4 out of 5

Label: Clone Aqualung Series

Produced by: James Stinson

Interestingly, although this would seem to be a previously unreleased – and unfinished – addendum to James Stinson’s The Other People Place, I prefer it over that release, which I feel offered up an idealized and simplified version of Stinson’s Transllusion and Drexciya personas.

While I would say Jack Peoples’ Laptop Cafe shares a sort of playfulness with TOPP – opener song 06’s canned applause and warm beat is very much of a 90s, chill vibe – followup Song 02’s watery blips and bleeps and alien vocals posits it somewhere in the middle of Stinson’s sounds from his other two primary aliases. The ‘unfinished’ nature of the recordings (these were DAT discoveries, not something prepped for an actual release) gives something like Song 02 a raw edge and some slight beat missteps, upping an interesting juxtaposition between its oddball, smiling forefront and a gloomier backing beat. Song 01 jumps headfirst into something similar, with a harsh video-game tone setting the pace as AFX-y distortions begin to intrude, and then an amazing counter-tune pokes in as well. The way things tap in and out is almost like messing around, but it’s too expertly balanced for that. Song 04 is almost exactly out of the AFX playbook, save with a jazzier Stinson beat, and then things shift, style-wise, rather wonderfully on Song 03, with a forward momentum stutter step and a more organic range of layered tones. The EP closes out with Song 05: a recorded announcer; more canned applause. It’s a valid ending, but the only track out of the collection that feels sort of faceless.

Laptop Cafe has, by Drexciya fans, alternately been praised for its various highlights, and lambasted as unfinished, but I found it to be a riveting addition to his work; a bold way to combine the more upbeat style of TOPP with Stinson’s classic efforts.