Mayday – Innovator - Soundtrack For The Tenth Planet

Perhaps it's just my imagination and reading into things a bit too much or noticing sounds and melodies which aren't there. But I hear mild similarities with Hand Over Hand and Kenny Larkin's Northern Lights on Pod - The Vanguard EP. Of course, the latter has more of an electro, pronounced TR-808 type groove and leans more into ambience than the former's more loping drums. I wonder if there were any conscious influences there. And since Hand Over Hand is supposedly previously unreleased, how far back in time was it produced? Pre 1990s? Pre Vanguard EP? Post Vanguard EP? Around the same time as Strings or something much more recent than all mentioned?

Cover notes refer to May as part of the "Bellevue three"

A Masterpiece excellently recorded. One of the best Network pressing !!!!

Can anyone comment on the sound quality of this?

Already have all the tracks except "Hand Over Hand" on multiple different vinyl pressings but this Mayday / Transmat fanboy can't resist another copy...

Can anyone tell me which version of Strings this is? According to NWKCD 21 it clocks in at 6.15 but neither of the 1987 mixes are this length but bizarrely on Strings '89, the so-called Original Version on the flip clocks in at 6.08 (according to the ZYX release) so it could be this mix. What's going on...?

Although it does not include what I consider not only his,but anyone's greatest Techno/House achievement "It Is what it Is".This is the greatest Techno E.P ever, which defines what is great about the genre.I will not go on too much about "Strings Of Life" which has had plenty of discussion.but to say that it is THE tune of the Rave generation.Every other tracks on here is are stone cold classics."The Dance" is a brilliant and vibrant intro into the world of Techno with is pounding beats,hissing slippery unique Detroit hi-hats and the wonderful,heavenly strings that combine with the bendy elastic bass line that introduce you to the world of Deric May.All the others are the very best you could ever hope to hear from this genre.From the mental(and much sampled)bassline of Wiggin to electronic wonder of Nude Photo which still sounds futuristic 25 or more years later.Beyond The Dance rewinds and keeps folding back of it's self,with it's brutal hi hats and funky waist shaking bass line until it reaches it's almost orgasmic climax.And Sinister does what is says on the tin,if angels came down from heaven and turned their hand at being "Sinister".This is as good as any genre of dance music could ever hope to reach,from the king of Detroit

Very hard-to-find release, this. Contains most of the best of Derrick May's peerless output, including the full length mix of "The Beginning" (unlike the Innovator box-set which fades out the manic percussion at the end) and "Emanon" which is pretty scarce too. However, "Nude Photo 88" is little more than an interesting period piece now, and why include "Salsa Life" or "Freestyle" when you could have "Drama" or "It Is What It Is"? No matter, this was the perfect introduction for me to Transmat when I got it back in '94 or '95.