Given the lack of momentum for electronic music, with so much going on but nothing that really takes you by the shoulders, this compilation comes as a punch in the stomach. It brings together Fisk Industries' two ten-inch EPs, plus a collection of somehow obscure and digital-only tracks. And man, does it drag you to the cool depths of break beat and ambient! In this release, Mat Ronson speaks to the hearts and minds of lazy lovers and disenchanted crooners.
Mush Records has been educating slowed-down electronica fans for quite some time now – with folks like Thavius Beck, Bigg Jus and The Opus. But, with this one, both Ronson and the label truly deserve to be regarded as major league players. The first track, "We Saw Orion", kicks off in a serpentine-like swirl that wouldn't feel adrift in the Lebanese airwaves. On the other hand, "Reflection" ranks pretty high in the under-the-sheets-action scale, with its water-fluid interjections.
But if you're truly down with experimental techno, "Moieties (Part Two)" will be your most reliable lab manual. "Polska" wraps up the first disc with dismantled clicks and a somehow paranoid beat box. As you enter the rarities' vault, "Variant of Option A" will teach you how loose bass lines can be. And after "Earth Algorithm", the image of an electronic connoisseur as a sci-fi freak will percolate in your mind.
"Todo Por La Patria" can well be regarded as Fisk Industries' tentative patriotic act. And while it sucks as a national anthem, it sort of paves the way (even if it makes it more tortuous) to the lefty, sonic pamphlet that is heard on "Czarpromo". Needless to say, communists of the world, rejoice!
There's an old African saying that states it takes a village to raise a child. After a couple of reruns, I can honestly say that it only takes this record to learn what's fresh in contemporary electronica.
http://www.properlychilled.com/music/release/profile.php?view=479
