International Peoples Gang (Englishmen Martyn Watson and Ric Peet) are perhaps the em:t label´s most familiar artists, having released one full album and appeared on several of the seminal compilations in the first series. Here they make their long awaited return with 0006, subtitled "Action Painting". That name surely succeeds in calling to mind the splashes, dribs and squirts which comprised the groundbreaking aesthetic of the American painter Jackson Pollock. The blank canvas with which they begin swirls with bright colour and surprising abstractions which have no more and no less meaning than the colour and shapes of the images themselves. On the whole, the album ranges widely and conveys great depth of ideas and a sheer sense of fun; it runs the gamut from jittery anthemn to Four Tet-like folktronica. Voices appear at regular intervals, both sampled and sung, in a variety of languages. And it also sounds like every single instrument known to mankind (and perhaps a few of extraterrestrial origin) has been used somewhere on the record. Watson and Peet reconstruct and deconstruct a plethora of music styles, too wide ranging to be ennumerated in this space. Particularly fun is the penultimate track, "Granny Takes a Trip", which might very easily have been called "This is Your Grandmother´s Brain on Drugs", a sonic collage of what your dear old Bubbe might hear if she´s nibbled on a few magic mushrooms, with snippets of records from the olden days recurring throughout. And the last track, suitably entitled "Stop", brings you gently back down with an extended easy-listening pop song executed with grace (fragile pop princess vocals provided by Katty Heath). Action Painting is both a pleasant reminder of the fun days of mid-1990s, non-dogmatic ambient and a sign that the creative juices continue to flow freely for the duo. Warm, human electronica which is as deep as it is broad. That´s entertainment!
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