“Audio Read”:

The Electronic Love Foundation was Mark Barrott’s debut album. Recorded in his home studio, in Derbyshire, and self-released on cassette in 1994. Before, a few years later, Mark found his first flush of success as Future Loop Foundation. 

The hour-long tape is a trip. A journey that segues through 4 related but distinct stages. Beginning with distant drums emerging from a suggested darkness. Its ambience full of Tesla coil / BBC Radiophonic Workshop Sci-Fi buzzing and fizzing. Then strings join in, and countering bubbling currents of chimes and bleeps. The rhythmic chop of rotor blades recalls Vangelis’ classic Chung Kuo, ushering a move into something Orb-esque. Circuitry singing like birds and fresh water streams. Ceremonial percussion, distorted woodwinds and reeds slowly turning proceedings more Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia. More O Yuki Conjugate. After 10 minutes things begin to blend. Ghostly gated chants riding a stuttering dub bass-line, as the assorted elements establish a groove. Synths twist. Manic but melodic. The orchestration soars and swoons. 

With the sound of a tropical thunderstorm we enter Part 2, which feels much more “loved-up”. An angelic, celestial choir serenading layer upon layer of whispered, otherworldly vocal samples. The bass switching back and forth between “The Bed’s Too Big Without You” pop reggae skanking and laidback funk. 

The third phase drums up a drama of indecipherable human babbling and blissed-out dolphin noises. There are bursts of broken beats. Mark finally adding a four-to-the-floor thump. Keys shape shift through trance-y Tangerine Dream-ing arpeggios and hypnotic whistling hooks. Eventually alighting on a riff that reprises arms-in-the-air rave piano. The tempo settling into a bulbous bass-ed electro-glam stomp. 

The closing quarter has a kinda choral music vibe. Opening with soft swirling lines and clanking field recordings, echoes of Mark’s industrial hometown, it returns to a sense of the ceremonial. Far looser, however. Winding down. Its air, Art Of Noise, Moments In Love, perhaps even a bit Smokebelch inspired.

ELF might be a debut, a curio, and a little demo-like in quality, but already you can hear the cinematic kosmische that ran through many of the early releases on Mark’s  best-selling International Feel imprint. Music that Mark produced anonymously under a series of aliases. As Mark’s fanbase continues to increase exponentially – his latest long-player, Everything Changes, Nothing Ends, has apparently hit 25 million streams – it’s well worth splashing out a fiver to find out where it all started. 

Mark Barrott’s The Electronic Love Foundation can be ordered directly from from Bandcamp, where you can also find the full background story.