Bear Bazooka has been latent these past few years, on the surface anyway. He explains; "Every track that I would upload to soundcloud took away from the surprise of the finished product.. I didn't want to stop surprising people, which I was doing, all the time, no matter what I uploaded.. so I stopped uploading teasers. Others were going full steam ahead, publishing everything they printed, but I'm not the type to follow what others do. There's that hit of instant gratification when it comes to uploading everything you finish as soon as you're done printing it, but there is a sense of accomplishment holding back and packaging it together in a collection later."

His last release, 'Ursines and Saws' was a success, but he wasn't pleased with how it sounded upon revisiting it years later. It was "Not mastered very well" and "Didn't really show off what (he) was capable of, it was essentially a bunch of stuff people had heard already". In retrospect he says "I rushed that one, and had limited knowledge of the mastering process at the time. I decided to not allow that to happen again" which may explain the disappearance of said record from the internet, and Bear's soundcloud page falling into mostly silence.

Since the release of 'Ursines and Saws' in 2013, Bear has been producing and studying. Self taught in production and mastering since 2003, he's taken the time to soak up every bit of information he could, create surprising noises, apply his own special brand of odd recording techniques, and it shows in his latest album, The Collection - 2012 to 2017. "This is a good one.." he says, "..I wasn't restricted to the same tools I had all those years ago. By now I had amassed some pro gear, and I was ready to put it to use. The entire album was written and recorded on an iPad, the demos came from an iPhone and iPod touch, but once I had the tracks I could sit down and mix them professionally. The way technology is advancing with this sort of thing compared to when I first started, when I'd record to MiniDisc and then to a computer in one take is crazy.. Now I can spend months perfecting something until it feels right."

And that level of perfectionism shines on this album. From the heavily quantized, progressive house and breakbeat infused 'Chords, Swing, Breaks', to the simple but powerful 'Drop Bear', to the Germany meets Detroit banger 'Not Connected', and the alluring 'Pulling Rabbits out of Hats' to name just a few, the record spans not only 5 years, but documents someone who appears to be more comfortable and confident with the production environment, eager to experiment with anything possible, and see where it goes.

"Some of these tracks were written in an 8 track environment.." Bear laughs, "..but maybe that's for the best. I had some really bad recording practices at the time I embarked on this adventure, just slapping on track after track and sonically drowning everything...it was bad. The 8 track constraint was a fresh approach that I took and ran with. Later on, much later on, I upgraded to 16 tracks, but kept that constrained discipline."

'The Collection - 2012 to 2017' is infectiously danceable. It is packed with tight, groovy drums, pounding bass, crisp beautiful synths, and stunning attention to detail. There's even a few cheeky moments in there sure to throw people off guard, as Bear's sense of humor and creative genius shines through. Spanning over 2 hours long, it also has some ambient moments where listeners can appreciate the talent and tireless work behind this sound, while taking a break from dancing. The collection closes with the gorgeous 'Merge with the Infinite' the perfect way to wind down this collection. It's an emotion driven selection of music, and documents the good, the bad, and everything in between, which Bear experienced during the recording process.

The collection - 2012 to 2017 is available to buy now on Bandcamp in the format of your choice.