Liner Notes: Comit's 'Remote Viewing' at Five Years (ASIPV017)

The Story Behind The Release

Liner notes are printed on thick card inside each of our vinyl releases.
See here for some background on the intention and format. I am publishing Liner Notes from existing and past releases here on Substack for all to enjoy.

Artist: Comit
Title: Remote Viewing
Format: Gatefold Orange 2LP + digital
Released: 2019

This is only my second entry into the Liner Notes series here on Substack (I’m in no rush) and this is the first release that didn’t have any physical liner notes (they started around ASIPV020, I think). So it’s a bit of a reflection and trawling back through some emails on this one. With the release turning five years old today, the digital version is also Name Your Price on Bandcamp for the next 24 hours to celebrate this milestone.

Artwork:

Despite James’ brilliance in his music, he doesn't ever give me much to go on with artwork, which is both awesome and tough! He lets his music do most of the talking, and there I go, coming in with a request for something super nuanced and conceptual as always…

For this one, I remember wanting to depict something futuristic and colorful - much like the sound of IDM that James covers in this album. If you look closely at this artwork, you can probably tell what it is, but without giving too much away, it’s a photo of a famous street in Tokyo that I took (maybe the year before this all started), distorted and fractured to hell by Noah M / Keep Adding.

Story:

Before Remote Viewing, James released a small EP under the Comit alias on the now-defunct Short Trips label.

I covered this release on the ASIP blog in 2016 as one of my favorites, and then in 2017, James sent me an email saying he was working on an album’s worth of new material in a new style (without mentioning Comit), but either way, I was 100% in. Those who know how prolific James is across several styles will come to respect this sound from him. If there were a Venn diagram of James’ music, I think Comit would sit directly in the middle - with ambient on the left (as himself, ASC, Central Industries etc) and then Drum’n Bass on the right. Take the best of both those worlds and you get this magic.

James would go on to release another Comit record with ASIP ‘An Ocean Of Thoughts’ and I hope there are many more to come.

Insight:

Anybody who lived the melodic IDM style of the late 90s and early 00s will know exactly where James’ inspiration comes from. Some called it “Schnauss-esque” (Boomkat, if I remember rightly) and without a doubt the City Centre Offices vibe can be heard in the music, as directly referenced from James, along with many others. But to me, it’s not just a copy cat of that era - it takes that approach, gives you the nostalgia, but propels the sound into completely new, more breaks-forward, territory.

Comit was born out of my love for the music that was classed as 'IDM' during the mid-late 90's. I didn't start releasing music until 1999, and at that time I was heavily into drum & bass, so my production focus was 100% on that. An appreciation of labels such as Morr, City Centre Offices, Merck, Hobby Industries, (to name but a few) was the impetus behind the Deep Space Mix series I started in the early 2000's. I had experimented with producing music that would fit this genre briefly, under my ASC and Intex Systems guises, but it had never become something I'd totally devote an alias too, until I decided to start the Comit project. The core of the Comit sound is broken/glitchy breakbeats and emotive chord progressions with analog synthesizers. Overall, it creates a distinct sound that feels very separate to the music I produce as ASC. - James

Press:

This was one of our first records mastered and cut by Andreas Lupo Lubich, as he was heavily involved in shaping the early IDM era in sound, so naturally he would be at home with this record. With Lupo behind the cut, test presses were approved on the first round back in 2017.

We cut it at 45rpm to maximize the quality of the record (faster rotation = more vinyl surface to read for the needle = better quality). There was a moment when people received the record and would send Instagram videos etc playing the record at the wrong speed. I still see some today. But the best thing is, it works well at 33.3 rpm too. Give it a try.