Intr Version US Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Belgian artist Jerome Deuson at last follows up on his Intr-Version debut with another super collection of brittle laptop pop. 'The Sea Horse Limbo' is essentially made up of heartfelt song craft gently obscured somewhere along the line by the wires and circuitry of avant-garde electronic production. Of course it's that elusive quality that makes the album all the more beguiling. Beneath the surface of 'Hit My Country' and 'Oh! Le Zeppelin' lie remarkable, epic pop songs. Anyone who plugs a guitar into their laptop will inevitably run the risk of being compared to Fennesz but the quality of writing and the nuanced arrangements of 'The Sea Horse Limbo' confirm Amute's voice as very much his own.

Review: Montreal electronic stalwart and Intr_Version label boss Mitchell Akiyama and chanteuse Jenna Robertson produce haunted vocal music, the music of lost tapes and dusty gramophone records. The album kicks off with the porch-folk of 'Between Our Pages' which actually bears most relation to the Digitalis catalogue or the work of Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice. 'The Weight Of Hours' is more classic Avia Gardner material, which takes the tape-recorded sound of some kind of zither or autoharp and allows Jenna Robertson to simply sing over the top without any other distraction. However, straight after this beautiful, quiet interlude we are thrown headfirst into the distorted electronic funk of 'Winter's F*cking Over'. As you can probably imagine this is jarring to say the least, but don't worry we're back to the sublime before too long and when we reach the penultimate track, 'Please Write When You Can' we hear the record's peak-again giving Jenna Roberson room to breathe with subtle and sparing production keeps as subtle as it needs to. 'Mill Farm' is like a glorious antique, the disc you're looking for beneath piles of dusty relics and in amongst all it's creaking and groaning there is a beauty pure and simple.