Jeremy Greenspan - Greenspan and Taraval (2017) [Hi-Res]

"Despite knowing each other for 20 years coming from the same hometown of Hamilton ON and sharing the stage countless times Jeremy Greenspan and Taraval (Ryan Smith) have never recorded anything together. Greenspan is known mainly for his work with Junior Boys and Jessy Lanza and Taraval is a longtime touring member of Caribou, but both have released several 12” and EPs of electronic exploration over the past few years. Greenspan has released a series of singles and EPs on Dan Snaith’s Jiaolong label while Taraval has a pair of 12 inches on Four Tet’s Text Imprint.

During the winter of 2017 Smith returned to his hometown to record a series of experiments with Greenspan at his recording studio. The result is this debut EP/Mini Album.

Inspired by synthesizer minimalists like JD Emmanuel, Cluster and John Carpenter, the two attempted to create a type of dance music with hardware that was indebted to their influences but did not feel intrinsically retrogressive. The idea was to make a type of raw synthesizer music that could be listened to beside the hypermodern techno of Pearson Sound or Actress. A strange confluence of sound that sounds part Krautrock synth label Brain records, part Hyperdub.

Each of the five tracks on the EP were edited down from much longer recording jams which were done with hardware sequencers in real time. The recording was done completely off the floor with no overdubs or added material after the fact."