4 out of 5

Label: Weme Records

Produced by: Photodementia

To me this is acid, but the kids – who undoubtedly know more than me – are calling it electro, so forgive these poor “what’s a synthesizer” ears for not being able to accurately discern what’s what. But in my mind, acid has a kind of funky edge to it, an electro can contain that edge, so maybe IMG000 is electro that includes some acid? This works for my structure-seeking brain (informed by my same dumb ears, though), which breaks down Photodementia’s IMG000 – a project in some way involving Monolith-er Dave Barnard – into electro that’s a bit more clean and grooving, and acid that gets dirty and bass-heavy, with the former on the A and B-sides and the latter on the C and D of this 2xLP set. …And while I definitely think I make up such structures sometimes, it does seem curious that this could’ve likely fit on one LP but makes sense stretched across the two, given how this divide can further be broken down by complexity, the bookends denser affairs than the comparatively simple head-bobbing beats in the album’s middle.

If you’re keeping track, that means that listening to this digitally is a bit different than having to get up and flip an LP (or wait for some automated system to do so, I suppose); I find the physical process properly breaks up the differing experiences: mind-bending grooves flip over to stripped down beats and synths head-bobbers; on the C-side that gets the acid bump of a heavy low-end, but it’s still pretty straight-forward, until the D-side brings it all back around, with absolutely killer beats and an IDM / electro shuffling of other elements.

I don’t know that I have an exact touchpoint for the sound, except that it’s timeless. This is something Weme Records excels at spotlighting: artists who certainly know their electronic music background but don’t feel strictly indebted to it, or that they must force new stylistic quirks onto what works. This is dancey stuff, and has a classic get-out-and-dance mentality backing up, but the willingness to push that concept up and down scales of accessibility, but keeping it all in sync with a fairly consistent pace and mid-range sound – nothing too squelching, nothing too aggressive, nothing too passively chill – is pretty unique. It has an analog looseness, but is also very polished, and precise, with some nods to a DJ mix vibe at the end of some tunes, fades or sudden drops for the next beat. It’s something I feel you’d discover in the bins in the 90s, but carries the history of that whole era with it already.

The midsection of the album dips a little bit, with its run of slightly more mindless stuff, but the journey of the whole thing definitely makes it worth it.