Strategy

Albums
Bird Show
CacheFlowe
Caroline
Considerate Builders
Dday One
DJ Olive
Dub Tractor
Jimmy Edgar
Exillon
Four Tet
Guitar
Halma
Landesvatter
Don Limpio
Mariel Ito
Matinée Orchestra
Maximo Park
Mikkel Metal
Ms. John Soda
Music A.M.
Naing Naing
Nightmares On Wax
No Move. No Sound
Pillow
Ghislain Poirier
Prefuse 73
randomNumber
Rec_Overflow
Mike Shannon
.tape.
Wechsel Garland
Zucchini Drive

Compilations/Mixes
Check the Water
Futurism Ain't Shit
Idol Tryouts Two
I Love Techno
Kiki
Machine Drum
Steve Porter
Satoshie Tomiie
SRL
Quality Elect. Music

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
aitänna77
Jonas Bering
The Blow
Cepia
Clipd Beaks
DaFluke
Direwires
Drop the Lime
Florent
Honig/Packard
Infinite Scale
Midwest Product
Mufo
Office-(R)6
The Orb/Rice Twins
saidsound/Krilll.minima Scorn-Fury
Solenoid
Miles Tilmann
K F Whitman
Why?

Miles Tilmann: Xenon EP
Consumers Research & Development

While not wishing to collapse a label's stylistic breadth into too simple an equation, IDM (Signaldrift, Miles Tilmann) appears to be the third apex of Consumers' triangle with instrumental hip-hop (Innerstance.beatbox) and post-rock (The Timeout Drawer) the other two. Tilmann's an old hand at this sort of thing, having previously issued material on Toytronic (the 12-inch 3D Concepts), sub:marine (Underland CD), and Consumers itself (the 10-inch Over and Through) but, significantly, the 18-minute Xenon EP is his first substantial release in two years.

Fans of 'Robot Music' artists like Solvent and Lowfish will find much to like about the disc, specifically Tilmann's streaming synth sparkle, handclap accents, and bubbly drum machine beats. Still, while the disc's three “Xenon” pieces (variations of a track on the forthcoming Yes & No album) are satisfying exercises in fluid atmospherics and crisp beat sculpting (check out the lush Xenon (Edit) with its serpentine bass stream, wiry melodies, and snappy snare breaks, and the spindly dub-funk haze of “Xenon (Flame)”), the EP's most entrancing moments emerge via the gleaming machine bliss of “Bots” and sweetly loping electro-funk groove of “Wrong Move.”

March 2006