Softcore

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Total Tracks: 8   Total Length: 61:04

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Rob Young

eMusic Contributor

03.29.02
Quite possibly the funkiest ambient record you'll ever hear.
1999 | Label: Fax Label

Slinky solo piece by Frankfurt producer Uwe Schmidt, a man of many aliases, the best known being Atom Heart and Señor Coconut. This one-off is one of the least known albums in Schmidt's giant discography, but its saucy ambience and sensual drum machine intercourse rank among his finest moments. “Funkified Female” is featherlight electronic belly dance; the pummelling proto-Minimal bleep of “Difference Engine” weighs in with all LFOs blazing; while “Home Sweet Home” sounds like a complex clockwork device crosswired through an arpeggiator. There's more abstraction on the curiously titled “Rather Bent Than Shaked,” “Plenty of Food” and the paired tracks “White Hole 1″ and “2″, but the rhythmic experimentation on most of Softcore make this probably the funkiest Fax disc of all.

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Fax

By Rob Young, eMusic Contributor

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They Say All Music Guide

Although quite a bit more angular and crude than his Rather Interesting material, Softcore’s meditations on rhythm and texture stretch the limits of the mixing desk in engaging, often fascinating ways. If later Atom Heart releases such as BASS and Machine Paisley point to an ever more complex digital desktop aesthetic, Softcore is analog almost to a fault, with Schmidt’s ideas occasionally outstripping his ability to conceal the technique behind them. – Sean Cooper