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LP
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UME 003LP
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James Devane returns with another adept investigation into minimal techno's spaces in between. Searching serves as both companion to Beauty is Useless (UME 001LP, 2022) and the next logical step in James' exploration of process as guiding compositional tool. Conceptually simple, technically robust, the end result elicits both an undeniable groove and a trove of detail for listeners willing to go deep. In his own words: "These recordings are the result of chance. Using hours of source material, everything was 'chosen,' manipulated, and assembled at random via custom software without concern for key, tempo, measures, or rhythm. A search button and a save button."
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2LP
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UME 002LP
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Restokced. Stephan Mathieu's FrequencyLib was originally released in 2001 on Mille Plateaux's Ritornell sub-label. A quintessential document of the late 1990s/early 2000s Pismo PowerBook era of digitally manipulated audio, FrequencyLib is an adept meditation on the entropic possibilities inherent in popular music. Included with this reissue is the complementary Sad Mac Studies EP -- first issued in a run of 100 on Robert Meijer's boutique En/Of label. Exploring similar themes/processes as FrequencyLib, Sad Mac Studies reimagines and deconstructs the sonic world of Sesame Street.
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LP
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UME 001LP
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Though Beauty is Useless is only his second solo record, James Devane has been producing and performing music for over two decades, both in isolation and collaboratively (most notably as his duo En with Maxwell August Croy). While his first record (self-titled on Bremsstrahlung) explored digital manipulation of guitar-based loops, Beauty finds Devane replacing the computer processing and aural landscape projection for a couple vintage keyboards, modular based effects, and most notably, a drum machine. Evoking elements of German minimal techno, Beauty is a rich, focused discovery of process and restraint where less is refreshingly more.
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