Customer Rating:  
Summary: Meat Beat Manifesto - 'Subliminal Sandwich' (Interscope) 4 1/2 stars
Comment: Darn good 2-CD techno release. Another one of the many artists out their that I haven't had the time to check out there music lately. I got this title when it first came out. MBM is basically a duo consisting of Jack Dangers-producer and Jonny Stephens-guitar, bass, vocals and programming. Tunes hear I was glad to hear once again were "Nuclear Bomb", "Future Worlds", the thirteen-minute industrial epic "Stereophrenik" and the even slightly lengthier "Electric People". Quite a piece of work here. I'm not even that big of techno fan but 'Subliminal Sandwich' has a lot to offer it's listeners, I thought. Should appeal to fans of My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, The Orb, 808 State and Luxt.
Customer Rating:
Summary: All over the place
Comment: I discovered MBM after hearing his/their track "Prime Audio Soup" used in "The Matrix." At the time I had the idea of a sort of techno/rave group, and had certain expectations. As one might predict, those were totally swept aside when I heard "Subliminal Sandwich" for the first time. Exploring a new avenue of music, I found it hard to love this collection at first. However, two years later, I gave it another listen and decided differently.
Perhaps my two favorite tracks are "Future Worlds" and "Asbestos Lead Asbestos." The former, a sort of electronica-jazz-fusion cocktail, is nothing less than a fun and groovy listen, with an odd little sample line- "we can design future worlds." Its approach is ominous, with a bassoon bobbing in with a low note before the rhythm begins, but the most enjoyable element is the laid-back guitar soloing.
"Asbestos Lead Asbestos" is not openly hostile, but somewhat sarcastic and cynical in its lyrical message. Dangers offers an opinion of the classes, and it's not terribly nice to the rich. "Equal opportunity, except if our pedigree dogs don't like the smell of your children..." At least I think that's what he says; it's hard to tell, because his pronounciation is very odd. Whatever the case may be, it's obvious that while he's not promoting anarchism, he definitely doesn't like the general shape of society that he sees. The whole song has a very nice tap to it, again more like music played on instruments than arranged on a Mac. This is common throughout most of the album.
Until you get to CD 2, that is. While there are several songs here that fit into the performed category, a good portion of the disc is made up of gradual progressions of sound and melody. "Electric People," for example, makes me think of... well, I don't exactly know, but it's definitely more techno than most of CD 1. It's not hard to see, after you listen to this ensemble, why the experts can't quite figure out just exactly in which genre Jack Dangers fits.
I honestly don't know the industry well enough to say whether this album is influential or not, but I can say that for anyone who is imaginative and enjoys experimental music of any kind, this is something worth checking out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yeah... wooo...
Comment: I remember back in '96 I saw this CD in a Columbia House catalog and decided to give it a try. I liked the name, what can I say. I bought it, listened to it a few spins, decided I liked it, but that was that. Fast forward a few years, when in high school art class I throw this in my discman and finally start realizing what's going on. This is a lot... murky bass, ephemeral sounds just drifting in the background. Some subterranean hip hop, dub/jungle/toasting cut ups (which would be fully realized during the In Dub CD), organic rusty sounds everywhere. And this is just the first CD. Basically, a culmination of their rougher, earlier sound with the grooves of Satyricon. Top notch.
Then you get to CD two. The night to CD1's day. I can't sum this stuff into words. It's what techno music should have become. It's vicious, entrancing, LONG, rough. Analog squelches and bass are the order here. There's so many moments to choose from here. The spacious, deep space groove of "Mad Bomber/The Woods". The crushing, slow building "The Utterer", the trip hop freakouts of "United Nations, Etc" and "Plexus", and the multiple buildup/breakdowns of "Electric People". I mean, it took me forever to notice the grungy sound that carries the song around 4 minutes in is actually a distorted clarinet solo. It's just filled with little things like that. It's really one of the few electronic CDs around which betray it's electronic roots to come across feeling completely natural. More than a sum of it's parts.
As you can tell, I like CD two the best, but both CDs are completely f***ing awesome. It all depends on your tastes. But, it's a damn good buy and one of the most original CDs I've ever heard.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Real Prime Audio Soup
Comment: After 19 years of existence, I have finally decided that my favorite album is "The Best of Roy Orbinson" by Roy Orbinson.Ha!
No seriously, it is Meat Beat Manifesto's acid drenched "Subliminal Sandwich". This CD would've really worked well with the title "Prime Audio Soup", for that is the only way I can describe this CD (well not so much Disc1, but definitly Disc2)
Disc one is absolutly jam packed with 18 songs,every one carving it's own niche in the CD, and not a single one is boring. Each song retains MBM's signature sound, while representing a different side of it. So many subgenres are represented on this album that it is downright daunting to analyze and describe what they all are. Just listen to the samples and you will know what I'm saying. Simply fantastic, absorbing, and oddly emotional.
Somehow, by some weird act of fate, Disc Two absolutly trumps Disc One, and with only 10 songs. This CD is why I'm writting this review in the first place. Each song has an extreme volume of euphoric sound pulsing in-and-out of earshot. How Mr. Dangers
managed to make real audio soup I will never know. I'm just glad that he did in the first place.
To all you pyschonaughts out there (and you know who you are), this CD will suck you into worlds otherwise inconceivable for the sober mind. It sounds like an acid trip, as in how you would hear normal music on acid, without the acid (Get it?Got It?Good!). On acid (or you're
hallucinogen of choice) this CD is utterly absorbing all of the way through, but espescially so on tracks 7 through 10. All in all great while sober (both Cds), but unbelievably fantastic while tripping. Buy it now, so that the CD will not disapeer due to low sales. This masterwork must be preserved.
Customer Rating:
Summary: ...and now for something completly different.
Comment: The first time I heard this album, it was at a local library. Someone was playing it over the public C.D. player, and I went over to find out what it was. The listener checked it out and never returned it, so I went out and bought it. Later, after I bought it, it was stolen from me, so I bought another copy. Needless to say, this is one of my favorite albums. This was also the first Meat Beat Manifesto album I heard. When I listened to some his older stuff, I was suprised at how different it sounds compoared to "Subliminal Sandwich". I think this album provides a nice change in the electronic, dare I say techno, genre. Something nice and different, but you can still dance to it.
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