Locust
In the accelerating flurry of ambient dance releases following the Orb's breakthrough, at least the work of Mark Van Hoen contains a snatch of humour. The track Xenophobia, for example: ‘I started with this Japanese vocal sample, and began thinking I'd have to surround it with five-note Japanese pentatonik scales. Then I gave up and called myself xenophobic’. Elsewhere the musical territory on his debut album was mapped out in traditional genre style, eerie mood pieces with more than a passing nod to composers like Steve Reich. Diverting enough, but hardly a substantial listening experience. He originally came to prominence through the heavily-imported SKYLINE EP, before a deal with R&S subsidiary Apollo for six albums. Unlike many similar artists, however, Van Hoen has no ambitions to remix other people's music, preferring instead to concentrate on his own music (though he does plan to produce other artists, from outside the house/techno sphere).