A stunning first full-length for the
Pritchard
/
Middleton
duo,
A Collection of Short Stories
charted the dark side of the ambient-techno coin long before many had been turned on to the music at all. Alternating the automated-machinery chug of tracks like
"Teq"
and
"Ahn"
with more sweeping (but similarly dark) moods on
"Peschi,"
"Rota Link"
"1642 Try 621,"
the album provides the soundtrack to a night in a possessed auto factory; hissing steam and banging metallic percussion punctuate the moods effectively, while an included book of short stories gives the music a focus if desired. Even the lighter, dreamier side which would later appear on
Global Communication
releases is given airtime on the ethereal
"Le Soleil Et La Mer."
Unjustly slept on when first released by Infonet,
was reissued in America in 1997. ~ John Bush