Schematic, 2000
Richard Devine’s first full-length is delicious in its complexity. This is music that envelops the listener in swirling electronic warblings (some strangely reminiscent of Star Wars sound effects). It’s as though Richard put a beat under science fiction background noises—the ones you hear when a roomful of refrigerator-sized computers are crunching numbers to decide who lives and dies. Okay, maybe I’m going a bit overboard, but this is a nice release. The only tracks I’m not fond of are “Scatter, Fold, 28” (a bit too random for my tastes) and “Lens, Align” (a bit too simplistic). This album may be a little hard to get into, especially for the uninitiated, but repeated listens are certainly rewarding. The music’s all in the layers.