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”.