Various - Trance Europe 2.0

Cleopatra: 1994

I’ve mentioned this CD in passing before, how it was a transformative disc in the development of my musical tastes. Why, you might even say it was… trance-morphing! Or even- no, that’s all I got. Obviously timing was a critical factor, Trance Europe 2.0 finding its way to my ears just as I grew bored of generic euro dance of the day. Here was something a bit similar (all those hard German beats!), but with an edge to it; trippier, energetic, delicious acid sounds and galloping choir pads. The general lack of vocals didn’t hurt either, Teenage Sykonee having grown quite tired of trite pop lyrics.

Still, plenty CDs of the mid-‘90s could have given me a similar knowledge drop; heck, this wasn’t even my first collection of trance. What Trance Europe 2.0 did, however, was convince my impressionable young mind of what trance could be, what sort of scene the genre was cultivating across the Atlantic. You mean to say this spacey, hypnotic dance music is enjoyed by bizarre, hedonistic individuals painting themselves in elaborate costumes while consuming mind-bending love drugs? Holy shit, screw the guido clubs ‘techno’ was catering to, sign me up for that! While Sven Väth’s parties at Omen were reportedly of similar stock, I doubt Cleopatra had that in mind, rather going with the ‘techno-goth’ theme many of their early CDs ran with. You do you, Cleo’.

All of which has little bearing on whether Trance Europe 2.0 is worth your time here in the dire year of 2016 (God, just end it already). Probably not, most of the memorable tunes easily found elsewhere. Komakino’s big breakout hit Outface (G60 Mix) kicks things off, but the exact same track kicked off their album Energy Trancemission too. Beyond Your Dreams is also on here, another track from the Outface single. Their Final Fantasy alias also crops up with the track Sometimes, a blistering slice of German acid. And in case that wasn’t enough Fritsch and Hastik action, they also get a producer’s credit on the Shorty Bone cut Trancemission. Oh man, this track’s bonkers, hard trance with a clunky, tribal techno rhythm; sounds like an early Influid tune.

A few tracks on the obscure side round things out. Tranceformer was more known for cheese-ball vocal tunes, but their instrumental b-sides were surprisingly decent in their simplicity, two of which grace Trance Europe 2.0 (Hypnotized and Magic Mushrooms). Morpheus 7 had but one single, the fluffy, happy cut Follow Me Into My World (Orgy-Nal) receiving the nod here. Ravesign by Vector was also a one-off, yet got a little more compilation duty than others (including an appearance on a Techno Trax, apparently). Sweep! was more of a rave-house guy, but Glowflow is trancey enough for this CD. And Norman Feller makes a requisite appearance with old-timey track Drift Away from his Trance-House single. And yes, I adore all these tunes! It wouldn’t be such a seminal, taste-changing CD for yours truly if I didn't, yo’.

Various - Trance Divas 2 (2016 Update)

Water Music Dance: 2005

(Click here to read a bunch of silly metaphors for love.)

So these CDs. I’m not sure why I kept a copy of them. Almost all the dance pop I reviewed for TranceCritic was quickly deleted from my harddrive, yet I still burned me some Trance Divas 2, even printed up the cover art. Considering how expensive ink jet cartridges run, that’s all sorts of daft for a pair of discs containing music I spent more time mocking than enjoying. Did I have some left-over need from my AudioGalaxy days of burning everything I could to CD? Might that desire for a big-yuuge show-off collection have clouded my impeccable musical judgment? Nah, most likely I felt having a back-up copy of Trance Divas 2 prudent for future reference, and as my computer of the time had a whopping 2.3 GB of memory, I sure as shit couldn’t keep it there. Little did I know I’d have to listen to these again for review, eleven years in the future. (holy cow…!)

That old review finds me soapboxing about ‘bad trance vocals’ and how they ruined the genre and a bunch of other dumb-ass nonsense that gives me serious cringes, folding me up into a fetal position of shame. Still, despite the rambling, my point remains that vocal trance – at least as found on Trance Divas 2 - is essentially where euro-dance of the ‘90s evolved to. The fact this compilation has equal shares of pure euro pop fluff with the ‘serious’ anthems from Very Important producers like Above & Beyond, Kyau & Albert, and ATB (*chortle*) only confirms the theory. And lo’, we even hear sprinklings of euro pop’s next evolutionary morph on here, that of the hardstyle knock-off genre ‘hands up’. Haha, I’m right, I win, Sykonee rules! *inexplicably drives off cliff*

Hey, here’s something I never talked about in that original TranceCritic review, the history of Trance Divas, the series! For instance, did you know there was a volume before this compilation came out? ‘Tis true, Water Music Dance releasing a first one just the year prior – how did 2005 Sykonee not mention that? The style of music is mostly the same, ‘serious’ vocal trance anthems mixed in with euro pop parading in eurotrance clothing. Quite a different roster of names in the track list though, including BT, Milk Inc., Matt Darey, Soda Club, Sinéad O'Connor, and Delerium. Yeah, Silence is on there, because of course it would be. Tiësto shows up twice more too, including his remix of Lost Witness’ Did I Dream, and his own track 643 (Love’s On Fire), the latter coming with a rub from… Oliver Lieb? On Trance Divas!? My head hath a’sploded!!

In case you care, a third volume of Trance Divas also made its way to the stores. This features such famous trance producers as Fabio Nobile, Paul Richard, Dutch Agency, Chris Nasty, and Rene Ablaze, and has no entry within Lord Discogs’ archives. Clearly no one wants to admit they own a wretched compilation like Trance Divas 3. Haha, hah.

Various - Muzik Presents Trance Classics

Muzik Magazine: 2002

Yet another trance classics CD, but wait, not all is as it seems! This was a free CD from Muzik Magazine, whom at this late point in the rag’s lifespan was among the UK’s biggest shittalkers regarding the genre. They believed in trance, once upon a time, singing the praises of the hypnotic, melodic side of techno back when so few other prints gave it attention. They promoted the hell out of Dragonfly Records, Platipus Records, Hook Records, and maybe even a mainland Europe label or two. They wrote charming articles regarding the ‘ABCs Of Trance’, and shot a critical eye in the direction of the ‘Crasher Kids phenomenon, sensing the ensuing rot that would bloat the scene to ridiculous levels of caricature. As the year 2002 came to a close, Muzik Magazine realized the battle was lost, their once underdog genre now an entirely different beast, filled with laser-soaked gurning punters with no recollection or care of trance’s history prior to the year 1998. They only had small measures of joy taking snarky potshots at the latest bit of bilge floating about their office for review.

No, wait, that’s not right. In this very same issue, they respectfully give props to Lasgo, marking them as one of the frontline shock-troopers of ‘ecstasy pop’; aka: vocal trance. They just can’t deny the kids like it, eh? Damn it though, they outta’ learn some of that history, so here’s a cheeky free disc of ‘proper’ trance classics that they can listen to while reading up on that Lasgo interview. Clever bastards.

Right, of course all that above is supposition, though makes for a fun little narrative when put in context of Muzik’s history. What more likely happened is Trance Classics comes from an aborted project that was intended for storewide distribution. Remember that [Genre] Muzik Classics series? In conjunction with Beechwood Records, the magazine released a few volumes highlighting the best/important tracks of major genres/scenes, including techno, d’n’b, and, erm, ‘Ibiza’. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had a Trance Muzik Classics in the works before cutting ties with the dodgy print, but man, what to do with all those licensed tunes you got? Save ‘em for later, I guess; maybe a free CD down the road.

As Trance Classics was curated by a British magazine, you’re damn right this is su-u-u-per biased to their homegrown talents. Simon Berry gets three tracks alone (you know which ones), while Enervate and 1998 (Binary Finary Remix) make their requisite appearances. Germany does get a look in with Metal Master’s Spectrum (Hoffmann and Väth), plus Paul van Dyk’s rub of Qattara’s Come With Me. At the harder end of the trance stadium, a lesser-known Chris Cowie hit crops up with X-Cabs’ Infectious, while Trade anthems Shinny from Elevator and Are Am Eye? from Commander Tom round things out. And finally, no Dutch nonsense, which makes this Trance Classics a zillion times better than ten volumes of A State Of Trance Classics.

Various - Trance Central - Return To The Classics Vol. 4: Jørn Stenzel

Planetary Consciousness: 2002

We’re flooded with ‘trance classics’ collections these days, but at the turn of the millennium… eh, they were still common. Any popular genre with enough history will have scores of tracks available for easy licensing, and with a solid decade of action behind it, trance was no less filled with handy tunes for quick cash-ins. Most often this was handled by major labels with financial clout raiding labels for their CDs, but you were lucky if such a release had a curator who put some actual thought into it. Who’s got time for carefully considered representations of a genre when the easiest path is regurgitating the same ol’ anthems everyone’s familiar with, amirite?

Seems the folks behind short-lived German print Planetary Consciousness thought differently, aiming at a DJ mix series that properly delivered on its byline of ‘returning to the classics’. Helmed by label everyman Hardy Heller, Trance Central – Return To The Classics promised no modern anthems, strictly tunes that defined trance in its early years, no matter how liberal you could go with the definition. Yeah, there was just as much progressive house and techno on these as anything else, but so it went in those days, hard borders still fuzzy in the early genre wars. Mr. HH also only did three CDs worth of mixes before moving on, after which one Jørn Stenzel took the reins for a fourth before Planetary Consciousness was swept into Daredo Music.

Okay, enough blah blah, yakkity bore about details. D’eez jams, then! How dope be this trance classics set when you got names like FSOL, Spicelab, Resistance D, Jam & Spoon, and Nikolai on it? Ah, it’s pretty fine, though not without its issues either. The CD opens with The Age Of Love, because I haven’t heard that song enough already. Then we go through DHS’ techno chant House Of God (“the house of God, God… house of God...”), Rejuvination’s groovy piano house Requiem (Part II), and pseudo-EBM cut Running from Tyrell Corp., another early alias from the Abfahrt posse. It’s about as rough a run of tracks as you’d expect from such early records, more a showcase of overlooked tunes than an actual piece of set construction. Nay, this CD doesn’t really take off until Satoshii Tomiie’s prog rub of Papua New Guinea. Oh, did I mention Stenzel occasionally uses (then) modern remixes of classic tracks? Some might call that cheating, but Human ‘98 is great regardless, and hearing Eternal Basement take Stella down such a sinister route gives some extra life in the old girl.

Overall, Stenzel’s set has two major highlights. First, the transition from Peyote’s (re: Dance 2 Trance) ode to Chief Josesph’s stirring “I will fight no more forever” speech into B-Zet’s rub of Dissidenten’s Jungle Book Part Two. It’s positively stirring, your heart breaking at hearing those words melt into the melancholic, floating space chords of the latter. Second, Spice Is A Fulltime Occupation is glorious old-school Oliver Lieb unleashed. They definitely don’t make ‘em like that anymore!

Chris Fortier - Trance America (2016 Update)

Engine Recordings: 2000

(Click here to read a bunch of hyperbolic gushing passing itself off as 'jurnarlizm'.)


So this CD. It’s still one of the best prog mixes I’ve heard, especially for such an obscure release. The label it came out on, Engine Recordings, has but three entries in Lord Discogs’ archives. This includes a DJ mix from Mr. C called Subterrain 100% Unreleased, and the Stateside copy of Layo & Bushwacka!’s debut Low Life. Lord Discogs also informs this print was a subsidiary of Will Records, which apparently mostly dealt with indie rock. If Will was taking a chance on that trendy ‘electronica’ at the turn of the century, they sure didn’t bother sticking with it for long. How Chris Fortier got involved with the label for a ‘prog’ mix titled Trance America is anyone’s guess; except for Chris, because obviously he knows firsthand. He did put out a ‘trancey breaks’ mix a couple years prior on StreetBeat Records, a print that got its start peddling that Miami bass business. Maybe Mr. Fortier just enjoyed bucking convention? No, that can’t be right. He’s behind Fade Records, the label that practically defined ‘prog’ before it became Bedrock’s genre du jour. Was there any style of dance music that sounded more conventionally traditional than ‘prog’? Whee, oxymoron!

See, 2004 Sykonee, see? That’s how you’re supposed to do a review. None of this ultra-long anecdotal nonsense about Trance America being “trance’s redemption”. A few actual nuggets of information goes a long way, especially when dealing with something as obscure as this CD. Not that it’s difficult to find on the used market, nor does it command a high price. Nay, its obscurity lies in how overlooked Trance America remains, an easily missed release due to its awfully generic title. Plus, despite his skill behind the decks and the acclaim he earned before and since the year 2000, Mr. Fortier never broke free of the scene that nurtured his career, forever just another DJ and producer that Sasha & Digweed liked. Hey, that’s not such a bad distinction, not at all!

If you’re a prog completist, Trance America does feature a number of one-offs in its tracklist. Hyper-X never released anything else, not that it matters since its Steve Porter’s remix that gets the glory here. Tranceiver didn’t do much else either, while Memnon and Devol faded a couple years after. 3 Monkeys only had the mint single Crazy People, though its members – Anthony Pappa, Alan Bremner, and Barry Gilbey – were incredibly prolific with other projects (Brothers In Rhythm, Mara, superstar DJing, etc.). And we all know the fates of Steve Porter and Max Graham, early progressive trance darlings that went in completely different directions once ‘prog’ fell out of favor.

Not that 2004 Sykonee knew much of this. Discogs was still skint in its early info’, still becoming a Lord That Knows All. Plus, who’d have thought ‘prog’ would completely die so soon, its tastemakers scurrying to the safety of trendier genres? Certainly not I back when. Maybe exhaustingly detailing the music was for the best. Yeah, no.

ACE TRACKS: June 2016

Guess what! I’ve reached the ‘Tr’s of my epic, endless journey through music I own, so you know what that means: it’s time to kick off a Summer Of Trance! Okay, ‘summer’ is pushing it some, but at least a July’s worth, especially if we include items through ‘trans’. Finally though, all of my trancecracker glories and fails will come to light, everything I own that’s trance. Except for the releases that started with ‘Goa’ or ‘Psy’. And all those In Trance We Trust mixes too, I guess. Plus anything that had ‘trance’ in its title, just not the start, come to think of it. Hell, even some releases that didn’t have ‘trance’ at all, like A Day On Our Planet or Dreamland or Ideas From the Pond or Rendezvous In Outer Space. Fine, this upcoming bundle of trance is but a fraction of the total amount floating about my stores of CDs. Trust me though, after a month of this, you’ll be begging for variety. Gangsta rap, psychedelic rock, minimal derp-haus, anything! Or hey, whatever’s on this ACE TRACKS playlist for June 2016. Yes, nailed the segueway!



Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Toronto Mix Sessions: Kenny Glasgow
Various - Trade: Past Present Future

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 2%
Percentage of Rock: 34%
Most “WTF?” Track: The Archies - Sugar, Sugar (how do I suddenly have diabetes after listening to this song!?? …but seriously, another Dronny Darko piece is the answer)

Not quite as eclectic as these past couple months, as I mostly spent June wrapping up backlog before carrying on with ‘T’ albums. Heavier on the folky, alternative, and indie rock than anything else, but also got into familiar territory again with trip-hop, d’n’b, techno, and Neil Young. Really not much else to say about this playlist, because TRANCE is coming, man! TRANCE!

Various - Trade: Past Present Future

Beechwood Music: 2000

More than just another UK superclub, Trade’s legacy will forever be as important as Warehouse, Paradise Garage, and other early gay clubs championing that house sound. While there was no shortage of such venues at the turn of the ‘90s, they were still subject to standard clubbing curfews, leaving patrons with little more to do than wander streets and parks as they kept the party vibes going the morning after. Thanks to some wheelin’ and dealin’ by founder Laurence Malice, however, an afterhours slot at Turnmills was secured, one of the first ever in the UK. With an ad campaign specifically offering a safer alternative for post-clubbing all-night benders, Trade quickly flourished, becoming one of the UK’s dance music institutions, and launching the careers of many notable DJs (Tony de Vit, Tall Paul, Fergie).

And like any successful clubnight with a brand reaching global status, Trade got in on that DJ mix CD market too. Its first series of double-discers came out in the mid-‘90s on EMI offshoot Feverpitch, successfully promoting a hard house stylee the club was growing famous for. When the label folded after a mere two years, Trade eventually found a new home on Beechwood Music, kicking off with Past Present Future, two CDs supplying all the sounds you might hear at an all-nighter in Turnmills.

By this point in Trade’s lifespan, the clubnight had grown large enough for a second room playing funkier house music, from which production duo The Sharp Boys were instrumental in running. CD1 mostly focuses on their sound, and they definitely run the gamut. Groovy garage opens things up, loopy disco escalates the tempo (yep, Loleatta Holloway still going strong), and you can’t have such a set without a soul-sista’ monolog (Antoine Clamaran’s Get Up). The Boys take a turn for the tribal (X-Press 2), offer some bouncy house (DJ Antoine’s Do It has a donk on it), hit you with a little tech-house action (Smoking Schoolboy’s Tell Me (Detention Mix)), finally unleashing an unabashed anthem in Bryon Stingily’s Stand Up Right. Oh, and they finish off with an Armin & Tiësto collab’ of Eternity. Because clearly a club catering to hard house heads crave that Dutch cheese, absolutely.

With so much genre hopping, CD1’s an erratic set at best, and hardly indicative of the pummeling sound Trade’s all-nighters were built around. Step up to CD2 then, where ‘future’ representative Gonzalo Santiago hits you with a full mix of NRG! The beats come hard, some tracks have hoovers, others have acid, and build-ups are blessedly brief. I don’t have much else to say about it, my knowledge of NRG severely lacking. It’s fun for the time I play it, but I don’t want to play it much after. Not even that Baby Doc rub of Praga Khan’s Injected With A Poison.

A bonus third CD is a ten-minute snapshot of Tony de Vit rinsing out on New Year’s Eve, 1996. A touching tribute to one of Trade’s true legends, taken away far too soon.

Various - Tracks From The Best Dance Albums Of All Time

Muzik Magazine: 2002

Best tracks of all time? Pft, everyone does those, Mixmag in fact doing the deed just a few months prior to this issue of Muzik Magazine. Figuring out what the best long-players of dance culture, however, was apparently something no one did before, so claimed the editor’s blurb within. Given how inundated with such lists we now are, I find that hard to believe, but then it’s not like electronic music had as long a history as rock did. By the year 2002, EDM journalism was barely a decade old, most rags giving their dutiful Best Of The Year lists and leaving it at that. Still, those darn winter months, they’re slow for news, so here’s a trusty cliché article to get through February.

The list is actually interesting, even if the choices are rather predictable. Each producer or act is offered a lone entry, their definitive release as it were; except The KLF, both albums Chill Out and White Room making the cut, because they’re The K-L-f’n-F, y’heard. Obvious albums like Leftism, Sheet One, Dubnobasswithmyheadman, and Dummy rub shoulders with artifacts like Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express, Soft Cell’s Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats, and Grace Jones’ Nightclubbing. Then-current hits like Felix Da Housecat’s Kittens & Thee Glitz and Roots Manuva’s Run Come Save Me share space with old classics like Depeche Mode’s Violator and Soul II Soul’s Club Classics Volume One. Hip hop gets its due with Missy Elliot, Eminem, and Public Enemy representing. And while I generally agree with Muzik’s selections, no doubt others will find contention with the chosen LPs of the scene’s biggest names. Reverence over Sunday 8pm? Blue Lines over Mezzanine? Exit Planet Dust over Dig Your Own Hole? Play over Everything Is Wrong? Accelerator over Lifeforms? Ima over ESCM? Selected Ambient Works 85-92 over Selected Ambient Works Volume 2? Ray Of Light over anything else in Madonna’s discography?

I could go on and on about this list, but self-imposed word count dictates I must talk about the free CD Muzik included with this issue. Yeah, it’s a good collection of tunes, a decent enough representation of the list without having to break the bank with licensing fees. As DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing….. scored the top honors, it’s only appropriate his track What Does Your Soul Look Like kicks things off. From there we get some bleep techno courtesy of LFO, some collage shenanigans courtesy of Negativland, and some trip-hop action from Tricky. Pet Shop Boys’ Can You Forgive Her? is given a deep house rub by MK (or, as the kids call this style now, ‘future house’), Timber from Coldcut & Hexstatic provide the requisite Ninja Tune showing, while Rae & Christian’s Swansong (For A Nation) sends us out.

Also, holy cow, UK bias much with this disc? Out of the eleven tracks, seven hails from the UK, three reside in the USA, and a lone Icelandic lady round out the rest. I bet she could beat them all at soccer.

High Contrast - Tough Guys Don't Dance (Original TC Review)

Hospital Records: 2007

(2016 Update)
'Tough guys' may not dance, but only when we're dishin' out some tough, critical love, eh? I mean, wow, I could be a hard ass on trance in the TranceCritic days, but I sure wasn't giving High Contrast much slack here. I think the problem was, listening to this album a few times over as I typically did before reviewing something back then, a number of these tracks quickly grew too repetitive for my liking. Having some years and musical distance from this album though, Tough Guys Don't Dance is actually a good rollickin' time, great for a dunk into super-fun liquid funk before getting out of an overcrowded pool. Alright, I was also parroting some of the d'n'b narrative I'd read at the time regarding Hospital Records, but that label's endured remarkably well in the ensuing decade, remaining steadfast in its uplifting manifesto even as different trends come and go.

As for High Contrast, this was his last album, a shame. What, that record a few years ago, with the dubstep and the pointless, weak-sauce collaboration with Tiësto and Underworld? Whatever is this Bizarro Earth you speak of? Does Donald Trump rule your realm?)


IN BRIEF: The soul is in danger of becoming stagnant.

Credit must be given where it is due. Drum ‘n’ bass was in serious danger of growing far too self-serious after the turn of the century, even for itself. Then along comes some young upstart named Lincoln Barrett and, along with the Hospital Records crew, reminded the world the genre can be filled with plenty of uplifting optimistic vibes too. Soaring strings, singing soul sistas, and Robert Owens invaded the realm of jungle militants, and for a while it seemed as though liquid funk would be the future of ‘dee’bee’.

That was half a decade ago [ed: even longer now!]. Obviously the big Hospital take-over didn’t quite occur, but still they carved out their niche and have stayed the course with their sound... and stayed... and stayed... and now that just isn’t enough.

Yes, folks, it’s true. Rumors and buzzes from the underground abound that liquid funk has become played out; is past its prime; in need of a rest; if not, at least some re-invention. The same ol’ formula can only carry a scene for so long before predictable production becomes too common, and this sub-genre of jungle is decidedly drawing nearer to such a period. With two highly regarded albums already under his belt, can Mr. Barrett prove there’s still plenty of life in the girl on his third High Contrast full-length?

Forever And A Day makes a strong argument for the case. With rhythms that gets the heart racing and orchestral swells that set the spirit soaring, this is liquid funk at peak proficiency. In many other forms of music, a lyric like “and the birds are singing pretty little songs” would get snickered out of the scene, but in the hands of High Contrast, he makes it exhilarating. Top notch stuff, my friends.

Nothing else comes close to that track on Tough Guys Don’t Dance, but Barrett shouldn’t be expected to hit a grand-slam every time. However, although each tune he crafts is easily above average, very few of them are a home-run either. It’s fine for a few tracks into the album, but by the time Eternal Optimist and Chances roll along, the template has become far too predictable and lacks the panache that made Forever And A Day such a winner.

The trouble lies in the fact a lot of Lincoln’s tricks are over-familiar now, and he doesn’t do much on this album to shake the formula up. You’d think a producer of his caliber wouldn’t dare be caught going through the motions, yet it honestly does sound like he is with his liquid funk offerings. The r’n’b divas, the soulful crooners (mostly J’Nay in this case), the smooth rolling basslines, the 2-step breakbeats, and the orchestral samples: almost all of it sounds like it could have been produced at any point in his career, and without the care to treat them as something more than just another tune to rinse out by the Hospital Records roster. Fine and dandy for brief one-offs at a club night, sure, but unfortunately rather stale in an album context, especially one’s third.

There are moments where he does deter from the template, and unsurprisingly these tracks are amongst the album’s highlights. Opener If We Ever may have most of liquid funk’s requisite trappings, but instead relies on some old school jungle rhythms which are good fun. Elsewhere, Nobody Gets Out Alive adds a twist to things by making use of a bassline that pounds rather than rolls and some old blues sample that wouldn’t have sounded too out of place on Moby’s Play. The two atmospheric cuts - Tread Softly and The Ghost Of Jungle Past - although quite stuck in the 90s, are lush. As for his fiercer offerings like Sleepless, Metamorphosis, and Pink Flamingos, they’re hit or miss, and ultimately serving as little better than breaks in the liquid funk monotony.

Hn. Reading this back, and it seems like I’m just bitching about liquid funk, when truthfully I do enjoy the stuff. It is, after all, quite uplifting music. However, its mostly singular execution on Mr. Barrett’s third doesn’t offer as much depth as you’d expect given how nifty the surface often presents itself. Still, Tough Guys Don’t Dance is hardly a write-off. The highlights are stellar, the atmospheric detours are pleasant, and tracks like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Everything’s Different are class, if somewhat formulaic.

I’ve heard High Contrast criticized as being drum ‘n’ bass for newbies, which is rather unfair (jump-up still holds the crown for that distinction) but I can see where such critics are coming from. Lincoln’s stuff is very accessible for the uninitiated junglist and would prefer keeping a party active rather than challenge the listener. However, by sticking to such simple tried and tested tactics, his appeal won’t last should you explore the realm of jungle further, as producers with far greater tricks abound. If you have a passing fancy for liquid funk, Tough Guys Don’t Dance will serve you find, but seasoned vets of the scene may be disappointed.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2008. © All rights reserved.

Michael Mayer - Touch

Kompakt: 2004

One of the co-founders of Kompakt? You bet Michael Mayer is a Very Important Person in the world in techno! Maybe not quite as important as fellow Kompakt’re Wolfgang Voigt, who’s the Most Important German Techno Person of all history, should you ask certain sorts out there in internet music journalism land. Still, as the label wingman, Mr. Mayer’s earned himself plenty of positive buzz as well. Though he’s by no means as prolific a producer as Wolfgang was, as the century turned he had a tidy career as a microhouse DJ, even getting in on that early fabric mix CD action. Even with his own label, however, Michael’s output was intermediate at best, reportedly a fussy producer never satisfied with his results long enough to commit to disc.

Someone must have lit that bug up his bum regarding making music though, a debut album in the form of Touch finally hitting shelves in the late of 2004. And not a moment too soon, the gospel of Kompakt finally drifting out of its Cologne, Germany base into a wider world of success and scorns (more the former). This was about when The Orb joined Kompakt after all, and nothing gets a music scene buzzing like a veteran joining an upstart label. Probably didn’t hurt a lot of cool techno people had moved to Berlin by this point too. Thus, with all eyes on German labels and whatever hot records they were kicking out, The Mayer’d One was in prime position to reap the critical plaudits from electronic music reviewers abroad. Except Resident Advisor; they instead covered Armin van Buuren’s latest Universal Religion that month.

As an album, Touch is an unfussy collection of tracks. It opens with a rather trancey titular cut, the sort of tune that helped start that nebulous neo-trance micro-genre of the next few years. It even has a breakdown and build with swelling pads, piano chords, and off-beat acid bass. It's such a throwback of early German trance that I’m astounded more folks didn’t write-off the minimal tech-house darling right then and there. Still, it’s not like Kompakt was ever shy about getting in touch with their unabashed melodic side.

The rest of the album plays more to the style you’d expect of mid-‘00s German tech-haus. Privat provides a slow, simmering groove with funky guitar licks and pads in support. Heiden goes heavier with its techno-thump, while Neue Luthersche Frakfur gets in on that trendy electro-house acid-fart action for a bit before indulging some escalating-sound action. Mid-track Slowfood runs for ten-plus minutes, and is clearly Mr. Mayer’s big artiste moment on the album, with meandering funk rhythms, bleepy ambient techno interludes, and cinematic crescendos. Bit much for my taste – give me the simplistic noir groove of Lovefood any day!

A couple functional tech-haus tracks close Touch out, but by no means come off dated. Even a decade on, Mayer’s debut holds up just fine. Something to be said for keeping things simple, eh?