Various Artists
Tresor 2000 Compilation

The latest bulletin from the Berlin underground makes clear that Tresor is capable of masterminding as forceful an incursion of concept-laden (although liberating) techno as ever, but also paints an ever more diverse picture of the label. Vol.8 opens, for example, in surprisingly laid-back fashion with the somewhat downtempo house of Round Two's instrumental dub of their "New Day" single. This is of course Basic Channel in disguise, busy drawing the link between deep house and dub, but they fit in extremely well on such a skilfully sequenced compilation. We are also offered the super-evolved electro of Drexciya as a further challenge to techno purity and they administer a typically brilliant dose of aquatic sci-fi.

Things start to accelerate around track 6 with Aril Brikha's accessible "Groove La Chord" and henceforth the album builds unstoppably towards the climax of James Ruskin's "Detached." The flow of discord through Sterac's "Spector" and the Nocturnal atmospherics of Claude Young's "Rise" are memorable points along the way, but the impact of Ruskin's contribution is probably the collection's highlight. It is constructed simply, from subtly tribal percussion and a beautiful string passage and comes complete with its own haunting comedown to finish off the album satisfyingly. Whether it intentionally shares a title with the similarly string-based Jeff Mills track I don't know, but the producer, with an album release scheduled on Tresor, should be watched closely.

Although Tresor may not set quite as progressive an agenda as fellow countrymen and post-structuralist theorists Force Inc., ruthless German efficiency evidently makes no room for lacklustre efforts and as a consequence you'll find nothing second rate here. Anyone after dancefloor-orientated exhilaration suitable for home listening would do well to pick this up.

Reviewed by Robin Howells
03.05.01

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Various Artists

Tresor
2000


Racializing Crime:
Racism, White Liberals, and the Limits of Tolerance

Shame of the Cities
Gentrification in the New Urban America

Faster, Poetry, Slam! Slam!
Scenes from the National Poetry Slam in Austin, TX

I Love to Burn the Flag
"Sometimes the stars would ignite, sometimes the stripes. Sometimes, the whole thing would go up in a blaze of Old Glory..."

Black on White:
Black Writers on What It Means to Be White
Edited by David Roediger

PR Watch:
Edited by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton


Fabrication Defect:
Tom Zé, Brazil's Cultural Cannibal, Poops a Pearl

Smoke Signals:
A History of Native Americans in Cinema