Benge returns with his first album since 1999’s “Silicon Valleys” on the Belgian label Quatermass and follows last years brilliant 7″ “Baud and Unary” and the subsequent contribution to the “The Condition of Muzak” compilation CD on Expanding Records. As all great artists Benge has his very personal take on electronic analogue/digital music and he is involved in a constantly changing process. “Meme Tunes” is most likely his best work so far the compositions on the album are best described as truly beautiful pieces of music. And the clarity in production and sound selection is overwhelming. The CD contains 11 tracks and three of them are not featured on the vinyl counterpart. The tracks that didn’t fit on 12″ are called “Nike”, “Tame/Rude image” and “Proton”. And among them are “Proton” a singularly well-crafted track, with feather like beats, astounding beauty and atmosphere this track almost makes it a pre-requisite to have the CD as well as the vinyl. Actually there’s another argument that goes along the same lines of thought and that is the limited booklet that accompanies the CD. It’s a cleverly constructed description of how the actual track titles were constructed food for thought is always nice! It goes without saying Benge’s “Meme Tunes” album comes highly recommended regardless of format.
electronic desert ≡ revisited + extended