On my shelves this double CD sits next to the The Early Gurus of Electronic Music. That collection ends with Brian Eno; this one begins with him. The other composers they have in common are Raymond Scott and John Cage. Pierre Henry appears on this set, while he may have been better suited to the other.
This one tends away from the formal, austere R&D experimentalism of your Stockhausens and your Xenakises, and towards the edges of pop, lounge and the exotica/electronica, errr, 'interface'. So straight after the Eno track at the beginning we're into the world of Joe Meek. It's all a bit like listening to an episode of Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone, perhaps with the editor of The Wire as a studio guest.
Fennesz I still can't get, and I have tried a few times over the years. But the collection is most interesting when it includes Top 40 bands like Depeche Mode, New Order and (inevitably) The Human League's Being Boiled, showing just how close these bleeps and glitches once came to mainstream acceptance.
I've got a feeling this compilation may have been a gift in the delegate bag at Lovebytes 2002, but don't quote me on that.
 MusicBrainz entry for disc 1, disc 2Wikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to this album in full at Last.fm |
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