Electronic Eye: Closed Circuit

Beyond 1994.  RBADLP 08

Discogs

This wasn’t an album I intended to rip simply because it’s so long – a quadruple.  However two things made me change my mind – firstly how good it is, and also because my newborn son (Sam) really likes it.  Laid back bass heavy electronic music seems to be his thing, so sitting around listening to this was even more of a pleasure than usual.

Electronic Eye was one of a multitude of aliases for Richard H Kirk.  He’s best known as a founder member of Cabaret Voltaire (2 earlier posts for them here and here), and he also appears on this blog as Sandoz.  He’s produced such a vast body of work, I can only claim to have scratched the surface, but for me this is one of his best and stands up as one of the best electronic albums of the 90s.

It is perhaps a bit long – the ideas here could have been condensed down, but the best tracks (Bush Channel Stepper and Data Crime stand out for me) more than make up for it.  Still with an album of this quality, a bit of self-indulgence is more acceptable than usual.  I prefer my electronica dark, and as you’d expect with the subject matter (surveillance, hence Electronic Eye) this album delivers on that score too.