Kevin Palmer, working under the name Best Available Technology, produces hazy lo-fi electronic music shaped by dub, techno, ambient, and hip-hop. Remaining faithful to that alias, he builds tracks exclusively from whatever gear happens to be accessible, typically outmoded drum machines, keyboards, tape recorders, and assorted second-hand electronics. The resulting sound frequently emerges wet and crackly in the manner of vintage dub yet can turn harsh and distorted in an industrial vein. Even its most propulsive moments retain a sluggish, detached quality.
Raised in Southern California, Palmer relocated to Portland, Oregon in 1992 and began exploring samplers, tape decks, and inexpensive audio tools. Although he accumulated countless hours of recordings, his initial formal release arrived only in 2012 via a split cassette shared with the mysterious OND TON. That cassette marked one of the earliest offerings from the U.K. label Opal Tapes, an imprint that rapidly earned recognition as a leading outlet for abstract electronic music.
Subsequent Best Available Technology material surfaced across multiple imprints. Vinyl editions of his more rhythm-oriented pieces appeared through Styles Upon Styles as part of the Bangers & Ash series and through Left Blank with Neon Razor Chain, while murkier abstract works were committed to cassette by Further Records on Further Tracks and by Working Nights on Gallery Tape. Astro:Dynamics compiled two volumes of earlier cassette material under the title Excavated Tapes 1992-1999. Two further BAT vinyl releases arrived in 2015: the Slumdiscs split EP Go Slumming with Morkebla and the Astro:Dynamics collaboration De/Re-Constructions with BNJMN. Opal Tapes also issued a second BAT recording that year, Form and Void.
Seagrave simultaneously put out Warp Purpose, Vol. 1, the Boa project formed by Palmer and Gary James Geiler of Ovis Aurum. Three additional BAT releases followed in 2016, all on Working Nights: the cassettes Brute & Blind and Running to You plus the 12" EP Twisted Ladder. In 2017 BAT returned to Styles Upon Styles for the mutated hip-hop LP Exposure Therapy.
