Printed Circuit - Adventure Game

In the past four years, Claire Broadley has recorded as Printed Circuit for Irritant, Tigerbeat6, 555 and Elefant, dropped tracks on a zillion compilations, played live with Kid 606, Chicks On Speed, Le Tigre, Cex and Manitoba, and had her tracks remixed by the varied cream of the underground electronic scene (Lesser, Frederick Schikowski, Fingernail, Random Number, Figurine, I Am Robot and Proud) on her 2001 CD 'Reprints'. Her music was recently described as "the logical outcome of Commodore 64s being force-fed down USB cables", and her first full-length, 'The Adventure Game', demonstrates that theory perfectly. Despite the cautious tones of opener 'Paws', the album almost immediately explodes into the vibrant, Technicolor electro-pop of 'Semaphore On The Dancefloor'. It's the Printed Circuit ethic condensed into one song; crafted melodies leading exciting electronic music that can be both intelligent and fun. This ethic is realized throughout the rest of the album in it's many disparate styles, from the initially tentative beginnings of the motorik sensation 'Colacubic', through to the pulsing, rhythmic tones of 'Accent, Voice And Data' and the furious beat-frenzy of album finale 'Binary Jockeys'. Never one to pummel an idea flat, Printed Circuit makes a point of only extracting the best from each one, and her love of the three-minute pop song helps keep the wolves of gratuitous indulgence from the door. Two collaborations also grace this release: on the aforementioned 'Binary Jockeys', Random Number (Rock Action, Rocket Racer) throws down the blistering beats that underpin her schizo-electro melodies. Alice Kain of London anti-art/ experimental duo Brikolage provides human vocals to 'Switch It On', a track that is already garnering praise from dancefloors and DJs in the UK and overseas. If 'The Adventure Game' were a cake, 'Switch It On' would surely be the cherry on top. Everything about 'The Adventure Game' has been painstakingly crafted, right down to the exceptional designed album artwork (by Mike Langlie of YipYop. Com). Amongst a genre that throws out a vast volume of work every year, you should know that when a Printed Circuit record is made, the music is always imbued with love, attention, optimism, blood, sweat and beats. It's electronic, but truly human in it's emotion.