Lusine icl 
a pseudo steady state
~reviewed by Adrian
 
The year 2000 has seen a much needed improvement in the “underground” sounds of electronica, bringing many influences to the table to reestablish its sounds and recreate a format that puts the “intelligent” back into IDM. Lusine is such a project that develops a wonderful experimental atmosphere of lounge, acid jazz, and the funky, alien percussions and rhythms that invoke a mood of beauty, magic, and casual breezy days of relaxing at a café on Venus. Jeff Mcllwain, who is the heart and soul behind this project, creates a interesting combination of dizzy loops and tracks that somewhat whispers of Boards of Canada, Xingu Hill, or Architect at their smoothest.
 
The CD kicks off with a completely wonderful, funky yet trippy track called ‘Feedme’ that really develops into a nice journey into what could be called ‘acidjazz  on acid’, smooth yet every once in a while a barb pokes out to pull you back into reality. The third track ‘Freak’ fragments into a collage of percussion, lounge-type atmosphere with nice vocal loops that really meld the piece together. Another favorite of mine is ‘Mod’, which starts off very loopy and minimal, but soon develops a lush biosphere of very smooth atmospheric sounds that swirl and sway, taking the listener into the depths of some hip urban modern jazz scene peaking at the end of a thunderstorm. The last track, ‘Back Track’ offers the listener a beautiful, yet surreal treat that morphs and caresses your psyche in a bubbling wash of sound and drones ….. really sparking the imagination of swimming in a deep
ocean of jellyfish or playing in a long forgotten cave.
 
Overall, this CD is one of my best finds this year, very, very delighted to have found this and I would highly suggest a listen to anyone who is bored with the same old sounds and styles that are flooding the public. The CD is on a limited pressing, like many of the artists on the U-Cover label, of only 955 so act quickly to get this…….it is defiantly something you will want to have in your collection. Nothing on hear is really danceable, but it is one of the best relaxing, intelligent sound
structures that I have come across in a while.

Track listing
1/ feedme
2/ sem 1
3/ freak
4/ threshold of pain
5/ sem 2
6/ lazydayz
7/ sem 3
8/ slipthrough
9/ mod
10/ sem 4
11/ back track

http://shoko.calarts.edu/~jmciln/  - website
jmciln@earthlink.net   - email
http://u-cover.com/  -  http://isophlux.com/ - labels

01/06/01