TECHNO SINGLE OF THE MONTH
DJ Rolando (The Aztec Mystic)
"Revenge of the Jaguar"
Underground Resistance 2000
DJ Rolando's original "Flight of the Jaguar" was the Detroit phenomenon of
1999 (and--wow--it wasn't "ghettotech" or electro). Caned incessantly by DJs
as disparate as Sven Vath and Roger Sanchez, the record went on to sell over
20, 000 domestic copies worldwide and crossed over into all genres. Sony
Music Germany touched off a firestorm by illegally releasing its own
soulless, bootlegged trance version of the hit and overnight the militantly
underground UR camp was embroiled in a controversy of David and Goliath
proportions. Now, in the midst of an e-mail bombing/hacking campaign against
corporate Sony by irate techno fans on behalf of their underground heroes, UR
strikes back with the remixes. UR co-founder and international techno legend
Jeff Mills returns to the fold eight years after leaving the group with a
percussive, string-laden workout far out of character with his usual
lock-grooved Purpose Maker madness. Octave One checks in with my favorite
mix; a reduced, minimal take on the original whose strings come in
triumphantly towards the end. And finally, leader Mad Mike brings up the rear
with a beatless, spiritual epilogue. The CD version compiles all of DJ
Rolando's UR output to date in addition to the new mixes. Round two decision:
UR.
*****
--Alan Oldham
Deetron
Alien Entertainment EP
In-Tec/UK
A by-the-numbers release and the first misstep from Carl Cox's techno
imprint. There's only one hot one here to me, "Alien Data", a track that
combines techno percussion with house overtones (itself nothing new; see G
Flame). The other tracks are bland and predictable. Now watch, I'm going to
end up playing out somewhere with this guy who would have read my review, and
I'll be forced to explain myself in person. I gave Cristian Vogel a bad
review here in Mixer and almost ended up running into him in Berlin. I
actually did meet his SuperCollider partner, Jamie Lidell. Luckily I left
town right before Cristian got in. Whew, that was a close one.
*
--Alan Oldham
Soulwatcher
Battery EP
Primevil/UK
Another clunker, this time from the usually-dependable Primevil. Soulwatcher
is Marco Bailey and Redhead, responsible previously for that bangin' 10" on
Primate, "Black Windows". There's no excitement to this one, however. "Club
E" (corny name) is long and rigidly programmed, simple and very Euro. "Page
Up" has this annoying piano line that runs through it, with no swing to the
drum parts at all. Only "Battery" is any good; swinging, funky, hard as
nails, and even it sounds like it picks up note-for-note right where the Adam
Beyer remix of Morgan's "Flowerchild" on Synewave leaves off.
*
--Alan Oldham
Chris McCormack
The Maximalist
Materials/UK
Four tracks of proper, bangin' techno from an artist I've never heard of. The
label is new as well. "The Maximalist" is grinding, dark and lowdown, falling
somewhere between The Advent and Regis. Bad-ass shit, but the track just
stops dead at the end, like somebody pulled the plug on his mixer or
something. If you're a decent DJ though, you're not gonna play it through, so
what do you care. I heard Oakenfold lets his records play all the way
through, doesn't even mix, and his mix CDs are all done on ProTools. Is this
true ? E-mail me. Anyway, "Day to Day" sounds like a cross between me ripping
off Mills ("Codes and Structures Volume One") and McCormack ripping off the
Advent, if that makes any sense. "Sunset to Sunrise" is very funky, very
samba. I wish I had another copy of it to work with (God forbid that my local
record store order more than one of any techno record). "Darkness Prevailing
in the Night" is the long, dark closer to this great EP, which proves that
all you have to do to make a good techno record is sound like Mills, Regis
and The Advent all at once.
****
--Alan Oldham
Sender Berlin
Spektrum Weltweit Remixes
Tresor/GER
Taken from last year's full-length "Spektrum Weltweit", my friends and
tourmates Sender Berlin return with this very interesting three-tracker.
Tokyo's DJ Shufflemaster reworks "Zeitsignal" into a hard techno frenzy; loud
as hell and filtered through the roof. An epic conclusion to that set of
bangin' techno that you've been practicing in your room all these months. Go
get this one, then you'll be ready to rock. Actually, I'm joking because I
know you're all out buying trance records. Double X (also from Berlin)
remixes the title track into something way more interesting than the
original, this one funky, minimal and melodic. "Nana 07" becomes a very
adventurous imaginary soundtrack piece in the hands of Direction Indicator. I
really like this one; cool and evocative. Part two of this remix series will
appear on Sender's own label, unGleich.
****
--Alan Oldham
