MK303, Austin Corrosive, Tassid & D.A.V.E. the Drummer, OB1 – System Rejects 02 (System Rejects)

MK303’s Drugged Up is an outstanding track. Coming straight from SR’s no-nonsense division, the acid fires up right away, but it’s at around 1.40 that a riff begins blasting away behind the main acid lines, and it’s a total doozy, elevating the track from the realms of superior acid workout to something way better. A lot of tracks would happily rely on that one riff – not this one.

Meanwhile, Austin Corrosive breaks out the fatter, philthier acid for Sharks With Lasers. Austin’s recent tracks have had a real machinery-in-crisis sound to them, a feeling that they could, at any second, spin completely off the grid, and it’s an exciting, distinctive sound – the sound of a really in-form, confident producer. It’s a feeling that pervades the entire release, in fact. You get a sense of everybody involved stretching their wings.

Next, Tassid and D.A.V.E the Drummer on Sexual Advance. The track is basically a rework of the Adam Freeland track, We Want Your Soul, complete with the eponymous vocal and Bill Hicks’s ‘you are free to do as we tell you’ routine during the breakdown. Freeland’s track is a classic and it’s a brave man who evokes its memories, even in a new context, but Christ, this track thumps. Here the BPMs rise to Tassid levels, rather than drop to DtD levels, and Tassid tracks always bang. But this one? Whoosh.

Lastly, OB1 is, as ever, applying advanced acid techniques to his 303 on Fight War. First he has fun with drums, setting up a rolling, funky sound before laying down the first of the acid lines at around 1.40. The 303 are whipped to a frenzy, and with the looped ‘fight war’ vocal sample sounding suitably psychotic, the result is a truly breathless and relentless piece of acid techno, a stunning end to what is easily one of the best EPs of the year – if not the best.

Meanwhile, you can catch all of the Rejects plus various other ne’er-do-wells, including Rabbits fave Bad Boy Pete,  playing live at at Soitiz-organised bash in aid of the Headway charity. The party takes place at a secret location in Worcestershire on 7th December, and for tickets you’ll need to email soitizswifty@hotmail.co.uk. It promises to be epic.

Go to System Rejects’ website here.

Listen to the tunes here:

Jack Wax – Wax Is All (Flatlife Digital)

Wax Is All – Original Mix
The carnage kicks off with the original, a splendid tune from Eindhoven’s Jack Wax. And wow – someone’s been hiding their 303 genius under a Garry Bushell, because this totally rocks: the kick is chunky and clean, the 303s taught and sinewy, the melodies light and airy. I totally approve of the 142 BPM as well, which makes a nice change from the industry standard 145.

Wax Is All – Chris Liberator & Darc Marc Remix
Chris and Marc make good use of the ‘motherfucker’ sample – be rude not to, after all  – dial up the BPM to 148 and take a chisel to the acid sound. It’s a good day at the office for all concerned.

Wax Is All – D.A.V.E. the Drummer Remix
Suck my old brainpan, this is good. I mean, you’d expect it to be good from Dave, who in the last few years has been ringing the changes and producing his best work in the process, but this is quite something special. Lately he’s lowered the BPMs (but not completely deserted them, The Drums, anyone?) and in place of speed brought quality, and here it’s all in the bottom end, with a lovingly crafted kick so deep and cavernous it’s positively demonic, while shredding 303s take a blood-stained fire axe to the original. It rules, in other words.

Wax Is All – Sterling Moss Remix
Sterling’s mix is a cracker, just what you’d expect. Looser, funkier drums bring a tribal feel to the track – think the feel of his Streaker EP from last year – while busy riffs keep things skipping along. Being none too keen on either Riff Raff or Sick of Capitalism, which were his last two Acid tunes with Chris, I’m pleased to be loving a new tune with his name on it.

Wax Is All – Luke Creed Remix
Creed brings the madness, fiddling and treating every little sound like a crazy kid who glues the arms of dolls onto their foreheads.

Incidentally, here’s a Jack Wx mix on Soundcloud, Acid Techno classics, no less. We likey.

Chris Liberator, Sterling Moss, Rackitt, D.A.V.E the Drummer, Ant – SUF 100.1 (Stay Up Forever)

Cat no: SUF 100.1
Release date: 02/12/11
Get it from: 909 London

Croydon Girl – Chris Liberator & Sterling Moss with Rackitt
BPM: 145
Heralding a year of celebrations from SUF (and for more details of that check out the new SUF 100 site) comes this EP, the first of four in the 100 series. Croydon Girl is supreme filth, with a Sterling Moss-speciality kick interrupted only by the odd outbreak of spitting hi-hats, a very hefty 303 line right from the off, and the main melodic acid line from 1.19. All in all, as nasty as you’d expect. The vocal is Rackitt expressing her love of Croydon as well ruminating upon her love of ‘fat 303s, fat rigs, fast drugs, fuck you,’ all of which are fine and upstanding pursuits.

The Drums – D.A.V.E the Drummer & Ant **
BPM: 145
Backing it up is The Drums, which is not so crowd-pleasing, but probably the better track in my humble Orion, and wraps up what has been a superb, transitional year for D.A.V.E the Drummer. After a section of layered drums comes all manner of freaky acidness, before more drums. And then more drums!  A drum solo in the break, no less! Imagine an Edinburgh Tattoo trip to the Rio carnival by way of Goa and you’ve got an idea what’s going on in here, and that it all holds together is a tribute to the acid-funking genius of the two talents involved. Great track, awesome EP, roll on the next one.

2011 Autumnal Acidity

Some NEW acid in the mix, mainly from the last few months.

Tracklisting is:

Alex Kenji & Luigi Rocca – Acid Monks
F+S (Franz & Shape) – Acid One
Adam Derry – 130 Jam
Woo York & Vegim – Bass Machinnen (DAVE The Drummer dub mix)
D.A.V.E The Drummer & Marcello Perri – Purpose
Justin E – Resistance
Freethinker – Release The Scud
Freethinker – 401
Chris Liberator & Sterling Moss – Acid Corrosion
Steve Mills – London Acid Techno
A.P & Josh Inc – Pure fuzz
Nitronoise – Drink & Drive
Zoid – Day Off
Tik Tok & Turtle – Boxed Up
Tik Tok – Fucka Hooka (2011 mix)
Justin E – Jacob’s Ladder
Mobile Dogwash – Roll Em Phat
Acid Chochi – Running For Fun
OB1 – A Little Something
Subutex & DJ D8 – Fuck That
Austin Corrosive – Recharge
Tassid – Recharge Remix
KitShunt – With A K (1st Edit)

Deep Acid Techno Mix

There’s a bit of a slow-it-down vibe around at the moment, so suitably inspired I’ve put this mix together, about half and half new tracks and oldies, the emphasis being on deep and dark 303 manoeuvres.

The tracklisting is…

Morphosis - Spiral
Oscar Mulero - After All
Pete Heller - Nu Acid (Raw Version)
Emmanuel Top - Dominos
Joel Mull - Danny Boy
Acrid Abeyance - Tranquil
Rai & The Strudels - Last
Winx - Don't Laugh
Marco Piovesan - Basic To Acid
Seedy Jazz & Eeemus - Bangin' Acid
Night Orchestra - MDMA
Night Orchestra - Bouncing Audio
D.A.V.E. The Drummer & Tony Montana - Shadow Of My Former Self
Choice - Acid Eiffel
Emmanuel Top - Lobotomie

All 2011, All Acid Techno Mix

Here’s a mix I made of… well, it’s a bit daft to say it’s the ‘best’ Acid Techno of 2011 so far, since I can’t possibly presume to be familiar with it all but this is the best Acid Techno of 2011 that I’ve heard, at least.

The tracklisting is…

D.A.V.E The Drummer - Acid In The Box
D.A.V.E The Drummer & Chris Liberator - Twinkle Toes
Jamie C - Shitbag
Sterling Moss - Never Give In
A.P - Can't Get Enough
Syndrome – MFT (D.A.V.E. The Drummer Remix)
Austin Corrosive - The Drums
Ben Fraser - Tek Stream
Nitronoise - Missed F*ck
DDR And James Kinetic - The Cross Joint
D.A.V.E. The Drummer & Tassid - Keep It Going
Sterling Moss - Rock N Rolla
Chris Liberator & Darc Marc - Happy Birthday LSD
Nitronoise - Acid Crumble
A.P - Ride It
D.A.V.E The Drummer - Stop The System
Chris Liberator, Sterling Moss & Maxx - Deadly Swine
Hectech - Lock'n Loud

D.A.V.E. the Drummer & Tony Montana – Hydraulix 43 (Hydraulix)

Cat no: Hydro 043
Release date: 16/05/11

Shadow of my Former Self
BPM: 131
Majestic. A dark and tightly wound exercise in echo-chamber melancholy, resounding with malign atmospherics that build to a fidgety but devastating climax – the sort of thing you could imagine in a Dave Clarke set.

Speak and Spell **
BPM: 130
A very clean kick and crisp percussion kicks things off, then at 2.58 an electronic scream ushers in the darkness. I didn’t really get this on the Soundcloud clips, but loud or on headphones, it sounds utterly phenomenal and supremely creepy, and it builds to a break that sounds like an apocalypse of the undead. A brilliant track, although I wish I could work out what the speak-and-spell guy is actually saying.

Speak and Spell (Hydraulix Mix)
BPM: 130
Er… okay. Doesn’t really bring a great deal to the party, if I’m honest. The horrorshow intensity of the original is missing, and it doesn’t have the pile-driving power of the Warehouse Mix.

Speak and Spell (Warehouse Mix)
BPM: 130
An awesome, space-filling monster with a filthy, juddering kick. Even so, it’s the original mix for me; that break must be one of the best of the year so far. Incidentally, if you’re into downloading, the whole EP is (currently) an absolute steal for £1.39 on Junodownload. However, tracks are normally £1.39 a pop, so it could be a clerical error.

 

Deh-Noizer & Oniks – The Prayer EP (Elektrax Recordings)

Cat Number:  elek109
Release Date:  28/04/11

The Prayer (Original mix)
BPM: 132
With a low, space-filling kick – a real ribcage-rattler straight out of the Surgeon book of Common Prayer ­– this hits a solid, attacking groove right from the off and there it stays, essential nutrients for DJs, techno baked the way we’ve always liked it.

The Prayer (D.A.V.E. the Drummer mix) **
BPM: 132
Still operating in can’t-put-a-foot-wrong mode, Cullen calms down the warehouse drums but goes tonto on the bassline, introducing all manner of weirdy noises and slowly ramping up tension to supply the build-and-release dynamics we simple-minded acid heads enjoy. At about 4.00 it gets head-messingly horror carnival and trippy-dark, sealing the track’s utter magnificence.

The Prayer (Simone Barbieri Viale remix)
BPM: 128
Slower, slightly more polite version, lacking either the locked-down brutality of the Original mix or the dark psychedelia of Cullen’s mix.

True Spirit
BPM: 133
Finally a more explicit nod to Tresor that rearranges parts of The Prayer into a slightly smoother whole.

Get it from: Junodownload

Syndrome – MFT (Scythe Squadron Recordings)

Cat no: Scythe 08
Release date: 17/04/11

MFT (D.A.V.E the Drummer remix) **
BPM: 142
There’s a reason this is on the A-side, and that’s because it’s a masterpiece: a flat-out, hands-down, solid-gold, woah-mama-I’m-home classic. People will be hearing this record and feeling like I felt when I first heard Unlucky Punk by Magnum Force, or when you first heard [insert the name of the acid techno record that nailed it all for you here]. I’m not sure it’s a game-changer as such, because I’m not sure it’s even possible to make a game-changing record now (and look forward to being proved wrong about that) but it is an almost perfect example of the artform, and it rocks. Credit goes to the original, of course; the nuts and bolts are already there, especially that amazing, deep, dystopian vocal, intoning, ‘this is fuckin’ techno, Melbourne fuckin’techno’. Otherwise the man born Henry Cullen takes every single element and beefs it up. The track leaps out of the blocks with a hard but undistorted kick, bouncy percussion and then straight into the vocal sample, that Henry’s beefed up, instinctively aware how bloody awesome it is. Now come layers of bassline, the 303 building, the kick getting harder, and each time you think it’s got as hard and as fast as it’s going to get, it goes up a notch. I remember hearing Vision Creation Newsun by The Boredoms for the first time and feeling the same way I feel when I listen to this record. That it’s not going to wimp out on me; that it has somehow intuited exactly what I want it to do and what I want it to do is go to the next level. If The Boredoms ever made an acid techno record, this is the record they’d make. At 5.10 there’s a break that lifts the top of your head off with whooshing DnB atmospherics and that awesome end-of-the-world voice, then back it comes, with a smooth, rushy finish and the acid taken to its absolute max. Perfect. The only problem with it, really, is how the hell do you follow it?

MFT (original mix)
BPM: 148
On his Soundcloud page, Steve ‘Syndrome’ Clark says, ‘This track came about due to the frustration I was having with Melbourne events. People advertising events with the theme of hard techno and all you get is minimal. So I turned on my studio and put all that frustration onto my machines, voiced my opinion and MFT was the result.’ Just below that there is comment from D.A.V.E the Drummer: ‘Like it, mate, good work,’ and never was a truer word spoke. It’s a choppier, slightly less-sure-of-itself mix than either of the other two on the record, but it still rocks hard and listening to his Soundcloud offerings (check them out here) there are plenty more where that came from. Bring them on I say.

MFT (Chris Mate remix)
BPM: 142
As with all three mixes, the sample pulls into a new and and exciting dimension, and the 303 is gratifyingly hard, plus at about 5.00 there’s a build that starts off sounding like distorted strings and ends up like a dive-bomber, which is a fantastic moment, and has a welcome repeat later on. It’s brilliant. Any other time, it would saunter off with the honours held high, but that A-side is like the call of a Lily Cole-shaped Siren: sexy and deadly and not to be ignored. D.A.V.E the Drummer’s having a brilliant year. I read recently (On Harderfaster.net here, in fact) that he’s had three months off the grog. Maybe that’s the secret…