a chance encounter at university during the acid house summer of ’88 and subsequent bonding over baby ford’s “oochy koochy” established a life-long friendship between leicester lads, jimi o’callaghan and al green. inspired by the sounds of detroit, early ny house like murk and masters at work and the emerging uk sounds of lfo, orbital and aphex twin, the pair began djing and making music as the wild geese. their first ep, “the wild geese ep”, was released in 1994 on their own giddy goose recordings imprint. the guys pressed 500 copies and, with jimi’s connections made interning with pete tong’s ffrr, sold copies direct to london shops. the record sported packaging designed to look like an american 12” and an accompanying press release attributed the ep to a fictitious dj duo hailing from wisconsin. rave reviews followed and a distribution deal was struck with vital uk, who produced and sold another 500 copies worldwide. another ep followed a year later. sadly, plans for a third ep on the label never materialized, but the pair remain close to this day. 24 years later we are honored to reintroduce this genre-defying, uniquely forward-thinking ep to today’s dance floors.

as a companion release to his new material on is / was, mark has been kind enough to let us dig through his extensive back catalog, remaster and reissue three pearls from the crayon label heyday. zulu groove and warehouse blues roll along the darker technoid mode mark was known for at the time, while thru showcases the lighter, bouncier side of his style.

the was/is crew have proven themselves to be dab hands at burrowing away at the hidden folds of the 90s electro scene and finding some truly unsung heroes worth of a reissue. following on from excellent work supporting the likes of archetype, the us label can now be found shining a spotlight on the work of can oral under the 4e moniker. originally appearing on labels such as force inc and mille plateaux, 4e s sound was quintessentially mid-90s, but only surfaced over a short period of time between 1994 and 1998. this record originally came out on sockett in 1996, and it s been sought after as avid diggers pull out every thread of dope, adventurous electro they can find. discogs pirates laugh no more, because now this essential record is back in the hands of the real music fans!

omni am brings some no-nonsense tough rhythmic workout business to was / is, leading in with the tool tones of tubes for allah. while it may be heavily focused on the drums, this stormer of a track has the right ingredients to get people freaking, and mark ambrose follows the same path with his almost tribal remix. hit that shit and pyramids both appear in edited form on the b-side, providing a fresh perspective on the sound omni am was exploring back in 2001 when tubes for allah was first released.