Clone Classic Cuts Holland レコード& CD

Review: Last year's excellent Drexciya retrospective, Journey Of The Deep Sea Dweller, was rightly heralded as a must-buy for anyone with even the smallest interest in the history of underground dance music. This second volume offers more of the same, conclusively proving - though few would argue otherwise - that Drexciya remain one of the most forthright, intriguing and forward-thinking acts ever to emerge from Detroit. The material here largely centres around their own peculiar take on proper electro, from the liquid synths and bouncing grooves of "Anti Vapour Waves" and "Journey Home", to the excitable, steel-hard rhythms and naked funk of "Positron Island".

Review: It's been a while since Clone last mined the undersea vaults of peerless Detroit electro/techno legends Drexciya. You'd expect the quality to dip a little on this fourth and final volume in the series, but Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller IV is every bit as essential as its predecessors. It's packed with far-sighted, next-level moments, from the bleak drum machine rhythms and gnarled electronics of "Hydro Cubes" and intense acid funk of "Aquatic Bata Particles", to the spine-tingling techno futurism of "Black Sea", the pure melodic joy of the rush-inducing "Sighting In The Abyss" and "Unknown Journey VII". A fitting finale to this excellent series from Clone.

Review: Few electronic acts could easily sustain three expansive 'best of' compilations, but then Detroit techno-electro fusionists Drexciya weren't your average electronic artists. In the space of little more than 12 EPs and a handful of albums, released in a ten-year burst between 1992 and 2002, James Stinson and Gerald Donald did more to push electronic music forwards than many of their Motor City peers. This third retrospective in Clone's excellent Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller series expands on the first two volumes, swimming between atmospheric IDM ("Aqua Worm Hole", "Vampire Island"), balls-deep techno workouts ("Nautilus", "Intensified Magnetron") and shimmering future electro (the futuristic Kraftwerk vibes of "Aquabahn").