MH-240 Pedro - Pedro [2006 Edition] Originally released in Europe on Manchester's Melodic Records, Pedro's self-titled full-length debut has garnered universal critical praise, including nods from a number of his production peers. The album is the sound of an artist finding his voice through the distillation of disparate musical forms. Textures of jazz, folk, and rock sit upon a bed of hip-hop infused beats supplemented with samples chopped and layered as musical instruments. The compositions range from simple piano embellished with rhythm generating effects to complex collages filled with live synths swirling over layers of heavy drum programming. The CD version of the album contains the EP, Fear & Resilience (which features remixes by Danger Mouse, Four Tet, Prefuse 73, and others) as a bonus CD.

Tracklist 01. Intro 02. Fear & Resilience 03. Dead Grass 04. These Pixels Weave A Person 05. The Water Ran This Way Back And Forth 06. 123 07. All Things Rendered 08. Seven Eight 09. Outro

Release Details Release Date: 02/14/2006   Running Time: 38:44   Download/Available/$7.00 1XLP/Available/$10.00 2XCD/Available/$10.00 Territory: World

Reviews Summary

A knob-twiddler extrordinaire - Under The Radar / Wonderful stuff - NME / A resplendent sound collage - Remix / There will be few better soundtracks to this summer - Stylus / This is IDM that never loses the listener in its tangents. - BPM / A genre-confounding tale of the unexpected from the deftest of techno artisans - Mojo

Reviews

944 / Almost Cool / Angry Ape / Barcode / BBC / Boomkat / BPM / CMJ / DJ / Dotshop / Download / Earplug / Gravity Girl / Igloo / Illinois Entertainer / Logo / Loose Record / Mojo / NME / Okayplayer / Properly Chilled / Remix / San Francisco Bay Guardian / Signal to Noise / Slug / Sonomu / Stylus / Tastes Like Chicken / Textura / The Big Picture / The Brainwashed Brain / The Independent / The Maneater / The Pitt News / Tiny Mix Tapes / Treblezine / Uncut / Under the Radar / Urb / X-Ray / XLR8R / XLR8R /

You know you're listening to a truly special album when you put it on and 20 minutes later you're staring into space. Pedro, aka James Rutledge's eponymous debut is just such a beastie. Like Four Tet and To Rococo Rot, Pedro follows a 'folktronica' blueprint, taking the notes of acoustic instruments then cutting and pasting them digitally into new and intricate patterns. Pianos lead the way, their shimmering notes sequenced beautifully on the Intro and Outro tracks and also underpinning the magnificent Dead Grass. Meanwhile delicate guitars are the glue that holds together the album's other masterpiece, The Water Ran This Way Back and Forth. This is far from easy listening; it's as gripping as a Hitchcock movie and at times as startling and discomforting, although flashes of funk and hip-hop rhythms plant it firmly in the now. Lose yourself in this album and you may never quite return. - The Big Picture