Juan Atkins on
R&S - well there are worse partnerships. The godfather of techno goes for
self, minus
Mike Banks and
Mark Taylor, and takes it back to the essence of
electro playing galaxy wargames. With
no introductory fanfare, you somehow know that sentence was gonna crop up
somewhere, but there’s no other way of putting it. Atkins' expertise secretly
installs a human element to all the harsh, almost leering robo-voiced takeovers.
There are feelings of hope and warm-heartedness at the core of
'Control', all through the use of one deep synth, near
enough refereeing a good versus evil power struggle by itself with the minimum
of upheaval. No artificial intelligence here. Plus, with a wibbling synth tone that
has definitely done its juke/footwork homework, he’s staying relevant in more
than one field.
'
The Messenger' is a more earth-moored piece of electronica doing
its cyber spotting from the ground upwards. Coming into contact with the out
there crowd in a more even, less antagonistic relationship, synth slinkies dance
off the telescope before some noodly slaloming looks to connect with the
unknown (or in this case, a creature sounding like the ilk of
Funki Porcini), creating
the image of Atkins at the control of a huge mainframe, deftly crossing over
cables. Perhaps something to think about rather than just dance to, it’s deep
techno that when all satellite communications are lost, still posts a bottom
end and drum section that would stand up to any upfront bass forms that are
trending.