CiM – Series One

Kicking off with 'Cool Air', a track which combines steady beats reminiscent of Carl Craig and Detroit techno with soft soothing strings and chord samples and a house bassline, this EP gets off to a blissful and positive start. Track 2 - 'Typical' has a rustic low-fi Amiga-esque quirkiness with its beats, it's more up tempo but with those signature melodies so typical of CiM.

On the B side, we have the primitive style of Morgan Geist's remix of 'Typical', with its stomping beat it has a raw electronic melodic sensibility similar to the likes of 808 State or Black Dog Productions putting this track firmly on the dancefloor. A soft slowed down breakbeat sample (later kicking in with some up-tempo D 'n B style loops) along with a calm chord sample (typical of CiM) finishes off the EP in a serene and optimistic mood in 'Lead Point'. This is a good early release by CiM and a great example of late nineties electronica. Unfortunately this style (what I would call 'Optimist Electronica') was short lived and one wonders if it will return and for that matter, any more releases by CiM.

By the way, I have this on white label and the A4 sheet that comes with it (from Headspace) lists the title of this 12 inch as "Volume One" not "Series One".

CiM is usually associated with making tracks that are typically quite brief and glitchy. This earlier work is inherently related to that showcased on "Reference" and "Do Not Multiply Models", however, the similarities to 808 State are equally as inherent. "Cool Air" plays out something like "Pacific 202", "Lead Point" a potential outtake from "Don Solaris". "Typical" comes somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. The Morgan Geist remix seems to add a dash of the UR remix of Maurizio's "Ploy" to the equation. All in all, four great tracks that do indeed show why we sometimes wish he would make his tracks a bit longer sometimes!