ELECTRIC BIRDS - PANORAMA
A1 Avocet (Panorama mix)
[4:40]6.7 Mb
A2 Cascadia
[5:38]8.1 Mb
A3 A Green Frost
[4:14]6.1 Mb
A4 Terra Forms
[5:22]7.6 Mb
B1 Repercussions
[3:09]4.5 Mb
B2 Lake City
[6:41]9.6 Mb
B3 Azul
[6:18]9 Mb
B4 Black Oceans
[6:18]9 Mb
Electric Birds "Panorama" Album Review
Album Description
Mike Martinez's second effort as Electric Birds flirts with minimal techno as a counterpoint to his lushly overlapping soundscapes, and the result is hypnotic. The opening "Avocet" spontaneously restructures itself mid-track, where another artist would let it loop; "A Green Frost" evokes a dark, frozen forest without resorting to sound-effect cliche; and "Terra Forms" simply slips by in the night, virtually unnoticed but with its presence felt. Martinez has effectively swallowed his influences and mastered his tools, and the result- a focused, deliberate work of almost visual intensity- is a rare pleasure in a climate of half-baked demos. - Rob Geary - XLR8R Magazine - November 2001
BT - 10 YEARS IN THE LIFE
101 the Moment of Truth (Original radio mix)
[4:18]6.2 Mb
102 Relativity (Transeaus Excursion)
[5:20]7.6 Mb
103 Embracing the Sunshine (Embracing the Future mix)
[5:18]7.6 Mb
104 Loving You More (7inch edit)
[3:39]5.2 Mb
105 Blue Skies (radio edit)
[3:49]5.4 Mb
106 Flaming June (BT and PVD edit)
[3:45]5.3 Mb
107 Love Peace and Grease (Bts Puma Fila 7inch mix)
[3:53]5.6 Mb
108 Remember (Single mix)
[3:39]5.2 Mb
109-the Road to Lostwitheil
[8:38]12.4 Mb
110-Lullaby for Gaia
[5:24]7.7 Mb
111-Believer
[5:12]7.4 Mb
112 Dreaming (Libra mix)
[9:16]13.3 Mb
113-Giving Up the Ghost
[8:48]12.7 Mb
114 Never Gonna Come Back Down (Single edit)
[3:46]5.3 Mb
115-the Revolution
[4:16]6.1 Mb
201-10 Years in the Life (mix)
[78:16]112.6 Mb
BT "10 Years in the Life" Album Review
VERY dated and uninspiring mix
As a big BT fan, I picked this up looking forward mostly to the second disc. BT's "Rare & Remixed" mix CD is easily the best mix CD I've ever heard, and really brings forth his abilities as an artist and remixer. This, however, just falls flat on its face.
Disc One:
This is where you begin to understand that BT started in the very early 90s, and this sort of sound coming from this guy sounds very weird. The first three tracks, "The Moment of Truth", "Relativity", and "Embracing the Sunshine" all sound straight out of the early 90s, which handicaps them to begin with. They are very clunky and formulaic. If you're a huge BT fan, there may be some points of interest in these 3, but other than that, you sort of cringe when hearing them.
"Loving You More", "Blue Skies", "Believer", and "Remember" show off his work that really got him noticed, but even they sound a bit dated too. A good intro to people unaware of BT's work, but otherwise, BT fans will have heard these anyway.
"Love, Peace, and Grease" is a good little groove, but some things need tightening, and it just doesn't FEEL right. Also, the abrupt cut at the end really could've been easily fixed...
The edit of "Flaming June" is good to have in, probably his most famous trance piece. However, since this style of dance music has been COMPLETELY overplayed, "Flaming June" doesn't seem all that special, other than a nice melody overtop of a standard beat. Not BT's fault, but the wind is out of the sails on this one by now.
"The Road to Lostwithiel" is a juvenile attempt at drum 'n bass, and is overly boring and repetitive. An interesting direction, but it grows old VERY fast. Repeat same criticism of "Lullaby for Gaia"...
"Dreaming (Libra Mix)" is ok, but you really can't outdo the album version. It's a good mix, but then it DRAGS ON for FAR too long without changing anything. Album version is far stronger...
"Giving Up the Ghost" is a good tune actually, and really gets the feet moving, although it too is pretty long. It has a better groove though, so it doesn't pale so quickly.
"Never Gonna Come Back Down" is a pretty decent and catchy tune, a good one for anyone yet-to-be-introduced to BT's work. For big BT fans, you'll pretty much skip this one, it sounds basically the exact same on the album version.
"The Revolution" provides a decent end, with good slick production, nice beats, and a decent pace too. All in all, the only things worth your money on disc one are "The Revolution", "Giving Up the Ghost", and "Love, Peace, and Grease". The others you've either already own or are unbelievably bad. For unintroduced BT fans, tracks like "Flaming June", "Blue Skies" and "Dreaming" will serve as good jumping points to find his artist albums, but that's about it.
Disc Two:
A continuous mix of rarities and remixes done by BT...
"Tripping The Light Fantastic" is a great trance tune, works really well as a starter, and keeps the energy going. "Dreams (BT's Circadian Dream)" is ok, but feels a bit dated, same with Billie Ray Martin's "Running Around Town (BT's Shelter Mix)". They keep the groove going, but feel kind of, well...old!
Then it all falls apart. Grace's famous "Not Over Yet" is remixed here, and it is GODAWFUL. I highly recommend the version on "Rare & Remixed", called "Not Over Yet (BT's Spirit of Grace Mix), but this version is just bland and boring. A way-too-simple groove underlies Grace's lyrics and sucks all of the momentum and life out of the song. I could hardly believe that BT did this mix, and that in the liner notes, he called this mix his favourite!
"Nanita (A Spanish Lullaby)" and "Stranded" fail to provide any kind of catchiness or to at least keep the energy level up, I was really surprised at how weak these tunes were.
"The Promethean Groove" is easily one of the most annoying tunes I've heard in a LONG time. The high pitched squelches just turned me right off, and they sounded very unoriginal to boot. Even if you're a fan of that sort of thing (i.e. Aphex Twin), it really isn't done well either, and it totally sticks out like a sore thumb in this mix. We're literally going from nice pop vocals and boring grooves to ear-piercing and EXTREMELY repetitive tones.
A decent tune follows up at least, with "Anomaly: Calling Your Name", although songs like this have since been totally ripped off, so it sounds a bit stale at this point.
"Quark" starts off quite well, but gets into a VERY annoying old school sounding melody halfway through that pretty much ruins everything.
Then we get on to the biggie. The one that could save the whole disc. Madonna's "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" remix by BT and Sasha. Surely these two guys would turn this into something wonderful. Well, they don't, and its a HUGE disappointment. It's just a really uninteresting little bassline and beat with the occasional Madonna vocal overtop. It is ridiculously boring, UNBELIEVABLY repetitive, and it sucks any last bits of energy out of the mix. I can't believe they made this mix, especially after knowing what BT is capable of (see: Mike Oldfield's "Let There Be Light", Sarah McLachlan's "Hold On", The Doors' "Break On Through", for instance). HUGE let down.
"Bad Girl" is half decent, although you're still getting over what the hell just happened to that Madonna tune.
BT doesn't fall flat on his face quite as badly with his remix of The Crystal Method's "Keep Hope Alive", easily one of the biggest electronica songs of the 1990s, and considered a classic by many. He makes a fairly decent groove that changes JUST enough over the VERY LONG length of the song to keep it from getting boring. Good elevation and surges make it a decent mix.
Then it falls apart AGAIN, with "Shineaway". The vocals are HORRIBLE, the guy sounds like he ran into the studio, didn't warm up, took one take, and got the hell out because he had bigger fish to fry. What a tremendously BAD ending that leaves an awful taste in your mouth. Should have finished with "Keep Hope Alive"...
Overall, a VERY disappointing album, despite having 28 songs on it! Only about 5 or 6 are decent, and NONE of them are truly great. I HIGHLY suggest buying "Rare & Remixed" instead.
BT - ESCM
Firewater
[8:45]14 Mb
Orbitus Teranium
[8:08]12.6 Mb
Flaming June
[8:36]13.7 Mb
Lullaby for Gaia
[5:21]8.1 Mb
Memories in A Sea of Forgetfulness
[7:39]13 Mb
Solar Plexus
[4:13]6.7 Mb
Nectar
[5:55]9.1 Mb
Remember
[8:00]12.4 Mb
Love Peace and Grease
[3:51]6.4 Mb
Content
[11:00]16.2 Mb
BT "ESCM" Album Review
A Poorly Arranged Mix
Reading all the glaring reviews of CD's is very deceiving. I think maybe the majority are bogus because the few less than stellar reviews of this album are right on the money. Yes, there are some good tracks on this cd but there are many that are horrible. What's worse is the fact that some of the tracks are UNBEARABLE! and do not belong with the more positive high-energy ambient tunes that are here. Furthermore, the sound production is really bad. Most of the songs have such broad volume control spans that much of the song is not either heard or part of it is blaring and I am not talking about normal dynamics - I had to constantly adjust my stereo to get through listening to this album and I have never had to do that before.
Had all the tracks been produced better and grouped so that the album has an overall consistent mood, this could be a great CD when I say some tracks are unbearable, they really are. There is also typical filler songs so maybe you might find 3 tracks that are really good out of this whole CD. Too bad you cannot return these CD's once opened. The 30 seconds of samples on Amazon do not allow you to really hear these songs because the opening of this genres' songs often have very lengthy leads before they get to the good (or bad) body of the song.
This is a talented artist and there may be other better albums out there but I will say this - DO NOT believe all the 5 star reviews you read.
Pass on this one unless you want to buy a few tracks.
Video BT & Jan Johnston - Remember
BT with Jan Johnston - Remember from ESCM album
BT - MOVEMENT IN STILL LIFE
Madskillz (Mic Chekka)
[4:51]7.5 Mb
Never Gonna Come Back Down
[5:46]9.5 Mb
Dreaming
[5:19]7.9 Mb
Shame
[3:20]6 Mb
Movement in Still Life
[4:29]6.8 Mb
Satellite
[5:11]7.9 Mb
Godspeed
[5:09]8 Mb
Running Down the Way Up
[5:50]9.3 Mb
Mercury and Solace
[5:06]7.6 Mb
Smartbomb
[5:09]9.1 Mb
Love on Haight Street
[6:17]8.4 Mb
BT "Movement in Still Life" Album Review
BT is excellent. This version of MiSL is not.
Short version: The track selection and mixing on the UK version makes it the best BT album ever, in my humble opinion. The subpar selection of tracks, as well as the random placement of tracks and lack of mixing, make the USA version less than it ought to be.
Long version: I rank MiSL beside Hybrid's Wide Angle in terms of complexity, originality, composition, mood, and just plain groove. It is very obvious that BT lives and breathes music, and that he has been well-educated in the ways of his craft. However, I would not have bought this album had I not heard the UK version. The UK release of MiSL by BT is an EDM classic. This... thing that was given to us in the USA is a crime against the man's reputation. The seamless mixing that would make any DJ jealous is totally absent. Instead, each track just slams in or creeps up shyly. The songs are not bad, but they are not nearly as good as the selections featured on the UK release. On the UK version, there is not a bad song. On such mediocre fare as "Never Gonna Come Back Down", we are treated to a barely bearable voice spitting out very bad freestyle. The track would have been better if BT had not let some fool sing over it. While some of the USA-only titles are not bad (Smartbomb, for example), I would gladly trade all of them for "Giving up the Ghost" alone.
All in all, I would not recommend buying this item. The UK version, believe it or not, really is worth the $40 when compared to the USA version. They both make me cry, but for totally different reasons.
Video BT & Jan Johnston - Mercury & Solace
BT's 'Mecury and Solace' featuring Jan Johnston from his 'Movement In Still Life' Album
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