This series opener has set the bar incredibly high for the next nine records to come. Deep and developed works that trill with all the intensity that characterized the techno of the 1990s. As One truly shines on each track, illustrating not only warm abstraction but also some serious dance-floor clout. This first installment will surely be hard to beat, nine contenders to come and some cracking music I’ll bet.
A few years back there was a serious resurgence of interest in house music. Over the past eighteen months it’s been electro. Now there is a rise in breakbeat and re-imagined rave. Throughout these peaks in popularity one constant has been techno. Dark and brooding or uplifting and future visioned, techno has been the backbone of electronics for decades, and yet it can be a style often overlooked or even willfully ignored. To celebrate the sound, and a certain anniversary, De:Tuned, who have been responsible for some of the most rewarding music of the past ten years, have commissioned a series of ten releases, one for each year, to go deep into the core of hi-tech funk.
Lined up are classic names like Higher Intelligence Agency and max404 as well as modern masters like John Beltran and Future Beat Alliance. A legend of British electronics has been drafted in to inaugurate the series, Kirk DeGiorgio under his As One alias. Following his Rare and Unreleased EP, more DAT material gems have been mined with “Elsewhere” being dusted down to open. The track is pure space jazz goodness. A gentle drizzle of drums shake and skitter against floating notes and understated rumblings of bass. Next comes Sensurreal with As One remixing a piece the group released in 1995 on DeGiorgio’s Op-Art imprint. That same light deftness of touch is present in this retake of “NewBrandDesign,” clean pads and sailing chords bob on ruffled beats as bleeps echo to a vanishing point. Like “Elsewhere,” the track subtly builds in gentle layers as deep tones are met by bright bars. The British trailblazer is definitely digging deep to find his source material. For the flip Evolution Records is the hunting ground with Jedi Knights’ “Solina” being the chosen track from the 1996 album New School Science. The Jedi Knights, for those who might have missed out on the them, were the P-Funk, electro dipped incarnation of Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard aka Global Communications, Reload and many more. The original is grabbed by scruff and given a right good shake down. The broken beats of the ‘96 version are muscled up with some extra bicep and glut being applied. Liquid lines weave their way through those strong-arm rhythms, lines that bloom into warm dreamy notes and playful pulsing grooves. An eleven minute odyssey to close that will leave any room flattened.
This series opener has set the bar incredibly high for the next nine records to come. Deep and developed works that trill with all the intensity that characterized the techno of the 90s. As One truly shines on each track, illustrating not only warm abstraction but also some serious dance-floor clout. This first installment will surely be hard to beat, nine contenders to come and some cracking music I’ll bet.
DE:10.01 is available on De:tuned.
