CCMusic.com

In the afterglow of rave's white heat, the mid-'90s were a period of going as far out in all directions as possible; Luke Slater's The 7th Plain tracks were about exploration of the deep space of the imagination. Cosmic, analog, orchestrated, they still represent some of the most emotionally intense music ever to come out of the techno realm. Whether built on percussive frameworks or sweeping nebulas of dissipated sound, Slater's synthesizers still sing space-travelers' tales compellingly and beautifully. For this reason A-TON launched back in 2016 with The 7th Plain's Chronicles I (ATON 001CD/LP), establishing itself as a platform for archive, ambient and art-related releases. Now, with the release of Chronicles II, the journey continues further into outer and inner space. Like it's predecessor, Chronicles II is divided between previously released material from the aforementioned albums, as well as four unreleased future classics: "Silver Shinhook", "Wand Star", "I Think I Think Too Much" and "JDC". Luke Slater pioneered the UK's electronic landscape as Translucent, 4 Slots For Bill, Planetary Assault Systems, The 7th Plain, Clementine, and later as L.B. Dub Corp, by partly focusing on, partly bypassing the traditional, puristic values of techno. Together with Dave Sumner (Function) and Steve Bicknell he also operates as LSD. Chronicles is a three-part series of Slater's The 7th Plain project, including both previously released and unreleased material. All music is available for the first time on CD. Ultimately, when listening to all three parts of Chronicles, it's apparent that 7th Plain's music is cut from the same emotional cloth, one related strongly to the backroom, the chillout, the after-party, the solo headphone voyage. These weren't and never should be considered separate zones from the dance floor. In other words, as Slater puts it, in the mid-'90s, they were "part of the night, part of the experience, where ideas could be shared." And like Global Communication, Mira Calix, The Future Sound of London, and the Artificial Intelligence generation, Slater's 7th Plain was a response to those hallucinatory, spiritual, but still social spaces at the heart of underground communities; and the magic is still strong in it.