Compilation fizzles

By Wes Woods, On-Line Forty-Niner

Tuesday, September 15, 1998

"Thunderdome," the 16-track compilation disc of what would best be described as hard-hitting techno, is sadly very average.

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CD REVIEW

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The Arcade America joint venture with Red Ant Entertainment album release starts off, however, with the high energy, profanity laced, fast paced "I like it loud," with the Marshall Masters featuring The Ultimate MC.

"Bring the melody," shouts the intro and the thunderous banging of the drums comes in with the synthesizer pounding behind. The audience roars its approval.

Unfortunately, the album never attains this height again. It quickly fizzles despite some entertaining performances from these European groups.

The sheer intensity and musical madness of "End of the beginning," by DJ Gizmo shines with its piercing drums and stabbing synthesizer. "Brohymn" thrills with its thunderous pop of the drums and break in mid-beat for a singing chorus that entices one to sing along with it. The use of samples and voices help make the average sounding "XTC Love," (Bertocucci Feranzano) into an enjoyable piece of work.

Another impressive cut was the tongue-in-cheek remake to Biz Markie's "Just A Friend," reworked into "E.C.S.T.A.S.Y." It contains the same familiar piano background and drums, except with the synthesizer in the background and a snapping accentuation on the beat. It then changes to the familiar thump of crashing drums, reminding one that this is a techno album. The lyrics are also slightly changed to "Oh ecstasy, you, you got what I need ... "

"Thunderdome" is a consistent release with its lightening-speed pace of the smashing drums along with synthesizer wails thrown in for good measure, but toward the end of the disc, songs morph into one long and strenuous mix.

"Frequencies" by 25% of the Dreamteam and "Money in my pocket" by 3 Steps Ahead are a glaring example of almost using the same song because of its same pace (and sound) of drums. The synthesizers do add difference to these tracks, but barely.

Solo albums from some of the better individual artists would have been better served than a compilation of many average groups.