An experimental collection featuring electronic artists connected to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
13-song 12″ vinyl limited to 150 copies on black vinyl w/download codes.
Tracklisting:
- Brandon Logic – Parapraxis
- Valcove – Supplicant
- Tarek Sabbar – By Night
- Masturbating Ape – Ape Shall Touch Ape
- Pressboard – p and q
- Marc Ferch & Kevin Kosmeder – Cash Cow
- Marc Ferch & Skye Sell – Stupidity is Infinite
- Nicholas Elert – Through Supersonic Years
- Hot Science – Edible Tuxedo
- j.mccoy – truths and principles of being
- Wavefiler – Sights
- PSYDYE – Hallucinations XIX – XXXV [Brett Naucke] Double Remix
- ontonomy – teenage.lullaby
produced by Steven Zydek + Martin Defatte
mastered by Justin Perkins at Mystery Room Mastering
cover illustration by Kendraplex
New generations of electronic musicians have sprung up, stimulated by the many possibilities enabled by 21st century technology but aware of the legacy of their predecessors in the 20th century.
It’s a worldwide phenomenon spreading below the pop culture radar, cultivated by dedicated enthusiasts—geeks even—and Milwaukee has a reputation as home to a thriving number of them. Milwaukee-based Starling produces modular synthesizers and few cities have an equivalent of Modular Addict, a Bayview storefront that sells DIY modular synth kits and parts, where electronic music-makers gather periodically to demonstrate and discuss their synthesizers and sound engines. Half of the musicians represented on Wired Explorations Vol. 1 have participated in those Modular Addict events.
The aesthetic roots for much of the Milwaukee-made music gathered on this anthology will be audible to anyone who’s paid attention to electronica over the decades. Robot rhythms reminiscent of Kraftwerk slide across an icy glaze suggesting Tangerine Dream (the aural reflection of Milwaukee in winter?) to meet the splice-and-dissonance foretold by Faust and looping melodies Philip Glass might appreciate.
The difference between this music’s progenitors and their present-day proponents begins with the tolerant eclecticism of the artists, their rootedness in the DIY ethic of punk and hip-hop and their multiple modes of creation. Digital melds with analog on Wired Explorations Vol. 1, rehabbed synthesizers from years ago and homemade modifications are juxtaposed with music made on laptops or the amazing OP-Z, a handheld device that fulfills Kraftwerk’s prophecy of music generated entirely on a “Pocket Calculator.”
—David Luhrssen, Managing Editor, Shepherd Express