Spicelab – Lost In Spice

Even though Hardfloor was my first exposure to Harthouse, it wasn't until I heard Spicelab's LOST IN SPICE that I understood what the whole trance thing was about. And right from "Cold Chillin," you can hear the trademarks: Roland acid, beats that rarely dip below 160 BPM, crazed Korgs, and a quick woodwind break for extra flavor. "Spicelab" starts out more atmospheric and carries a deeper beat for a more sci-fi feel overall, replete with an angelic interlude, "The Spirit of Fear" is smoother and more mellow, but "The Last Supernova" immediately goes back to the hyper-fast with those driving cymbals. "Lost in Spice" returns to the atmospheric side of things, though not without some acid and a subdued beat to keep things real, The album shows its age, but still has plenty of old school charm.

The first four tracks are part of a Barbarella sci-fi boom that was for some reason circulating in the techno world at the time. Fast beats, cold and mechanic sounds, and strange vocal samples summed up a "rave" tune at that time. The title track at the end is my absolute push, because I fall helplessly in love with tunes that catch you at the last 10 or 20 percent of the time in minutes remaining. These harthouse guys are hopelessly dependent on Roland machines and analog bumps or burps that have been in circulation forever, but they did it the best. I also like Dune and its idiotic "Cha~" laser shooting with eyes gone blue.

This is an important release. I feel it represents one of the last forays into truly experimental techno before Richie Hawtin "showed" how techno "should" be made - said - minimalism and repetition. This album explores universes right before everyone started landing on their favorite techno planets - i.e. "Planet Trance", "Planet Acid", "Planet House", etc. Oliver Leib produced a milestone album that showed vast flexibility and flavor. Within each track you may hear elements of trance, acid, techno, even breaks when they were still just spice (pun intended) in the recipe. I think this was the last CD I bought before coming to the abrupt realization that techno was becoming very formulaic and losing its cutting edge status. After languishing for years in my collection I now realize that this may be one of the best, most all-'round varied works of art during the formative years of techno. Since that time techno has become quite two-dimensional and stale. But this CD represents the wide-openness of where early techno could and did go. If you'd rather travel the expanse of the universe instead of landing on a planet and settling, then this release is for you! Definitely check it out!