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12"
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MINUS 102EP
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JPLS' Voxplosion EP finally reveals key pieces that have woven themselves throughout Richie Hawtin's sets for the past year. "Voxplosion Puss" features an endless vocal statement constantly collapsing in on itself. "Voxplosion Escape" focuses on a conversation regarding one's hopeless, inevitable fate. Radio distortion twists in the background as signature JPLS vocal modulations tear apart. "Voxcycle A" features a gravity-defying bass line and sharp vocal stabs. "Voxcycle B" opens up like a tense computer trying to diagnose its own madness.
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CD
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MINUS 084CD
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This is the second full-length album by JPLS for the M_nus label. The Depths is a collection of complex, challenging compositions that beam in from the depths of the M_nus universe. Fusing classic minimal techno with industrial electronica, he has created a brooding, deep-space opera that needs to be experienced in its epic entirety before individual aspects can be extracted to exploit their dancefloor potential. All JPLS releases are dominated by an underlying concept -- a self-imposed set of values that are stretched to their logical limits and beyond. 2007's Twilite set the tone, containing a set of tracks strictly conceived between the hours of 3 and 5 a.m. Then there was the application of delay and overlays to create a "non-standard" harmonic content and defeat the machines on the Combination EP. This time around, inspiration has been derived from theoretical physics, specifically the idea of sub-sub atomic movement and interaction. During the course of the album, JPLS explores continuous creation, the transformation of sound into energy and the expanding and contracting reaches of space and time. The collection begins with "Reset," a 12 and-a-half minute exercise in construction and deconstruction. The vast soundscape pulses with expectation before a host of mutated percussion starts scything its way across the stereo field. The electro-magnetism and gravitational pull of "Zero Point" creates more elegantly-hewn glaciers of sound that slowly disintegrate into white noise, reforming in different spatial arrangements while the melody slowly fractures into anti-melody. "Displacement" features a relentless kick that beats a path straight through the core of a spinning, turbulent vortex. "Basis" adopts a straighter structure modified by electrified percussion fills -- physical sounds vanish before reappearing in different forms, converting to energy, and then back again. The booming, broken electro of "Fold" twists an undulating bass line in on itself, adding an additional layer of random harmonics to the spectrum before the shuffling triplets of "Collapse" introduces an alien vocal. "Convolution" is a perfectly-executed marriage of stripped-down beats and deep harmonic percussion programming that underlines the unique way JPLS approaches electronic composition. "State" rounds it all off with bleeps and gentle melodies that draw ever closer until they reveal themselves as giants; their residual energy leaving imprints that linger long after disintegration. The album loops perfectly, maintaining its cyclical nature by utilizing the same pads for the end as the beginning. Limited edition of 500 copies.
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12"
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MINUS 057EP
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JPLS returns with more dark, brooding electronics. The urgent repetition of "Fuckshuffle" seems to exist in a million different places at once while the bubbling acid bass worms itself into your head, scribbling odd patterns of thought across your subconscious. "Activatroy" is stripped-down acid techno featuring a dangerous 303 line that morphs and squelches alongside a tripped-out vocal sample. Similarly, "Quasarlude" presents a psychedelic mirage of shimmering sound. Finally, Wax edits the monolithic "Synthesis."
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CD
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MINUS 051CD
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This is the debut full-length release by JPLS. Hot on the heels of his Program EP on M_nus, the man from Indiana returns unscathed with a collection of refreshingly understated techno, penned between the hours of 3-5a.m. and each with a perfectly formulated musical equation at its heart. From the album's onset, as the distant echoes of "twilite 1" reach out like shards of light bending over the horizon, it's clear this journey is not for the faint-hearted. "twilite 3" provides further evidence as JPLS skillfully demonstrates the enduring simplicity of a well crafted bassdrum/hi-hat groove. Along with "twilite 6.1," "6.2" and "4," this is sparse, minimalist expression at its most raw, filled with discordant harmonies that offer beauty and menace in equal measure. Delve deeper and "twilite 8" is simply a revelation: set against an initially disjointed rhythm section, the track suddenly explodes into life in one of the most memorable sequences on the album. As if pounding the cavernous, empty hull of some great vessel, this skillful sound sculpture is guaranteed to send shockwaves across the dancefloor. Further highlights include the playful tones of "green01" (featuring the first of two appearances by Skoozbot), which dishes up all sort of mixing possibilities for the more dexterous DJ. There's a more laid-back house groove in effect here, working in perfect tandem with the urgent subsonic bass line, while the bouncing bleeps punctuate the darkness like fireflies. Similarly, "twilite 7" sheds light on a deeper, more contemplative landscape before the morning sun reclaims the sky and "twilite 9" shuffles lazily to its conclusion amid a deluge of sub bass drops and flickering hi-hats. Sometimes, in the harsh light of day, music can seem awkward, out of place even, but when experienced in the twilite hours they it comes alive, resonating at a frequency that disrupts the thin veil of reality, allowing us to slip through to the other side.
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2LP
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MINUS 051LP
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12"
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MINUS 044EP
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This linear down shift in tempo is a product of the American Midwest by way of Jeremy Jacobs, an Indiana native and adventurer searching for secrets in the spaces within the beat. JPLS's analog attitude is stripped down amongst the ever-growing digital landscape of expanding sound fields. Recording as JPLS with recent net releases on Clever and Redevice, he made his first Minus appearance on 2006's min2MAX compilation. The sound falls into a range of dub-punched techno while under the minimal aesthetic from the top down. "Program 1" sets precedent for bass and distortion, "Program 3" bumps and pans around unpadded walls, and "Program 2," is a ten-minute throb that echoes with dulled-snares, muted hi-hats and tone pulses.
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