A Collection of Short Stories

1993-4 was perhaps the classic era for UK electronica floating in the outerzone between rave, techno, chillout and experimentalism. WARP’s Artificial Intelligence series, The Future Sound of London at their peak, Orbital’s second album, and so much in the Megadog / ambient dub zone were pouring forth albums. And of all of the records in this movement, the one with the most range was probably this from Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton. A little more Mark — Reload had been his alias first — but with enough Tom to make it almost as much of a duo as their Global Communication and Jedi Knights releases. It touches on Detroit techno, luscious jazz breakbeat, ambient throb, distant echoes of industrial, distorted aggro-rave as weird as anything by Tom’s first musical partner Aphex Twin, sometimes all in the same track — and even if you’re familiar with it, it can still surprise you with its twists and turns even now.