Search - Plaid :: Trainer

Must have

Devin Gardner | Annandale, VA USA | 11/12/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Truly, one of the greatest early releases of an 'IDM' artist. From the moment it starts off with Uneasy Listening, it will have you dancing till the very end, hitting the listener with everything from strong, driving techno, to relaxed jive and beautiful, etheral ambient mixtures. While the first CD is more oriented towards tonal, listener friendly dance, the second CD consists of pieces which focus on either ambient motifs and more abrasive percussive tunes, which means it is definately going to be harder to digest for a lot of listeners. Reagrdless, this CD is truly an amazing compilation, and will help listeners to discover where the roots of the IDM genre come from. This is a must have along with Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Nos. 85-92, Autechre's Incunabula, and U-Ziq's Tango n' Vectiff."

Plaid's Trainer is a lesson in history.

khryptic | OKC.OK.USA.NA.3P-E.SS.MW.UN.RE. | 08/01/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I use iTunes for my listening services. I try to make good use of the "My Rating" feature that Apple's included, and while I have yet to rate every track from this release, most of them are rated 3 of 5 stars.Normally, I only buy great music. That means 5 stars, across the board, and I know it before I make my purchase because I've either heard the album before hand, or can judge by previous releases by that artist how much I am going to like the new release. That didn't work this time; I've rated almost every other Plaid track that I have as 5 of 5 stars.This isn't the newer, genius stuff that Plaid is now known for, but it does stand on its own as a guide to how the sound has evolved over the years. I can appreciate it for the fact that it helps me understand who Plaid is, and enables me to appreciate where they've gone in recent years.I hope that all the "supa-diehard" fans buy this album; I can't see any reason you would be disappointed. If you're more into the later, mellow, IDM style of Plaid and don't have a passion for earlier, purist techno, you may be better off picking up some individual singles from this time period rather than spending your good money on this compilation."

Primitive yet pleases

bowery boy | seattle | 07/18/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"listening to this plaid release is like looking at a box of photographs spanning your childhood up to your early twenties. there will be many similaries throughout yet as you get older you become more mature. such is the case with 'trainer'. those who are giving this CD poor ratings or bad reviews either are not diehard plaid fans or were expecting plaid brilliance found on 'double figure', 'rest proof clockwork' and the like. if you're looking for that then you'll be disappointed. instead, offered here is a double CD of plaid (and their various incarnations) in their early years. granted, this stuff is primitive but what electronic music made back in the late 80s/early 90s wasn't? the plaid sound is still here, less refined and honed as in later years and some tracks ARE pretty bad. other tracks sound as cutting edge today as i'm sure they did back in the day. 'tan sau', 'norte route' and 'android' are outstanding tracks that with a little bit of modern day tweeking could easily slip onto a new plaid release. my favorite track would be 'choke and fly' or 'slice of cheese'. i'm not sure which as the packaging makes it difficult to tell what is on what CD. Each CD is encased in a paper slipjacket with the titles printed on the outside and only the number of the CD printed on the CD. If you take both CDs out of their slipcasing you may be hard pressed to tell which CD goes into which case as there is no indication on the slipcasing. this happened to me. anyway,track three on one of the CDs is awesome. kind of jazzy. oh yeah, 'scoobs in columbia' is also a really cool latin flavored number. this CD is NOT junk... or really bad. it's a wonderful document of an incredibly talented group. highly reccommended only for true plaid fans. if you're not a true plaid fan, stick with their newer stuff because you'll probably hate this."