Global Communication – Back In The Box

"The Journey" is by Burden brothers (of Octave One fame). Great album, btw!!!

Wow! Yes, Wow, I mean take a look at the track listing. That is just insane. Name a Detroit/techno legend that wouldn't appear on this one (okay, there are 'a few' missing, but anyways). This compilation doesn't rely just on name dropping or just having the biggest names of the old school. No Sir, no. This compilation has some very sought-after underground monsters and some well know tunes as well. Oh man, the problem is just where to begin with. For me, the most precious gem is Neuropolitique's massive, utterly devastating 'Mind You Don't Trip'. Originally released in 1990 and waaayyy ahead of its time. Just another reminder that I was born too late. Available on some compilation before but I'm just so glad and exited that they included this techno treasure. And then you have the Carl Craig remix of Kenny Larkin's masterpiece 'Serena X'. Sublime and smooth piece of relaxed techno. And dare I say that Derrick May's remix of 'Altitude' is his best work ever. Not sure, but momentarily I do think so. And the hard hitting, beat driven techno in 'Technotropic' by Hawtin. Just so great in its simplicity. Trainspotters might be interested in the likes of 'Journey', an underground classic by Octave One released way back, although I must it I have never really understood its greatness.
If you are a Detroit lover you probably have some, or many, of these in your collection already but in any case this is a truly remarkable release. And yes there are some tunes that I'm not really into but overall quality is astounding. Kudos to Tom and Mark and NRK label for compiling such an effort to promote Detroit.

Oh yes! Thank you very much Mr. Pritchard and Mr. Middleton. It's true that many lovers of detroit leaning electronic music will have a lot of these tracks - but many of them may need dusting down or digging out of loft spaces - if you were into this stuff the first time around then your decks may not see the action they used to.

Still, enough sounding like a sentimental old git and more about the music. This is a seriously well informed guide to the bleepy, melodic and wide-eyed techno of the early 90s. As far as I'm concerned, this stuff never sounds old - it just sounds beautiful. Tracks like 'De Orbit' and 'Sonar 123' will be well known to anyone into this period of electronic music but not everyone was lucky enough to own a copy of MK's techno masterpiece 'The Journey' under his 'Never on a Sunday' guise. (We didn't have discogs or even the interweb back then!).

In short, if you've been a round the block a few times, this will bring a smile to your face and if you're just discovering this stuff this will lead you onto some incredible artists. Now, where did I put those old 'bio rhythm' compilations...