EM:T0004 - VARIOUS ARTISTS (EM:T)
October 11th, 2004 by susanna
With record shop shelves awash with uninspiring collections of downtempo music, seemingly designed as soundtracks to shopping, shampooing or DIY, it’s good to welcome back one record label that consistently offers well curated and mixed selections of new, original and good electronic music. The brave and good people of em:t have always managed to offer something far beyond the usual bland ambient noodles served up with a dollop of the latest production nick-nack that fill most record store shelves and TV show soundtracks. This compilation of new material from the label follows on from last year’s em:t0003, which marked their return to the fray after years of complete dormancy. Under completely new ownership and direction the trick for the new em:t was going to be matching the breathtaking quality of the label’s previous incarnation whilst taking the label forward into new territory. I’m happy to say that the early signs are looking good.
Listening to em:t0003 you could have been forgiven for thinking that em:t had just rolled on in the background, so effortless was the return to producing cutting-edge, original and beautifully produced down tempo electronic music. Now this second compilation is ready to shimmy, glide and waft through both speakers and consciousness. The blueprint hasn’t changed much, it’s the usual blend of alternately snapping and lazy grooves, exotic soundscapes and meticulous production, but nearly every track on here has its own unique personality and essence, and it’s that quality that sets em:t’s output, and that of a handful of other labels, apart from the others.
The compilation kicks off with Pueblo Bonito’s smouldering and brooding is it? giving way to the angry bassline of Red Leb’s freezebee which then glides into the dubby bubbles of Andy Hughes’ (he of the Orb) antiilia. You get the picture - this compilation is a walk through a dozen moods, each different, each segueing perfectly with the others with the quality level rarely dropping below the ‘very good’ mark. The highlight of the CD for me is High Skies’ burning buildings - mysterious and moving, lightly swung drums heard through a warping haze of smoke and heat, vapour trails swirling through the mix - having produced so much fine stuff for the original em:t (as Gas and Milan) it’s great to hear them again on this label, not missing a step.
There is perhaps a slight lull in the proceedings in the middle of the compilation where things become a little less distinctive and more homogenous but later gems such as the mournful piano of Farfield’s lure of time and the alternately gloopy and soaring optimism of Jiva’s gel-sol which rounds of the set are worth the purchase price on their own.
If you like em:t’s previous output, buy this album. If you’ve never heard anything the label has put out, grab a listen at your next opportunity and even if the music doesn’t persuade you, you could frame and hang the gorgeous-as-ever artwork and still feel that you’d got yourself a bargain.
Jez Wells
em:t0004 is out now on em:t
