Adam Beyer – Protechtion

A great album shows just how great producer Beyer is.

Despite dating from a time when a fair bulk of techno albums consisted of previously released 12" tracks, Adam Beyer's sophmore output, "Protechtion", has more intrigue in store for the listener.
While it's mostly top of the line dance floor material, all tracks have enough variation to maintain a steady focus, and none of them go on for too long, thus preventing the listener from getting bored.
Analyser and 7 C's take the task of starting the show and both are pretty heavy techno stompers. Next up comes a short sci-fi ambient interlude, followed by the nasty, rolling and percussive title track.
7th West strikes a nice balance between hard, funky and groovy, while The Conclusion, quite probably the album's master stroke which flirts with some deeper atmospheres and moods haunted by a sinister melody, has the task of standing out placed between two absolutely loud and devastating crowd killers, Collision and Discipline. And somehow it does, stand out that is. If banging techno is not your thing, try and grab hold of The Conclusion, for some amazing mind trickery!
The album reaches its outskirts with Forthcoming, a really tribal and bouncy, Purpose Maker inspired number, which jogs along just nicely. Not a lot of variation and energy, but it can hold its own against similar contenders. Weqst puts an end to things with a very nice downtempo touch and some great melodies.
Overall, I consider this to be Beyer's best work to date. Not that I boldly claim it's better than the critically acclaimed and ecclectic "Ignition key", it's just that I prefer Adam's older and colder (figuratively speaking) approach to techno. Yes it's DJ friendly, and sure his next album would be even more easily accessible to the common listener, but clocking in at a few seconds under 53 minutes, having a nice variation amongst tracks and within them, striking a great balance between flow, home listening and heavy night time partying material, my vote still goes to "Protechtion". A bar above "Decoded" and "Recoded", quite different from "Ignition key", yet very true to form. Adam Beyer the way I'd like to him!