FOUNDATIONS: SPACETIME CONTINUUM / EMIT ECAPS
A treasure trove of ethereal, groove-laden electronica.
Friends.
I had a down month, but we’re back in the groove and will be gracing your inbox every week for the forseeable.
As you know, we’re relaying the Foundations. There’s much work to do, and I’m delighted to be joined in this endeavour by my good buddy Stefan, who I will properly introduce you to in due course.
For now, he’s brought some music. And they are absolute belters.
Love.
Spacetime Continuum is a production alias of eminent Scotsman, Johan Sharp, owner of the hugely influential Reflective Records known for its incredible music and beautiful holographic artwork.
This week we want to highlight his third album release, which arrived in 1996.
Emit Ecaps
NB: this version is from Virgin Records for the Japanese market (Discogs page here), which is slightly different to the original (Discogs page here / Hardwax for clips), but no less excellent.
It’s evident that the amount of thought, time and technique that went into this album is staggering. Whether listening for the first time or revisiting, it always brings forth a true ’90s experience: for me, this means creative freedom - a rare thing these days which needs to return, in my humble opinion.
Tune in for ten pieces of electronica perfection across the full range of genres. Intoxicating rhythmic bliss interlaced with beautiful patterns and atmospheres, sometimes other-wordly sounds are dropped in, which only adds depth to this magnificent production: simply music for your heart and soul.
Favourites: the whole album. Simm City
It is worth noting that the first release on this label is Spacetime Continuum - Flurescence EP, with only 500 originals pressed, and it is of equal, unequivocal importance as Emir Caps.
Transmitter:
Flurescence:
It is worth checking the rest of this label here, for some of the early productions of some great San Francisco-based artists.
Until the next one, I will leave you with this beauty:
Peace and love.
Stef
I wrote three paragraphs and they got deleted when I clicked on "accept cookies", damn you substack. Let's rewrite them.
I love this one. I love this album and the ones you keep on writing about. There is something uniquely IDM or Warp records about it, with Simm City being a very B12 track when B12 sounded out of fashion and repellent, too Cubase-on-Amiga, too nerdy, too videogame-y. I love Kairo and how it is drum n bass but it does not punch with the rhythm and the build up just deconstruct the keyboard stubs into a bit of chaos. I love the polyrhithmic tracks and the 4/4 ones. That mix of the ambient spacey Jonah Sharp and the experimentation is so free, mostly because it defies going to what a genre should sound like, how punchy and catchy it should be, and it does not shame itself on being pretty and complex (even when the mixing is not too obvious, with the synths sounding very synth-y), which is something that for me made electronic music since the 00s a bit more boring generally.
Remit Recaps is also fantastic btw.