1. Fibre
2. Taken
3. Chinese Candy (House Mix)
4. Fundamental (Drum and Bass Mix)
5. Real (House Mix)
6. 21st Century Man
7. Shine (House Mix)
8. Still (Extended Mix)
Freddo
1. Sublime
2. Got Carter
3. Wonderous
4. Lately (Extended Mix)
5. Real
6. Baad
7. Shine
8. Chalmed
Back in the early '90s,
I discovered the height of ambient music in the form of The Orb - a series of outstanding
tunes on their Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld album which really took you somewhere else
and helped you forget about the usual rigours of life. While Airbiscuit aren't them,
they take things along in their own direction, here with a 2-disc set that covers both the faster
and the softer side of their work, occasionally featuring the same tracks in both versions.
The first disc, labelled Caldo, is the more upbeat one of the two, beginning with
Fibre (single sleeve, right), which starts with a fast guitar and would be the kind
of song to drive along to. Next up is Taken, opening with thumping drum beats and the
subtle touch of a woman's orgasmic sound, the overall feel giving the vibe of the late '80s hit
Jack Your Body by Steve Silk Hurley. After more driving music in the form of Chinese
Candy, we head into Fundamental which samples the riff from Puretone's Addicted To
Bass in a subtle fashion while blending in over-fast beats to a satisfying conclusion.
Real, in its House Mix form, has a sophisticated and intelligent-sounding mix that would
appeal to all palettes looking for a bit of enjoyable music escapism and aren't into heavy dance,
and which - if I'm not mistaken - samples a drum-riff from another '80s classic, Farley Jackmaster
Funk's Love Can't Turn Around. Towards the end, Still becomes the first track with vocals
and carries us effortlessly in the direction of disc two.
On the Freddo side, things take on a slower pace in general to the point of "chill out",
starting with Sublime, another vocal track, this time with a gritty, urban feel to it.
With Got Carter, you discover more chart-style dance beats to this one, but it's still
done in a way which really works as it sounds part like a groover and part like a spy theme.
Very cleverly done. Wonderous strikes me as evening-style light dance music, if that
doesn't sound too vague, and then comes Lately (single sleeve, right), here in an extended
7½-minute version, is a gorgeous slice of ambience mixed with soothing vocals.
Continuing on, we revisit Real in its original form, and the final three tracks, Baad,
Shine and Chalmed, the latter sounding distinctly epic, are perfect examples of how
to end an album like this - nothing too demanding, just pure laidback-sounding tunes to relax to,
get drunk to, or smoke something you shouldn't to...
Overall, despite the fact that each track as its own individuality, listening to the first disc of
these in one sitting and doing nothing would feel a bit like overkill, but they'd provide a great
soundtrack to one of the many Xbox racing-style games that allows you to import your own CDs, such as
Moto GP 2
and
Project Gotham Racing 2.
As an aside, why can't I find anything by this band on Amazon apart from their March 2004 single
Lately? This band deserve to really go places because their music takes me to various places...
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Lately: 
Back in the early '90s,
I discovered the height of ambient music in the form of The Orb - a series of outstanding
tunes on their Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld album which really took you somewhere else
and helped you forget about the usual rigours of life. While Airbiscuit aren't them,
they take things along in their own direction, here with a 2-disc set that covers both the faster
and the softer side of their work, occasionally featuring the same tracks in both versions.
On the Freddo side, things take on a slower pace in general to the point of "chill out",
starting with Sublime, another vocal track, this time with a gritty, urban feel to it.
With Got Carter, you discover more chart-style dance beats to this one, but it's still
done in a way which really works as it sounds part like a groover and part like a spy theme.
Very cleverly done. Wonderous strikes me as evening-style light dance music, if that
doesn't sound too vague, and then comes Lately (single sleeve, right), here in an extended
7½-minute version, is a gorgeous slice of ambience mixed with soothing vocals.
