- The number of undiscovered gems sitting on dusty DAT tapes in even dustier lofts must surely be dwindling by the day, but there are still plenty of labels dedicated to mining those remaining corners. Parisian imprint Antinote does it better than most. The label's debut release, Iueke's Tapes, featured three tracks of visceral, chugging techno produced in 1992 and forgotten for two decades. It was strange and original enough to catch the ear, and it also had an interesting backstory: Iueke, real name Gwen Jamois, is an old affiliate of Aphex Twin, who decided against submitting the Tapes material to Rephlex in the early '90s because it was "too 4/4".
Jamois, who now co-runs Antinote with Quentin Vandewalle, is back at the helm for the label's fourth outing. Strangely, the Alecot 12-inch contains two identical pieces of music, with the same 22-minute title track on both sides. As with Tapes, it was produced in the early '90s but never released, and sounds like it's been cut from a jam session lasting several hours. The overdriven kick drums bristle with the funk of early Downwards, but the chords are more in line with star-gazing Detroit techno. The track's parts feel like they're perennially on the verge of drifting off, as if Jamois was straining to keep them in check. But as it rumbles on, he works the filters and locks into a groove. It's easy to imagine getting lost in "Alecot" for much longer than 22 minutes.
Tracklist A Alecot
B Alecot