Hello. Snow Robots Volume 2 is a retrospective compilation CD from Canada's premiere source of robot music, Suction Records. Suction Records was founded in early 1997 by likeminded robot music composers Lowfish (Gregory de Rocher), and Solvent (Jason Amm). This CD compiles Suction's out-of-print vinyl releases from 1999 in their entirety, and also features several new and exclusive goodies.

Suction Records' 3 vinyl-only releases from 1999 chronicle suction's development from lo-fi electro mayhem to the melodic analog electro-pop sound that is now synonymous with Suction. This development was a reaction to changes in the bedroom-electronics scene, which was rapidly being overcrowded by computer geeks who treated music like code -- clicking their mouses furiously while already imagining the e-newsgroup fame that lay ahead. The Suction robots had had enough with all of this "digital irony"; things just weren't sounding fresh anymore. And so, past masters were pulled from the record crates and re-evaluated with new ears; Depeche Mode, Roedelius, and OMD sounded warmer, and more vital than ever before, and this made a great impression. On Snow Robots Volume 2, you will still hear Suction's affinity for lo-fi weirdness, but you will also discover a noticeable refinement in these crucial robot-composer skills: melody, composition, and synthesis.

In 1999, Suction Records sourced the globe for robot-composers whose music demonstrated an affinity for these musical ideals -- and found some: D'Arcangelo, from Rome, who have recorded for Rephlex, Nature and too many others to mention; Pluxus, naive electronic pop from Sweden; Tinfoil Teakettle, who were easy to find as they are in fact a Solvent and Lowfish collaboration; and Manchester's Brioche Kretzaal, a collaborator with UK labels Skam and V/Vm.

The same traits were sought from our team of wonderful remixers: The UK's soothing electronica maestros ISAN (Darla, Static Caravan, Morr Muisc...); Rome's videogame-pop duo Mat-101; former Le Car member and current Detroit electro-pop subversive Perspects; and Suction's newest full-time robot, Berlin's Skanfrom, who's debut full-length CD will be released on Suction in 2001.

Snow Robots Volume 2 also features a brand new, exclusive preview of Solvent's overseas collaboration with the highly-regarded Austrian vocalist and recording artist, G.D.Luxxe, whose last 12" on Interdimensional Transmissions left Solvent speechless. "That," he resolved, "is the kind of vocalist I've always wanted to work with."