Released to coincide with Warp's recent European label tour, 'Magic BusTracks' is a collection of exclusive and rare cuts from its currentroster, as well as tracks from related artists like Luke Vibert andHecker. However, it is important to keep in mind that "exclusive" and"rare" songs tend not to make it onto full-length artist albums for areason. That being said, 'Magic Bus Tracks' is a widely lacklustereffort from a label that hasn't been consistent in terms of qualityreleases lately. Part of this stems from many of the "new breed" ofWarp acts, whose releases have failed to impress me. Richard Devine isone such culprit, and his rather monotonous "Mov Macros 7" reflectsthat accurately, with a bland rhythmic pattern that inevitably degradesinto DSP fuckery. The same goes for Mira Calix, whose "Simple" is inline with the rest of her uninteresting back catalog. But undoubtedly,the worst thing here has to be Russell Haswell's three minute pisstake,apparently taken from a live gig. The recording quality is crap, butthat's pretty irrelevant since "03:01:21 2002 Schirn KunsthalleFrankfurt" is just pointless and dull. There are a few tracks that savethis collection from being a total waste. Former Skint Records artistReq both shows and proves on the previously released "Soul Plot," acut-up hip-hop track sprinkled with vocal snippets and just the rightamount of sampled funk. Chris Clark surprises with a post-electro jamentitled "Spinning Spines (Aldi Edit)" that comes off like aFunkstorung outtake. Rephlex's new great white hope, Astrobotnia opensthe album with a catchy Satanic ditty, but sadly sets a highexpectation that the remainder of the compilation never delivers.Considering how enjoyable Warp's previous compilations have been, I wasdefinitely let down by 'Magic Bus Tracks'.
samples:
- Astrobotina - Untitled
- Req - Soul Plot
- Chris Clark -Spinning Spines
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