The Wire Magazine

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One of the surprises of summer 2003 was the news that the UK em:t label, which folded back in 1998, was being relaunched. The label's releases broadly worked the ambient end of the techno spectrum overlapping with outre sonic experimentaiton and field recordings. All beautifully packaged after a zoological theme. Although ostensibly a new company, em:t continue where they left off with em:t 0003 (em:t 0003CD), desribed as a packaging concept and music 'designed to reward the carefull listener'. The compilation shows their quality control is as strigent as ever. "paralysis" by gregor samsa opens impressively with goshtly voices wafting through a structure sketched out by beginner's piano. International Peoples Gang, meanwhile, return to the label fresh from remixing Beth Orton. "Fireworks", however, is an atomised pop song menaced by unpredictable bleeps of rogue technology, before it ends with a layered concrete section and an English country garden ambience of uneasy tranquility. But the standout "alabama" by Beatsystem, who first recorded for the label in 1992. Over its loping beats, a rootsy
vocal sample vies for space with waves of varispeed vocal babble - close, in fact, to the style Moby premiered on Play, only considerably more imaginative (MB)