Perhaps the heavy reading of Wire magazine had Sam out to buy Oval’s first record Systemisch but it was Diskont 94 I picked up in some strange jaunt in Toronto that sealed the deal for me. The whole package, the basically one tune, the rarity, the bleeps (we coined the phrase "glitch"). It all added up to the most memorable record of this year. I was heavily into the Mac and we all scrambled to create some kind of laptop rock in response. Our enthusiasm certainly effected Bettina to sign Marcus to Thrill Jockey. Meeting him during a Chinatown dinner was kind of fanboy awkward, but hell, he looked like he was 16, where does this stuff come from?