A hit-and-miss techno history lesson.
Angry Mofo | 11/14/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"There's a lot of treasure to be found by those willing to delve into the mire of eighties techno. Unfortunately, the mire is poorly documented and preserved; most of the early techno artists either didn't believe in albums as artistic statements, or simply couldn't get record contracts, so their material was only available on vinyl singles, all of which are of course out of print now. Some artists later reissued their works on CDs (e.g. Derrick May's Innovator), which are also out of print now but easier to track down. But, for the most part, if one doesn't want to enter the weird and wonderful world of vinyl collecting, one will have to rely on compilations such as this one, assembled by various DJs, and hope to hell that the latter have good taste.
In this case, the compiler is one Carl Craig, a protege of Derrick May (he co-wrote "R-theme," which, in my opinion, is May's best song) and the creator of several acclaimed albums. The man clearly has no shortage of credibility in the field of techno, so one might have some confidence in his ability to compile a techno album. And indeed, Craig has several fine picks. The B-52s' "Mesopotamia" is one of those awesomely terrible eighties songs, with a great guitar riff and lyrics that briefly go over ancient Mesopotamian history (though the singer admits to being "no student of ancient culture / before I talk, I should read a book"), and correctly state, "Six or eight thousand years ago, they laid down the law, in Mesopotamia." One might not expect a dance-rock band to be knowledgeable about King Hammurabi's code of laws, but there you have it.
Craig's most valuable pick (in fact, the reason I got this album) is "Sharevari" by A Number of Names. This is the A-side of the only single ever released by this band; it has some historical value due to having been recorded in 1981, which makes it one of the earliest techno songs, and this is one of only two CDs where this song can be found (the other is the Wax Trax Mastermix by Juan Atkins). The lyrics offer a compelling narrative about a fellow who favours "some bread and cheese and fine white wine / designer chic, just a matter of time," and spends his time "smoking on the cigarette / listening to his car cassette / cruising with his hot playmate / in his Porsche 928." In between these amazingly eloquent lines, there is a short, vaguely Oriental-sounding keyboard part. The song is appealingly goofy, and the singer's exaggerated French accent is hysterical.
There's also a good, if more obvious, pick in Cybotron's "Alleys of Your Mind," which still has a certain reserved menace to it. Craig includes another well-known early techno number, Juan Atkins' "Night Drive Through Babylon," which unfortunately hasn't aged that well; at this point, any nocturnal theme has long been taken to its artistic pinnacle by Underworld.
The rest of Craig's picks, unfortunately, just aren't that good. George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" isn't bad, except Craig chose the extended ten-minute version, when the song would definitely have been stronger at four minutes. Channel One's "Technicolor" and Reese and Santonio's "Forcefield" are terrible, toneless drum workouts ("Technicolor" also has a guy repeating, you guessed it, "Technicolor," over and over) that don't even hold up next to their own contemporaries, much less today's techno. X-Ray's "Let's Go" is even worse: it consists of a bunch of voices yelling such things as "Surf's up, baby!" and "You and I, let's go!" I find it hard to believe that Derrick May participated in the composition of that song, though I'm not surprised that he didn't do it under any of his usual aliases. Craig's own "Galaxy" isn't awful, but isn't anything special either.
Craig closes with Derrick May's "The Dance." Now, I can totally understand why he would want to put a Rhythm Is Rhythm song on here, and I can also understand that he didn't want to pick "Nude Photo" or "Strings of Life" since there's about a hundred other compilations that do. But "The Dance" is by far the weakest track on Innovator; "R-theme" would have been far better. Or, he could have picked "Drama," which is also a terrific track and isn't easily available even on a compilation. As it stands, this album gives a completely misleading impression of Derrick May, and doesn't show at all that he was the best of the Detroit techno artists.
Craig focuses almost exclusively on Detroit techno on this album. I can understand that he would want to promote his city and his colleagues, but let's face it, early techno wasn't limited to Detroit. In Chicago, Larry Heard was making great, warm, melodic tracks like "Can You Feel It," which is better than the vast majority of what's on this album. Detroit techno itself has more to offer than what Craig shows here. If you're really interested in this era of electronic music, the album might still be worth it for "Sharevari," but you'd probably be better off just finding a used copy of Derrick May's Innovator.
(By the way, I want to correct the album description: this album does not contain tracks by Yellow Magic Orchestra. Maybe some import version does, but not this one.)"
An idiosyncratic picture of vintage techno and its influence
Leonard J. Nevarez | Rhinebeck, NY | 10/09/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Aww, this isn't nearly as bad as the other reviewer suggests. "Galaxy" is for me the highlight of this record; among other things, this track makes clear the claim by Derrick May that the techno innovators were all listening to Ultravox back in the day. And this compilation also opened me up to the B-52s "Mesopotamia," an album that has gotten a bad rap for too long; I don't know how it relates to techno, but I love that it surprises the listener here."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1