Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 15:22:06 -0800 From: Jens Alfke (jens_alfke@POWERTALK.APPLE.COM) Subject: 3rd eye foundation Description courtesy of EAR/Rational music: --------------------------------- *Third Eye Foundation-Semtex LP LSDO2 $13.50 Strictly limited to 1000 vinyl-only release is the musical brainchild of Matt Elliot, one of the guys behind the Movietone/Flying Saucer Aftack guitar onslaught. Recorded in the shroomy fields of Bristol over the last year, it's a futuristic sprawl of urban rhythm/white noise, like if MBV did their thing over jungle beats (which I heard they might be doing anyway--??) with an extremely dark edge. More new stuff later this year. Buy or cry. (Linda's Strange Vacation) --------------------------------- Sounds like really interesting shit and I demand that someone review it for me so I can criticise their subjectivity and spelling. Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 09:09:17 -0800 From: Andrew Dean (a.dean@UK22P.BULL.CO.UK) Subject: third eye foundation / stereolab / lush bought the 'semtex' cd last thursday (because of internet reviews and because i liked the cover) and it's quite wonderful, a dash of 'distance' era flying saucer attack (understandable really), a spoonful of slowdive (both early and the 'in mind' stuff) and a dollop of disjecta. only 6 tracks but a couple of them are over 10 minutes long so... Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 00:25:09 -0600 From: the boy in zinc (eewittme@STUDENTS.WISC.EDU) Subject: massive crossposted third eye foundation review tef has been discussed on both of these lists in the past few weeks. my copy arrived in the mail today, and here's my review of it: third eye foundation - semtex (6 tracks, 48:24) just in case you didn't know, tef is one of those flying saucer attack spinoff bands. the packaging on this album is beautiful, except the cd itself which is an ugly brown. front cover is a black and white photograph of a cat lying in the grass (dead?) the photo has been doctored so that the cat almost blends into the grass. . .the backing on the cd (this is one of those clear things) has another photo of the cat, from a different angle (you can see more than just the cat and grass) the back of the cd and back of the insert (a flat sheet of paper) have the same picture of a beach (b/w again, very neat-o) now, to the music 1. Sleep (7:03) i didn't care for this one all that much. it reminds me a lot of the noisier hellish moments of fsa's self-titled cd. it's got a really fast (electronic) drumbeat with loud distorted whooshing guitar over it, also moving fairly quickly. some real drums (i think) join in after awhile, but the song doesn't really seem to go anywhere or convey any special emotion, so i'm going to skip this one. oh, there's some high-pitched feedback, too. 2. Still-Life (11:25) this song alone is worth the 20 bucks i paid for this cd and far outweighs the blandness of the first track. the song gets started with this hellish high-pitched guitar, feedback, and really amazing tribal drumbeats. for some reason when i listen to this, it makes me think of demons dancing around a fire in the pits of hell, but in a cool sort of way. an incomprehensible (i don't think she's actually singing words) joins in, buried deep beneath the fuzz. the song kind of ebbs and flows, the loud tribal drums being the most changing part of the song. the fuzz is more or less constant. somewhere around 4:15, the song starts to wind down and the high-pitched guitar continues alone along with a little fuzz and something that sounds like affected maracas/jingling bells. i don't know what this sound is, but it's cool. then, a minute later, the other instruments join in again, creating a similar sound to the beginning of the song. then around 8:15, the high screeching feeback and the female vox sans drums finish out the song on an almost hypnotic note. (the feedback reminds me of "still point," my fave fsa song). buy it for this song. 3. Dreams on His Fingers (5:45) starts out with some drums and electronic hissing noises slow, deliberate tempo. female vox (words this time), bass guitar underneath the keyboard (i think it's some kind of keyboard) this one's really beautiful, the tempo sort of reminds me of fsa's "land beyond the sun" meets something off of the movietone cd. this song is the kind of things that would play through my head as i kissed my girlfriend under a street light in a foggy alley. stark, lonely, but somehow intimate and intense at the same time. 4. Next of Kin (6:07) drums start off the song, then some kind of synth/whiny feedback ala "rainstorm blues" joins in, with a half-whispered female voice underneath. the vox kind of go on a liz frazeresque (sp?) incomprehensible moaning thing throughout the song (this is a good thing) while the whispering continues. another winner. at the end of the song, the music does a sort of hybrid thing between the feedback of "still point" and the whine of "rainstorm blues" w/ rainstorm blues winning out and closing the song. 5. Once when I was an Indian (12:29) starts out w/ drums and the similar slow-paced keyboards of the last song. a female voice chants/sings rhythmically underneath, which makes me feel like i've walked in on some sort of private ritual. 3-4 minutes in the beat changes to something along the lines of spoonfed hybrid's "the sun always changes my mind." the songs stops halfway through. what the HELL??!! this weird synth sound breaks in that sounds exactly like the very beginning of spoonfed hybrid's "scary verlaine." it doesn't continue like that song, though, just sort of becomes another piece of the rhythm section. drums join in, and the chanting resumes, with minimal keyboard plinkings. electronic drums come in for awhile, and the song ends on a slow ambient note. again, fantastic. i wish i had the vinyl, b/c i think this song would almost sound like idm if sped up. 6. Rain (5:23) some plinking (think electronic raindrops) starts out the song w/some other half-random synth noodlings (this is a good thing) in the background. the plinking is joined by some rhythmical plinks, and pulsating high-pitched feedback (by now you should have figured out that i like the high-pitched whiny stuff to the loud racous distortion of the lower frequencies.) the feedback closes the song as it dances aound with the keyboard a bit at the end. the cd is the perfect complement to fsa's "further." it's just as lonely and beautiful, but slightly darker and tribal influnced in spots. it manages to fuse the best aspects of cocteau twins, fsa, and any sort of tribal music (i know a few examples, but i can't think of them). kind of bridges the gap between fsol's "lifeforms" ep and "further." i don't neccesarily agree with the mbv comparisons. in fact, it sounds nothing like mbv at all, and falls into that catagory of music that gets called mbv-esque merely because it uses feedback, distortion, and unusual guitar sounds. definately a lot less song-oriented than mbv. i'd say a more ambient "further" is the best soundbyte description i could give. only 1,000 of these babies pressed (cd and vinyl), so buy it quick. well, that's my long review of the semester. why is it i always give the fsa spinoff bands really long reviews (ok, i skipped crescent, but that was awful)? BiZ