Premiere: SEM – Area 5 [BYTES]

Earlier this month Bytes announced the reissue of the killer 1990s electro EPs by SEM (aka Damon Baxter, who would go on to record as Deadly Avenger) on May 17, 2024. The second track to be made available for public consumption is Area 5, taken from The Demon EP, the second SEM release, on which Damon expanded the pure old-school electro SEM sound to include elements of Detroit techno and dystopian sci-fi strings, giving off serious John Carpenter/Vangelis’s Blade Runner soundtrack vibes.

The original 12”s have been out of print since they were released on J Saul Kane’s Electron Industries imprint in 1995 and 1996, with original vinyl copies changing hands for serious money on Discogs. The tracks have never been available digitally. With the original masters MIA, the tracks have been lovingly remastered from vinyl by Keith Tenniswood, who as part of Two Lone Swordsmen (alongside the late Andrew Weatherall), knows a thing or two about producing top-notch electro music. The resulting tracks feel like they could have been recorded yesterday, but have also stayed true to the rawness of the source material.

There is scant information about SEM online, with most of the responses lost in the mists of time… However, SEM was popular with Dave Clarke, who in 1996 included ‘Phox’ on his X-Mix (Electro Boogie) compilation mix, which found SEM in exalted company, alongside tracks by electro legends such as Hashim, Imperial Brothers, Model 500, Elektroids, LFO and Dynamix II. On release, when SEM was played at a club in Detroit, punters queued to get a track ID. Robert “Children” Miles included ‘Red Dragon’ on his 1997 In the Mix compilation. More recently, Helena Hauff featured ‘Hybrid’ on a mix for Radio 1.

Bytes are reissuing the EPs digitally and as a limited edition CD and a collectors’ edition minidisc, which will probably have sold out by the time you read this.