Komputer

Originally formed in North London during the closing years of the 1990s, Komputer launched as an electro-pop outfit whose early work drew its primary inspiration from Kraftwerk, though the duo later steered the project toward a markedly more distinctive direction. The lineup of Simon Leonard and David Baker had in fact started out as a three-piece that also included Jane Brereton; their first appearance on Mute Records came in 1996 via a four-track, self-titled EP whose lead cut, “Valentina Tereshkova,” would later surface as a single. In October 1997 Mute issued the band’s debut album, The World of Tomorrow. The record functioned as a direct stylistic tribute to Kraftwerk, relying heavily on analog synthesizers and vocoder-treated vocals, and yielded three singles—“Looking Down on London,” “Valentina,” and “Terminus”—each of which appeared on Mute in remixed editions throughout 1997 and 1998. After those releases Komputer went quiet for several years, resurfacing only at the end of 2002 as a two-piece with the album Market Led, a clear shift away from their earlier approach. Leonard and Baker drew influence from the forward-thinking dance output of imprints such as Kompakt and Klang as well as the laptop-based techno associated with Sutekh and Farben; they assembled tracks using a compact setup consisting of a sampler and two black boxes, sourcing their raw material from discarded records discovered at Spitalfields Market in East London. Those samples were then reshaped and manipulated to form the varied, extended sonic pieces that comprise Market Led, resulting in an experimental and thoroughly singular collection.