Rough Trade Shops Electronic 11 is not packed with absolutely massive tunes! It's not a clubbers guide to anywhere but someone’s bedroom. It is not a chart intensive album. Oh no, what this is though, is a record packed to the edges with imaginative electronic works more than likely produced in a bedroom on a very low budget. We're talking a compilation of chiptunes, broken house, witch house, IDM, and the like. It might not pack out the Ministry's dance floor on a Saturday night but among those with more discerning tastes this might just be the album of the year.
Composed of twenty two songs, this is a gargantuan album that glitches, bleeps, blurbs, and gurgles across a fractured dance floor or at least someone’s basement. This is the underground and it contains no big breakdown, no huge hook, and at times no melody whatsoever. With the odd moment out for an actual proper dance tune, most of Rough Trade Shops Electronic 11, in fact, would terrify most mainstream clubbers. This compilation isn't easy stuff to latch on to and with so many songs sounding like a pack of Dalek's on patrol the word "catchy," should be using sparingly. That being said, believe it or not, Rough Trade Shops Electronic 11 is fantastic. There's so much variety here, so much imagination, and so many broken grooves that it boggles the mind.
This is a massive record in the sense that there's just too much music to handle. From atmospheric compositions to chill wave and everything in between Rough Trade does what it does best, finds the best and cuts out the clutter. From Hercules & Love Affair's straight up floor burner, "My House," to the noisy machine talk of Alva Noto's, "Uni Deform," this intense but brilliant listening. Rough Trade Shops Electronic 11 may not have a glitzy TV campaign behind it, or scantily clad women gyrating on the bass bins but this is one record that wraps up the more fascinating aspects of 2011's electronic scene in fine fashion. As per usual if it's on Rough Trade it's essential.
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