Martin Boulton, the man behind the label, Touched, is doing the music world a favor in every sense of the word. Not only is he dedicating his label and any profits to a good cause, but he's also enlisting help from some of the best electronic musicians in the world along the way.
Past Touched compilations have featured everyone from Arovane, Autechre, Ulrich Schnauss, 808 State, Bibio, Christ, Loscil, FSOL, U-ziq, Hecq and Orbital to name just a few recognizable faces. So you'd be forgiven for getting extremely annoyed at the latest Touch release as this time, contributors have been kept a purposeful secret...
What does that leave us with? Well, it's an IDM/electronica affair. A sincerely great one, at that. The compilation is quickly becoming a guessing game amongst the die-hard and various names from IDM/electronica eras of great are being thrown out for consideration. Christ, Aphex, Boards of Canada, Mike Paradinas, Plaid, Autechre ... you name them, there's a sound, synth, analog glitch or ghostly drum pattern in here that will make you dig through your late 90's, early 00's CD's to try match the signature sounds.
It's hard to pick a favorite from such a solid bunch. The breaks of Streetscape sent me rocking. Charm, sent me back to the hey-days of the many big-beat Orbital parties I went to. Doloxan, Northwest Territories and Even If I Lose Everything made me revisit BoC's 'Tomorrow's Harvest' once again for a dark, nostalgic trip.
Whether it's imitators of the real-thing, names shouldn't matter at this point. It's some of the best electronica you'll be hearing for a while.
CD+ Digital available on Bandcamp.
