Here are three recent techno tracks I'm playing a lot: Mitte Karaoke's electro-inflected "Panda Bär" (and the Ego Express Remix) on WFM; Velocette's "Tabloid" from the Potboiler/Pulp/Tabloid EP on Parallel Recordings; and Dan Curtin's "Magique Astrologique" from the Orbital Love Triangle EP on Player. All of these are complex and multilayered and keep you guessing what's coming next. Curtin's an old hand at this: mixing (machine-made) breaks and 4/4-thumping within the same track, varying melodic sequences, and constantly weaving in new motifs, so that the finished work is a little piece of classical music. The Cleveland native is sometimes compared to Juan Atkins; I'd say he's Stan Kenton to Atkins' Duke Ellington, making the techno canon trickier but also a bit geekier (this is OK).
Of the three tracks mentioned, though, my favorite is unquestionably "Tabloid." I don't know much about Velocette (aka Jason M. Williams) but I love the three EPs I own; the label, Parallel Recordings, is based here in NY so I'm guessing he is too. "Tabloid" has a kind of sputtering midrange synth running over a broken beat throughout the entire song; it's intermittently tuneless and grating but very insistent. Midway through, a melody line that's just angelic floats in over the top, a kind of sibilant/nasal chorus reminiscent of CIM's "geosat fill" (another favorite track). The combination of extremes gives the song its mad edge.
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Here are three recent techno tracks I'm playing a lot: Mitte Karaoke's electro-inflected "Panda Bär" (and the Ego Express Remix) on WFM; Velocette's "Tabloid" from the Potboiler/Pulp/Tabloid EP on Parallel Recordings; and Dan Curtin's "Magique Astrologique" from the Orbital Love Triangle EP on Player. All of these are complex and multilayered and keep you guessing what's coming next. Curtin's an old hand at this: mixing (machine-made) breaks and 4/4-thumping within the same track, varying melodic sequences, and constantly weaving in new motifs, so that the finished work is a little piece of classical music. The Cleveland native is sometimes compared to Juan Atkins; I'd say he's Stan Kenton to Atkins' Duke Ellington, making the techno canon trickier but also a bit geekier (this is OK).
Of the three tracks mentioned, though, my favorite is unquestionably "Tabloid." I don't know much about Velocette (aka Jason M. Williams) but I love the three EPs I own; the label, Parallel Recordings, is based here in NY so I'm guessing he is too. "Tabloid" has a kind of sputtering midrange synth running over a broken beat throughout the entire song; it's intermittently tuneless and grating but very insistent. Midway through, a melody line that's just angelic floats in over the top, a kind of sibilant/nasal chorus reminiscent of CIM's "geosat fill" (another favorite track). The combination of extremes gives the song its mad edge.
- tom moody 2-18-2003 8:35 am