PROTECT-U “U-Udios One” (U-Udios)


We’re not gonna start rummaging through my hard drive, that much I’ll tell you right off the bat. We’d find some half-finished ideas from years ago – MAYBE. Most likely we’d unearth some incompetent jamming or covers of terrible songs. It would really just be incredibly awkward for all involved, but mostly it would be an uncomfortable journey into my inept past. I don’t think I could take getting crushed by that type of embarrassment again.

For Aaron Leitko and Mike Petillo, aka Protect-U, also proprietors of fine items at U-Udios, scrubbing the underside of every file folder in their hard drive was a much more rewarding experience. “U-Udios One” collects the unreleased material gleaned from this exercise, the product of two and a half years of work following Protect-U’s debut “Free USA.” It’s … it’s way cooler than anything that’s ever been on my computer, I gotta admit. Even if these tracks were cobbled together for the sole purpose of allowing them to see the light of day, there’s a coherence of composition here that presents a unified listening experience.

Sparse electronics verge on breaking through to techno at times, but mostly they skitter and squirm in lo-fi burrows, emerging from the murk periodically to see what’s going on outside. Often Protect-U latches onto a mood and hovers there, exploring in detail the alcoves and crevasses of their position, fiddling with pieces and fragments until they stretch into fully formed passages. The exploration, the experience, is the key, and each track is the tactile result of audio excavation. Hard not to get excited about something like that.

Now, if only I had something good to put on a tape…



--Ryan