Various Artists

Switched-On Eugene

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With a little bit of strong-arming, I could probably be convinced to only listen to compilations for the rest of my life. There’s enough music out there I’m completely unaware of (and just plain missed the first time around) that retrospectives are quite often just “where it’s at” for floating my boat.

From Numero (arguably the industry leaders in the comp game), comes a collection of synthesizer hippies flirting with fantasy prog figures and drum machine dedication through new age ambient explorations.

Formed in Eugene, Oregon in 1984, the Eugene Electronic Music Collective is the over-arching umbrella that connects all of the artists included in this compilation. With original releases almost exclusively issued as small run cassettes of a couple hundred copies, I’ll be damned if I’d ever heard ANYTHING about this small little slice of outsider tape culture.

Talve predicts the propulsive electro confrontation where the Chromatics and Glass Candy would land twenty some years later. David Stout rides an electric wave of synesthesiac self-discovery. Phyllyp Vernacular overloads a prismatic expanse of affirming discovery. Peter Thomas’ minimalist meditational movements are calming like flowing water. The self-assured, almost naked “I’m sorry, I’m not cool” from Heather Perkins in “Burning Through” is shocking in how much STRENGTH it carries with a delivery that is, on the surface, so laissez faire.

Everything included here is revelatory. You cannot go wrong. Numero’s stellar track record maintains.