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Prefiguring the Cologne/Berlin axis of microelectronic composition by several years, the scores for Dumb Type's international installations beg to be rediscovered and reexamined in the light of recent e-music developments. A sophisticated and sedate stripe of techno is at the core of many of these beautiful miniatures, but the die-mark of Detroit - or of any European derivation thereof - is generally absent from the ingenious arrangements. Dumb Type orchestrators Toru Yamanaka and the late Teiji Furuhashi have instead alchemized their sparkling sound from the tenets of ambient music, particularly those gleaned from the canon of Brian Eno, and the visionary studio-manipulated pop of Art Of Noise. The punctillious detail of Yamanaka and Furuhashi's music is rendered by Ryoji Ikeda, a producer whose profound respect for space and volume lends mesmerizing clarity to these still-clairvoyant glimpses into electronica's near-future.