Articles
2007 Ten Favourite Labels
Backtracking Greg Davis
Shackleton Interview

Albums
John Luther Adams
Joseph Auer
Commix
Dartriix
Floratone
Furniture
Shuta Hasunuma
Richard Hawley
Hologram
Icarus
Kiln
Kobol
Labradford
Last Days
M83
Mai
Darren McClure
Near the Parenthesis
David Newlyn
Objekt4
OK Ikumi
Ontayso
Wendel Patrick
Phon°noir
Pocahaunted / Robedoor
Poostosh
Prefuse 73
Quosp
Rapoon
The Retail Sectors
Skull Disco
Socos
Supersilent
Tigrics
Trentemøller
Zuydervelt / Baars / Veld.

Compilations/Mixes
Airport Symphony
Devil in the Detail
Dinky
EXPANSION | contraction
Funckarma
Little Darla v. 25
One Five Zero
Playgroup / Alter Ego
Signal Path
Soul Jazz Singles
U-cover Mix 03 [IDM]
Ricardo Villalobos
We Are All Cotton-Hearted
Well Deep

3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
Basic Unit
Bodycode
Kit Clayton & Sutekh
Dartriix
Ditch
INKlings
Insanic4
Lackluster
Najem Sworb
Ontayso
Sutekh
The Tamborines
Telafonica
Zainetica

VA: We Are All Cotton-Hearted
mü-nest

Malaysia-based mü-nest's We Are All Cotton-Hearted features twenty-five beatific electronic pop lullabies (most of them previously unreleased) that effortlessly transport one back to a trouble-free childhood realm. Though the term ‘easy-listening' conventionally carries a pejorative connotation, the term accurately conveys the collection's accessible character.

Contributors hail from China, Belgium, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, France, and, primarily, Japan but, interestingly, a healthy number of Audio Dregs artists appear, including label founder E*Rock (“Living, Breathing, Etc”), The Grace Period (“Best of Boston”), Supersprite (“Farewell Cosmo”), and Dim Dim (“Chooby”), with the US imprint's extroverted playfulness a colourful complement to the We're All Cotton-Hearted sensibility. Of course, the Audio Dregs-mü-nest connection is most naturally embodied by the inclusion of Japan-based Lullatone whose “Good Morning Melody” is a nicely representative example of Shawn James Seymour and Yoshimi Tomida's ‘pajama pop.' In addition, Park Avenue Music ( US duo Wes Steed and Jeanette Faith) contribute a piano-based reverie “Piet” that's as pretty as anything else on the collection.

Accompanied by sweetly singing strings, Piana's child-like voice whispers in one's ear in the ultra-pretty opener “Ancient Note,” and sets the tone for the equally lovely material that follows. Throughout, toy pianos, glockenspiels, music boxes, and electronics imbue the material with an innocent aura. Nara 's (Tan Shuoxin) “Auto Auto” would lull even the most sleep-resistant child off to Never-Never Land , and “IHI” by Flau's Aus (Yasuhiko Fukuzono) and Cokiyu is dreamy too. Simulated steel drums brighten the already-sunny melodies of miroque's “Botanical Sunset Paradise,” while Yasushi Yoshida's “Individual Regression”—as slow and stately as a funeral procession—offers a rare somber moment. Plus there are gorgeous pop songs by France-based Melodium (“Ballad”), China 's Kulyfile's (“Xi”), and Malaysian artists muxu (“Journey to the City”) and Kaa (“Ki”).

A few eyebrow-raising moments occur—Kazumasa Hashimoto's otherwise pretty “Sweet End” inexplicably includes a soulful vocal turn by Todd Kendrick, Asana's electronic-post-rock fusion (a cinq remix of “Summer Snow”) feels jarring in this largely mellow context, and Taiwan's Lim Giong weighs in with an anomalous, fifteen-minute episodic travelogue (“Marching Forward”) that's more hallucinatory, electro-acoustic collage than song—but, generally speaking, We're All Cotton-Hearted registers as an oft-magical collection.

December 2007