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12"
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SIGMA 007
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"For those familiar with the output of Vladislav Delay it should be obvious upon hearing Conoco's Kemikoski that this is another product from Delay's Helsinki studio. Conoco is, in fact, the name that Delay was making music under before any of his music had been released and the tracks constituting Kemikoski (Koski, Keppi and Ventola) are recent reworkings of material first developed in 1996/1997. Chronologically Kemikoski could be placed either as the first or last release in Delay's discography but stylistically it fits more comfortably between The Kind of Blue EP (Huume, 1997) and his debut full length release Ele (Sigma, 1999). The tracks 'Koski' and 'Keppi', in particular, share many of the same interests that Delay explored with Ele, from the length of the tracks, 20 and 16 minutes respectively, to their methods of construction. These two tracks hint at consistent beats more than they hold them and when the rhythm is allowed to solidify its deconstruction begins again almost immediately. Delay's refusal to 'ground' the music could be seen as an attempt to evade the hypnotism of techno and the refusal to leave the music free enough to float, an attempt to evade the dreamy and disinterested listening state encouraged by ambient music. As with Ele a strong dub influence is evoked by the immersive quality of the delay soaked sounds. With 'Ventola' Delay's concerns shift towards those of The Kind of Blue EP and to a lesser extent his 1999 release on Chain Reaction. Here a jaunty and jaundiced techno is experimented with. If techno has been typified by a kind of health, an ease of production, listenability and danceability (the proliferation of minimal techno in recent years would seem to support this view) then it is only natural that some producers are embracing an unhealthy state where even the most basic tenets of techno are repeatedly attacked and weakened. Delay is certainly among the techno producers who show little regard (or is it, in fact, the highest regard?) for the tradition of techno. The tradition is used as the base for formulating the parameters of an experimentalism that necessarily calls for the negation of that tradition. An outright dismissal of everything developed within the tradition would be as senseless as an uncritical acceptance of it and it is for this reason that even in this 'impoverished' form it still resembles, and warrants the name, techno."
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