News From The Past maintains Gimmik’s lighthearted aesthetic and playful nature but also with his signature gritty edge.
One of Haidinger’s most contagious productions to date
Toytronic Records—a name that became synonymous with electro and IDM in the late 90’s and early aughts, made a long lasting impression with their distinct catalog. Classic releases from the likes of Ochre, Mr. Projectile, Loess, Miles Tilmann, Point 7, and of course the prolific Martin Haidinger who was involved in numerous projects. But sadly, all good things must come to an end, and towards the end of Toytronic’s epic run there was a little known CD-R release titled News From The Past by Gimmik. The disc featured a handful of previously unreleased tracks, and gave us a small look into archive material from Gimmik. Fast forward about 16 years to 2022, and n5MD gives this obscure release a well deserved make over; presenting an expanded version of the material in digital, and LP formats.
What was originally just a six track EP, the digital adaptation of News From The Past grew to 15 tracks, essentially giving a much broader retrospective of what must be a massive amount of material from the Gimmik archives. Below is a breakdown of which tracks appear on which release to clear things up:
“Modulated Youth” and “Running for Headroom” are a couple of the more modern works found on this compilation—and both would work quite well on either Cloudwalker or Sonic Poetry but instead find their way onto this release. “Grainshaper” also fits the bill as a more recent production that perhaps was overlooked or cast aside when forming the previously mentioned album track listing. Loads of intriguing elements on these songs—all of which have the trademark sonic features that Gimmik is known for. The title track is potentially worth the price of admission on its own. Squelched acid basslines merge with crisp electro rhythms and voice samples doused with fuzzy vocoder are also scattered throughout the mix. All of this sums to form what could be one of Haidinger’s most contagious productions to date. “Insight,” which is more of a slow burner, has a similar set of components. Woozy, evolving TB-303 lines colliding with steady electro grooves that will make you move your feet. “Der Kleine Mann Im Mond” and “Scope” serve well as a segue to the digital bonus tracks, or as a conclusion to the LP version.
This collection of tracks from the past work very well together and basically just feel like a brand new album although the songs are all from different phases of Haidinger’s career. News From The Past maintains Gimmik’s lighthearted aesthetic and playful nature but also with his signature gritty edge.
News From The Past is available on n5MD. [Site | Bandcamp]
