T.R.A.S.E. - Electronic Rock 7" Finders Keepers continue to dig through the piled ephemera for hte rest of us and scoop out the cream from the bins of dusted vinyl. They've turned up this gem from a 16 year old, created as an extension of his woodwork, metal shop
and science classes and dubbed Tape Recorder And Synthesiser Ensemble. Andy Popplewell created his own hommade synthesizer for these tracks and owing to a love of 70's sci-fi horror and Gary Numan, the kid laid down some rather excellent buzzing synth nuggets. Built from the Chorosynth kit module, an old junk shop piano keyboard and some hand-me-down tools, he cobbled together an impressive one man band that's paired with lyrics that belie and alienated youth. Definitely splitting the commonalities between John Carpenter's dystopian soundscapes, Kraftwerk's pulse and Tubeway Army's robotic impulses, the songs here show stunningly high level initiative for a kid at home in his bedroom in the days prior to easy pro-tools and GarageBand access made bedroom recording the norm. Poppelwell would wind up working as an engineer for the BBC, putting his skills to great use for the company and is now one of the country’s leading independent tape engineers/editors/archivists. Listen: Support the artist, buy it HERE