"Before I write a song I've always got complete vision of what I want," surmises ANDREA PARKER when quizzed on her musical philosophy. "And I am not going to stop until I get it." Which explains a lot. Why, for instance, her debut album Kiss My Arp has been almost four years in the making. And, indeed, why it's likely to long outlive most of its competition. Trying to pin down Andrea's music, however, is not so easy. "Whenever I release a record it seems to get reviewed in a different section to the last," she laughs. "But I've always tried to keep a common flavor with it. People might think my music sounds dark – I've had people come up and call me DJ Satan when I'm DJing – but I think I'm more concerned with getting a certain depth to it. This is definitely a deep album rather than a dark one."

Certainly Andrea's musical past is a widely varied one. Her early explorations with Inky Blacknuss and Two Sandwiches Short Of A Lunchbox (a collaboration with David Morley) were at the cutting edge of experimental leftfield electronica. Even then, she was also showcasing her vocal skills, guesting on releases like Koh Toa's jawdroppingly serene "Sundown" single (Infonet). Once safely snapped up by Mo'Wax the plot thickened even further. First came the juicy electro workout "Melodious Thunk", which found its way into eminent record boxes on both sides of the Atlantic. Then there was "Rocking Chair", an emotionally charged, tear-stained ballad spectacularly orchestrated by Will Malone – whose strings have graced everything from horror soundtracks to Massive Attack's "Unfinished Symphony". It crossed over, winning her a new legion of fans unaware of her techno background. So, just for good measure, she followed it with the crunchy hooligan beats of "Ballbreaker". Confused? You won't be when you hear Kiss My Arp.

This is where Andrea paints the bigger picture, drawing on her experience as an experimental DJ at clubs like Lost and the legendary defunct Megatripolis, her love of hard dancefloor techno and her ear for a classic song, in equal amounts. Which might well be down to growing up in Yalding, Kent, initially divorced by geography from the club scene. "I spent a lot of time listening to ethereal stuff like This Mortal Coil and Cowboy Junkies when I was smaller," she remembers, "it wasn't until my big sister passed her driving test and we'd drive up to hip hop jams in London that I really discovered the funk."

Kiss My Arp was meticulously stitched together at longtime studio compatriot David Morlay's studio, a world away from Andrea's London home, deep in the Bavarian countryside. "That was definitely good for me being there," she says, "I like to concentrate on one thing at a time and there's absolutely nothing to do in Bavaria apart from work all day!" In fact, it's one of Marley's keyboards – that ancient analogue contraption the Arp – that gave the album its title. "I remember the first time I walked into his studio," she recalls, "I stood there and went ‘oh my God'. He had all the original Fairlight and Arps and Moogs that I had always wanted to use but never been able to get my hands on. I couldn't think about working without him now. I guess it's just because he loves the same mad sounds as I do." Like the found sound samples that form the backbone of "Sneeze", the first track Andrea recorded for the album. "That's actually me sneezing," she says, "chopped up into a four-bar loop. It's like the approach the Art Of Noise used to take; just finding as many mad sounds as you can possibly find and stick them together. I remember going out for the day and leaving my DAT machine recording for 24 hours. Just stuffing tape after tape into it and recording things like the sound of my car tires driving over cats eyes in the road. The biggest challenge was the vocals," says Andrea, "Music is never a problem for me, I've been writing instrumentals for quite some time. I'd left them until last and it took me a while to find my feet, but then you do a couple you're really into – like "Breaking the Code" which I did in one go – and things start to happen.

Hardly surprising, perhaps, when you consider the intense nature and reflective lyrical content of tracks like "Clutching At Straws", "The Unknown" and "Return Of The Rocking Chair." Andrea, who maintains she's not an introspective person by nature, puts that down to the hours she spends alone in hotel rooms and airport lounges on DJing duties. "A lot of writers seem to be quite depressing characters, but I'm not. I love a good laugh. But when you spend a lot of time on your own, you end up thinking a lot. When it comes down to it, I am quite an analytical, philosophical person." As, indeed, her album is an analytical, philosophical and altogether moving experience. A multi-layered treat for all those who believe great songwriting and mischievous studio experimentation can and do make excellent bedfellows. One scary pucker of a record, you might even say.
Originally Appeared at Beggar's Banquet records