Possible Conclusions to Stories That Never End

SHANNON, MIKE: Possible Conclusions to Stories That Never End LP (SCAPE 036 LP). LP version; CD released on 3/7. Recently relocated to Barcelona, Mike Shannon established himself as Canada's most respected techno and house DJ. Involved with the Cynosure and Revolver labels (and artists like Akufen, Deadbeat, Pan/tone), Mike Shannon himself has been actively performing and promoting a very specific genre of minimal house and techno that today is reaching a new level of awareness in the global electronic community. On Possible Conclusions to Stories That Never End, Shannon switches skins, putting aside overt techno nuances he has been punishing parishioners of the dance floor with for well over a decade to explore a different region of actualization. The album commences using field-recordings of a typhoon hitting the streets of Tokyo, and the listener is shunted into an environment where each song is chimeric conclusion bathed in a cinematic light. On "Taken Only Road" (featuring Anais) Mike Shannon's sparse, sedate jazz manifestations form with a subtle electronic prosthetic to make a seamless hybrid of haunting lyrical form and near-ambient formlessness. Anais's vocals wander from sweet supplication to a silky lament over neon throbs of heady keys dappling over a languid bass-line. Atop the springy malleable groove of "Last One Terrified," spoken word elemental Moral Undulations catalogues the soul-stunting elements in North American culture with measured but casual defiance. In addition to Anais and Moral Undulations, Toronto-based jazz drummer Tim-Stokes Reese's smooth percussion ghosts and weaves through the album, serving as beacon points to the thick narcotic groove espoused on this fourteen track offering. On "Tears" Montreal musician Patrick Watson gently flays with piano ripple in time to Reese's drum patterns to make a resoundingly emotional result. The innocuous dread that underlies many of the tracks contains trace elements of influence from cinematic composer Angelo Badalamenti, to Montreal electronic wizards Marc Leclair and Deadbeat. With releases on various imprints worldwide Mike Shannon has consistently maintained an aesthetic quality to his techno productions defining him a key player in the global. Forcex.2006.