Pilote

Stuart Cullen, working under the Series 500 name, issued several recordings on Brighton’s Curor label that drew critical praise even though sales stayed limited. Those releases caught the ear of Paul Arnold, prompting him to place the strip-lit electronica of Cullen on his Certificate 18 imprint and to launch the Electronic Projects series expressly for Cullen’s output. Antenna, his first album for the label, developed the tortured orchestration already present on debut single Tonic by driving dysfunctional beats through paper-thin synths with notable elegance. The same goal shaped both that record and the follow-up Do It Now Man: easing electronica’s customary angularity through an elusive organic touch.