Various Artists: Retro Techno / Detroit Definitive / Emotions Electric (Network) Hands down, without a doubt, my absolute favourite compilation ever. Since it came out of Detroit in ’91, via Birmingham’s Network Records (run out of an unassuming tudor building near Birmingham City Football Ground), I’ve gone though 2 CD and 3 vinyl copies. Luckily it got repressed in mid-2008 so I managed to avoid paying extortionate charges the last time round. Sure, the tracks are available elsewhere in abundance; but it was the presentation, the running order, the whole feel of the compilation that totally converted me to the cause. More so than Virgin’s celebrated (but actually slightly rubbish) ‘Techno! The New Dance Sound Of Detroit’ compilation from ’98.

No filler, no loose ends, absolutely not a single track out of place.

I mean, it starts with Model 500’s ‘No UFO’s’ for fuck’s sake. The D-Mix presented here was much more ambitious and sharper than the original version. Its use of delay and spatial effects really gave it an epic vista. The origin’s of the “hoover” bassline beloved of jungle producers can be traced back to Reese’s ‘Just Another Chance’. Mayday shows off his frenetic drum machine skills as well as his affection of latin rhythms on ‘Freestyle’ and ‘The Dance’.

Cybotron’s ‘Clear’ is such an incredible track that one could easily dedicate an entire page of analysis to it. But I’ll just gracefully bow out by saying it still stands as defining moment in electronic music. I always loved how ‘Rock to the beat’ by Reese was a joyful struggle between the MIDI aggro of Kevin Saunderson’s production and sister Lotonia’s almost amateurish but sweet vocal delivery. X-Ray’s ‘Let’s Go’ is a dark, angular, angry track that sounds like it was delivered live. A characteristic that actually runs throughout most of the tracks here.

The elegiac and darkly sexual overtones of Blake Baxter’s ‘When we used to play’ still has the ability to stop me dead in my tracks. It's the delivery of the hesitant and slightly fey vocals that gives it its character. Both Kevin Saunderson’s ‘The Groove that wont stop’ and Separate Minds’ ‘First Bass’ are exemplary exercises in building up a groove. The former runs with a subtle 303 lead whilst the latter just keeps pushing it with a driving b-line.

It all ends with a wonderful weightless remix of the now-classic ‘Strings of Life’ by Rhythim is Rhythim. That piano riff is left to run in its pure state for most of the eight minute running time. Accompanied by subtle synths, almost jazz-like rhythmic shuffles and not much else.

But the majority of my love will always go to the Derrick May penned ‘R-Theme (Mayday mix)’ under his R-Tyme alias. This track single-handed cemented my love of not only Detroit Techno but techno and house as a whole. Trying to define what makes it such a great track will probably ruin it for me.

Visually appealed too. The sparse minimalist design-conscious artwork, spaced-out center-aligned typography, the compressed photo of a toy robot and that final seal of approval: the Trevor Jackson designed Network “stamp” logo. The CD also had an intriguing booklet with amusing Q&A’s with the Belville Three. Heartfelt essay’s from celebrated dance journalist John McCready and label boss Neil Rushton throwing some history to the compilation.

Dangerously, there was also a discography of the KMS, Metroplex and Transmat labels, which didn’t help my bank balance at the time. But most importantly was the little notes alongside each track from the authors. My favourite being Derrick May’s explanation for X-Ray’s ‘Let’s Go’: “This is one of the really early things we did together, Me, Kevin and Juan. It was a fun thing, everyone was drunk except me. This is really a hip-hop record”.

Dug up some mid-nineties compilations on vinyl from the vaults. I always thought that compilations were better suited to CD format. Still, brought up some surprising gems that I’d long since forgotten about. Expect this to be an ongoing series that will absolutely go nowhere.

Dave Clarke Presents: X-Mix Electric Boogie (Studio!K7). Dave Clarke’s stunning contribution to the X-Mix series from Studio!K7 shows off his electro credentials. From I-F’s hysterically deranged ‘I Do Because I Couldn’t Care Less’ (seriously, how good does this still sound) to the sawtooth bleep pop of LFO’s ‘We are back’. Mention must go to Dopplereffekt’s masterpiece ‘Voice Activated’. But it was the lesser known tracks (to me at least) that pricked up my ears this time. Sem’s perfunctory ‘Phox’ is pure drum-machine sex and Lockstep’s ‘I Am’ is harsh, rough and dangerous.

The Theory of Evolution (Warp / Evolution). Whilst Mark Pritchard is enjoying success under his Harmonic 313 / Africa Hi-tech aliases and Tom Middleton is doing, um, whatever he’s doing. Back in the early 90’s they formed Evolution Records and recorded together under a plethora of names - Global Communications, Reload, Jedi Knights to name three. This compilation, released in early ’95, was a joint release with Warp Records and cherry picked the best bits from their back catalogue. Which was extortionate to pick up then and is near impossible now due to its limited numbers.

But the thing that impressed me is that it still sounds utterly fantastic: emotive, well-crafted electronic music that flits between styles like it did in those days. From the gorgeous ambient drift of ‘The Biosphere’, the 303 / 808 techno wig out of ‘Nemm’ to the oft-imitated jungle epic ‘Amazon Amenity’. If you haven’t come across any of their work before, I cannot stress enough how important and influential they were. So I don’t care how or when, just backtrack through the releases and catch up. Otherwise, we’re not on speaking terms.

Always reticent to talk about work stuff on this blog, but two of our friends (hate to think of them as clients) both have new releases out on the same day. Jo Thomas (whose excellent 'Alpha' album is available on vinyl from Entra'cte) has released a freely downloadable EP from her website (which we designed). Entitled 'Ultra Tonal' it's three short works of modern synthetic music. Available in both MP3 and uncompressed AIFF format. You can download it immediately from her website.

Max Richter also has an eagerly awaited new album out on Fat Cat. 'Infra' was originally conceived as a Royal Ballet-commissioned collaboration between composer Max Richter, choreographer Wayne McGregor and artist Julian Opie. Available on vinyl, CD and download. You can listen to samples and find out more from the release page and you can purchase the record direct from the Fat Cat Store.

Reviews of both of these records up soon (I reckon within a week)

Barbara Morgernstern: Himmel Mixe (Monika Enterprise) - 12” originally released February 2003

Superlative creative remixes. Ellen Allien does her usual emotive techno routine seemingly effortlessly, her stuff was always too sterile for my liking. Lawrence fares better with his usual trademark foppish subtlety. Whilst Tarwater get intricate and complex which posssess a wonderful Black Dog-esque vibe about it, but its the surprising epic turn from Dntel that carries this 12”.

Alva Noto: Transform (Mille Plateaux) - CD originally released June 2004

Like most of Alva Noto’s work, its impressive whilst its on, gets a bit annoying after thirty minutes and you hardly rush back to play it all over again when its over. This release from 2004 is just as cold and austere as anything recent. His collaborative work fares better and the welcome move into more ambient territory (with the Aleph series) is much more interesting. But this still has occasional bursts of academic funk, notably the opening track.

Various Artists: Warp20 (Unheard) (Warp) - 3 x 10” originally released October 2009

Was severely underwhelmed by this when it first came out, I think it was just me being overwhelmed by the amount of tracks on offer, grappling with the myriad of formats and the packaging and the book and and and....

The Unheard series came spread over three wonderfully packaged 10” records as well as on CD and despite my initially sarky comment of “there’s a reason why these were unheard”. I’ve since revisited these with a better appreciation.

That’s not to say everything is decent.

The opening Boards of Canada track does sound like a sketch that seems to recall several of their motifs all at once. And trouble-free contributions from the new-school of Clark and Flying Lotus will pass without incident. I did like the bouncy electro castle of Elecktroids, the MIDI synthesis / 303 wig-out of Autechre and the sub-back-to-basics approach of ‘Biofeedback Dub’ by Nightmares on Wax. Even Plaid turn in a driving number on ‘Sam Lac Run’, which doesn’t overdo their trademark saccharine melodies and instead focuses on a decent rhythm.