OCTOBER 2000 - GRIND INTO EMPTINESS: website

Hushush Records' Threesome Series marches on, and the latest installment, Bad Roads, Young Drivers, marks the half-way point of this unique collaboration. This time around Mick Harris (Scorn, Quoit, Painkiller) supplied the source material and passed it on to Mark Spybey (Dead Voices On Air, Download, Propeller) who diligently messed around with it and provided the 11 track outcome -- a fluid mesh of their two styles.

With Harris renown for his variety of rhythmic projects and a forte in electronic percussion, and the rich, textural, atmospheric elements that stand out in Spybey's body of work as DVOA and Propeller, a head-on collision of the two was easy to anticipate. When you simultaneously play Scorn's Zander and DVOA's How Hollow Heart (incidentally the last Bad Roads track, "Waaal," is based on samples from this disc's "Jievoao") the two work quite well, complementing each other and at times fitting lock and key, however accidental that may be. This collaboration is more succinct, taking it to the next level. It's as though Harris' beats were shrink-wrapped in a thick coat of Spybey's stylistic input.

"Good Way to Start a Bad Day" opens the disc with severely disjointed, spaced out beats that slowly work their way into a regular tempo amidst washes of tones, subtle whirs, cryptic vocal sample loops and undulating bass growls. Occasionally one side of the collaboration will have an audible influence on the direction of a track. With "Misery Gote," for example, contemplative drones take a back seat to the frenzied rhythm. Whereas "Aeper," sans percussion, slowly builds up intensity and sounds like a subway elegantly grinding to a scraping halt in slow motion.

The quality of this release shouldn't come as any surprise after the precedent set by the first installment in the series, Sfumato. Next up, for the finale, Ambre and Harris will go at it, and my guess is that this Threesome will only become stronger as it comes to a close. (Ben Didier)

SEPTEMBER 2000 - TOTENTANZ: website

"Bad Roads, Young Drivers" (already an excellent CD title) is the second part of the threesome series released by Hushush, in which Ambre, Mark Spybey and Mick Harris will collaborate in "couples" on three CDs. "Sfumato", the collaboration between Ambre and Mark Spybey was the first one, and its follower could not resemble it less.

If "Sfumato" was a very calm, beatless album, "Bad Roads, Young Drivers" is very rhythmic, the music being always supported by a never-ending and mesmerizing drum beat (probably Mick Harris's influence, since this remind quite a lot of Scorn). From drum'n'bass to more ambient rhythms, this CD provides many ways of enslaving you to heavy beats, while weird and echoed soundscapes finish the work. The result is an hypnotic CD that will keep your hear prisonners for the 11 tracks, and have you ask for more.

The mixture of Mark Spybey's ethereal sounds and effects with the massive drums or warm atmospheres of Mick Harris works very well, each one taking the leading role after the other. As subtle as "Sfumato" but more intense, this CD has both dark, cold sides ("Mister Bod" or the magnificent "Dschungel B-216") and lighter, faster, almost dancefloor moments ("Good way to start a bad day"). Its music is complex and ever-changing, expirementating with dub effects, noises and melodies in a majestic way. Taking the "dub-industrial" path (re-) opened recently by some Hymen artists, this second threesome is an impressive piece of work that should convince absolutely everybody of the talent of the participating musicians. (Nicolas)

AUGUST 2000 - SEVEN: website

Continuing on to the second part of this wonderful collaborative project between ambre, mark spybey, and mick harris, we experience another pathway of pure focused electronics. Here Spybey and Harris assimilate idealism of acoustical synthetics and sound devices that open new ways to listening.

Utilizing a barrage of various funk, jazz, and trippy percussives that entangle ancient string devices, these musicians take you into a timeless world never experienced before. Unconventional transitional movements that are apparent throughout most of the tracks remind me of the intelligence behind haujobb, silk saw, and some of beefcake’s versatile work.

Opening with “good way to start a bad day” we are given curiosity to various erratic and disorganized funky trip-hop beats that are slowly surrounded by distant cold string elements and melodic bass movements. Next track “institute good motoring on bad and i mean bad roads” throws us a somewhat annoying but interesting composition that uses more dismal strings attacked with a blaring train horns and phone rings. Track three settles down with a slower funk trip-hop beat that is balanced by somewhat groovy basslines, subtle ghostly string movements, and weird frequencies. “mister bod” moves us in a spacey hypnotic theme that utilizes indirect string progressions that evoke a feeling of sadness and despair.

The funky rhythms continue on this time surrounded by abrasive squealed frequencies and diving bass drones and jazz-like synthetic horn elements that intersect with the building movement of the song. “dschungel B-216” chills out with softer jazz -like movements that are touched with dropping string echoes and waves of crunchy dirges and fuzzy drones. While track nine uses small erratic drum ‘n’ bass movements that are precisely placed with subtle droning reversed bass strings and strings apparitions. Track ten, “misery gote” pummels the mind with barrage of crazy drum ‘n’ bass and break elements that fiercely move with bleak deep bass drones and tweaked-out frequencies.

To end this release nicely we encounter the dark space-ambience of the softly emerging hums and distant signal relays that are surrounded by vocoded derelict voices. A very nice track to complete this intelligent collaboration that gives the listener new realms to explore. (Alan)