This is the fourth release on the 6-volume Surgeon reissues label, SRX. Originally released on Ideal Trax in 1995, Dynamic Tension EP established themes that went on to become central concepts to much of Surgeons later work. It also marked a refinement of his sound that lacked none of the intensity of earlier releases.
A few words from Surgeon about the SRX series:
While searching through old DAT tapes I was shocked to find how clear and dynamic many of my early tracks sounded, not the way I remembered them from the vinyl releases. Those early tracks, recorded 20 years ago, were mastered and cut by people who had no understanding of electronic music. I actually remember cutting a dubplate back then and being asked if my track was “supposed to sound like that?” The engineer was so disgusted at my music that once the cut started he left the room until it was finished.
Although some of these releases have been repressed many times over the years, they have always been from the original plates from those early cuts; none have ever been re-mastered and recut in their original from. So I began carefully transferring everything from the original DAT tapes and working closely with Christoph Grote-Beverborg from Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin (who’s been cutting my all my releases since 1996) to present this early material as it was originally intended.
Along with the early Downwards releases, I found high-quality unreleased tracks from that time as well as releases that had only been issued in limited pressings; those too are included in this project. For the packaging I commissioned Ken Meier and Yoonjai Choi from the New York design firm Common Name to create some sumptuous sleeve art.
