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From: Aaron Price 
Newsgroups: alt.music.techno
Subject: Review: Digital Wings Compilation
Date: 13 Dec 1997 20:35:56 GMT
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"Digital Wings 1" collection (CyberDen)
www.theendoftheworld.org 
non-commercial site of synth/techno reviews

  Like all self-produced first-time compilations this one is a mixed
bag. However, it does have the benefit of quality sound and good
production. This goes a long way in giving the individual bands
credibility, and on this CD they all owe the master engineer and producer
a debt of honor.
  The promo material for this comp advertises darkwave, industrial,
and ambient sounds. I think that sums it up pretty well. As a whole the
album feels cohesive enough and no song really strays too far from the
others. It does suffer a little, though, from a lack of maturity. The
sampling on the album is kind of trite, with the cliche modem squaks,
tape deck loading, and children doing their thing. 
 Getting past this and into the music you find a much better blend of
experimental sounds. The strongest track is at the beginning by Xorcist,
"Bad Mojo II". It's a punishing and layered attack of guitars and slow
heavy basslines. The sampling is actually good here and the songwriting
is strong, going from sequence to sequence at the right time. It's not
rushed. I can see this making it on a few more comps in the future.
 Scar Tissue's "Powerclone" is a light industrial tune similar to some
Front 242. It's loud, melodramatic, a bit obnoxious, and exciting. My
only complaint is again in poor sampling and lack of diversity in the
song. While not repetitious, it definitely needs at least one new idea to
make it stand out. Bass won't do it alone. 
 Xenon comes next with "Ygrene Citenik" which is a bit more melodic
and ambient. It has memories of FSOL's Dead Cities and is almost as good.
It's thoughtful and has a hook built nicely between the percussion and
some slow heavy chords. It's dark yet it celebrates sound. I look forward
to hearing more from Xenon. There is serious potential here.
 Seofon's "5-space" is a nice ambient track and is probably the less
ambitious of all the songs. It's simple sounds mixed to a jungle line. It
would fix nicely on an experimental drum 'n bass comp.
 Let it be known that I am not a fan of industrial or goth. So just
looking at the titles of the next two songs, "Exorcised" and "Disease", I
knew what I was getting. Basically easily forgettable noise and
screaming. I'll leave this to the industrial experts to disect.
 "Sample This" is a playful collage of samples and is just for fun,
nothing serious. Next comes "Sickness" and "Smartbeets", more industrial
noise. At least this time they try to do something unique as both songs
can at least be distinguished from one another. "Smartbeets" is a little
more hardcore techno and could be a success on a dance floor, though not
mine.
 "Shattered Belief" is typical electronic industrial with useless
vocals and "Incinerating Lucidity" is an interesting but hardly unique
dark look at crossing ambient and trance.
 Finally, Xenon returns with "Icon Jazz" which is a throwback to the
days of purely exprimental Acid House. It is nice but could be smoothed
out a bit instead of being broken up and disjointed. There are gigantic
sequences which are lulling and boring between the almost brilliant
techno combinations that are known as acid house.
 
 Overall, the compilation is hardly groundbreaking nor underground,
but is a solid foundation for the beginning of some good bands. The
industrial tracks aren't good enough to surpass my bias against the music
but they do fit in well with the overall sound of the collection. The
rest of the album is all of quality and we should keep an eye on some of
these bands.
 
 Comp Rating Card:

1. Xorcist - Bad Mojo II (Satyria Mix)...........A
2. Scar Tissue - Powerclone......................B
3. Xenon - Ygrene Citenik........................A
4. Seofon - 5-space..............................B+
5. Retina - Exorcised............................F
6. Insight 23 - Disease..........................F
7. Out of Band Experience - Sample This..........B-
8. Gridlock - Sickness...........................D
9. Institute Of Technology - Smartbeets..........C
10. the bleeding stone - Shattered Belief........D
11. Never - Incinerating Lucidity................C+
12. (secret track)
13. Xenon - Icon Jazz............................B