Meanderings

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It's hard for me to talk about this CD in strictly academic terms. The truth is that it was one of the first CD's i bought that was in the electronica genre, but removed from the ambient that i had been exploring to that point. The first two tracks will always remind me of my ex and the woman she was before she imploded... when she was still a woman. That's why i can't talk about this CD without letting my personal experiences interfere with my judgment. The introductory piece, Intro, lures the listener into it's snare with a gentle crescendo of a somewhat ethereal saxophone accompanied with an equally elusive guitar. Once this track ends, there's a pause, then Junk Science begins in earnest and you know you've got something good on your hands.

As i was saying, it's impossible for me to separate my personal feelings of this CD from the experiences of my life at the time. I was living alone in SF and music and my kitties Yoko and Eikko (both of whom i still dearly miss) were all i had to keep me from all of those things that had been going on in my life at the time. Junk Science was a huge step for me as i started to understand the power of dancing, which is (in my opinion), necessary to maintaining a healthy spirituality and thus a healthy sexuality. But that conversation is neither here nor there.

The high point of this CD is probably Deep Dish's take on Everything But the Girl's (EBtG), Future of the Future (Stay Gold). Deep Dish immediately takes you into a darker, more mysterious tour of dance music and include such cuts as the somewhat funky laced "Mohammed is Jesus..." which exemplifies a certain spirit of unity to those who see the world in a much larger picture than what dogma can allow. Not that Deep Dish is out to make any sort of profound philosophical statement, but there's a certain idea of PLUR* in the dance community and few exemplify that better than Deep Dish.

As a side note, i have noticed that EBtG and Deep Dish have continued to work together since Junk Science. I'm not sure how they all do it, but musically speaking, this is one sweet collaboration.

To the best of my knowledge, this was the first CD that Deep Dish released and i have to admit, of the CD's they're released thus far, this is probably my least favorite. I'm not saying that because there's any strong fault to it. No no no, Junk Science goes from deep soulful house to drum and bass to venturing into Arabic sounds (i admit, i have a strong prejudice towards Indian and Arabic music... especially when it's put to a modern sound or integrated with dance music). What kind of holds this CD down against the other work that Deep Dish (Ali "Dubfire" Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi) have done is that Yoshiesque and Renaissance: Ibiza are just so damned strong. There are also some tracks that don't flow from one to the next as smoothly as they should, or have an actual pause between them. This kind of slows down the energy that you build up listening, but all in all, Junk Science is quite a find for those looking to find a good entry point into the world of House music. If nothing else, i strongly recommend anyone to sit down and groove to the first 6 or so tracks, especially the first two and Mohammed is Jesus... . I can promise (as much as i can promise about these sorts of things), that you won't be disappointed.

23 April 2001