- Improvised electronics from the STOOR lab.
- Rotterdam's techno hero Speedy J has been busy lately. In a year of no gigs, Jochem Paap has been hosting hardware nerd-outs over Zoom, running the Stay Home Soundsystem livestreams and inviting artists to jam in his bunker, STOOR. He and a stellar set of collaborators hook up their cables and hit record, pressing the results to luxury, limited edition (and accordingly-priced) vinyl packages right there and then.
Even for Paap's biggest fans, it's hard to keep up with the STOOR studio's prolific and sometimes nondescript output, but a recent 12-inch with fellow Rotterdammer Charlton stands out. It's one of three EPs they recorded (and released) on the same day, a batch of tunes that Charlton described on Facebook as the weirdest music he's ever made. It sure is weird for an artist best known for gritty bangers on Mord, and it's even weird for Speedy J, whose vast discography has touched on every kind of techno and ambient imaginable.
43 is my pick of their three releases. It favours adventure over purpose, wandering freely with spontaneous arrangement and an open-minded choice of sounds. The first two tracks—which step nimbly around submerged beats— are particularly good, as is the modular madness of the closer. As you might expect with plug-and-play style improvisation, it's not all gold. "bd_jns_jm_rzz_p_28_02.wav" never really settles into a groove, but that takes nothing away from 43's instinctive and exploratory magic.
TracklistA1 rb_jn_jzz_mpds_18_04.wav
A2 bs_jzzd_jm_prn_25_04.wav
B1 pr_dz_jm_jbs_zn_07_03.wav
B2 bd_jns_jm_rzz_p_28_02.wav
B3 bd_jm_jr_zps_zn_11_02.wav