Often imitated, never duplicated, Orbital ranks among the original pioneering and groundbreaking techno/electronica units. On their latest disc, The Altogether (FFRR), the Hartnoll brothers (Paul and Phil) show no signs of slowing down, retiring or recycling their shtick, as so many others in the same genre are prone to do. “Doctor?,” their interpretation of the Doctor Who theme is sci-fiery. “Tension,” featuring Lux Interior and the Cramps, is appropriately tense, while the soothing (and apparently amusing) “Funny Break (One Is Enough),” with ethereal vocals supplied by Naomi Bedford, is hypnotic and addictive. Music industry phoenix David Gray lends his vocals to the luminous “Illuminate.” Whether you listen to this varied and vivid disc in your club gear or in the altogether, it sounds just as good.
I really expected “PHD,” the opening track on Tweekend (Geffen/Outpost), The Crystal Method’s long-awaited, eagerly anticipated follow-up disc, to blow out of the speakers like a nuclear blast, but the track which was co-produced by Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello eases its way into your subconscious rather than forcing you to submit to it. The following track, “Wild, Sweet and Cool,” (also co-produced by Morello and featuring him in guitar) is more like what we’ve come to expect, and then some with the inclusion of the soul diva vocals. “Murder,” featuring guest vocals by Scott Weiland, makes you wonder why Weiland didn’t do something with Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland sooner. Followers of The Crystal Method will probably derive pleasure from “The Winner,” “Blowout,” the hypnotic “Ten Miles Back,” but on the whole, Tweekend would have benefited from more “tweeking.”
Other than Madonna and cars, Detroit techno is probably the other most popular thing to be created in Michigan. British-born Richie Hawtin is one of the purveyors of the futuristic dance sound combines digital and analog (read: vinyl) music for a distinctive style of club music on DE9/Closer To The Edit (Minus/ Novamute). Therefore it comes as no surprise that, in the land of men and machines (read: the automobile assembly line), a dance music as cold and soulless as this should arise. As distant as it is deeply rhythmic, it’s easy to fall under the Hawtin’s hypnotic spell, created by sampling and editing the work of Baby Ford, Carl Craig, Plasticman, Theorem, Stewart Walker and Hawtin himself. Seamless and sterile, this is music that sounds like it will survive everything from inclement weather to a biological weapons holocaust.