Press Release :
"It's difficult to imagine a time when it won't sound before its time." (Real Groove, New Zealand 1999)

With this "two in one" - edited and freshly mastered reissue of Flanger's early records, Nonplace offers a 79 minutes assembly of probably the most elaborate and witty electronic productions around. Atom™ and Burnt Friedman attack the most common preconception of electronic music - its artificiality -, slice it into a million pieces and stitch a pixelated patchwork from the jagged fragments: hence the title, "Nuclear Jazz". The first and only Flanger remix to date - produced in 1999 for the Italian artist Gak Sato - completes this "blistering set of instrumentals that snare both, the intellect and the hips".(uncut 2000)

10 years ago, in December 1997 Atom™ and Burnt Friedman teamed up in Santiago de Chile to compose "Templates". Atom™, also known as Señor Coconut, had moved life and studio to Chile in 1997 and B.Friedman flew in as part of his annual travel to New Zealand and Australia.
Equipped with few electronic production devices: sampler, sequencer and keyboard the duo managed to produce the entire first Flanger record "Templates" within one week only. On their search for the ultimate organic, non-repetitive sound scape they intended to blur the borders between "real", "fake" and "hyperreal": Songs may start with an accumulation of shortest possible noise fragments derived from self-made instrumental samples - programmed with the deliberate avoidance of repetition - developing into the acoustic sound of a real jazz trio playing live. "Templates was a simulation of small group jazz. What sounded superficially like real time playing was revealed to be samples deployed in a psychedelic demonstration of Friedman's Nonplace ideas, undercutting the record's apparent virtuosity and any assumptions about the meaning of the word 'genuine'," reviews The Wire magazine in 1999.
"Atom™ and Burnt Friedman found a place where they could indulge their sheer love of playing," as stated in the 1999 liner notes of the second album "Midnight Sound". They added the latin flavour wherever they could. "Not only their wealth of ideas but also their ability to 'humanize' the sound of samples, coupled with the funkiness of their music, is evident on this album. With electrically defamiliarized instrument set ups, 'Midnight Sound' ignores all the stylistic pigeon holes that critics so love squeezing musicians into. There seems to be nothing Flanger is reluctant to touch upon."

English press quotes for "Templates" & "Midnight Sound":
The perfect soundtrack to 21st century horizontal dancing. (jockey slut, U.K. 2000)
Tracks on Templates function as sonic time tunnels. (the wire, U.K. 1999)
Absolutely ace this. (fused 2000)
They want to go to the 13th floor. (wallpaper 2000)
This is light years ahead of what anyone else is doing (...) this has got to be heard to be believed. (footloose 1999)
We'd buy it. roll up a large one. (dj 1999)
They fray edges of your brain and rub your conscious mind red raw (...) Templates attacks the accepted notion of electronic music, slices it into a million pieces and stitches a pixelated patchwork from the jagged fragments. Anything but normal. (flipside 1999)
Heaven on plastic for jazzniks and avantgardists. (update 1999)
Jazz tipped on its head, taking it to places other producers haven't dreamt about yet. (dj 1999)
Breaking down the barriers that exist between the electronic and the acoustic. (what's on 1999)
"By the way, this isn't a hip hop album and you can't breakdance to it either. Pulling out individual tracks is pointless, too as it's a whole listening experience. If you're thinking of bi-wiring your third ambient speaker to your quadraverb, painting your arse blue and dancing naked in a field while taking bucket loads of hallucinogenic drugs you might want to take a copy of this with you. Just remember where you parked your car afterwards. But don't let this put you off. You never know, such activities may help you reach into your inner self and make you a better b-boy." (hip-hop connection 1999)