Facticity by Various

Founded in 1998 by David Sumner (aka Function) boutique Techno label Infrastructure New York is celebrating a wealth of aural riches with a heavyweight compilation entitled Facticity. We get fifteen quality tracks, skillfully sequenced as an album, featuring key label artists like Function, Inland, Campbell Irvine, Post Scriptum and Cassegrain & Tin Man alongside friends and new recruits Rrose, Efdemin, Vatican Shadow, Silent Servant, Blue Hour, Steve Bicknell and Cleric.

Following a single trough-peak-trough arc the pace and style undulates within that course from lush, ambient electronics (Vatican Shadow's beautiful Swords Over Paradise) to post-club diversions (Cassegrain & Tin Man's Open Sea) to contemporary club techno (Blue Hour's Averting) and back again. As alluded to in a previous post, Colwyn Bay, the collaboration between label heads Function and Inland is a particular highlight. Steve Bicknell's Passage Through Darkness, appropriately sitting in peak time position within the album, also deserves special recognition: a serious crowd-pleaser.

In Facticity, Infrastructure New York have made their intentions clear: to champion and release a wide range of the best electronic music currently being produced. And they've succeeded. Along with the carefully considered cover art from UK artist Robert NcNally and the option to go for a beautifully packaged 4x12'' vinyl set (instead of just CD or digital) there's a certain generosity to this release. All in: an essential purchase.

1. Campbell Irvine - Dislocation Is Only The Beginning
2. Vatican Shadow - Swords Over Paradise
3. Rrose - Cephalon
4. Cassegrain & Tin Man - Polyacid Blue
5. Inland - Acidalia
6. Post Scriptum - ISDAT
7. Steve Bicknell - Passage Through Darkness
8. Cleric - Concrete
9. Blue Hour - Averting
10. Function - Low Lights & Trick Mirrors
11. Efdemin - Kassiber
12. Post Scriptum - Donbelief
13. Cassegrain & Tin Man - Open Sea
14. Function/Inland - Colwyn Bay
15. Silent Servant - End / Optimism

9/10 after 9 listens