2 Unlimited - Do What's Good For Me (BioMetal - Pt. 1)

Popular Records: 1996

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review)


“I take it you're Anita.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied, offering a timid hand for a shake. “And you're the pilot, Ray, correct?”

“Sure am, babe,” he said with a wink, scratching his chin.

Babe? “They say you're the best,” Anita said after an awkward pause, withdrawing her hand. “Have you ever flown a ship of this sort before?”

Ray laughed. “Not at all. A few test simulations, but I'm getting thrown into this contraption raw just like you, babe.”

Anita rubbed the back of her head. “It's unfortunate they're forcing us to do this,” she mumbled. “I'm an exo-biologist, not a fighter pilot.”

“Don't worry,” Ray said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Just handle those shields and tell me which BioMetals I need to worry about. I'll take care of everything else.”

“Very confident, aren't you,” she giggled.

He scratched his chin again. “Gotta do what's good for me,” he chuckled.

The elevator halted, its doors opening and revealing the starship's docking bay. Nearby, they both could see the HALBRED, a sleek red and white fighter-class vessel being fitted with the latest armaments WASP could provide them. General Wilde, whom gave them private briefings prior, was waiting. “Good to see you're both ready,” he said, turning to the pair.

“Yes Sir!” Ray and Anita replied in unison.

“Do you have any questions before launch?”

“Why the urgency, sir,” Ray asked, in a far less informal tone Anita would have guessed allowed.

General Wilde smiled, as though he'd long been used to Ray's casualness. “Just how familiar are you with the BioMetals, kid?” he asked.

Anita held back a snicker. Kid Ray, she thought with a glance over her co-pilot's youthful but embarrassed face. Seems appropriate.

“Only that they were responsible for the Armageddon, during the last Galactic Alignment, sir.”

“Right,” the general nodded. “With reports of their species in the process of re-multiplying, we have to strike at the heart of their nests before they overrun the galaxy again.”

“If I may, sir,” Anita said, “but why must we attack this moon of UP457 first?”

“The BioMetals only have a small colony here,” he replied. “It's the logical base to attack first.”

“Don't tell me you're afraid of a little atmospheric turbulence, babe,” Ray chortled.

Why's General Wilde tolerating him like this? “No, Kid Ray,” she shot back. “It's hardly a 'little' turbulence. They don't call it 'the twlight zone' for nothing.”

“All the more reason to destroy this nest before it grows too infested with BioMetals to launch another attack,” General Wilde stated, his voice firm and snapping the two back to attention. “We're counting on you two. Dismissed.”

“Yes sir!”

Once the general left, Ray turned to Anita and smirked, “'Kid' Ray?”

“Sorry, I just-”

“No, it’s fine,” he said, smiling. “I kinda like it. Come on, let’s get on board. Fame and glory await us!”

At that, he rushed to the HALBRED, Anita close behind.


(If you're hopelessly lost as to what's going on, click here.)

Various - DJmixed.com / Keoki

Moonshine Music: 2000

Oh, Keoki, what a wild and wonderful career. The first self-proclaimed superstar DJ, at a time when the very notion of superstar DJs was ludicrous (though there were a number of very famous ones), and all the while giving Moonshine Records a proper face in releasing his DJ mixes, singles, and albums. Whatever faults you can lay on him (and believe me, he had plenty of detractors from the old school), he undoubtedly had a profound effect on the tastes of several young American ravers throughout the 90s. Then Moonshine folded and Keoki was left homeless. He tried to reinvent himself in the electroclash vein with Hypnotic, but that didn't work and hasn't released anything of note since.

This particular mix was probably a sign of things to come, for many reasons. If you're not familiar with DJmixed.com, don't worry, as it didn't last long, coming out during the transitional period between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. You have to give them credit for an attempt at translating the EDM magazine experience for the internet, but the technology simply couldn't accommodate all the things they wanted. I'm not sure if Keoki was to have a major hand in it, but he, along side Micro and Charles Feelgood were tasked in promoting the site through this series of CDs. Seeing as how nothing of note came of it, DJmixed.com is barely a footnote in Moonshine's history, much less the whole of electronic music.

Not that the music contained on these mixes was bad, just terribly redundant at the turn of the century when DJ mix CDs were multiplying like raver rabbits. Moonshine was one of the stronger American labels promoting such releases, but even they started showing fatigue.

As for Keoki’s mix, it mostly features breaks, much of which is on a progressive tip. Y’know, like The Light’s Expand The Room. Looking back, I’m surprised there wasn’t more Florida breaks on this (Tony Faline’s Mind Over Matter the lone offering), as that was an immensely popular sub-genre at the time, before Adam Freeland and nu-school breaks took over.

There’s also some trance, including Ravelab’s cover of Send Me An Angel, that used to cause whiplash among my partying compatriots. I’d tell the joke, but it involves a lot of knowledge of the party scene of British Columbia’s northwest - yes, there really was a party scene way out there. Short form, it’s got a breakdown that’s so stupidly over the top, it’ll roll your eyes to the back of your neck; yet, it follows with an incredibly catch hook that you can’t resist. Interestingly, Keoki mixes the track at the start of that breakdown. He could create clever mixes on occasion, though this set’s a bit sloppy.

I can’t give this CD much of a recommendation, but if the idea of a DJ mix ending with an epic trance remix of the Skywalker theme doesn’t curdle your blood, give it a try.

Various - DJ-Kicks: Tiga

Studio !K7: 2003

For much of his early career, Tiga remained safely sheltered within his Turbo label. His cover of Sunglasses At Night may have appeared on numerous compilations, and Tom Middleton’s mash-up of it with New Order’s Blue Monday gave it more life than anyone thought possible, but by and large the Montreal native was forever associated with his label. By 2003, however, his star had raised high enough that other labels came calling for his talents. Studio !K7, seemingly in an effort to steer their DJ-Kicks series away from all the broken beat DJs they’d featured in the few years prior, gave Tiga his opportunity to branch out. He wasn’t about to let it go to waste, knocking it out of the park in the slap-dash way only he could make work.

First, I should mention my copy of Tiga’s DJ-Kicks entry lacks Hot In Herre, which is almost unfathomable seeing as how that was his second biggest pre-Sexor hit. I can only assume Studio !K7 released this copy first, Tiga made the single after (including a charming video based on a Czech marionette duo called Spejbl & Hurvinek), then shoehorned it into this mix later. Looking at its placement on other copies, I’m not sure how that would have worked, as it’s lodged amongst several disco punk cuts in the beginning of the mix.

Whatever. Tiga’s mix truly takes off at Soft Cell’s …So, a B-Side to their single What?. It’s enough to get heads turned with an obscure bit of early 80s gold, but following it with the impossibly catchy Sacrifice from Break 3000 (That bassline! Those vocals!), all the while Antonelli Electr.’s Dubby Disco is running underneath them. Chances are you'll barely realize it unless you’re an expert trainspotter. Such DJ tricks aren’t new or revolutionary, but Tiga has a way of riding mixes such that it comes off thrilling, ready to go off the rails at any moment. Or maybe I’m just a Turbo fanboy. Could be, could be.

I’ll make no apologies for enjoying this CD though, as Tiga finds the right blend of kitsch and contemplative throughout. I’ve often found the set drags a little after Codec & Flexor’s Time Has Changed (why weren’t these guys more popular?), but Mr. Sontag hits the sweet spot again with his own haunting Man Hrdina, a rare-ish B-Side to Hot In Herre that was only included as part of the DJ-Kicks singles package. Folks talked plenty about Tiga’s partnership with Jori Hulkkonen, but co-producer Mateo Murphy deserves just as much praise.

And there’s more! Bang Bang Lover, My Biggest Fan, Tiga’s cover of Madame Hollywood (it's like Tom Cruise is singing it!)… Of course, if the whole post-electroclash/disco punk sound of 2003 never appealed to you, then there’s little point in recommending this edition of DJ-Kicks. It very much is a product of its time, but oh what a fun time it was.

Various - DJ-Kicks: Booka Shade

Studio !K7: 2007

Booka Shade isn’t an act I’ve cared much about, at least not enough to dig into their discography. Heck, when I went to check them out live, I instead spent most of my time in the near-empty second room flailing to jungle (it might have been more to do with the stupid crowding of the main stage though - I like my flail space). That said, their contribution to the long running DJ-Kicks series was incredibly influential to yours truly, being something of an inspiration to take up mixtaping again. Not that ol’ Arno and Walter were the first to ever release a DJ mix that sounded less like a club set and more like a mish-mash of personal favorites - the Back To Mine and Choice series were pretty much dedicated to that concept - but something about this one sparked me in a way no other set did.

Mind, for all I know, the whole DJ-Kicks series has been like that. It’s one that I really ought to check more of, but it’s difficult to peg down exactly what Studio !K7 aims to accomplish with it. Sometimes it seems to be hopping on bandwagons, other times it’s too esoteric for any hope of success. Whatever it is they’re doing though, it somehow works, as it’s outlasted nearly every other DJ mix series born from the mid-90s. Take that, Global Underground!

Booka Shade’s contribution is surprisingly diverse for a duo that made its name on tech-house, at least to anyone who came expecting more Mandarine Girls. The opening stretch of the CD plays more to expectation, with low-key house vibes, but never falling into minimal monotony. The inclusion of Yazoo’s Situation or pieces from John Carpenter’s Escape From New York might have turned heads, but as it fits within the setting of those tracks, it’s nothing to suggest things would go askew later.

Thus, it seems fitting the leap-off into eclecticism would be an Aphex Twin track, from where The Book & Shades dig into their crates. Heaven 17 and Brigitte Bardot are far from obscure, but they diversify this set wonderfully, keeping your attention to see what next oddity they’ll drop. Fortunately, nothing too out there, as it settles back into a cool-groove (the neo-Tokyo vibe of Quarion’s Karasu is lush), but enough to keep guessing. Like, The Streets, in a set like this? Sure, I can dig on those ‘morning after’ melodies. But, erm, I know Carl Craig’s Landcruising is a classic, but it’s never been a DJ friendly track, so don’t try to force it.

Ah, but that’s part of the appeal in mixtapes - the quirky, the unexpected, and the shock when two tracks that shouldn’t go together are, or revealing music you’d never expect from certain names (hello, Richard Hawley). Sometimes it doesn’t work, but when it does, it creates musical moments comparable to the best DJ mix transitions. It’s a methodology anyone who attempts mixtapes should strive for.

Daft Punk - Discovery

Virgin: 2001

Daft Punk's Discovery was quite an event when it first dropped, and continued causing waves in the EDM-osphere for many years after. It's an album that created what's known as 'Whiplash In A Rocking Chair' syndrome. Okay, I made that up just now, but let me explain.

Anticipation for a follow-up to Homework is high, everyone wondering if Daft Punk could make magic again (even if Homework was rather average overall). Lean forward. The whole robot gimmick is introduced, and One More Time is revealed as the lead single, shocking their followers as it's nothing what they expected. Snap back. One More Time wins them over regardless, along with much of Discovery. Snap forward. It’s subsequently overplayed and people get sick of it. Snap back. A quirky anime movie tie-in is revealed. Snap forward. The album Human After All is proclaimed a dud, and folks begin questioning Daft Punk's whole career. Snap back. Alive 2007 and the pyramid tour reminds everyone they actually like Daft Punk, including all their previous albums. Snap Forward.

I guess we're still in the 'leaning in with interest' stage with Discovery, thanks to the fresh influx of EDM fans acquainting themselves with the duo's past accomplishments. For sure it's a classic album though clearly a product of its time. Despite being a game-changer of sorts, paving the next road house music would venture on, familiarity with certain trends occurring in the genre back then would render much of Discovery as old hat.

Like, that whole French filter thing featured on tracks like Aerodynamic and High Life. That wasn't a French invention, but because French guys (or English guys posing as French guys) gained the most success from it, filtered funky disco loops became synonymous with French house. Also, there's a lot of nu-italo on Discovery. Yeah, that sub-genre, the first to properly popularize auto-tune and most known for super hits like Eiffel 65's Blue. Tell me Digital Love wouldn't sound out of place on a Gigi D’Agostino release. And as any detractor of d'ez punks will tell you, this album's loaded with samples from disco's days of yore. Harder Better Faster Stronger? More like Cola Bottle Baby, y'Ogre! ...or something.

It begs the question, then, just why Discovery was the huge hit it was, and continues to charm its way into the ears of listeners to this day. As with their early hits Da Funk and Around The World, when they want to, Daft Punk can find the catchiest of hooks and manipulate them around dance beats to maximum effect with minimal fuss; the punk music mentality. Discovery works better than its album siblings due to earnest song writing and stronger musical flow. The only real dip comes in the second half, with a string of short, melancholic filler; yet I’d take those minor melodic interludes over the endless abrasion that came at the back end of Homework any day.

Various - Disco Dub House: Mixed By Carl Michaels

Sixeleven Records: 1999

Disco house was king in the late 90s, but for those weary of Yet Another DJ Mix With Olav Basoski On It, they had to dig into the underground for their fix. Enter the realm of dubby filtered house. Mostly a marriage of Chicago and San Francisco deep vibes, it wasn’t so much a celebration of production, but of DJs working their filter knobs within the mix. Shortly after, the French took notice and incorporated the same tricks within the tracks themselves to great commercial success (more on that in the next review!), but for a while sets of this sort was primarily enjoyed by rooftop shufflers.

It certainly strikes the right chord for folks of chic taste. All the vibrant bounce of disco, but held just back so you don’t spill your drink. Disco Dub House is as good of a representation of the sound as any. The label it came out on, Sixeleven Records, was primarily an outlet for Philly-based DJ/Producer Nigel Richards, so it comes as a surprise that there's little label whoring going on with this mix. In fact, it’s loaded with well-worn house anthems of the time. Angel Alanis' Chicago's Revenge, P.J.'s Happy Days, Troy Brown’s Feel Allright, DJ Sneak's All Over My Face... I could go on. If you're a house connoisseur of any level, you should have a number of these tunes already. So, it falls to the DJ to present them in a unique way, and as mentioned, that was one of the charms of the filter knob twirlers.

The DJ tasked with providing us with all these disco dub house vibes is one Carl Michaels. Who? Good question. What do you have for us, Discogs? “Hell if I know, this is the chap's only entry.” Wow, that's... unexpected. Last.fm, what about you? “Nope, nadda, zilch. Not even a picture.” Well damn, even I have a picture on my Last.fm Artist page despite only releasing mixtapes. And like hell I'm gonna Google this further, as there's no doubt dozens of 'Carl Michaels' in Pennsylvania alone. Guess ol' Carl's a mystery here. If he wasn’t a pseudonym, my best guess is he was a buddy of Nigel's, perhaps a Philly club resident; heck, maybe even an employee at Nigel's shop.

Whatever the case, his set's about par for this type of music. He makes ample use of his knobs, sometimes to comical extremes, but nothing that detracts from the whole. I'm sure it’ll seem antique to those bred on Ableton and other laptop mixing programs. Oddly, he ends the set outright before the final track, allowing Taste Experience's Release play in full, like some kind of encore.

If you're already well versed in filtered funk, there's little point in getting this. If not, the CD's an okay primer, but unessential. In the end, Disco Dub House is Yet Another DJ Mix That's A Decent Used-Shop Purchase. Yeah, there's no end to such releases, is there.

Pet Shop Boys - Disco 2

EMI Records: 1994

The whole of Pet Shop Boys’ discography seldom struck my fancy, but I cannot deny they’re responsible for some of the all-time greatest synth-pop hooks in existence. So seeing this little CD sitting in a used shop, my interest was certainly drawn - all the wonderful choruses of the Boys, given the remix treatment by some of the best in the early 90s business. “Like who?” asks you. “Like these,” says me. Rollo! Jam & Spoon! Junior Vasquez! David Morales! Farley & Heller! Coconut 1! Wait, who? Oh never mind. This should be good fun, right? Right!? Haha …ha!

The idea for Disco 2 was fine. Euro-dance was at its club culture peak, and the Pet Shop Boys had long enjoyed a comfortable relationship with DJs rinsing out remixes of their hits. It only made sense to try re-capturing the creative spark that made the first Disco album a success. The difference with that one, however, was it was more tightly controlled, with less remixers - not to mention dance music wasn’t quite so diverse in ’86. Even someone with passing familiarity with early 90s dance should realize quite a gulf had emerged between American house and euro trance. The Pet Shop Boys may have tied everything together, but the disparity between all these remixes is wide indeed.

That’s not such a big deal though. Plenty of remix albums are like that, and they’ve never- Wait, this is a DJ set too? Oh my… that can’t be good, can it? Danny Rampling was assigned the thankless task and does what he can with the material provided, but this mix is a mess. Ugly crossfade slams, tracks that abruptly end, and a bizarre arrangement hobble Disco 2’s package.

Most of these cuts were singles from the ‘93 album Very. The house remixes are a fine way to start, with Go West’s rub standing out from the pack. E Smoove, however, practically destroys Liberation, sounding like any ol’ Strictly Rhythm release rather than a Pet Shop Boys single. Vasquez and Jam & Spoon do serviceable remixes of Yesterday, but you’ve heard better from them too.

The only real highlight is Rollo and Rob Dougan’s remix of Absolutely Fabulous, probably intended as the highlight since the silly outfits the Boys wore for the video is featured on Disco 2’s cover. The original was a one-off charity single tied to a British sitcom of the same name, relegating this remix’s appearance here as the only ‘album’ exposure it got. It’s gloriously over-the-top and something of a precursor to the club anthems Rollo would be churning out with Faithless shortly after. I mean, that twitchy hook! It’s… it’s… absolutely fabulous! Perfect ‘reach for the lasers’ material.

Does Absolutely Fabulous make Disco 2 worth the price of admission? Hell no, as it’s horribly botched within the mix, abruptly cut out near the final peak. Get that as a single instead. In fact, get all of these tracks as singles if you can. This CD’s a turkey.

Various - Dimensions In Ambience 2

Quango Records: 1997

Ambient never died, but it certainly went through a fallow period during the mid-90s, media attention hopping on the trip-hop bandwagon instead. One of the few prominent labels that continued promoting ambient was Quango, a curious offshoot of the mighty Island Records (they of the coloured CD spine). Mostly releasing the sort of jazzy downtempo you'd associate with Kruder & Dorfmeister, Fila Brazillia, and other assorted 'global groovers', Quango found a comfortable role within American borders, among the earliest US-based electronic labels that could find airplay in coffee shops.

As that overview of the label may hint at, Dimensions In Ambience 2 doesn't feature the sort of noodly ambient most would expect. One of the genre tags at Discogs for this compilation is Modern Classical, and though I wouldn't go that far in describing the music contained as such, some of it wouldn't sound out of place in an art hall.

Mostly though, there's an interesting mix of ambient techno and Balearic influences going on here. The most prominently featured artist on this compilation is David Morley, a major contributor to early R & S Records releases. I've noticed a slight uptick of interest in his collected works recently, so if you're after more material of his, here's a handy place to look. The lovely, spacey Frozen, Ibizan-tinged Calibration, and his remix of Kinetic by Golden Girls (the one-off alias for Paul Hartnoll) are all solid offerings. Oddly, Kinetic is quite chipper compared to the other tracks on Dimensions... 2, almost epic. I wonder if DJ Bruno Guez, the head of Quango and oft-time compiler of these CDs, was shooting for a mid-set peak with Kinetic’s placement. This release certainly has the arrangement of such a mix, including a similar climax with the final track Movements - Part 2 from Pentatonik.

Astute trainspotters may have already noticed something odd about a couple of these tracks. For a compilation released in 1997, there’s some rather old cuts found here. Truth is more than half the material comes from the earlier era of ambient techno, and though it’s a moot point fifteen years on, it wasn’t something in Dimensions... 2’s favor at the time of its release. That year was all about pushing forward (with massive marketing muscle from the majors!), yet here’s a CD with relatively dated material. That’d be fine if it presented itself specifically as a look-back at forgotten gems from Morley, Sun Electric, and The Connected Machine, but I suspect that wasn’t the intent, what with newer material from Morley, John Beltran and PVP.

And while the music is fine for the most part, Dimensions In Ambience 2 is slight in presentation. There aren’t any moments that will floor you in the same way classic ambient techno compilations often do, and the whole package runs less than an hour long. On the other hand, it makes perfect background music, late at night, lying on a couch while sipping hot chocolate in a coffee shop.

Sandoz - Digital Lifeforms: Redux (2012 Update)

The Grey Area: 2004

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review)

It's time for another edition of Sykonee Beats Himself Up Over An Old Review. Yeah, I self-deprecate mostly for jokes, but this time I'm serious. If there's one review out of all those old crummy ones I truly hate, it was the one written for Sandoz' Digital Lifeforms. Done during that awkward period where I still continued detailing track-by-track, made worse by the literal point-form of the second CD, it’s definitely a slog to read, but that’s not the whole of it. It sometimes comes off like I didn’t know what I was talking about, which was kind of true.

Anyone that spends plenty of time consuming music - of any genre - should acquire a good deal of knowledge about it in the process. So long as you never stop consuming, your knowledge base will continue expanding. I had a firm handle on most aspects of techno back then, yet I’ve learned much more since. It’s that absence of strong, informed facts regarding Richard Kirk’s influences that hurts my eyes the most. Sure, the liner notes were helpful, but I was utterly clueless as to what ‘Malian techno’ really meant.

That may be a moot point anyway. It’s not like I’ve gone and digested the entire musical history of Mali to truly appreciate Digital Lifeforms, as it’s not necessary. Understanding it, though, may have helped provide better insight into what it is about this album that just keeps getting better every time I throw it on.

Or maybe not. It's a feeling, that instinctive response one gets from music that's almost impossible to articulate. On a surface level, many things about Digital Lifeforms seems like it shouldn't work, that the production comes off hopelessly dated. Yet something about it always snags my attention, locking me into infectious grooves and harmonies. It could very well be the Kirk aesthetic, crisp but with grit; deliberate in its simplicity, allowing tracks to ebb and flow on their own merits.

It's why I despise the old review so much. I kinda-sorta touched on that aspect of Sandoz, but felt obligated to stick to 'journalistic writing', mostly ignoring my gut emotion about the music on hand and describe what occurs instead. One is taught not to write 'feeling' in journalism, as it's pure subjectivity. By that token, it's understandable why folks would prefer that format for music reviews, as all too often those trying to write reviews from a personal perspective end up lost in hyperbole and fail to offer anything insightful about the music. The best music writers I've come across capably blend the two extremes, going off on entertaining rants or interesting anecdotes while providing useful information pertinent to the release, all the while letting me, the reader, know exactly how they feel about what they're hearing.

After all, honest emotion is what we expect out of the musicians. Why not also expect the same out of those writing about those musicians' efforts as well?

DDR - Dig It / Rockin

Stay Up Forever: 2009

Did you know hard London acid techno never died? I sure as hell didn't. Like so much acid techno born of the 90s, I figured it went by the wayside once shranz and minimal took over. Sporadically an isolated instance of the genre would crop up, but nothing to suggest the scene held strong for all these years. Despite the odds, The Geezer, Rowland The Bastard, Chris Liberator, all those Stay Up Forever and Smitten guys (plus multitudes of offshoots) kept going, offering up more and more of their brand of hard, fuck-off acid techno for the true heads. Or something like that.

I only learned about this earlier in the year, when I went on a hunt for all electronic music within the scenes celebrating the Roland TB-303. Along the way I acquired several A-Sides and B-Sides, but never Both-Sides – just saw no reason to when one or the other of an EP would do. So how I ended up with this particular one, I've no idea. I don't want to make a habit of reviewing 12-inches, but whatever. It gives me a chance to talk about London F'n acid techno!

DDR, or Dave Lalouche as he’s known on his passport, is part of that original acid techno posse, often appearing in collaborations but occasionally knocking out a few solo joints too. This being a recent 12”, has there been some evolution in the London acid techno sound?

The A-Side, Dig It, starts off with strong, energetic beats, an occasional vocal sample popping up in the mix. Once the TB-303 comes in, it gets a decent workout for the duration. In all, about what you’d expect for acid techno of any year. The B-Side, Rockin, starts off with strong, energetic beats (though not as strong and energetic as Dig It), an occasional vocal sample popping up in the mix (though more frequently than Dig It). Once the TB-303 comes in, it gets a decent workout for the duration (though not as much of a workout as in Dig It). In all, about what you’d expect for acid techno of any year.

So, um... yeah. Nothing’s changed for that scene at all.

And that’s perfectly fine. The London acid techno crew has always been singular in their manifesto, supplying ample hardware for kick-ass, in your face, off your nut parties. Go in, get mashed, dance until dawn, bleed your sweat glands dry. Then go home, rest, and wait for another time to indulge, most likely weeks or months away. It may be simple, but it does the job, and that’s all hard acid lovers want or need. These guys are still kicking out the jams like its 1995, and if this 12” is anything to go by, it’s a formula that won’t die anytime soon. Respect.