digital domain
take control
knee-jerk-reaction
technophobia

qual 1993
12" Vinyl EP. praxis uk. praxis 5.
track list:

qual
interstate
2 c's in a'k'
traffic

Reviews

The Empty Quarter Magazine.uk.Feb. 1993.
Bourbonese Qualk "Knee Jerk Reaction 12"

Any label promoting acts like Bourbonese Qualk has to be going places and this second release from the fledgling Praxis label has success etched in every groove. It explodes into life in a ruthlessly efficient manner proving that Bourbonese Qualk are true masters of a beast of a machine, Totally wired up to the forces of fury. The first three cuts are extreme hard beat, unyielding, eclectic and bursting with tension. Track four (should be used as enforced recreation for non believers) is a liquid ambience trance that will gently sooth your brain into a state of suspended animation, leaving your body to get on with it. With eight albums already to their credit this band is still thrusting forward, carving a niche with one fuckin' metallic head-opener of a 12" blade.World domination beckons.

Chris B

Softwatch 1993
Bourbonese Qualk "Knee Jerk Reaction 12"

The first track on the A' side is a hammering, smashing onslaught of battering beat music almost guaranteed to kick your perception of what is 'dance' on it's arse - an ever-changing switchback series of thumping impressions, sequenced into a primative representation of a 'song'. The next track is an express fast electronic dance music with serpentine sequencers like whips, this pushes the BPM way up so many sequential rhythmic devices are like fast FX flowing by. BOURBONESE QUALK prove they have surpassed the dance scene with it's Acid House & Rave, and have accelerated the cyberkinetic flow of noise images even further, creating an audio- tactile pattern of rhythmic waves.

The first track on the B' side is another fast & frantic rhythmic piece which thunders along with a primative facsimile of 'tune', but far more emphasis on 'effect', reducing the necessity for composed, hooky music, replacing it instead with a series of electronic noises - clusters of notes, splinters of sound, all flying off at appointed moments in such a way as to give it a recognizable structure, The final track follows a very similar style, although here a tune - a simplistic two-note thing - creates a body for the echoing, shattering, crashing sounds to split away from in pyrotechnical wonderment. BO QU have certainly changed direction, and this new hyper-electro-dance sound suits them - almost infinitely variable, sometimes cold, sometimes dark, but always, ALWAYS interesting.

Reviewer ANTONY BURNHAM for METAMORPHIC JOURNEYMAN

Another shot of twitching, lacerating, hard-trance hardcore coming at you on hyperspeed. "Qual" is the German word for pain and this is the aural equivalent of walking naked into a brilliant white chamber and being bombarded by red hot shards of metal. Mixed immediately after returning from their US tour it captures the energy and ingenuity of their current set. Their name may roll off the tongue with all the ease of a barbed wire pill but more than ever, with this steelplated product. BOURBONESE QUALK are right in your face. Prepare your alibi or get on with it. They're heading your way.

METAMORPHIC JOURNEYMAN 1993
Bourbonese Qualk "Qual" 12"

No track list is given for this EP, but the opening track repeats the phrase "Digital Delay" until it worms it's way into your mind. This is a hard & hypnotic track, driving & persistant, keen on keeping it's victims writhing helplessly on the dance floor. They use certain devices last heard on Acid House records, cynically exploiting them to their own ends. The density of mix is similar to SCAREMONGER's, suggesting a label sound even in evidence of only two tracks. The next piece, we'll call it "Aid Control", again used blatant Acid House FX in such a way that it actually turns out sounding unique. Underlying synth reminds me of the 'sketch theme' from "Naked Video" - a Bassline grizzle of bubbling sound. Side two opens with a track which might have escaped from the Maximum Security confines of HUMAN LEAGUE's "Dignity Of Labour" EP, donned 90's garb & has melded an earlier, more experimental (dare I say it - Analog) sound with up-to-the-minute technology in a computer-logic Techno-Speak fidgety dance theme. Last track on the EP is a more mellow piece with a sound like the non-vocal version of "Something Came Over Me" on "Heathen Earth", again given a modern wash-and-brush-up, couming out as a mild, warm, flowing piece of music - atmospheric in it's billowing waves of electronic sound.

I'm no expert on BOURBONESE QUALK & their sound, but this is a quantum leap towards commerciality from the "My Government Is My Soul" LP, which had a rawness of SONIC VIOLENCE set against the pseudo jungles of TALKING HEADS. Now, in 1993, the have followed the footsteps of CABARET VOLTAIRE onto the Acid & sweat dance floors, an the transition has probably done them less lasting harm - they're commercial, yes, but keep a closed expression of dignity & gravity.

Impulse magazine
Something of a departure for BoQu. A 12" that I can only describe as Techno / Rave. The first cut is frantic, bleepy and highly danceable - I played it at a club and it went down well! Just goes to show you An Acidy-Ravey mix is next - relentless beats with just a hint of EBM. A bleepy mix opens side two, which is followed by a trancey type mix, sounding a little like something COIL might do! An impressive first attempt at something which most people try at for years - and fail! Well worth a listen.
 
The biggest surprise of the bunch is of course BOURBONESE QUALK's plunge into Techno waters - if you weren't told you'd never recognise the culprits here. Given the QUALK's musical diversity and interest in electronic media it's perhaps not such a surprise. They plunder the latest genre with some aplomb, even if the FRONT 242 samples and DJ-frightening break-ups in one track are a bit unnecessary; the best track is the final, trance-like piece.