Bleep

Milanese producer Bochum Welt’s twin 1997 EPs Desktop Robotics and Feelings on a Screen are remarkable in scope and near peerless in their precision. From icy electro synths through wonky drum programming to crystalline ambience, every element is skillfully deployed. This is music with a dancefloor in mind, but one loaded with unexpected trap doors throughout.

These tracks excel beyond the dancefloor too, with sophisticated textures and sound design meant to provoke thought, not movement as it fills a room or a pair of headphones. That balance between euphoria and disorientation surely makes Desktop Robotics & Feelings on a Screen a neat summation of the Rephlex aesthetic.

As for the music itself, Bochum Welt’s ‘97 offerings still feel ahead of their time nearly three decades on. Tracks like ‘Leafs Brought By The Wind’ are as delicate as any lauded ambient productions of the day, while the extra terrestrial ‘Like A Tim’ mix of ‘Greenwich’ updates one of Bochum Welt’s most percussive numbers into dancefloor focussed cut of Detroit electro.

And so, In honor of their 25th anniversaries, Central Processing Unit are reissuing these two braindance classics together as one essential package complete with a host of previously unheard material. Acting both as a bridge to Bochum Welt’s past triumphs for those intrigued by 2019's Seafire album and a neat summation of the early rave sounds that inspired CPU’s formation in the first place, this reissue will surely be another winner for the red hot Sheffield imprint.