VARIOUS ARTISTS
WallPaper Mach 1.5
Sweet Mother Recordings
· Wallpaper magazine franchises a sound.
It was bound to happen sometime – an aural accompaniment to magazine reading. While the idea of a "franchised sound" seems loathsome – like those old Disney book and LP collections – at least Mach 1.5 is at least a well considered series of tracks that, to quote the liner notes, "help(s) one coordinate our Nike with our Barbara Bui..." (blah, blah, blah).
While the electronic acts featured – including Tosca, United Future Organization, Jazzanova, Thievery Corporation and Air – surely don’t mind the exposure and the royalties that result from such a compilation, music-to-dress-to negates the blunted, surreal, beauty of fucked-up minimal beat music. If you ditch the pretense, Mach 1.5 is a quiet sojourn through the more ambient leanings of left field. Much like its magazine namesake, though, it substitutes and mistakes pretense for edge and intensity. It’s good, but how you say? Wizout ze edge.
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