Ulrich Troyer - Nok 2020 [4Bit Productions 009]

Scheduled for release - or better: a kind of re-release - via 4Bit Productions on October 16th, 2k20 is Ulrich Troyer's "Nok 2020", a remastered and extended take on his first ever EP release "Nok" which was put out on the circuit as a 3" Mini CD via the influential MEGO imprint back in 2000. Now available on vinyl for the first time we see the original six tracks 'soundtrack for an imaginery cartoon' once again provide crisp, super clean and modernist Clicks'n'Cuts alongside swampy, probably Max/MSP-triggered, morphings versus a stripped down to the very core hyperdigital Dub approach in all its remastered glory even though this specific Electronica sound has fallen out of fashion and can be traced back immediately to the enthusiasms, thrills and explorative, adventurous nature of the dot.com-years and the fast forward evolution of broadband internet connections and therefore a new era of new global communication whilst "Nok 7" and "Nok 8", both previously unreleased and recovered from original DAT sources, provide a welcome and well fascinating addition to Ulrich Troyer's acclaimed firstling with their slightly gooey, yet  partly even tongue-in-cheek approach to a newly opened sonic realm. Furthermore we see Christian Fennesz catering a characteristic, guitar-driven, hazy, shoegazing Ambient / Post-PostRock rework for panoramic sunsets, the "Nok 10 (Nemeth Remix)" weighs in a harsher, more Industrial-leaning take on vantablack digital darkness whilst the concluding "Nok 11 (Nok 1 Skeleton Mix)" introduces original Subaquatic Swamp Dub to highly advanced dancefloors and is bound to become a proper hit in experimental club settings for a reason. How have two decades even passed since this was released in its original form?