Review: The 50 Weapons farewell continues in style with this release from Marcel Dettmann and the Zenkers. The MDR boss has been quiet this year on the release front, but "Activator" shows that he hasn't lost his ability to craft hypnotic techno, as stripped back, stepping beats underpin a wave of hypnotic, 'caught in a wind tunnel'-style sounds. The Zenker Brothers' "Namuan" is more indebted to 90s techno; insistent drums and percussion clatter and clang like iron bars flung on a concrete floor, as chords surge and climax in the background. There are just three releases left now and it will be interesting to hear what Modeselektor come up with next.
Review: The quality of the 50 Weapons output is always supreme and our German friends really do know how to pull together a diverse and extensive collection of their latest catalogue signings - a sure buy for anyone wanting a glimpse into the world of the most cutting-edge bass music around. Among the twelve stormers we have Dark Sky's "Shutter Speed" which pulls together wacky basslines and rolling tech beats; Addison Groove's usual footwork magic represented here as "I Go Boom"; "Malfunction (Despair) by the nuttiest technoid producer known to man - A Made Up Sound - and even Marcel Dettman's foreboding "Linux" monster. An essential collection.
Review: Modeselektor's 50 Weapons label reaches its preordained halfway point with this early 90s-referencing release from Dettmann. In particular, "Linux" sounds like an amalgamation of early Synewave and Robert Hood's 90s work, its squeaky, linear groove supported by doubled-up claps and subtle percussive slivers, but with a lower pace and inadvertent jerkiness which makes "Linux" more accessible to a wider range of DJs. It's a similar story on "Ellipse"; while the insistent rave horn, coupled with a succession of doubled up claps, makes it sound more insistent, it avoids the bare-knuckle extremism of the 90s minimalism that it takes inspiration from.
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