PAINLESS by THE CONNECTION MACHINE

*warehouse find!* Classic NL electronics... not many around. be quick!The Connection Machine is Jeroen Brandjes and Natasja Hagemeier. Jeroen played synths in several industrial punkbands in the 1980s. and Natasja is a formal musician who plays classical piano, spinet and clavichord. Their paths crossed in 1991, when they were both working at a club in Utrecht, Netherlands. They became interested in dance music, in no small part due to their fascination with computers and computer-related arts and philosophies. They recorded their first song together with a DJ from that club in Utrecht. Hooked by that experience and very inspired by Detroit techno, they decided to start making music on their own and bought a sampler and a computer. From that moment on they focused totally on music. After several releases on Drome Tapes A, B, and C under different aliases, they released their first 12' on U-TRAX: The Dreamtec Album (1993). In 1994 they met Carl Craig and sent him a demo. He liked what he heard and decided to release a 12' from the Connection Machine on Planet E Communications, which is still today regarded as a gem in the distinguished discography of Planet E. In 1995, they released another 12' on U-TRAX, and did a remix for Morgan Geist for the first release of his Environ label. Due to personal circumstances, Jeroen and Natasja were forced to slow things down in 1996. They haven't released anything since then, but the 'radio silence' will soon come to an end with the release of the 'Painless' album on Down Low. 'Painless' contains material from the old days that never saw the light of day. Much of this material was slated for an album release on Planet E in the mid-late 1990s, but alas, the album never came to fruition. Almost ten years later, the material still doesnt sound dated. The album is full of achingly deep moods and is pervaded by a feeling of warmth its a captivating journey through dreamy acid house, downtempo electronix, ambient, and Detroit techno. Not unlike the recently, finally released 154 Strike album on Delsin, it is a lost classic from the Dutch techno scene. Working on this old material has inspired The Connection Machine to start producing again... so new material is on the way! Alongside the CD release of Painless will be a 12 on Down Low featuring several of the most DJ-friendly tracks from the album, new material, and appropriately, a re-edit of one of the album tracks by their longtime supporter and fan, Carl Craig. The name The Connection Machine stems from 'cm1', the first real connection machine developed by the company Thinking Machines decades ago. Jeroen and Natasja read an in-depth interview with the people at Thinking Machines in one of the first issues of WIRED magazine, and loved their ideas especially the idea of a singular huge computer that would connect the whole world as every person plugged into it. Of course history has unfolded a little differently, though a similar theme of connection has taken shape in the form of the Internet