Pre-set control for the machine’s heart

Once upon a time, more than thirty years ago, Electronic music was viewed as the future of popular entertainment, expected to invade charts and destroy all the stupid popsters… in the ears of a few avant-garde minded reporters of the time. Although it has influenced a lot of other genres, provided an endless inspiration and a load of samples for an army of ‘artistes’, it has all but dwelt underground over the past... well, most of its time frame.

‘New Electronic Music’, man-machine tunes, nu-Krautrock, cyber-schlagers, technorganic music, call it what you will, we are talking application of science to relay impressions, emotions, soul and the rest. What this album is definitely not is electro-pop collection but a timely reminder that there are intriguing ‘alien’-noises out there in spite of the dispirited mainstream. These dozen songs are nu-el music for another lost generation…

Not much on ‘Pre-set’ to sing-along (not that we like to) or start whistling instantly – that’s so tedious, anyway… And yet, this is not on the seriously experimental side that nears dissonance – and in all my years of reporting only one act has achieved that totally, ‘The Wreckers Of Civilisation’, Throbbing Gristle – but cuts that strive to idiom-ize and instruct bionic music for bio-robots we all are. With varying degree of success a compilation of this ilk predictably presents.

This Permanent Now starts the parade with ‘No.7’ in a sombre mood, all clicks and atmo, for Displacer to follow it with a more sci-fi tuneful ‘Deep’; a few songs later X*S Club offer ‘French F**k’ of miasmic proportions although the outfit’s name is too near to, something like, ex-S Club (Seven, that is); rethink, people!

Bunnyhug’s ‘Napalm Girl’ is more Brit-trad electro, where treated vocal is backed with jolly, playful, poppy minimalism. Then, there is Jody K Jenkins’s ‘Pluck’ (which brings us to – not enough budding Laurie Andersons around?), a cut that plucks along enthusiastically with filigree-like keyboard- touches, kind of Tangerine-Dream-on-speed cool.

There are some inclusions here, like ‘doppelganger’ by Andrew Steele, that has too much of a funky beat to be included here, while Cursor Miner’s ‘pressedretina’ makes the transition between funk and elektronika to evoke the spirit of the great DAF, for the difference from the T.E.M.P.’s ‘+1 [4:01 edit]’ that is simply a fan’s ‘letter’ to the original ‘Deutsche Welle’.

The best name here is Evil Mousepad and its song is also interestingly entitled, ‘The Mustard Sniffer’: mode is as important as content and humour is healthy.

Is there a spirit in the machine? On this evidence, it just might be… in the operators. Certainly much more than a welcome addition to any discerning Krautrockist’s precious collection.

8/10