As One
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
With his own material, Degiorgio has released records through A.R.T. and R&S (as Future/Past), as well as New Electronica and future funk Rephlex breakaway Clear (under his As One guise). Degiorgios music dwells most often on his split affinity for Carl Craig/Derrick May, -style Detroit gear and an ongoing commitment to the mid-70s experimental jazz and funk fusions of Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis. The latter influence is less evident on his earlier A.R.T. and New Electronica records (such as Reflections and Celestial Soul), which tend to stick to a comparatively more conservative dancefloor framework, but his late-90s R&S and Clear material moved progressively to the fringes of techno/jazz fusion, particularly in the increasingly bold keyboard work. His debut Clear release, The Message in Herbies Shirts (a tribute to Hancock, whose artistic evolution, Degiorgio somewhat facetiously claims, can be traced through the styles of shirt worn on the sleeves of his records), though hardly characteristic of the label, became one of its strongest, most consistent releases. After compiling his complete Clear material on the CD collection In with Their ARPs and Moogs and Jazz and Things, Degiorgio closed out an active 1997 with the release of his first album for Mo Wax, Planetary Folklore.
Degiorgio was just as busy throughout the early 2000s. Along with mate Ian OBrien, he put together three volumes of The Soul of Science, various-artist compilations that helped connect the dots between jazz and techno. The hard-to-find mix album FX.MIX.01, as well as the As One anthology So Far (So Good), came out in 2003. A pair of As One albums -- 2001s 21st Century Soul and 2004s Out of the Darkness -- saw him stretch out his sound to remarkable effect.
