Rick Crane – Kolyma
A synth wizard is what me and my friends call these sort of amateur private press guys. I mean, they are absolutely amateur, but they're dealing with what was available. The music they're making is pretty standard, but that amateur, casual, 'I'm so proud of my setup' thing – I relate to that 100%, always have. I can imagine him standing in front of his setup, just gleaming and so proud, making music that's beautiful, but that's not really pushing the boundaries.

It speaks to a very specific time period, and I really like his work, but Kalyma is definitely right there for me, as far as the amateur synth wizard private press kind of vibe goes. I was passed a CD-R years ago of this radio show from – I think – Brussels, that was nothing but that, people sending in their amateur synth tracks. There really was a huge amount of people doing it, and it very much mirrors those days.

They had an arpeggiator on their synth and yeah they wanna utilise it, wanna utilise all these things that are built in. It's charming, and it seems really honest and earnest. I hope Rick doesn't hear this, but I used to joke about how he's the master of mediocrity – this is so mediocre it blows my mind – but it's so relaxing because it's so mediocre, but it still hits all those synth buttons, you know?