DISTINCTION
Minidisc
Gescom
The first distinction goes to GESCOM, the Entlish trio of producers Rob Brown, Sean Booth and the designer/artist Russell Haswell for MiniDisc. Firstly for its innovation - MiniDisc is the world´s first independendtly produced Mini-Disc only release. The second deciding factor is that GESCOM is the alter ego of Booth and Brown, who record together as the immensely influential Autechre, the duo whose non-linear programming and extreme digital signal processing pioneered the post techno world of glitch and microsound we now inhabit.
Following several short releases minidisc is Gescom’s only full length release. It is a celebration/critique of the format both in terms of it’s immediate aesthetic and the technical and mathematical limitations it imposes on its users.
Reviews
“Of course Minidisc is another attempt to exploit the market of digitalia, after CD, DAT, DCC, and of course it has added some gadgets: you can have many more track numbers on a disc, it's easier to use in loop mode, or shuffle the information. Therefore I doubt whether many people who actually own a minidisc player will have it hooked in their home stereo system, or packed next to their records for tonight's DJ set … Nevertheless this is the first official independent minidisc only release (and I'm sure it will be bootlegged to CDR by those who think that the format is just a waste of money) (Yep, you're right there, Franky —MP), and it's not hand copied, but factory manufactured. Gescom, as we all know, is one of the alter ego's of those very intelligent technoids Autechre (my favorite in this field). So far I've heard the odd piece, and a dancy 12", but this is altogether something different. The 88 tracks are quite short, and very noisy. Occasionally it hints at something, that may be a beat . . . but it's rare. Knowing that this is released by OR, we are not surprised it sounds like Farmers Manual or Pita—the Viennese abuser of digital media. Of course I tried looping some tracks (as the minidisc is better capable of performing that than the CD) and it worked fine. No doubt this minidisc will appeal to the adventurous DJ's (I'm not) and that bootleg copies will be made to CDR (the other exciting new medium) for home consuming (Right again, Franky - MP). If the shuffle modes of previous CD's by Jos Smolders, Farmers Manual or Otomo Yoshide appealed to you, then this is another treasure-trove of sounds.”
VITAl (The Netherlands)
“Autechre have a second album out this month, this time in their Gescom guise, and it's definitely the better release. As it's only available on MiniDisc, Autechre/Gescom completists will have to shell out for a MiniDisc player, too, if they want to hear it. Gescom are undoubtedly aware of the MiniDisc “wow” factors—like the title scrolling across the LED screen while the track is playing; what next, bouncing ball singalong texts?—but they've also investigated how the MD's digital compression of information might affect the sound. You don't need to know the psychoacoustics of the thing to enjoy it, though. If some of the disc's 45 tracks (spread over 88 cue points) are little more than spare parts from the Autechre toolkit, parts of MiniDisc are as good as anything they’ve done: the blue hour meditations of “Shoegazer” and “Dan Dan Dan”; the compacted perforations of “Is We” and “Vermin”; the envelope folds and sugar twists of “Wab Wat” and “Squashed To Pureness”. A consistently astounding range of effects, treatments and transformations here give GESCOM a leg up into the realm of such studio alchemists as Coil or Luc Ferrari.”
The Wire (UK)
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