ADSR were high school friends Todd Nickolas and Dominic Paterson. Between 1992 and 1994 they  released a series of 12s on their Floorshaker Productions imprint. Some of these are now highly sought after. As a consequence they’ve been the subject of compilations and retrospectives from the labels Childhood Intelligence and Rising High. Aural Medium have now put together a collection of the pair’s early, previously unreleased work. The title, Poised Over Pause Buttons, is a reference to a time when the two of them searched for inspiration from songs on the radio, specifically Brent Bambury’s Brave New Waves CBC show.

Listening to these tracks, salvaged from 1987 to 1991, influences appear to include techno, industrial, New York Freestyle, bleep, and Chicago house. Sampled screams and porno moaning accompany banging, crashing, snare-smashing, cuts of BDSM sleaze. Elsewhere there are scary, John Carpenter-esque horror score strings, and echoes of Ministry, while the ringing riff of Herethere recalls A Split Second’s Flesh. Racing, and rushing, before the new beat bods pitched it down. However, the gothic gear is closer to Trax than Psychic TV’s Jack The Tab, and the dystopian dynamic countered by generous doses of the kind of Italo favoured by the DJs who laid the roots of Goa trance. Balancing the macho Front 242 / Nitzer Ebb-esque EBM with camper, skipping synth sequences similar to those on sides by the likes of Koto and Droid.

Some of the selections are a meeting of the moodier side of jack, say Master C&J, and the pop of Vince Clarke’s Yazoo. Other tracks, such as Fathom, Is This The World, and As Soon As Possible, mix Middle Eastern melodies with their rattling drum machine rhythms. Fashioning a rigid funk from sharp Latin Rascal-like edits. The latter also goes in for a little acid. There’s more on Freak Response.  Suboceana is like a teutonic take on Badalamenti and Lynch’s Twin Peaks theme. The melancholy backed by a military march.

Everything on offer is a wannabe anthem. Epic in intent. Packing plenty of dramatic, heavily orchestrated hooks. The 808-driven Where Are They Now, for example, has its sights set on the end of the night, the crowd with its arms aloft. The fanfare flares of Far Too Late bring to mind Freddie Bastone’s floor-filling collision of Simple Minds and Queen, plus a touch of Todd Terry’s Orange Lemon. Your Whole Life possesses the piano power of Severed Heads’ A Greater Reward.

ADSR’s Poised Over Pause Buttons is out now on Aural Medium. The vinyl package includes a digital bonus of 6 extra tracks.