Io

Austrian techno experimentalist Patrick Pulsinger is one of a very few Vienna-bred electronic musicians to reach acclaim in the wider dance music world. Although Pulsinger has recorded in just about every vein of electronic dance music -- from house and techno to minimal electro and warped downbeat -- his take on each is usually one of pushing established boundaries in unexpected directions, leading to a cult-like status among DJs (and often exceeding the amount of play his records actually receive). Perhaps best known for the unlikely acid jazz hit "City Lights," a collaboration with countrymate Dorfmeister (of the production team Kruder & Dorfmeister), the bulk of Pulsinger's recorded work (including the Porno full-length for Disko B and a series of EPs and an album as IO) hasn't been nearly so straight-ahead. Released mostly on his own Cheap label, that work has drawn from Detroit techno and Chicago house, funk, jazz, soul, and disco, and hip-hop and electro-funk, with Pulsinger warping the years and spaces separating these elements until they seem to congeal into a logical whole. Like many of his peers, Pulsinger doesn't stick with any one brand-name too long, and his discography is rittled with aliases, including Sluts'N'Strings, Restaurant Tracks, and Showroom Recording Series. Although the Cheap label's early discography (singles like "Summerbreeze" and the Robert Hood full-length Nighttime World, Vol. 1) were geared more toward a club atmosphere, that direction is being increasingly abandoned in recent releases such as "Showroom Recording Series, Vol. 2" and "Mean Clown Welcome," which display instead a brand of cheeky bedroom electronica similar to labels such as Clear and Evolution. [See Also: Private Lightning 6, Patrick Pulsinger] ~ Sean Cooper, Rovi