Elite Barbarian is the solo work of Benjamin Page and ‘It’s Only When You Get To The End That It All Makes Sense’ is his new album.

One of the strongest electronic beep records you will ever hear, the new record from Elite Barbarian achieves a certain kind of ambience ordinarily/usually harboured by the most strung out and sensitive of electronic acts without using such barbed sonics.

Tickling like the insides of a ZX Spectrum and playing out like the soundtrack of several Atari 2600 games; over the course of 58 minutes the album takes the listener on a journey of unexplored confines electronic beats/beeps often coupled with crazed sick piano licks.

The author of the album is Ben Page who as a member of both Rothko and Rocket No.9 is a seasoned and accomplished composer of modern ambient extracts often emerging from improvisation and instinctive desires and trajectories.

The real strength of this record is the manner in which it achieves being both relentless and relaxed at the same time, tempered and tenacious in its brute meditation.  As the atmospherics grow so does the intensity as sonic layers reminiscent of raindrops, pulses and bubbling machinery scour your consciousness almost feeling transient as it interrupts the flow of your immediate activities.

Listened to as a whole the album merges into one great body of work not strictly to be swallowed whole but to accompany any mindset or duty that requires a holding hand to assist concentration and clarity.

By the time it reaches the 16 minute climax “Let’s Go Back To Morse Code” you sense you are coming to the end of being subjected to some kind of subliminal intake and that it is actually quite possible that the beeps could well be pieced together Joe Bonham style to forge together some kind of alien message.  You’re unlikely to hear this record at parties, only funerals.

myspace.com/elitebarbarian
frontandfollow.com
electronicexplorations.org
myspace.com/robbooth

Tracklist

1. Vladislav Delay -  Recovery Idea (Andy Stott Remix)  -  Semantica
2. Shed -  Estrange  -  Ostgut Tonträger
3. Deaf Center -  The Clearing  -  Type
4. Mount Kimbie -  Maybes  -  dub
5. Starkey -  Dark Alley  -  Forthcoming ‘Planet Mu’
6. Wahn -  Collateral  -  ’Acroplane’ 021
7. Neil Landstrumm -  Begg  -  dub
8. 65D Mavericks -  Beginnings End (A Tribute To Richard Polson)  -  Surface Records
9. Ebola -  Portland 2CB  -  ’Acroplane’ 026
10. Shackleton -  In The Void  -  Skull Disco
11. Elite Barbarian -  Tropic  -  Front and Follow

ELITE BARBARIAN  -  Exclusive ‘ELECTRONIC EXPLORATIONS’ Mix

1. Radian -  Transistor  -  Thrill Jockey
2. This Heat -  24 Track Loop  -  Atem
3. Curve -  (Aphex Twin Remix)  -  Falling Tree
4. Photek -  UFO  -  Photek
5. Elite Barbarian -  Going Down  -  Front and Follow
6. EL-P -  Deep Space 9mm  -  Definitive Jux
7. Techno Animal -  Monoscopic  -  P-Vine Records
8. Matmos -  Hashish Master  -  Matador
9. Alex Reece -  Pulp Fiction  -  Metalheadz
10. Fennesz -  Onsay  -  Touch
11. The Future Sound Of London -  Snake Hips  -  Virgin
12. Elite Barbarian -  Clips  – Front and Follow
13. Two Lone Swordsmen -  As Worldly Pleasures Wave Goodbye  -  Warp Records
14. Techno Animal -  Hypertension  -  P-Vine Records
15. Autechre -  Eutow  -  Warp Records
16. Dopplereffekt -  Z-Boson  -  International Deejay Gigolo Records
17. RocketNumberNine -  Cretin  -  Dub

1. King Cannibal -  Aragami Style  -  Forthcoming ‘Ninja Tune’
2. Martyn and Marcus Intalex -  After Seven  -  Revolver
3. DJ Madd -  Untitled 2025  -  Forthcoming ‘NakedLunch’
4. Ben Frost -  We Love You Michael Gira  -  Bedroom Community