It struck me as being odd, these compact nuggets of music represented by the 3" CD. Their absolute refusal to appear on sale to public at 'normal' music outlets meant that word-of-mouth, particularly if it was good, was essential for any form of existence.

Punk or plain stubbornness; these were flights of fancy by artists and labels. One-offs, destined to be heard by those willing to take a risk via black-and-white ads in the back of The Wire. So it was that a sizable amount of these releases made their way to Absorb Towers. I had difficulty in writing about them. And more often than not, i simply didn't.

Spring clean had arrived and I was determined to move these CD's onto a better home. But not before you're made aware of them. Bear in mind throughout that all of these releases ride the outer limits. I suffered listening to these and so should you.

Bridle Wire: Damper String (Scarcelight)
Accelera Deck: Ski (Scarcelight)
Shark, shark, shark: Ride the Rainbow (Scarcelight)
EBSK: Secret Highways / Wobbly (Scarcelight)
Label run by Accelera Deck peddles a wide ranging palette of audio abuse. From EBSK's surprisingly accessible lo-fi pop to Shark, Shark, Shark's maudlin exercise in skin-tearing glitch. Bridle Wire wins out with a stunning piece of sample manipulation and Accelera's own contribution might have been decent too....except I lost the CD. (scarcelight.org)

Massimo: Hey babe, let me see your USB and I'll show you my Firewire (Mego)
The title and cover art really say it all. Terrifying. (mego.at)

Team Shadetek: Natural Selection - MD Sessions (Nonresponse)
The most friendly of the selection we have here. NY's finest bump'n grind up against some max patches and come out spitting dancehall algorithms. (nonresponse.com)

Ascoltare vs Keith: Drugs (Dubbel)
Ascoltare: Mutiny in Stereo (Dubbel)
Plunderphonics made fun! Hip-hop via Kool Keith and R'n B via Aaliyah forced to suck on some DSP until they choke. (tripelrecords.com)

Powerbooks for peace : Everest / Aleph-Null (Alku)
Team Doyobi: Empire (Alku)
Edwin van der Heide: Touch.2 (Alku)
Beige: I'm only in it for the money (Alku)
Wobbly: Regards (Alku)
Opopop: Juicio Final (Alku)
Yasunao Tone: Wounded Man'Yo #38-9/2001(Alku)
For the most part, these will test your patience and your playback device. But the Heide effort is the sound of two hydrophones rubbing against each other. For twelve minutes. And its ace. Wobbly forces pop CD's to do naughty things. But this paragraph really belongs to Tone. (http://personal.ilimit.es/principio)

Bulbul: Velo (Trost)
All sounds sourced from the sounds of bicycles formed into cyclic loops of metallic ambience sounding like a distant power station shutting down. (trost.at)

AGF: delayONmyPILLOW (Stitchting mixer)
This effortless single 18-minute piece just confirms AGF as one of the great modern practitioners of laptop music. Perfectly judged mix of found sounds, synthesis, intimate voice and digital creaks. Overwhelmingly beautiful and quite difficult for someone like me to describe into words. We are simply wavelengths apart. (stichtingmixer.nl)