B12 Records Archive Vol.2

Disc one of The B12 Records Archive, Vol. 2 is occupied by the label's third missive, issued in October 1991 and featuring productions from Kirk Degiorgio and Matt Cogger, two of Golding and Rutter's closest contemporaries. Cogger's "TV People" is a one-off credited to the Zee # alias -- a purposefully obnoxious stomp with a nagging keyboard vamp. Degiorgio provides the four other tracks, one as Future/Past and three as As One, all of which deal out a fair amount of abrasion. (These were his first tracks.) "Your Hand in My Mind" is the most evocative, yet barely an indication of how much Degiorgio would develop throughout the following several years. Disc two houses Golding and Rutter's Outlook 12" (March 1992), released as Musicology. Its most-known track is "Preminition," later included on the Electro-Soma album for Warp, but the other three -- the dark, downtempo "Unknown Future" especially -- are just as high-quality. The two previously unreleased B12 tracks, seemingly fully formed, are definitely B-grade material by Golding/Rutter standards, but they are not easy to dismiss. ~ Andy Kellman|