Speedy J Ginger
Warp Records, 1993
Originally released in the summer of 1993 as part of Warp Records’ seminal Artificial Intelligence series. Speedy J’s debut album would go on to be rightfully regarded as a classic of “armchair techno”, as the years ticked by.
He may have got his name pushing the type of tough tunes that were tearing up his native Rotterdam. But, on the side, he’d been messing with that pioneering and pared down production coming out Chicago and Detroit, for his own ends.
His take on “non-club” tracks wound up on labels like Plus 8, and would catch the eye of the Warp lot, who were beginning to bug out on his blend of blissed-out beats.
“That’s why the album ended up sounding the way it did,” says Speedy J. “They came along saying, ‘We want to collect up this music that’s not made for the dancefloor. It’s made up of b-sides Words by Roy Spencer and the kind of ‘second tracks’ on club singles’. They wanted to gather this stuff up and do these compilations. So, that’s how Ginger came about.”
The tracks tucked in the LP’s grooves were freestyled out by Mr. J, live and loose, as was the fashion of the day, with the young buck understandably unaware of the significance of the joints he was jamming out.
He calls the album format itself a “canvas” – a perfect
