A gorgeous, properly influential ambient drift classic resurfaces for a 20 year reissue complete with a new extended piece evoking gauzy nostalgia for late ‘90s/early ‘00s styles.

The glimmering iridescent dub electronics of’Summer’ bobs up from 2000 in the wake of a reissue for the reclusive Scottish artist’s lush debut album  ‘Do You Ever Regret Pantomime?’ (2001). There’s a legion of people out there for whom this was really one of the most definitive and influential records of the era, originally surfacing via Vertical Form and creating a sort of bridge between the foundational Chain Reaction template and the wave of atmospheric, Detroit-indebted UK Techno typified by the Likemind label, Stasis, Irdial etc.

Newly remastered to taste, the original stretches out to the horizon with a groove and lilt that feels something like a re-wired take on ‘E2-E4’ overseen by Mark Fell and Terre Thaemlitz. It’s just inarguably lush, uplifting gear.

‘Fragile Root’ is exclusive to this release, and, although we’re not sure if it’s new-new, or old-new; either way it’s a perfect example of Ambient sculpting at its slinky and melancholic best, strongly recalling Plaid’s ‘Anything’ (the best ever Plaid track, right?) as well as the new wave of UK based producers at the time orbiting around labels like DeFocus, Headspace etc. A throwback – but weirdly a strongly comforting one.