Speedy J - Ginger

Label: Warp
Year: 1993
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM

Review: (Allmusic.com)

If any one electronic artist merits comparison to the Beatles, it would have to be Jochem Paap. Because while the Fab Four may far outpace the Dutch techno producer when it comes to global popularity, his catalog of releases easily matches the Beatles in terms of diversity, development, and absolute quality. This first album, released on Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva's Plus 8 record label, finds Paap at roughly the same point on the growth curve that the Beatles were during Rubber Soul. After establishing a fan base with energizing yet simplistic acid 12"s like "Three O'Three" and "Something for Your Mind," Paap reins in some of the manic energy of his early releases, concentrating more closely on the lush and fulfilled sound palette and thoughtful composition that would be his trademark until the rampant experimentalism of his third album, Public Energy No. 1. The chopping intro of "R2 D2" gives way to a light electro beat garnished with tickling synthesizer bleeps and grandiose waves of machine sound that are at once playful and intense. "Basic Design" introduces Paap's signature drum decay, while the bubbling-forward bassline would become a hallmark of early proto-trance recordings. Every sound is magnificently structured, in perfect pitch and timber with every other sound, making Ginger a masterpiece of techno music as audio design.As a vehicle of the times, Ginger singled a furtherance from techno's dancefloor mandate that would be followed by revered groups such as Autechre and the Black Dog. This advancement in techno's sound would advocate the first use of the Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) tag. While every track on Ginger still relies on a 4/4 beat for its composition, none possess a tempo or percussive element hefty enough to meet dancer's needs. Although remixes would turn cuts like "Pepper," with its weightless ambient sweeps, into trancing dancefloor jams, Paap's clear purpose on Ginger was to take his music out of the rave and into the home-listening environment. And not until the decade-later hard techno of Loudboxer would Paap return to his dancefloor roots, similar to the Beatles' return to rock captured in the Let It Be sessions.
- Joshua Glazer (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/106290234/Speedy_J_-_Ginger.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/106295982/Speedy_J_-_Ginger.part2.rar

Speedy J - Public Energy No.1

Label: Plus 8/Nova Mute
Year: 1997
Styles: Ambient Techno, Techno, IDM

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Speedy J's 1997 full-length release Public Energy No. 1 takes its name from one of Jochem Paap's lesser-known pseudonyms, under which he's recorded 12-inches for Plus 8 and his own Beam Me Up! label. Although not so dissimilar from the tracks he's produced under that name, Public Energy No. 1 is quite a bit different from Paap's Speedy J material, which until the record's preceding single, "Ni Go Snix," focused mostly on warm, melodic ambient techno with hardly an offending ounce in its lithe, easygoing body. Public Energy, however, is a veritable maelstrom; a mixture of brutalizing machine rhythms, odd, off-putting ambience, and distant, bassy, alien soundscapes. Hailed almost instantly (and, for once, rightfully) as one of the more important records in post-rave techno, Public Energy has all the forceful noncompromise of techno's brief cannon of classics ("Clear," "Strings of Life," "Pneuma," "Scoobs in Columbia," "Four Jazz Funk Classics," etc.), but with an intensified sense of dread and paranoia specific to its time, similar in some respects to the millennium-infused breakbeat experiments of TPower and Tricky (though undeniably techno). The album's daring is also notable given it was Paap's (at least in Europe, which constitutes his largest audience) major-label debut. Essential.
- Sean Cooper (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/105150482/Speedy_J_-_Public_energy_no._1.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/105155961/Speedy_J_-_Public_energy_no._1.part2.rar

Speedy J - A Shocking Hobby

Label: Novamute
Year: 2000
Styles: Ambient Techno, IDM, Techno

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Speedy J followed up the most lauded album of his career with yet another work of excellence, an album that ranges slightly farther afield than the insistent Autechre references recalled by Public Energy No. 1. After a short ambient opener, the ungodly "Borax" comes crashing through with a sound that manages to encompass terms like funky, experimental, and beautiful with equal degrees of excellence. It's easily one of the best productions of Jochem Paap's career, not to mention one of the best in contemporary electronic music. True, a few of the later tracks ("Balk Acid," "Drill," "Vopak") are quite close to the brand of super-computing electro-techno that Autechre pioneered a few years before, but even these productions have an immediacy, an enormity of sound, quite lacking in Autechre. A world away from this music-for-eggheads sound lies what just may have been another influence on A Shocking Hobby — namely, the insanely stupid dance style named big-beat techno. These tracks don't exactly have the can't-miss-'em drum breakdowns and old-school samples of yr average big-beat record, but when Paap places a massive explosion of sound on the first beat of every bar, it's difficult to escape the feeling that these songs are akin to Fatboy Slim on brainfood. Creating intelligent, difficult music that also feeds the attention-span deficit inherent in post-rave music isn't just a good idea, it's the recipe for another excellent album.
- John Bush (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/106943028/Speedy_J_-_A_Shocking_Hobby.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/106943911/Speedy_J_-_A_Shocking_Hobby.part2.rar

Speedy J - G-Spot

Label: Warp
Year: 1995
Styles: Ambient Techno, Techno, House

Review: (Allmusic.com)

Fizzy, flawlessly crafted ambient techno similar in feel to B12 and Global Communication. Although a few dancefloor scorchers make the cut, most of the album is armchair-style slow breakbeat, with an obvious attention to melody and mood making this some of Paap's most satisfying work to date.
- Sean Cooper (Allmusic Guide)


Link:

Part One: http://rapidshare.com/files/99626358/Speedy_J_-_G_Spot.part1.rar
Part Two: http://rapidshare.com/files/99627469/Speedy_J_-_G_Spot.part2.rar