CI8 is another fine international assortment that delves full-throttle into creative musical excavations. Rugged sound design, broken beats, blissful ambient undertones, glitched emissions, and memorable tracks from start to end, I’m very pleased to hear Neo Ouija grow into its 19-yrs on this circular cosmic spot as it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
I’ve grown alongside Neo Ouija for several years and always had a fascination for an array of IDM in the mid/late 90s from small imprints across the globe. Neo Ouija was the outfit of choice for me in the year 2000, which coincidentally is the same year Igloo Magazine opened its doors. The UK-based label shined the spotlight on a range of curious sonic explorers who quickly became some of my favorites of the scene (ie. Bauri, Chatterbox, Deru, Funckarma, Hermann & Kleine, Kettel, Sense, Xela et al)—with Lee Norris steering the mighty ship as label operator (while also producing as Nacht Plank, Norken, and Metamatics). Norris pretty much scooped-up the finest in the land and begun to release several exciting titles of that time period.
Cottage Industries was one such creative outlet and an ongoing compilation series synonymous with high-quality, brittle, and infinitely abstract electronic music. The label traversed vast electrical sound-fields, attracting a myriad of musicians (both known and unknown) that gravitated toward emotive IDM iterations while neighboring labels such as City Centre Offices, deFocus, Delsin, Dot, n5MD, Merck, spa.RK, Suction, and Toytronic (to name just a few) were simultaneously expanding their catalogs along the way. Certainly a highlight of pioneering IDM from yesteryear, Neo Ouija stayed on-track—even with a slight hiatus in 2006—as they retooled and rewound their mission statement to the present day.
Cottage Industries 8 continues in the tried and true formula of simply cultivating and nurturing their relationships with early and current sound sculptors. Blending and bending the envelope, CI8 is everything you’ve come to enjoy (and expect) from the label—brittle melodies balanced against articulated beats, subtle rhythms expanding among fractured clicks, blips, and bleeps. Warm bass lines cascade among ambient flurries as a captivating dose of abstract electronic music pulses with a heartbeat. 28 pieces with contributions from Attrakta, BLN, Christ., Dub Tractor, Dude (remember “Wave” from the fantastic Neurokinetic compilation on Toytronic in the year 2000?), Exm, (Ghost), Midimode, Milieu, Min-Y-Llan (remixed by Karsten Pflum), The Gasman, and Roel Funcken—among many more.
CI8 is another fine international assortment that delves full-throttle into creative musical excavations. Rugged sound design, broken beats, blissful ambient undertones, glitched emissions, and memorable tracks from start to end, I’m very pleased to hear Neo Ouija grow into its 19-yrs on this circular cosmic spot as it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
Cottage Industries 8 is available on Neo Ouija.
