REVIWES-

CAPITAL Q WEEKLY

AUG 21 98
CRUCIFIED STITCHED UP AND
THEN SOME
Atone
(Clan Analogue/MDS)
The second outing for local
electronic duo Atone sees a
definite development in their
already well realised take on
dub based electronica. While
their frst album Atonement
was a deliciously dark and
subtly funky exploration of
electronic grooves, Crucifed
Stitched Up And Then Some
offers a more rhythmically
diverse and sonically tex-
tured outing, which picks up
the pace somewhat, while
retaining a gorgeously rich
ambience and dark fluidity to
its multi-faceted grooves
Definitely one to kick back to,
the album creates a journey
on which ever changing beat
patterns, awash with elec-
tronic melodies and layered
sound bites, take the listener
on an often other worldly, and
sometimes quite cinematic
rhythmic ride where the
blend of the familiar and the
unfamiliar fire the imagina-
tion. The overall sound here
is also more luxurious than
the outfit's first outing, really
inviting the listener to sink
into these gorgeous grooves
and go with the flow, almost
like being in the centre of a
musical hologram, where
you get the feeling that your
mind's interaction with the
music takes it to another
level again. Definitely a ride
worth taking.

3 D WORLD MAGAZINE REVIEW
CAUCIFIED, STITCHED
UP & THEN SOME
ATONE
(Clan
Analogue/MDS)
06/08/98

5 STARS

Atone's remarkable debut album of 1996,
Alonement", sounds remarkably light and
fluffy when compared to this follow up.
Two years full of live performances and solo
work mark the period between " Atonement"
and "Crucified" but Andrew Fitzgerald
and Ali Omar have distilled the break per-
fectly. "Crucified" exhibits a darker side to
Atone, full of slowed hip hop beats, mon-
strous dub bass lines, spooky cinematic
loops, snippets of vocals, well selected sam-
ples, and masked analogue burbles.
Dialogue from Withnail & I crops up on
"Voodoo Doll", looped guitar lightens up the
appropriately named "60s", subterranean
bass drops merge into deep digidub on "End
The Occupation" and Kye guests on "King
Blood" and "Seeking Mr KY". All up twelve
excellent tracks of the deepest darkest
digidub and an outstanding follow-up to one
the last few years best albums.
Yellow Peril


DRUM MEDIA MAGAZINE
'CLUB'
reviews
WITH PARIS POMPOR
ATONE
Crucified Stitched Up And Then Some
Clan Analogue (thru Mds)

Sydney dub archeologists Ali Omar and Andy Fitzgerald take us on a tour of the depths with this album. The elec-tronic excavation begins with Love Don't Come Easy
which burrows its way beneath the crusty beat surface giving listeners their first glimpses of the beauty under-ground. Just like the sea, it's far from dark and lifeless, and in slow mo Atone peel back the layers and reveal
shimmering colours. By burrowing tunnels that wind mechanically and loop back on themselves we are lead to new cavities and spaces where aural vacuums, like
gently pulsing sponges, draw you in and then slowily release you. 12 chambers in all, where the informed can come and float in underground pools saturated with the
rich minerals of electronic ambience, soothing bass and sensuous rhythms. A new kind of dub - and it's right here
below Sydney streets.

REVOLVER MAGAZINE
ALBUM REVIEWS
JUL 12 98
Atone
Crucified, Stitched Up And Then Some
Clan Analogue /MDS

It's weird that the new breed of homegrown
dance music are already into their
second albums, a sign of good tidings to come I believe, and Atone second is leaps and bounds above Atonement, which was quite amazing in itself.
Sliding away from drum" n 'bass and into the
warmer environment of dark instrumental hip-
hop, this is possibly the best electronic
release of the southern hemisphere this year
(so far). 4 1/2 STARS


ROLLING STONE AUG 98
Atone
Crucified Stitched Up and
Then Some

CLAN ANALOGUE/MDS
Sydney beats where the
only way to go is down.
Elusive Sydney duo Atone
(Ali Omar and Andrew
Fitzgerald) take another cru-
cial step in their quest for the
haziest beats; where the debut
Atonement focused on a
punchy blend of hiphop and
upright dub, Crucified Stitched
Up and Then Some sways back.
reeling from a mystery pres
sure into heavy, ponderous
breakbeat experiments
flavoured by jazz, trance and
acid. The track "City New"
glides away slowly, fuelled by
a shimmering wall of distant
guitars and the groove of a
heartbeat. On "El Dorado" it's
the same idea of hypnosis by
music, only this time there's
raw wooden percussion and
wired doublebass jazz in. the
mix. At their darkest
("Voodoo Doll, "On the
Run") Atone stun the senses
- but the groove-based tracks
("Let it Go") glisten with
deviant energy. And their ver-
sion of electronic ambience
("Dub Odyssey") is inert and
oppressed.
Chris Johnston
3 stars


JUICE MAGAZINE 98
ATONE
Stitched Up, Crucified and Then
Some
[Clan Analogue/MDS]

Sydney electronic outit Atone -Alli
Omar and Andy Fitzgerald - were
responsible for one of the best
albums of recent times in Atonement,
a digital dub excursion that
was deeply layered yet attractively
shiny, offsetting the
unsetling effects of all that bass and
brooding atmospherics with some evocative
sampled hooks. Stitched Up, Cruci-
fied and Then Some lacks some of
the debut's accessibility, and cer
tainly the shock of seeming to come
out of nowhere is gone, but it is still
a richly rewarding experience.
Atone understand how easy it is
for downbeat dub to slip into trip-
hop blandsville and skilfully avoid
the trap. After the gentle slide of the
two opening tracks - "Love Don't
Come Easy,
hypnotic lazy dub
and the rich, string-laden "Citynew
they'll hit you with "El Dorado," a
brilliant track in which percussion
horns, spiralling synths and psycho
strings combine to create a disturb
ing sense of dissonance. an off-kil-
ter effect that's later echoed by "On
the run" and "Seeking Mr Kye".
Then Atone will kick back with the
very pretty 60s." which sounds like
Leo Kottke gone dub, or increase
the tempo and get the heart pump-
ing with a rockier track like Beatific
Vision." "End of the Occupation" is
the closest thing to a traditional
Jamaican dub (at least until the
sampled vocal), "King Blood" fea-
tures Sydnay toaster/singer Kye
delivering an eerily disembodied,
extremely atmospheric lyric, and
"Voodoo Doll" is as druggy as its
Withnail & I dialogue sample,
With one aye looking back to
their roots and the other gazing
steadily toward the future, and
drawing on hip-hop, techno, reggae
as well as their rich Imaginations
Atone have produced the goods to
prove that Atonement was a far
a from lucky strike.
STUART HITCHINGS
5 stars