Finally, two greats of the Toronto’s scene – a label and an artist – are getting together. Despite a close connection to Suction Records, the city’s industrial and electronics pioneer Heiki Sillaste, or just Heiki, only now makes the label debut with the album “Valley Beyond”. In fact, the founder of the industrial band Digital Poodle previously appeared on the imprint in 2015, when a solid remix EP of the group came out.
While keeping his industrial roots, Heiki’s musical output has been pleasingly diverse, ranging from acid jams and synth pop to dub. electro and ambient. Some of these styles are on the album that expresses obvious club ambitions. The rolling title tune “Valley Beyond” sets the mood with glacial electro acid over vocoder generated vocal part. In the creepy hardware jam “Dieline” the struggle is real, when a haunting sequence is drilling the brain of an exhausted mountaineer. Sudden change in the mental climate appears in “Andermatt”, an après-ski wellness session in the embrace of Swiss Alps – as pictured on the record sleeve.
In the last days of 2022, Heiki Sillaste released the digital EP “Komplexoboxxx” that now opens the album’s B-side with rough 808 beats and vocoder. Stout bass line pumps up “Highway 10”, which recalls both Alexander Robotnick and Chicago’s acid house classics. After that reappears the title track, now as a shorter and abstracter reprise.
In addition to half-dozen tracks of the vinyl version, there are five more in the digital and CD format. “Next Summer” is soft-spoken slow electro acid, with gradually absorbing effect. Meditative ambient “Mobile Mass” and “Lazy” belong to the pack, as well as kinky acid cruiser “Escarpment” and the second part of “Highway 10”.
Buy vinyl:
Juno (UK)
Hard Wax (DE)
Biit (EE)