From: jondr@sco.COM (Karen Silkwood's car)
Subject: review: berlin techno
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 22:23:58 GMT


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"Berlin 1992 - A Tresor Kompilation - The Techno Sound Of Berlin"
Novamute Records NMCD 3002
13 tracks, 76:35 playing time

A domestic techno compilation that doesn't feature incredibly old and
annoying chipmunk breakbeat tracks or ancient hardcore ditties!  It's
a bit harder than I'd like, but it passes the ultimate test - if I had
it on vinyl, I'd play many of the tracks at raves around the area.

Overall, the pieces are largely acid inflected workouts, which is fine
by me.  I think that blurpy bass line never gets old.  There's not
much of a range on this comp - the tracks are either 3 or 4 stars.
The 3 star ones are nice for background listening, car driving,
whatever, and the 4 star ones are slightly more interesting for
actually paying attention to.  Nothing scores 5 stars, although I
definitely have my favorites.

Despite the lack of all-out winners, I'd probably recommend it -
especially if you're looking to get away from the typical chipmunk
and/or hardcore compilations that are all over the place.  It's got
its moments, and the domestic price doesn't hurt a bit.

Now let's go track by track and see what the particulars are like...

3 PHASE feat DR MOTTE - Der Klang Der Familie

	Fast, with a pounding 909.  Nice acid bass sounds.  Overall
	I'm not wild about it because it has this high pitched melody
	that is just a bit annoying.  Not a standout, but I wouldn't
	leave the room if it was playing either.  ***

SYSTEM 01 - Drugs Work

	Very deep with a real old school kraftwerky kind of sound to
	it.  Think Underground Resistance.  Samples are predictable,
	but the monster bass is appealing.  ****

TANITH - Return and Revenge Of The Gatorade (Tanith Mix)

	More monster bass.  Not much of a melody to this, and since it
	goes on for 8 minutes it can be just a little tiresome.
	Still, excellent mix fodder.  ****

INGATOR II - Skyscratch (Mano Mano) Tresor Mix

	This could be Orbital in the way it starts out with a two note
	techno melody, but the presence of a throbbing acid bassline
	almost makes up for it.  I'm sort of divided on this one, so
	I'll give it ***

FUTURHYTHM - Phuture 2

	Pulverizing processed kick drum at the beginning leads into a
	buzzy bleepy blippy excursion into the realm of pure synth
	mania.  Hard hitting.  ****

MICROGLOBE - High On Hope (The Long Hot Summer Mix)

	Starts off with utterly vile crowd samples and breakbeaty
	piano riff, plus nauseating female diva samples, seguing into
	a sickening hardcore techno riff.  Fortunately this only lasts
	until 1:53 when a voice says "OK, now let's get to the real
	thing" at which point it transforms into a progressive house
	anthem mercifully free of all the bad elements I just
	catalogued in such loving detail.  A melodic piano/organ riff
	is underpinned by a blipping 303 bass line.  Maybe a little
	too far on the "sweet" side of things, but definitely a step
	up from the first 2 minutes!  ****

MAURIZIO - Ploy (Strategic Mix)

	Really fast and tweaky with little more than a storming 909
	beat and some bendy acid sounds.  Gets almost melodic in a
	murky way halfway through - kinda Aphex Twinny.  Hard as hell.
	***

COSMIC BABY - Cosmic Cubes

	A really cool eurobeat bass line that goes through very slow
	filter opening effects for added intensity.  The crowd samples
	don't even sink it.  Nice chord progression, melody and female
	moan vocals.  ****

VEIN MELTER - Hypnotized

	Really minimal, old Detroit style techno track.  Can't say I
	really love it but it has some charm.  ***

VOOV - It's Anything You Want It To Be And It's A Gas (Smoke Machine V2)

	Insanely deep and blippy with lovely gated chords.  Weird
	little vocal noises pop up here and there for spice.  ****

3 PHASE - Open Your Mind

	A fairly dull bassline with some cool zipping noises panning
	from speaker to speaker.  Eventually a fairly OK melody comes
	in.  Overall the track doesn't really go anywhere but it
	would work fine in a mix.  ***

MINDGEAR - Don't Panic (The Whole Story Mix)

	Really long and spacey track that starts out as the usual hard
	drumbeat and acidy synth before turning onto a more ethereal
	melodic jag.  ****

Outerlude

	Not much of anything - just a few sustained synth chords for
	less than a minute.  (no rating)

-- 
Jon Drukman (God's personal DJ)                 uunet!sco!jondr   jondr@sco.com
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