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 Venetian Snares - Higgins Ultra Low Track Glue Funk Hits 1972-2006 [Planet Mu - 2002]Venetian Snares aka Aaron Funk keeps on rocking the technoïd music scene. Besides various singles, remixes, and albums planned to be released on various labels, not less than 3 full albums will be released this year on Planet Mu. "Higgins Ultra Low Track Glue Funk Hits 1972-2006" is the first one this year, but the second album on this label, the follow-up to "Songs About My Cats".Last year's "Doll Doll Doll" (reviewed here) ended up as one of my favourite electronic music releases of 2001. Seeing this incredible guy performing live, where he dared everybody to try to dance on his music, even raised my respect. The range of genres using in his drum 'n' bass / breakcore music is unlimited, and so is his creativity. "Higgins..." sees Aaron Funk taking a slightly different direction: it isn't as dark as "Doll Doll Doll" but takes the aspect "humour" and "fun" as a theme this time.The first track "Dance While Your Selling Nails" proves already that he was in a very happy mood when making this album. A very funny melody, samples that sound like they're straight from a Tom & Jerry cartoon and an opera singer shouting "keep jumping you bastards!" makes your forget that you're listening to the most crazy drum 'n' bass existing. What do you imagine with "Banana Seat Girl"? Very funky, jazzy and again samples that will conjure a smile even with the most depressed schizophrenics. A guy with a Jamaican accent yelling "Deadman DJ" is the track with the same name is pretty amusing too... Only the track "Walmer Side" has that dark atmospheric feeling the songs on "Doll Doll Doll" had.The music hasn't changed that much nevertheless. The constantly changing beats and absurd tempos hardly give you any time to breath, until we hear "Dismantling Five Years". Totally unexpected, Aaron Funk throws in a minimal ambient track with some strings towards the end, but no beats here. That is something that we haven't heard before from Venetian Snares, but judging from his other releases, he's never afraid to experiment with different stuff.Venetian Snares does not disappoint with this album, although it might not be as impressive and mind dazzling as "Doll Doll Doll". Where other artists try to be as dark as possible, Venetian Snares does exactly the opposite thing and that is something I really can appreciate. If you think you can handle the breakcore beats and have a sense of humour, this is something not to miss.   Justin Faase
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|  | | Venetian Snares - Higgins Ultra L... | Venetian Snares aka Aaron Funk keeps on rocking the technoïd music scene. Besides various singles, remixes, and albums planned to be released on various labe...
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| | | TenHornedBeast - Into The Deep & ... | Forming in the early 2000’s TenHornedBeast is a British project that creates a rather distinctive blend of black ambience, doom, dark soundtracking ele...
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