"Let’s face it, the 'mashup' microgenre—which creates new songs from samples of seemingly mismatched others—exploded to 10 times the size anyone expected it to thanks to Girl Talk’s now-worshiped mashup album, Night Ripper. The snark masters at music-insider website Idolator even ran an Onion-esque 'obituary' for the genre in June ('The mash-up died yesterday. It was 5 years old.'). So, it’s all the more notable that the three (and counting) 'mixtapes' released by Cassidy DeMarco, a.k.a. Gouseion, are shit-hot and still totally relevant. It helps that said releases (untitled, save for the Mixtape, Vol. heading) don’t fall back on the obvious indie-rock-versus-rap ironies that launched Night Ripper (and its followers) into the stratosphere of hipster/geek appeal. Perhaps DeMarco lost interest after spending a few formative years recording indie rock as C++, but more likely he just knows the gimmick’s worn. Gouseion’s tapes, rather, are small works of wonder that romance the latter-day descendants of the gangsta rap the 28-year-old grew up with (NWA, 2 Live Crew) with modern soul classics—he even pulls off a Michael Jackson splice without it sounding clichéd. He tops the mix off with his own particular flavor for crushing analog synth and stuttering, heart-attack beats. It’s that flavor that, in the end, saves the tapes from the mashup grave. And it can be found in its naked, sample-stripped techno form on DeMarco’s proper debut, last month’s Puisne. DeMarco (who recently spent a year in Tokyo) says 'gouseion' is the Romanization of the Japanese word for “synthetic sound,” and Puisne’s 8-bit style stands out like a cell phone ring in church. But where similar artists tend to bathe their tones in melancholic blue, DeMarco imbues his with blistering red: Gangsta rap and breakbeats are just as lodged in his brain as Aphex Twin’s benchmark Analord series. And it makes sense: 'Making hip-hop and playing as Brokaw [his hip-hop duo with Disscompany boss Colin Jones] really pushed me to start playing out and promoting my own shit,' explains DeMarco. Add his 'undying love for IDM and noise shit' (he performs noise music solo as Minijack) to the mix, and Gouseion comes out on top. Yes, that’s an absurd number of music projects for a decade of recording—not to mention that Puisne and all three mixtapes came out this year. But that’s exactly why it’s so awesome to think of the force DeMarco will be in another 10."

5.X.07 XLR8R REVIEW (KID KAMELEON) >> LINK

"...Run Riot is starting up with a superb release Puisne from Gouseion. His tunes hit me out of nowhere, all chunky synth hopped up on super skitter mode. Like Funckarma and Modeselektor getting in a fight in a bouncy castle, but with the wistful edge you get from so many American Northwest producers. It didn’t hurt that Gouseion’s done a superb mashup of Too $hort “Blow the Whistle”. Check mixtapes and more at gouseion.com"

X.X.07 URB NEXT 1000 ARTIST PROFILE (ELISA PADILLA) >> LINK

"You may not have heard of Gouseion, and for good reason, it’s just another pseudo-name being utilized by Cassidy DeMarco for his electro-flavored album, Puisne. Making original music since the age of eight, his 20 years of experience have dragged him though many genres of music, he’s released two indie rock albums under the name C++, hip-hop jams under the name Brokaw, and breakcore material under the name Minijack, and now as Gouseion, his new alias should be tip of everyone on the dance floor’s tongue."

7.18.07 WEEK LOCAL CUT (MICHAEL BYRNE) >> LINK

"As far as breakout techno musicians go around these parts, Gouseion’s (Cassidy DeMarco) a more than worthy successor to the Copy throne. The cuts off this debut have both a melodic immediacy and seriously interesting, complex layering. It makes for something bound to lure scene outsiders and electronic heads alike to the same claustrophobic, intensely possessive world of grubby analog tones and heart-attack bass stutters. This track adds a sliced-up vocal sample (a deep voice cut into nths), coloring the whole thing kinda ominous: more of a sense of threat than Copy’s sense of melancholy. It’s good stuff, nay, great stuff. DeMarco’s at the top of my list of people to watch in Portland techno musics."

5.18.07 COLORCUBIC (COLORBLOG) >> LINK

"Gouseion: One word: Drunk. Addictive, 'low-fi meets high-end' stuttered beats encased in a 40oz of Old Gold wrapped with a brown bag of melodic synths. Bottoms up!"

X.X.07 WWEEK BLURB (MICHAEL BYRNE)

"[HEAVY GLITCH] Self-proclaimed "digital gangsta'" Gouseion (a.k.a. Cassidy DeMarco) has about the most disappointing stage presence you'll see, even in the techno realm. But it's still noticeable for about five seconds: The glitchy, stuttering, hip-hop infused analog heart attack of DeMarco's densely packed, heavy-as-fuck laptop techno is total possession. DeMarco's still waiting for his moment in Portland's electronic sun. Soon. Very soon."

X.X.07 (selectorPOINTBLANK)

"...bunkered for years in the hazy thump of NW hip-hop, GOUSEION explodes now with tech-edit precision and dirty bomb mentalities binding a club banger to the calculations of a kingpin... with playful and violent programming GOUSEION maps routes bridging scorched earth digital science and trunk-slapping street momentum... calm like a sniper, GOUSEION comes out putting beams through the frame of IDM/glitch straight to the spastic body call of car-hopping hyphy. creating a pop fantasy for a pop-locking cyborg, turning wet deviant hooks out on the corner, GOUSEION has created an album of trunk anthems...this is what electricity does late at night, amongst its freaky own, smoking lightning... saw waves are GOUSEION's bitch."