#1
by Sean CooperSkylab's debut album came out of nowhere, showcasing a maddeningly well-constructed balance of downtempo experimental beat music and ambient- and musique concrete-leaning miscellany. Urban lore has it Ducasse spent a few weeks tripping in his attic to come up with the base tapes that bandmates Howie B. and Love TKO would fashion into #1. True or not it's a pretty apt accounting for what appears here. The Astralwerks reissue adds a few throwaways and the handsome "Exotica."