Datacide – Datacide II

A real gem in Fax crown. Techno,Acid and Ambient mix in best way.

not a fan of either tetsu or uwe but the combination of these 2 has resulted in something indescribable. some of the best ambient ever made. no exaggeration. definitely worth the price. 11/10.

As solo artists, Uwe Schmidt and Tetsu Inoue dropped more milestones in electronic music in the space of a few years than the whole scene has generated in the last decade, and together they transcended the bounds of time and space to create some of the best ambient ever recorded. Everything they collaborated on is worth tracking down, but this album and “Flowerhead” are easily my favorites. Whereas “Flowerhead” is dubby and organic, “Datacide II” is cosmic and alien. I’m not much of a gearhead, but you can tell that they were using lots of classic analogue equipment here, whereas their later releases sound more digital. Much like Schmidt’s “Softcore” and Vivanco and Inoue’s “Zenith,” this is ambient that hasn’t totally severed its ties with the dancefloor, though I can only imagine it being played out around 6 am at a rave on Mars while meteors streak the sky. The album kicks off with “Ambient Head,” a beatless track made up of drifting tones underpinned by gurgling synth notes. Gentle and beautiful, it takes to you to a calm if very strange place. “Meditation Bank” is my favorite cut on the album—I’ve never heard another ambient track that sounds remotely like it. It opens with breathy vocals, and then an incredibly psyched-out synth melody creeps in, which reminds me of a classic sitar drone transformed into an acid line (I think it’s the 303, but again I’m not a gearhead). There’s a slight beat that serves mostly to give the track a sense of motion, and the lead line modulates continuously while harmonizing with a host of bleeping synth notes and insectoid 303 pulses in the background. It’s sort of like having your mind read by an alien yogi while drifting through a vast iridescent nebula. Tetsu Inoue has stated in an interview that he paid lots of attention to texture on his releases with Schmidt, and it really shows here. “Head Dance” is true to its title, a deep 808 workout with pulsing 303 bass, lots of chirpy distorted noises, and a particularly squishy-sounding synth line layered on top. In the hands of many producers ambient techno doesn't work so well, but when the masters are tweaking the knobs the genre works in an entirely different way. This track stands out along with Coil’s “NASA-Arab” as one of the most successful fusions of acid house and ambient I’ve heard. It has a very tribal feel, as if some nomadic people were conducting a healing ritual using drum machines. The album closes with more beatless tracks, all of which are fantastic. “Acid Magic” is particularly blissed out with its childlike, sunshiney 303 melodies. Ambient doesn’t get better than this—I hope that Inoue and Schmidt collaborate again someday.