em:t 0003

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The ambient fan's answer to the second coming. After having been moribund for five years, the em:t series is back.

Between 1994 and 1998, em:t (pronounced "emit"), an off-shoot of house label Time Recordings, produced seventeen CDs embracing the broadest possible spectrum of everything ambient. The gorgeously designed digipaks all featured animals on their covers: frogs for instance graced all the compilations, which aside from the two classic solo albums by Woob, are prehaps the label's most noteworthy releases. And then, just as it had firmly established itself as the most adventuresome chronicler of electronic music's passage into digital abstraction, it went bankrupt, a victim, according to its director, of the narrow-mindedness of both the retail marketeers and the music press.

The em:t series was full to the brim with optimism, pushing the ambient/house envelope to the bursting point, constantly changing identities without losing its own distinctiveness. Telephone terrorist Scanner joined Woob, soundsculpters Russell Mills and Carl Stone.... The label even introduced a brilliant songstress named Slim, who in the present reviewer's mind could have given the likes of Erykah Badu a serious run for her money, and who seems to have disappeared without a trace since. Em:t was unpredicatable and nigh on unclassifiable. Where far too much electronic music, with its purposeful low-keyedness, betrays a low level of passion, em:t's artists provoked introspection in its listening public - mental stimulus instead of mild narcotic. In sum, its contribution to ambient was as important to the eighties as Brian Eno's was for the seventies.

The demise of em:t came as a shock to its loyal followers, who seemed almost to go through withdrawal as the fact that the source had dried up finally sunk in. Like Elvis sightings, rumours of its resurrection popped up on various discussion lists with regularity. However, Elvis finally entered the building when Matt Hall of Nottingham announced that the label was indeed making a comeback. And here finally is the living proof.

'em:t 0003' reintroduces the series in the same design form as before. Three artists return from previous compilations, Beatsystem, International Peoples Gang and High Skies (a name change from Gas, probably to avoid being mixed up with one of Mike Ink's noms-de-musique). Beatsystem even reference their em:t pedigree on their cut, "Alabama", borrowing a John Cage sample from the opening track from their own em:t solo CD, the second-last of the previous series' incarnation. Fresh artists are as plentiful as the samples dotting the compilation, from the lovely (and non-electronic) opener "Paralysis" by Gregor Samsa, to the short, ominous closer "Savannah" by Mia.

Here's hoping that the resurrected em:t enjoys a longer life than its precursor. And that it dedicates itself to the expansion of the genre. A lively pair of websites (http://www.emitrecords.net, http://www.emit.cc) keep visitors informed of current happens as well as providing them with an exhaustive history of its first incarnation.