- The Minimal Wave boss arrives with her first official release.
- Given the impact Veronica Vasicka and her Minimal Wave label's impact on techno, it's easy to overlook that she's never put a record out of her own. But she's been making music for years. "From Here," the original track on In Silhouette, is taken from a time, around 2004, when she was recording music regularly as part of a diary-like ritual. The tune, as you'd expect, is both minimalist and vaguely wave, with stark melodies, gurgling sounds and a staggered rhythm that leaves plenty of space. It's not the kind of tune that jumps out from your speakers, but there's an alluring mystery to Vasicka's guarded arrangement and her muttered vocals, which offer only the occasional hint of a hook.
Coming on Downwards, the influential techno label run by Regis, "From Here" comes packaged with a set of remixes that hammer it into different levels of dance floor suitability. The Regis remix is the easy favourite. Not exactly straight-up techno, it's more of a reinforcement of the original, with a descending synth lead that throbs and writhes like Nitzer Ebb gone haywire.
Rob Hampson, formerly of the post-rock groups Loop and Main, offers a surprisingly conventional techno rework as Chasm. Paul Kendall, known best for his work remixing artists like Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode, turns in a '90s-sounding effort complete with the roar of electric guitars. It feels purposefully dated, and that's all part of the fun on In Silhouette, an archival oddity.
TracklistA1 From Here
A2 From Here (Regis Remix)
B1 From Here (Paul Kendall Mix)
B2 From Here (Chasm Mix)