Venetian Snares - Hospitality

Falling into the more glitch-driven, Aphex-influenced camp of IDM, Canadian Aaron Funk, aka Venetian Snares, is the most notable foreign exponent of this predominantly English sub-genre. This 25 minute 'mini-album' (not an EP then) follows up his June album 'Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore' with six more madcap forays into the circuitry of modern life. Like Squarepusher, Venetian Snares' music can stretch the music-noise ratio all too frequently, but when a steady rhythm invades his maelstrom of blips and ticks, the effect can be quite extraordinary, with swathes of synth even adding an emotive resonance. To cap it all, track five - during which warped voices repeatedly pronounce the word 'strawberries' - is titled Cabbage. Go figure. [Nick Mitchell]