2350.org - U V O I I - Sound of Heaven

Track one opens with a very somber violin followed by a slow build of synthesizers. The violin still maintains the focus throughout. At 15:50 is when the poetic like vocals take hold. Samples swirl around the words. Sometimes the words tend to fade into your mind, and you are more focused on the music.

Track two has loosely tribal sound that seemingly breaks into a quirky bass beat. The techno direction slowly takes over, and very uncharacteristic of the previous track. This track is slow moving in direction, and may bore some. Some chanting type vocals emerge. Again, very different than the previous vocals. -14:30 the violin briefly returns to calm the vocals down. The music changes, yet still techno. The poetry is rather comical. We a graced with the violin again, which seems to be the highlight of the album.

Track three brings an old skool techno sound. Some interesting bass sequences meddled with older styled trance. The trance is actually good, and adds the tribal sounding vocal. The best track thus far. a nice hypnotic old skool track.

Track four starts off sounding middle eastern. This is mixed with some ambient driftings. The music is rather light, and sends the disc off in a happy and calm feeling.

The disc has some wonderful moments, and even with the vocals and poetry. Not a top ten, but an interesting romp into the outer worlds of the FAX label.

(review by jackthetab)

I was worried that these two [Uvoii & Electroharmonix] might not be too my liking but neither disappoints. The second title is Uvoii. Someone already mentioned that the poetry is annoying but the music is very good and upbeat that it really doesn't bother me that much. The artwork is very cool and the titles are great (God's picture in the Internet, for example).

(review by Will-E)

This CD is a weird one. It's the only FAX release to focus more on poetry than music. It leads me to question if it even belongs in the FAX catalog at all; but since FAX sometimes goes off in wild directions of all sorts and spans dozens of genres, I suppose we can accept this oddball.

First, the poetry: it is not bad per se, but definitely steals your attention when it is present. The speaker has a strong African American voice and the words have a slightly religious feel to them. In track two, he decides to start speaking in tongues, almost a screaming rant at times. Definitely not for everyone. I can appreciate poetry, but I question its efficacy in the FAX context. Tone it down, shorten it or take it out completely and I think this release would get more play time.

That leads us to the music: a mix of mellow new age and ambient that I can only describe, in the FAX context, as a cross between the Silence and YT releases. You can definitely hear Atmo in the mix. Unfortunately, the music is rather weak on its own. It's not awful, but it's nothing that will draw you back for more. Mediocre. The only highlight has got to be the fine violin predominant in the first two tracks; and track three.

And that's the best thing I can say about this CD: track three is OK, perhaps even toe-tapping. Big surprise I like it best: the poetry is completely absent. There's a strong tribal feel with unobtrusive chanting, ala Silence or Sandoz. Too bad the rest isn't like this.

So tread with trepidation. Most electronica-heads probably won't like this. Final thought: what the heck is an "U V O I I" and is that pronounced UVO 2 or oo-voh-ee or what?

(review by Trevor Cordes)