I know that some of you were asking about Gerald reissues, so here's the first (press release from the sadly, recently, defunkt, Lowlands Distribution webpage from Belgium):
Catalog #:
AGCG 01
Label:
A GUY CALLED GERALD REC
Release date:
2008-06-12
Barcode:
0666017152226
Visit the A GUY CALLED GERALD website
Black Secret Technology
by A GUY CALLED GERALD
A GUY CALLED GERALD's original underground classic Black Secret Technology is now available again 13 years after its original release. 1995’s BLACK SECRET TECHNOLOGY, a bewildering mix of tight breakbeats, techno textures, and flickering, dream-struck voices, has been often imitated but never equaled. Gerald credits much of his work to serendipity, but that doesn’t explain the staggering cybernetic wallop packed by "Alita’s Dream" and "Survival," or the supreme sensuality of "The Nile." The album is woven through with perfect techno-pop bridges, confronting the harsh realities of technology with the life-affirming spirituality of Gerald’s club-classic debut, HOT LEMONADE. Balanced on the razor edge between mysticism and frenzy, TECHNOLOGY remains a powerful comment on the eternal struggle between man and his future.
Genre(s): Drum 'n' Bass & Jungle - Breakz & Beatz - Step
Sounds Like: Drum 'n Bass Classic Repress
Format(s): CD
Information
General info
TRACK LISTING
01 So Many Dreams,
02 Alita’s Dream,
03 Finleys Rainbow (Slow Motion Mix),
04 The Nile,
05 Energy [Extended Mix],
06 Silent Cry (Gerico),
07 Dreaming of You,
08 Survival,
09 Cybergen,
10 The Reno,
11 Cyberjazz,
12 Voodoo Rage,
13 Life Unfolds His Mystery
__________________________________
ORIGINAL PRESS
- Peter Shapiro, The Rough Guide to Drum n Bass, 1999: “One of the first single-artist drum & bass albums, BST expanded on Simpsons idea that the sampler was a time machine by linking ancient African rhythms and more modern funk beats with futuristic breakbeat science to produce trance-like thythms [which] reflect my frustration to know the truth about my ancestors who talked with drums. Energy, co-produced with Goldie, sounded like Jamaican nyabinghi drummers jamming in an anti-gravity chamber, while its bird calls referenced Pacific State which had since become a favourite sampling tool of the intelligent drum & bass brigade.”
- Sean Cooper, All Music Guide: “The first full-length release in a style that, like its close relatives hip-hop and techno, began as a 12-inch genre. The album laid much important groundwork for experimental junglists like Photek, Subtropic, and Goldie.”
- NME (1995): “An Afro-centric view of a Europe to come? Perhaps. Good old-fashioned British hybrid inclinations and old school audaciousness? Definitely. Gerald has come up with the jungle that takes it from the loony experimentalism of the 12" rough cuts you hear on pirates, and peers right into the next century.”
- Mike Pattenden, VOX Magazine (1995): “Black Secret Technology shines like gunmetal glinting in the cold, winter sunlight”
- SIMON REYNOLDS: “Gerald’s music actually sounds like a virtual jungle, a datascape environment that’s sensorily intoxicating yet teeming with threat. Breakbeats coil and writhe like serpents, samples morph and dematerialise like fever-dream hallucinations, itchy’n’scratchy blips of texture/rhythm dart and hover like dragonflies. This could be heaven, this could be hell... Either way, this jungle is a terrain where the natives, the tech-savvy, have the advantage. It’s absolutely NOW, absolutely ESSENTIAL.”
- Bethan Cole, Mixmag, February (1995): “GERALD’S role in the development of drum n’ bass cannot be overstressed. But whereas early jungle experiments, like ’28 Gun Bad Boy’, were rough and ragga, ’Black Secret Technology’ is dreamy, ethereal, other-worldly even. Gerald’s sound has taken flight, soared away from street-tough realism and now dwells in the fluffy, weightless clouds of the imagination. Somewhere between the second and third hearing of this album, you’ll be hooked and you won’t quite know why. But then that is how ’Black Secret Technology’ works.”
- SIMON REYNOLDS, MELODY MAKER (1995): So do you think people will lose interest in music? "Yeah, sound will just become a small part of it. I can’t imagine a kid today just sitting down and listening to an album. It’s progression, innit?" Feeling like a old fogey, I quibble: isn’t part of music’s magic the way it makes you come up with your own mind’s eye imagery? Gerald’s chirpy response is that with CD-ROM you’ll soon have the power to create
your own graphics. But, I counter feebly, who actually has the energy for all this inter-active self-expression? "Not people who grew up in our era. But kids today, given ten years, they’ll be on it."
WIKIPEDIA: "Black Secret Technology is the fourth album by house music and drum and bass pioneer A Guy Called Gerald, released in 1995 to widespread critical acclaim. It is one of the most important drum and bass albums and preceded the classic Timeless by Goldie."
_________________________________________
MORE INFO
CURRENT TOUR: A Guy Called Gerald will be touring selected dates with a new LIVE project featuring Jungle Drummer, Diane Charlemagne and Stamina MC. The show wi$include classics from Black Secret Technology, the Juice Box era as well as new material. There will be a sneak preview show at Glastonbury Festival on June 28th.
AGCG NEWS
- A Guy Called Gerald NEW 12" release coming out on sublime Berlin house/techno label Perlon in July... www.perlon.net
- A Guy Called Gerald is next up in the Loopmasters Producer Series... www.loopmasters.com/
A Guy Called Gerald - Black Secret Technology Reissue
Moderators: Ancodia, Pob, markus, nickking
Wow, already sold out in Warpmart after a day (or less??) of being on the front page:
http://warpmart.com/item/A%20Guy%20Call ... on%29/4000
Got myself a copy, looking forward to having it at last! Can't wait for Hot Lemonade either.
http://warpmart.com/item/A%20Guy%20Call ... on%29/4000
Got myself a copy, looking forward to having it at last! Can't wait for Hot Lemonade either.