[M>O>S Recordings]

Listening to Delsin’s reissue of Until My Heart Stops… by Ross 154, born as Jochem Peteri but best known as Newworldaquarium, trying to pin down its exact origins blindly gets a little tricky. If you gauged it straight from the original M>O>S release date you can see that it came out 2004. But if you read the absurdist back-story printed with the press release you get pointed to a possible 1993 inception having been found on cassette in his bathroom (“that’s where he plays his music LOUD”) years later. Hearing it, there may be some validity to the story.

Even with a re-mastering the opening synth sparkles of “Until My Heart Stops…” bares the fuzzy hum of a former TDK residence, which actually adds to the track’s analogue warmth. The staccato drum programming lets the melody breathe as well worn keyboard slivers are lifted with a melancholy gracefulness. “Kaoz” heads in a new direction, offering up frantic drum syncopation that matches its jacked up bleeps with slashing snares and crashing cymbal patterns. The monochrome synth line rising and falling adds intensity — a feeling of abandonment that gives plenty of early Dance Mania tracks a run for the money. Peteri’s first release as Ross 154 on Eevo Lute Muzique dates from this same period so I wouldn’t be surprised if these tracks were as old as claimed. Who knows what other gems are lying around in Peteri’s bathroom waiting to be found.