Articles
Peter Broderick
Peter Gregson

Albums
2methyl
Alphaxone
Ariadne
Gregg Belisle-Chi
Black Eagle Child
Brutter
Cardopusher
Francesco Cataldo
Benjamin Damage
Isnaj Dui
Harris Eisenstadt
Fantoom
The Foreign Exchange
fryadius
Stavros Gasparatos
Peter Gregson
Hatakeyama + Durand
Hieroglyphic Being
ICE / Thorvaldsdottir
Chuck Johnson
Kita Kouhei
K. Leimer
John Lemke
James Brandon Lewis
The Lickets
Tobias Lilja
Robert Logan
Lymbyc Systym
Robert Matheson
[MIIIIM]
Moon Zero
M. Mucci
Nick(ed) Drake
Offthesky & Pleq
Olan Mill
Peter Prautzsch
Radio Citizen
Red Light New Music
Kai Schumacher
Serries Verhoev. Webster
Robert Scott Thompson
Urheim & Kvien Brunvoll
Scott Worthington

Compilations / Mixes / Remixes / Reissues
Robbie Basho
Kosemura
Ten Million Sounds

EPs / Cassettes / DVDs / Mini-Albums / Singles
Bruce Brubaker
Michael Byron
Peter Garland
Tyler Higgins
Gary Martin
Saskatoon
Chas Smith
Talk West

Gary Martin: This it & Galaxy Style (featuring Mark Broom & Rolando remixes)
Motech

Gary Martin: Well & We Get Down (featuring Robert Hood & DJ 3000 remixes)
Motech

From Franki Juncaj's (aka DJ 3000) Motech imprint we get two very satisfying EP-length supplements to Gary Martin's fine Escape From South Warren album, also on Motech. The EPs feature four cuts in total from the Detroit techno producer's album and in that regard act as samplers of sorts for the full-length, but they also include four remixes that argue strongly on their behalf as stand-alones.

It's telling that the Well & We Get Down set opens with a Robert Hood re-work of “Well,” a move that could be read as a nod of respect from one Detroit producer to another, or maybe it was given the pole position simply for being so incredible. Regardless, it's a prototypical Hood production, one uncannily identifiable as his from the get-go. To a greater degree than most, Hood has a way of tightening the knot, so to speak, until the tension's well-nigh unbearable and also finds a way to stay true to his minimal ethos whilst still satisfying the mind and body with all manner of stimulation. In the case of “Well,” Hood supplements a relentlessly pounding base with voice samples, the gospel-like first clearly defined from the outset whereas the second, a repeating utterance of the title, only gradually acquires definition (it's almost impossible to listen to the shape-shifting voice effect and not be reminded of similar treatments Steve Reich explored in the early pieces It's Gonna Rain and Come Out). Up next is Martin's “We Get Down” original, whose quasi-martial, claps-enhanced groove thunders as fabulously in this context as it does within the album's and which mesmerizes in the way its preacher-like voiceover celebrates house music as a way of life (“In the world of house and techno, this is how we get down, get down, get down...”). In an expertly calibrated makeover, DJ 3000 strips out the vocal, warms the beast with chunky synth chords, string-like washes, and an insistently swinging pulse, and works a slow-build into an epic climb. Martin's own “Well” is almost unrecognizably unlike Hood's but memorable, too, especially when Martin overlays the original's lockstep groove with ear-catching synth treatments and soulful vocal accents.

October 2015