Late 80s / early 90s body music

Label text

" Attack Decay Sustain Release, or ADSR, was the name of Todd Nickolas and Dominic Paterson's high school synthesizer group, an outlet for their electronic music experiments recorded on Todd’s parents’ farm in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.

In the idyllic rural setting of the Nickolas' dairy and crop farm, the juxtaposition of natural ambience and the repetitive rhythms of the machinery merged within their youthful music- saturated subconscious and found its way into their recordings. This bucolic environment also inspired the teenagers to channel their restless energy into endlessly experimenting with whatever gear they could get their hands on and listening to a steady diet of new music.

A big part of that exposure to non-mainstream sounds came via CBC Radio's Brave New Waves program — a saviour for adventurous and curious listeners living outside of major urban centres. The title "Poised Over Pause Buttons" is directly borrowed from a live studio broadcast by Severed Heads, where host Brent Bambury introduced the set by saying, "Do you know how many fingers are poised over pause buttons right now?" The title is also a head nod to those early processes of recording onto cassette decks or 4-track tape recorders, and to the tape culture of the time, capturing favourite songs off the radio with precision and making mixtapes from owned or borrowed record collections.

Todd was constantly seeking new electronic music through those formative years — whether it was the futuristic space rock of ELO's “Time” in grade school, Skinny Puppy’s blistering electronic body music in high school, or the ambient bliss of Aphex Twin in university. The tracks coming from their studio in those early days were inspired by a steady diet of these new discoveries. They were rapidly devouring a wide variety of acts from 4AD and Wax Trax!, “indie” artists like Husker Du, Chicago house to Belgian New Beat, the On-U Sound label to Public Enemy, and all points in between.

The unreleased cassettes that Todd recently rediscovered (some of which are included on this release) are a flashback to that era of pure discovery but also a reminder of the explorations and achievements accomplished by the confidence of the fearless amateur. Over the past three years, Todd and Linus Booth have compiled their favourite glimpses from that '87-'91 period and present them to you as a personal reflection of that time and place." More

Childhood Intelligence’s 18th release by ADSR aka. Todd Nickolas & Dominic Paterson from Toronto, Canada. The 2x12” album presents mostly tracks written and produced by Todd, with A1/D1 being in collaboration with Paterson. "Give a teenager in a rural Canadian setting an analog synthesizer, a drum machine and a four-track cassette recorder and feed him a steady diet of 80s EBM, Post-Punk, Synthpop, Electro, Dub, Acid, Hip Hop and House, and you’ll get the kind of genre melding electronic-based music that Todd Nickolas has been known for since his early days of writing and producing." The end result is a versatile one, with “Passive Articulation” presenting abstract Techno - House - Electro visions, and fusing all the elements of vintage Intelligent Dance Music that we cherish so much: warm basslines, beautiful chord progressions, diverse and surprising arrangements infused with haunting melodies, hypnotic cyber sounds, detached vocal cuts and dubbed percussion.…Overall fresh & timeless classiness for the present, past & future.

Recorded various locations New Hamburg, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ottawa, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles. ADSR greatly thanks those who were there from the start, those who joined along the journey and those here now.

Urban thoughts.
Rural dialects.
No separation.
Transmission between.
End notes.
Attack decay.
Sustain release. More

For the third release in Klasse Wrecks' ELEGAL RECORDS sub-label, the clock is turned back to the early nineties and the destination is set for Toronto, Canada. Throughout their career the duo of Dominic Paterson and Todd Nickolas released a handful of EPs on their own 'Floorshaker Productions' and two albums, one of which on Cargo Records during the tim they were signed to the label. ADSR cultivated a rich and unique sound, one that ranged from piano induced euphoria to heads down serious breakbeat territory. ELEGAL3 is based around one track that originally was only available on the 1993 CD album 'Accelerated Emotions', 'Haunted' is a floorfiller comprising of piano stabs, choir vocals, depth charge basslines and acid energy. The record features the original track remastered for 2021 and two remixes, one from label boss Luca Lozano and a reinterpretation by original member Todd Nickolas. Also included is a never heard before DAT tape find of 'Menace', a grooving beast with a low slung bassline and a simple chord stab melody. More

Vinyl only. Limited to 300! I've known Róisín a long time now and it was such a pleasure to find out she was releasing new music. I asked and got the stems for the 2nd single "Exploitation" sent to my Bongomachine Studios in Berlin. The results are here on Radio Bongo for a limited vinyl release only! Welcome back Róisín! Yours; President Bongo More

Gluteus Maximus come up with some great dancefloor work feat. mixes by Kaspar Björke & North Beach. More