Rating:
Genre:
Electronica
Release Date: 11/30/2004
Jeff McIlwain's timing couldn't be better. After a few years of floating around on small labels with little recognition for his exceptionally protean productions, he has come up with his best album, and he now gains the benefit -- i.e., attention -- of being released on
Ghostly International.
Serial Hodgepodge, following a pair of low-key 12" releases on
Ghostly, can be considered an improved take on 2003's
Condensed, a compilation situated to play out as a listen-to-in-whole album that displayed the many paths the producer takes with his
techno. While there might be other producers who are more accomplished at making idyllic
downtempo, or placid
IDM, or abstract
hip-hop, or haunting
ambient techno, or blipping/skipping minimal
house, few -- if any -- are capable of covering all of that ground with such sharp consistency on one disc. What
McIlwain lacks in innovation is gained in this ability to be so fluidly versatile.
~Andy Kellman, All Music Guide