I always hate that in every presentation or review I read lately, I find the same cliche expressions like "sure floorfiller", "a real burner", etc. Mostly they apply for tracks that you couldn't stand to listen unless you've blown a least half a g of ketamine, obsolete by next month. Which mentally brings me to the reason I started avoiding clubbing per se (the empty-eyed, self-entangled 'dancers').
Well, to borrow, this is a real slow burner from 1995. It goes for 9'22'', which used to be an enormous amount of time then but now is rather typical, so don't you dare press the pause button until it's finished.
David Holmes - minus 61 in Detroit
Few days ago I played in a small yet very friendly club, where I've been a customer and guest DJ of old. Due to the imminent rain I thought nobody would show up, yet at about 2-3 am it was packed and we kept it up till morning. Mostly over thirty years old, people were drawn in by and surely danced to the more modern stuff but again went crazy over some older classics with which I sticked to after 5 am. I even dropped 'Acid Trax', some BC, 'Amnesia' and old Cologne stuff and the point is, they had better fun with them than with the adorably perfect productions and almost scientific percussive trickery of the new school of rave music. Instinctively companies started to mingle and people started dancing with other people instead of next to other people. Very few drugs were going around, so I know it was the fun (and not the drug) factor that moved and kept them there.
And I remembered the time when through the unholy combination of many nice people, some open space, unprescribed medication and good music (in whatever amount one would choose to sample them) I sometimes felt that yes, the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts.
Recently I was informed that in Switzerland good old acid is used again in medical research, concerning its therapeutic uses, trying to decide if a (slightly bigger than) normal dose will effect more profoundly some patients than the 1/10th of it that they now take as a test (it will).
By the way, read this.
I'd finally like to grab the opportunity to strongly recommend to everyone into DJing or clubbing to read Jeff Noon's 'DJNA' story from the infamous 'Disco Biscuits' compilation, both an allegory of the late '90s UK scene as well as a sadly prophetic vision of the future to come (the one we're living in).
Minus 61 in Detroit
One Year
So, it's been one year... I'd like to thank you all for the occasional comment and stuff, or just for dropping by and leeching, you know.
I wish I had prepared some special post. But I didn't, so I'll put up a frame from a favorite movie and repost one of my all-time top tracks that passed unnoticed earlier. As it feels appropriate I won't say much about it, just a hint: try it on two decks simultaneously.
Robert Hood - Minus
And have a better year than this one.
S-Channel
German Broadcasters is a project by L.A.Williams, one of my favorite house music producers.
Actually, 'house' may sound a bit weak as a characterization when you listen to his work, as he was always influenced by the harder, acidic side of Chicago music and Detroit. On top of it, this project draws elements from the european EBM-influenced scene (hence the name) and results in a repetitive Heckmann-like track that first came out in Munich's Disko B 2002 'HeavyHitters' compilation of Chisel tracks (from where I've got it) and slipped into the same year's Hell's mix CD. L.A.Williams also worked a lot with some oldschollers of the Berlin scene like the adorable Paige Ilise or Mueller records and did some remixes.
German Broadcasters - S-Channel (Radio Broadcast mix)
The rest of the 'HeavyHitters' album is crazy jack house with techno and filter elements. Anyone interested, just give me a note.
The Detroit Escalator Co.
Some more forgotten jewels.
Neil Ollivierra aka The Detroit Escalator Co. has been an active part of the Detroit scene since very early, yet with only scarce releases through the last decade. An obviously talented musician (just one among other artistic skills), first released two 12"s in 1996. The first of these was included in his later first LongPlay 1996 release "Soundtrack [313]" on Russ Gabriel's Ferox Records, now deactivated. A personal top ten of all times album, it's an ambient masterpiece and simply one of the best sounds to ever come out from Detroit.
Later Peacefrog took care of all D.E.C. releases, starting in 2000 with the "Black Buildings EP", most of which was included in the "Black Buildings" album. During the same year, both of the first 12"s along with a yet unreleased track appeared in "Excerpts". Later on in 2003 a remix track appeared in Charles Webster's "Remixed in the 24th of July", and in 2006 a Ltd.Ed. (see previous post) 10" "Blue Science/Between Dubnotes EP".
Again, so few have heard of The Detroit Escalator Co., it's a shame. Although after "[313]" all releases became more introvert and never peaked that high (personal opinion), they're still important to have and to listen too. When I'll be able to upload from vinyl, I'll post the rest of them. For now:
The Detroit Escalator Co. - 1996 Soundtrack [313]
Here
Info here.
The Detroit Escalator Co. - 2000 Black Buildings EP
Here
Info here.
The Detroit Escalator Co. - 2001 Black Buildings
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.
Charles Webster - Put your hurt aside (The Dub & Space Mix by The Detroit Escalator Co.)
Here
taken from this compilation
P.S. I realize Ferox is revived through digital only releases. Hope it goes well, GO AND BUY '[313]' if you find it there.
The Key
Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia has always been one of my favorite electronic acts. Exit 23 was a blast. People always associated them with the Temple Ov Psychick Youth whose symbols, spelling and beliefs they shared. The connection is indisputable. although at some point they seemingly felt trapped by this and after some internal turmoil and member departures they buried the double cross and re-invented themselves as PWOG.
I think it's best to see them as a crossover act, a trance band gone weird. As some musicians with a different mindset concerning ways of communicating through art. Their low profile, no-ego, sometimes introvert sometimes fun approach to life and the holy and the ritualistic was an immense relief for me compared to the dark blood dripping death electronics of the '80s or the space cake mysticism of Goa trance of the time.
Most of their tracks are dronish loop-based landscapes, sounding like improvisations (although very well structured to be such, in my opinion) borrowing from the industrial school. Their dance tracks range from deep and jazzy house songs to trancey epics to mono-minimal clicky dub, 1995 style. They lived and moved in relative obscurity, you won't find many interviews or photos. They covered a huge range of emotions, they influenced a lot of people nowdays well-known and they disappeared in silence.
This 2CD collection is a compilation of rarities (all but two are unreleased mixes) but it's also a good introduction to the clubbier side of PWOG. It was released at 2002 on Terminal Antwerp, a sublabel of the mighty KK Records which hosted most of the PWOG releases and was accompanied by a 12'' with a Michael Mayer remix to 'A Kind Of Prayer' (you can hear it on 'Friends' mixed by Triple R [Kompakt CD 21] ). That temporarily draw some fresh attention to the name of PWOG, as the 'Maenad' remix by Alter Ego would do later and the Plastikman and Drum Club remixes had done in the '90s.
Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia - 2002, The Key, 2CD
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Here's also a PWOG remix of the 'Lush' track by Orbital.
Orbital - Lush 3-4 (Warriors Drift remix)
I admit it, I hate to see labels and bands like these only in reference articles or in oldschool DJs' playlists, when all the new European 'minimal' techno sound was more or less envisioned and developed by them. Although I can't rip vinyl yet, I'll upload some more stuff like this soon.
Craftworld
One of the most beautiful tracks of the last decade. Not so famous as the dance tracks or remixes of M. Mayer, it's on Maral Salmassi's 'Art Of Perception' recently resurrected label. Complex soothing melodies sounding warm yet outworldly at the same time. A true diamond. Turn down the lights.
Michael Mayer - Craftworld
(info here)
It's good to see someone who could publish three songs a day and make them hits just like that, to take it slow on producing and releasing. Every Mayer record feels different from the last one, some new idea or technique popping out. A lot of people could learn from that, especially the younger and the talented.
