Originally released, on CD only, in 1997, Pilgrims Of The Mind’s What’s Your Shrine? is an eclectic set. One that reflects the diverse, but unified, underground dance scene of Vancouver at the time. Having said that, a lot of the album is house. Music that’s marked by the date of its production, with pitched-up tempos and a sound somewhere between UK progressive – a sort of taming of techno – and deadly contemporary New York dubs. Stuff like Matthias Heilbronn and Mike Delgado’s Dangerous Minds. Matching trance-y trappings – synthetic squelching, gated trippy details, and acid effervesce – with an NYC garage swing. Smell Zee Flower, My Baby Likes Rum, La Belle du Jardin, and Loosejaw, these pieces are all party-starters, packed with catchy, poppy hooks. Something’s Pulling Me Under and Nothing Can Pull Us Apart are more mid-tempo`d – the latter featuring ace arcs of new age Steve-Hillage-mimicing-a-whale-singing guitar – but it was the slower songs that drew me in. The flute fluttering over L`amore Encore’s breakbeat-driven IDM. The head-nodding, hallucinogenic boom-bap of Following The Sofuto Kuriimo – a seriously stoned sunset / sunrise-suitable sojourn. Repeated plays of Sandcastle had me “Sold!” An ambient epic of brushed snares, bass undulations, and 6-string blues riffs spun backwards, distilling distant, muted brass fanfares over a dusty old break, it shares a spliff with Underworld’s classic Mental Generation / Cafe del Mar remake. 

Pilgrims Of The Mind’s What’s Your Shrine? is out now, on Heels & Souls.