Feature[d] Beats Extraordinaire: Imputor? Records

Source: Feature Magazine
Date: February 1st, 2002
Author: Ariel Deva Deleon and Scott Caligure

Jordan Snodgrass started Imputor? Records - a San Diego/Seattle electronic music label - because he was tired of all of his friends moving to hip places to make their music. "I just wanted to get my friends' music out," said Snodgrass who founded Imputor? with Darren Weiner (Plastiq Phantom/Seattle). Starting a label was an obstacle course of logistics. Without press it's hard to get distribution, without distribution, you don't sell, and so forth.

With electronic music being on the fringes of the commercial market, it seems that one of the only ways to get music out is via a DIY approach. And, as with any grassroots movement, Imputor? has drawn on the resources of the community, with Trey at the Juke Joint and Billy of Rocket Racer among others providing support. Imputor? seems to have surged forward out of necessity, most recently with the release of Diagram of Suburban Chaos' Status Negatives (release date 2.5.02). Diagram of Suburban Chaos' latest offering can easily be seen, or heard, as being influenced by Autechre, Funkstorung, or any number of today's laptop music makers. Far too often electronic music albums fall mercilessly to the over-scrutinizing eye of a reviewer bent on comparing the album with everything that preceded it. Comparisons are inevitable, but to say that the songs on Status Negatives are simply rip-offs of a borrowed sound would be grossly unfair.

Throughout the album D.o.S.C. thoughtfully crafts tonal progressions and skeletal rhythms, which simultaneously evoke space, place, and the movement of time. Some tracks resemble songs while others are more akin to the experience of a sound, or the sound of an experience (perhaps the actualization of the sound a place makes - that place could be in your head, your heart, or the space in which you find yourself). Songs such as cryhsat, fn-tonal, hollow, and p-fect create a beautiful passage of time, an experience in sound where drifting tones become entwined with stark rhythmic fissures resulting in a sonic collage of subtle melodies and dynamic grooves.

Imputor? just signed Aspects of Physics, an ever-evolving San Diego audio-visual treat, who will be putting out a full length album soon, accompanied by a beautiful 12 page booklet designed by Jason Soares, whose artwork is always as intricate and lovely as his music. Imputor? hosts performances once every month or so, the next being Imputor? V.SO 6.0: Congregation 7 at the Casbah on February 16th. Aspects of Physics will play with artists on the Schematic label of Miami. Check out other new and exciting artists on the Imputor? label, pledge money to DJs on Strike, and find out about upcoming events at www.imputor.com

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