A change from the beat-orientation of most
Gescom material, the world's first MD-only release is a 45-track, hour-long collection of assorted ambient noise and other detritus, most of which sounds as though it came straight from
Autechre's samplers with no editing to speak of. Designed to be played on a random setting (MD technology allows skips throughout a disc with no lag time), the album works quite well considering its avowed purpose. Since
Gescom and
Autechre have always phrased their electronics experimentation with plenty of beats though, it's difficult to take
Mini Disc as anything more than a cast-off. ~ John Bush