During the 1990s Nottingham boasted a prolific hotbed of electronic dance music producers, many who were lucky to have their work released on the local Time then Emit labels. By 1995 the latter had reached cult status which has grown over the years, meaning that albums such as Mat Jarvis’s Gas 0095, acclaimed at the time as an ambient electronic classic, can now push towards $500 on ebay. Experimental label Microscopic are now helping save on their Gas bills by reissuing the album re-mastered. Before it became rare, the record was notable not only for the gorgeous electronic soundscapes wafting from its grooves but for boasting the shortest track ever made, ‘Miniscule’ running for less than a second while ‘Timestretch’ is a four-minute track shrunk to two seconds! Elsewhere, Jarvis stretches out on inter-planetary excursions which weave spacey melodies into lush carpets of percolating synths and glistening melodies, conjuring anything from beatless krautrock to Japanese composer Kitaro on the sweepingly emotional ‘Microscopic’. ‘Earthshake’, created with Brian Horsfield, ventures into beautiful deep techno orbit with four-four kick, cemented as a timeless classic, later revisited beatlessly on ‘Earthloop’. Tim Wright collaborates on the pastoral Discovery along with masturbating guinea-pigs. Seminal, seductive and now sensibly-priced!
4 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs
