID [DIZ] [PNG]
MILK0087 [NFO] [PNG]

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H.Kyllönen – test406 {rel#86}

Artist: H.Kyllönen
Title: test406
Label: Milk
Catalog #: rel#86
Release Date: 2000/08/26

You might have used to hear mind blowing hard core iem-tunes from mr Kyllönen but on “test406” he takes direction towards the world of electro. Various distorted bass/lead lines play the main role in this tune. The drum beats are quite simple electro beats but at times they get more complex. You can hear influences from 80’s electro and 90’s Ovuca style craziness on this track. A nice tune with quaranteed quality. Not too much happening but not too boring either.

[90%]
-S.Louhela

Tracklist:
01 – test406

Additional Files:
FILE_ID [DIZ] [PNG]
MILK0086 [NFO] [PNG]

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Lime – Rugby {rel#85}

Artist: Lime
Title: Rugby
Label: Milk
Catalog #: rel#85
Release Date: 2000/06/21

“Rugby” is a sort of b-side track for “Bulentoi” (release #84). This is more minimal than “Bulentoi”. The song is build on a simple sine bass melody. Different kinds of loops of effects and drums are built on the bass line and they all seem to say “rugby”. The drums and noises are probably made with speech synthesizers or vocoders. This is nothing groundbreaking – I would rather describe it as a nice little tune.

[84%]
-S.Louhela

Tracklist:
01 – Rugby

Additional Files:
FILE_ID [DIZ] [PNG]
MILK0085 [NFO] [PNG]

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