Best Before

Artist: Best Before
P: 1995
A completely new name to me, and unfortunately the sleeve info doesn't cast much further light. Looks like a duo of Mullaney & Sherwin. Actually the sleeve is very uninviting, with an overly dark image of a starfish on the front cover, and opening the insert reveals two blank pages. OK, this looks like a private project done to a budget, but the presentation side of things is very important and too often ignored. What makes this even more frustrating is that the music contained on the CD is extremely good and deserves to attract a wide audience. My admiration for the rhythmic brilliance of Asana is well known, and I also enjoy the expansive ambient/ sequential splendour of artists such Banco De Gaia, William Orbit and Orbital. Imagine what a mix of these styles would be like... The provocatively titled 'Best Before Sex' opens the album with a bright and breezy piano based melody set against some chugging rhythmics and simply voiced sequences. It's superbly executed with string synth detail and a perfectly judged silent pause. A "We are not alone..." sample heralds the close of the track, appropriately introducing the next piece 'Unidentified Alien Intelligence' which opens with deep resonating synth effects and a whiff of mysteron vocals. Suddenly a rasping, filter swept sequence in classic Asana mode hits the scene, closely followed by a heavy beat which is not far short of dance territory. The samples and effects span the darker end of the spectrum, and the sequences really hit home in vicious fashion later on in the piece creating a rivetting slab of electrorhythmics. Silken pads juxtapose the dynamics to bring the track to a close, but without drawing breath another sequence explodes on the scene. 'Unnatural Selection' is serious Asana territory, and if it was on 'Trikuti' no-one would bat an eyelid. The beat is impulsive and it swings about with abandon, tracked by oscillating detail and searing synth sounds. After 3½ minutes techno takes over, and we are left with a pure out-and-out stomper. Suddenly 'Kundalini Me' grasps the baton, a rivetting piece of textural synthesis which is again underpined by a bass beat. Melodics combine with the rhythm at the 3 minute mark to create a completely breathtaking section which would grace any EM album. Don't draw breath though because 'MayDay' takes over and carries on the bombardment of heavy rhythmics. Fans of the aforementioned Orbital / Banco / William Orbit will find this completely awe inspiring. These guys have their fingers firmly on the pulse of modern dance oriented ambient excursions. This album is deceptively subtle because by the time 'Darkbud' arrives you've been led deep into techno / industrial dance areas. Had this been track 1 many EM fans would have found this somewhat of a culture shock, but by now the rhythm is infectious and there's no choice but to go with the flow. Best Before than have the audacity to throw 'Never There' at you. From the opening sample of pure genius to the addictive dance rhythmics and sequences it's a completely explosive outing. After such a mind blowing rampage down the rhythmic superhighway Best Before administer the antidote in the form of 'Angrogene'. How a band which have just delivered such pyrotechnics can tackle the melodics on this piece with such panache is beyond me. It's a classic lesson in infectious EM which acts as the perfect chill out piece, and after an album on this scale it's needed. The more I hear this album the more I'm hooked. It's like a musical sandwich where the outer layers consist of EM oriented sequential electromixes, while the inner filling hits home with glorious modern day ambient/dance flavours with a splash of techno/industrial thrown in. Anyone who likes to listen to Asana and Orbital back-to-back simply must have a go at this. (GG)

Here the last copy!