Poised Over Pause Buttons

by ADSR

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$12 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited pressing of 100 copies on sky blue vinyl available exclusively via Bandcamp and Séance Centre. 400 on black vinyl.
Spot varnish cover plus insert.

Includes unlimited streaming of Poised Over Pause Buttons via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

edition of 100

Purchasable with gift card

$34 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited pressing of 100 copies on sky blue vinyl available exclusively via Bandcamp and Séance Centre. 400 on black vinyl.
Spot varnish cover plus insert.

Includes unlimited streaming of Poised Over Pause Buttons via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

Purchasable with gift card

$32 USD or more

1.	Dreampain 04:59	buy track
2.	Nightlife 05:40	buy track
3.	I Don't Understand 05:08	buy track
4.	Far Too Late 04:38	buy track
5.	Great Mysteries 04:45	buy track
6.	Herethere 04:16	buy track
7.	Is This The World 04:31	buy track
8.	Suboceana (Demo) 04:58	buy track
9.	Your Whole Life 05:31	buy track
10.	Freak Response 03:39	buy track
11.	Fathom 04:44	buy track
12.	Perpetual 03:58	buy track
13.	As Soon As Possible V2 05:20	buy track
14.	Where Are They Now 03:28	buy track
15.	Insistence Persistence (Digital Bonus) 03:31	buy track
16.	Sideways And Backwards (Digital Bonus) 04:15	buy track
17.	Mirage (Digital Bonus) 04:50	buy track
18.	Northbound Lanes (Digital Bonus) 03:59	buy track
19.	Nothing Out Of Nowhere (Digital Bonus) 04:23	buy track
20.	Writing On The Wall (Digital Bonus) 04:39	buy track

about

Attack Decay Sustain Release, or ADSR, was the name of Todd Nickolas and Dominic Paterson's high school synthesizer group, an outlet for their electronic music experiments recorded on Todd’s parents’ farm in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.

In the idyllic rural setting of the Nickolas' dairy and crop farm, the juxtaposition of natural ambience and the repetitive rhythms of the machinery merged within their youthful music-saturated subconscious and found its way into their recordings. This bucolic environment also inspired the teenagers to channel their restless energy into endlessly experimenting with whatever gear they could get their hands on and listening to a steady diet of new music.

A big part of that exposure to non-mainstream sounds came via CBC Radio's Brave New Waves program — a saviour for adventurous and curious listeners living outside of major urban centres. The title "Poised Over Pause Buttons" is directly borrowed from a live studio broadcast by Severed Heads, where host Brent Bambury introduced the set by saying, "Do you know how many fingers are poised over pause buttons right now?" The title is also a head nod to those early processes of recording onto cassette decks or 4-track tape recorders, and to the tape culture of the time, capturing favourite songs off the radio with precision and making mixtapes from owned or borrowed record collections.

Todd was constantly seeking new electronic music through those formative years — whether it was the futuristic space rock of ELO's “Time” in grade school, Skinny Puppy’s blistering electronic body music in high school, or the ambient bliss of Aphex Twin in university. The tracks coming from their studio in those early days were inspired by a steady diet of these new discoveries. They were rapidly devouring a wide variety of acts from 4AD and Wax Trax!, “indie” artists like Husker Du, Chicago house to Belgian New Beat, the On-U Sound label to Public Enemy, and all points in between.

The unreleased cassettes that Todd recently rediscovered (some of which are included on this release) are a flashback to that era of pure discovery but also a reminder of the explorations and achievements accomplished by the confidence of the fearless amateur. Over the past three years, Todd and Linus Booth have compiled their favourite glimpses from that '87-'91 period and present them to you as a personal reflection of that time and place.

RIYL: Brave New Waves, home taping, DIY electronic body music, bleeps & basslines

credits

released March 15, 2024

All music by ADSR 1987 - 1991
Tape selection by Todd Nickolas and Linus Booth
Mastered by Brandon Hocura from original cassettes
and digital audio tapes
Art direction by Josh Voynovich
Distribution by Séance Centre
(p) & (c) Aural Medium 2024

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