Bleep

Dais Records continues their loving assemblage of Scottish experimental electronic maven/Coil and Psychic TV collaborator Drew McDowall’s oeuvre with this massive box set entitled Lamina. Collecting four of his most recent releases alongside bonus discs of rarities and a live set respectively, Lamina seeks to establish McDowall as something akin to the voice of contemporary avant-garde. The sheer scope of his work on those LPs is a gift itself in its untangling, but the bonus material is what really enlightens listeners here. Experiments and reworkings initially cast adrift suddenly take on new, deeper meaning when packaged alongside what was then deemed fit for release. Plus, jewels like an early demo of ‘False Memory’ from The Third Helix era provide a unique entryway into McDowall’s painstaking creative process, showing off the scaffolding before the structure is hammered into place. Lamina is fan service of the highest order, but absolutely essential to those in the know.