Various - Night Owls 01

Various - Night Owls 01 (Deluxe Records, DLX011CD, 2001) (320)

01  Esa Ruoho - Molies 1 (24/11/00)
02  Aspic - Mr. Ouik
03  Parts:Places - Untitled No. 8
04  Solid Objects - It Was In Middle Of Lake
05  Eblake - Nachtmusik
06  Solid Objects - It Was In Middle Of Mountain
07  Llips - Out Of Reach (Electric Birds Remix)
08  Dietrich Schoenemann - Interwinds
09  Etherdrag - Subway Trolls
10  Esa Ruoho - Molies 2 (24/11/00)
11  Electric Birds - Autofibre
12  Starfish Pool - Sleepless
13  Chessie - The Firefly

Info:

Deluxe Records presents Night Owls 01 - the first volume in a compilation series of nocturnal mood music; not to fall asleep to, but a nocturne that awakens as it evolves. From lush, vivid dreams to dark hallucinatory nightmares, the Night Owls appear, taking shape in various forms of dark, textural electronic listening music. The first volume features 13 exclusive tracks from: Esa Ruoho (aka Lackluster), Llips, Electric Birds, Starfish Pool, Chessie, Eblake, Dietrich Schoenemann, Aspic, Parts:Places, Solid Objects and Etherdrag.      

The Deluxe label's Night Owls 01 compiles the work of some of abstract techno's relatively unknown quantities in a fashion that entirely befits its name. While it's a bit louder than the output of Taylor Deupree's like-minded 12K label, the contributions to Night Owls 01 are also deafeningly understated. As each track seems to straddle the space between consciousness and unconsciousness, you can imagine the types of sounds present here; heavily treated blips and samples, softly spliced together under the digital scalpel of Pro Tools and the like. Not to say that all are completely made of ones and zeroes. Some choice compositions from Chessie and Llips actually include quite a few acoustic elements. What can be said about all of the songs, though, is that they're sparse and slow, clicks & cuts-type collages that allow themselves plenty of time to develop. In rare cases, some give themselves a little too much time, though. Still, rarely does one track rise about another as all comfortably flow together without a beginning or ending, truly making for moody night music. Generally, this is a gorgeous record that delivers the goods of a promising label. If nothing else, it serves as the perfect sampler of few of abstract electronic music's formidable new talents.