Bleep

Since its inception in 2012, Central Processing Unit has amassed a reputation for being an ever-dependable label in the electronic world. Cut from the same Sheffield cloth as Warp Records, they’ve given a new, hi-fi lease of life to the electro, bleep techno, and electronica sounds that had been established at the core of British dance music for decades, with a unique twist in their binary catalogue numbers and minimal artwork ensuring each record remains inseparable in the label’s iconic collection. After thirteen years of service, CPU are halfway through their max number of 256 releases, and what better way to celebrate than to look back at the tracks that started it all?

CPU128 Classics compiles highlights from the label’s first four years in operation, starting with the very first release: Cygnus’s ‘Red District Girls’ instantly hits, its vicious acid synth manipulations floating through hazy chords, swirls of detuned melody, and crisp, popping drum machine patterns. It set the scene well for the rich synthetic palettes and kinetic rhythms in the years to come, like CN’s ‘Stellar Awakening’ placidly drifting on a vibrant, dreamy intergalactic feeling, and Jensen Intercepter’s ‘mActavis’ building tension with eerie background drones and overshadowing bass sirens.

Puffs of cinematic organ chords breathily follow the spiky sci-fi electro freeze of Plant43’s ‘Radiant Flux’ as Mrs Jynx waters her ‘Diving Loop’ track with lowkey droplets of percussion and gentle melody, before the album rises back to action with a leftfield synth funk feast from Automatic Tasty, as bubbling acid synth lines battle for the centre stage. Cygnus returns in the album’s middle with abstracted loops of bleeps, swells, buzzes, and sprays of misty vocals before Mikron incites a technological hailstorm of electrical stabs growing ever more furious on ‘Sleep Paralysis’, splattering all over the staccato rhythms.

This album of CPU’s modern classics is a cheers to the label that has kept the Sheffield sound alive and thriving.