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Baker's Dozen

Burn Again: Lawrence English's Favourite Albums
Kate Hennessy , November 19th, 2015 10:52

After celebrating Room40's 15th birthday, the label head and ambient composer pauses in his hometown of Brisbane to go from Swans to Japanese court music in taking Kate Hennessy through his 13 "foundational" records

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Techno Animal - Demonoid
This choice stems from my continued respect for Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick for their respective outputs. Several of Kevin Martin's projects have resonated very heavily with me over the years. The second Ice record, for example, still flaws me and is one of my favourite hip-hop records. And the new King Midas Sound/Fennesz edition is breathtaking in its beauty.

The way Martin, and others, have been involved in interrelated projects that evolve and unfold over time was an inspiration to me. It showed me there was a trajectory for this kind of work.

The second reason for choosing Demonoid concerns a point in time for electronic music which really resonated for me. When this album emerged the remix was evolving as an art form. You do still hear that vitality in various remixes today but back when Demonoid was released, the remix was about incursion and about artists cutting into the very fabric of their colleagues' work. At least that's what I sensed was happening in the best of them. I found that occupation of ideas really powerful and it certainly informed some of the earliest approaches I had to making electronic music.