Who knew beautiful British Columbia had so much talent in the catch-all realm of electronica? manoeuvres 3 offers a nice cross-section of the genre: from blippy IDM gone wrong to distorted electro dance rock, to acid flavoured techno.<!–more–>

Sinewave contributes a song awash in lush, Air-reminiscent ambience. It’s a dreamy beach scene with a sonic tide rolling in with a nice groove of a beat on top and some massive atmospheric (or underwater) reverbed aural texture. Michael Red’s “Top Score” is just plain fun. An offbeat pumping bass line, selective percussion and a catchy 8-bit melody tastes like old school Nintendo married to an analog synthesizer. Simple and sparse, the Lighta! crew heavy hitter puts smiles on faces with this track.

The closing track, “Rose Black’s Shadow” by Elonious Funk, is a choice pick with haunting ‘40s horror radio-theatre strings and chilling female vocal samples served on top of a hip-hop beat, imbued with an unpredictably stuttered groove with plenty of triplets.

The overall selection is varied but high in quality and sonically diverse. The variation of sound from track to track might prevent it from being the CD to just hit play at your next electronica-friendly hang out session, but So Called Recordings has done a nice job in giving the public a taste of what’s available from beautiful B.C. in the ever-morphing wide expanse of electronica.