lockers

various artists

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2000 LP (locked-grooves)

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reviews

“A truly interactive, involving experience... A must-have.”— Incursion

Incursion

Here is a very inviting release comprised of a massive collection of artists, an unprecedented amount of tracks, and all with a nice homegrown feel to it. Here we have an LP with 162 individual locked grooves contained within. Wow. Talk about a wide selection. There are fewer contributing artists than 162, as many have supplied multiple loops/locks for the purpose of this release. Among the roster are: Radboud Mens, Twilight Circus Sound System, Merzbow, Zion Train, S.E.T.I., DJ Spooky: That Subliminal Kid, Goem, John Duncan, Zbigniew Karkowski, Stilluppsteypa, Artificial Memory Trace, and numerous others.

Each locked groove contained on this LP is very short, probably no longer than two seconds of material each, yet the good ones can sustain interest for minutes at a time (or longer, though I haven't been quite so brave as to let them linger into the hours...). Musical styles covered range from pure noise to pulsating sines to breakbeat to dubstyle to clicks, pops, and everything in between. The recurring 'theme' seems to be the dub tracks, and with due reason -- they work very well in this rigid repetitive environment.

It's funny how when you begin listening a particular loop and it sounds one way, a way you think can not change in your brain because you know the locked groove is just that, but then a transformation occurs somehow, and you hear the loop in a different way, with entirely new elements that mysteriously become apparent. One track which this happened to me was #45 on Side A, by Studio X called "The Shortcut". At first, it's a basic, peppy industrial loop, and then I noticed "the voice", which seemed to get louder and louder. Strange.

At first it's very difficult (nay, impossible) to follow the track listing provided on the sleeve as to who created each loop, but then you notice the spacing of the grooves on the record, which have been grouped into slabs of ten very tightly woven clusters.

Granted, not every loop here is a gem, some you will bypass rather quickly if they don't click with you, and that's guaranteed. Some grate, some pierce, some placate, but overall it's a most intriguing collection. There are some brilliant ones here: Laughing Stock impress with a full-sounding jam, Stilluppsteypa trick your ears quite nicely, Artificial Memory Trace fire seven at you in short succession, and Francisco Lopez is up to his usual inaudible tricks.

A truly interactive, involving experience, and much more enticing than any like-minded digital venture could ever hope to achieve. A must-have. —VMD