Fax+49

Pino and Wildjamin align themselves with FAX's direction of veering away from heavy synth based trance to slower more melodic and rather original electronica. Picking up from them last track of Xangadix, the remarkably warm and emotive pieces set The MS-Series apart from the duo's other works as their most essential. "Monochill" and "Voltage Control" are rich examples of how ambient and trance are combined to transcend what either of the two genres are capable of.

Beat-oriented freestylism with Namlook mostly in charge of melodies (some dark some light) while Atom Heart pounds out some morphing drum tracks through various alienating filters. All the Jet Chamber releases demonstrate some interesting live-sounding interaction: drums react to melodies and vice versa. JC1 ranges from being quite musical to more abstract wind-tunnel howlings with reverb the size of airplane hangers.

The legendary Chill/Ambient sessions on Thursdays at XS are the main subject of this CD. Dr. Atmo once had the idea to have Live Sessions at this club. The best and most "alive" recordings are gathered together on this CD. Mario Hana are Ambient newcomers from Frankfurt whose performance was very impressive through their postive melodic oriented style and sound. The Chill-Out-Possee (feat. Mark N-R-G & Nino Tielman)have their roots in German industrial-electro. This avantgardistic performance was an outstanding event. Deep Space Network just before they did their "Big Rooms" with live percussion let the audience freak out completely with a bundle of Digeridoo and Percussion players…

One of the very few IDM discs on FAX and thus tended to be one of the more talked about sublabel releases. Probably too obscure and candid to be on a label like Warp, it's hardly a very cohesive album at all but a jumbled collection of various sounds, beats, samples and sequences that tends to come together then dissipate. Things come together in places (such as Track 7 and Track 13) but not for long. Track 9 is the most solid piece that can standalone. Overall, these 'tracks' are more of something to be listened to as a whole which has its place as a after-rave oddity you can definitely groove to on occasion. No doubt while digging through these Arizona Tracks with their unique sounds, you'll stumble onto to something that will perk your ear.

Pete Namlook was one of the most influential protagonists of ambient music during the 1990s. Inspired by Oskar Sala, one of the pioneers of electronic music, Namlook focused on the untapped potential of analogue synthesizers, often developed or extended in his laboratory.

Rob Gordon was a co-founder of the UK's Warp Records, onetime whizz-kid employee of Sheffield's Fon Studios and creator of Forgemasters'mighty underground “Track With No Name.” Recorded during his mid-90s freefall from an acrimonious split with Warp, Ozoona is one of the only surviving longform examples of Gordon's mercurial art, and therefore represents something of a coup for Fax. “She Ship” is an elegant, urbane update on ‘bleep'techno, while “Flat Pack”'s Moog input suggests this track is Namlook's main contribution to the CD. The 17-minute “Blackbird Suite” is a loose, swinging take on ‘intelligent'drum 'n'bass that sounds like a band of cybernetic jazz virtuosi. But “The Hunt” raises the bar entirely: a manic, monotonous grey slew of compressed Hardcore breaks that's rarely been outrun, even by the likes of Autechre in their more jackhammering moments.

The two albums I.F. and I.F. 2 (short for Intergalactic Federation) Deep Space Network made with fellow German artist Dr Atmo for Fax Records feature longer tracks, offering a bigger canvas for Moufang and Grossmann to work on. These are true collaborations with Atmo - a lover of shadowy, cosmic Eastern melodies and percussion - where the whole ends up greater than the sum of the parts. I.F. contains the extraordinary "Ten Waves", a 25 minute psychedelic blissfest of bleeps, radio & TV samples and spacey melodies driven by a tabla drums and a steady, almost jazzy two-chord progression. This stoned masterpiece was a staple in dance party chill spaces in the 90's and stands up brilliantly today, every bit the equal of other extended chillout classics of the era.

Modula Green is a collaboration between redruM and Mark P. (Peter Prochir and Mark Pfurtscheller), who created eerie, hypnotic experimental music in the 1990s. A Fax release which remains in relative obscurity, "Shellground" is an excellent, underappreciated ambient techno album. It's filled with layered organic sounds and deep, enigmatic synth-lines, along with tribal-influenced drum programming. It all makes for a grade A level ambient techno record. It is every bit as good as some recognized classics.

This is a marvelous effort by two newcomers to the Fax label. Sometimes light and melodic, and other times dark and trippy, there is a bit of everything here. "Hinuit" best exemplifies the free-floating musical side while "The Cage" offers up some serious "sparsed-out" trance. Minimalistic in its approach, yet engaging in its results, only carefully-tuned ears will notice the subtle sonic hues and tonal dynamics of this record.