Initially limited to 100 copies on Boards of Canada's own Music70 label, 1995's Twoism EP set a high standard for future BoC output - though only the few willing to pay silly money for it were able to hear for themselves until Warp quietly reissued it on CD at the tail end of 2002. For those trying to compare it to the full-length debut (Music Has the Right to Children), it holds up surprisingly well (granted, two tracks here were only slightly reworked for later release). Excepting only the rigid drum monster "Basefree" (which sounds a bit like Aphex Twin circa 1992), Twoism features the same exquisitely spooky, textured emotronica that fans will want to hear, all at as high a level as the brilliant Music Has the Right to Children to boot.
Variants of Perception was originally released on Carpe Sonum Records in Spring of 2022. Comprising of tracks recorded between 2019 & 2020 the album sees me returning to my trademark mixture of deep Ambient tones & atmospheres with a mix of various electronic music influences with moments of Intricate IDM beats, Dub & downtempo breakbeat etc but with a generous sprinkling of improvised leads and emotive melodic flourishes. Resulting in a rather personal exploration of what it is to be human and triggers memories, feelings & emotions through contemporary & sometimes experimental electronic sound.
Warp20 (Chosen) placed the track selection process in the hands of fans, who voted online with the option to add messages like "This song makes you feel like a proud parent, à la John Hurt in the movie Alien," as reprinted throughout the booklet. The ten tracks (+ bonus track for Japan) that received the most votes make up the first disc. After track five, the disc makes a swift transition from covering exemplary material (Aphex Twin's bent lounge-porn single "Windowlicker," Boards of Canada's eerie yet blissful "Roygbiv"), to looking more like a sampler of recent releases (from Plaid's "Eyen" to Clark's "Herzog," all 2001-2006 territory). The 14 tracks on the second disc were picked by label co-founder Steve Beckett…
Norwegian duo Röyksopp compensated for the cold climes of their native Tromsø by making some of the warmest, most inviting downbeat electronica of the 21st century, exemplified by early tracks like "Eple" and "Poor Leno." The pair, Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge, both grew up in Tromsø and began recording in the early '90s…