Marko Fürstenberg - Amethyst FLAC

The latest installment in a long line of excellent relases on Ornaments sees Marko staying true to his guns as we're presented with two trademark dub techno excercises, albeit with a surprising twist. Although "twist" might not be the operative word here, because I'm not all too sure what to call the addition of an excerpts from the famous farewell address to the nation made by Dwight Eisenhower in 1961 (hence the track's name), in which he cautioned against the potential influence of the military and industrial complex. Make no mistake about it though, it's still as solid as they come, but I see this addition of spoken word as more of a gimmick than anything else, although I do understand the indended purpose of infusing what already is a fairly dark track with some complementary meaning and context.

However, there are no unexpected tricks or gadgets once you switch to the B side, none whatsoever. Even though "Saturday 15th" does get off the ground fairly slowly and inauspiciously, once it spreads it's dubby wings it just soars to the heavens thanks to some seriously groovy whirling synths and a surgnig rhythm to boot.

Absolutely worth the price of admission, if not for the the little curve ball on the A side than surely for the absolute banger on the flip.