Eastern Developments Music
Somehow the trio (known to the world as M. Cretu, N. Gratin and O.Grouton) gained the attention of Berliner Jan Jelinek. A joint tourensued, which was noticed in turn by Prefuse 73, to whom we owe theexistence of Lost Recordings 2000-2004.Each of the eight tracks here have a unique and interesting history:the somewhat salacious and slinky "Collage of Digital Passion" and thegroovy downtempo "The Knack" were intended to accompany the televisionprograms "Abenteuer Forschung" (Adventure Research) and "ExtremeTravel," respectively; the maddeningly repetitive and mechanical loopcalled "A Machine Under Influence" was commissioned to be played atVolkswagen's Wolfsburg plant, with the thinking that such backgroundmusic would increase productivity. Lost Recordings's greatestvalue is its novelty: The Exposures have a long history in making musicin Germany—apparently it's heard on TV there all the time#151;and thisis the only collection of their music available on an album. Lost Recordingsare for the most part pleasant-sounding tunes, well-structured andformulated, and incorporating a variety of sounds, organic andincongruous alike. Still, The Exposures never rise above their jobs asbackground musicians on Lost Recordings. No one track is ableto distinguish itself above the rest: most feel half-finished, only avocal track or some creative sample away from being truly emotive orunique. The Lost Recordings are mostly blandly and boringlyinoffensive, feeling purely functional rather than soulful oremotional. Sort of like a Volkswagen, really.samples:
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