Loudboxer

1. Reenter

2. Aesop

3. Cement

4. Sonof

5. Freq

6. (Bihum)

7. Inter Zil

8. Krekc

9. Sevntrak

10. Bugmod

11. Krikc [Live]

12. Cop Roll

13. Bark Decks

14. Stroker

15. Pannik [Remix]

Editorial Reviews

From URB Magazine
You don't hear a lot about hard techno these days. Trance has stolen much of its fire on the mainstream end of things, while underground audiences have gravitated toward subgenres more inclined towards melody, subtlety and humor. But Speedy J's fifth album is a fantastic reminder of the visceral power of hard-stomping, neck-snapping techno.

While Speedy J's first albums — 1993's Ginger and 1995's G-Spot — were melodic, acidic trance, his 1997 album Public Energy No. 1 tread a much closer to industrial brutality. A Shocking Hobby in 2000 veered the other direction, incorporating the explicit ambient bent of his two albums as Jochem Paap for the cryogenic label Fax.

Loudboxer, despite its name, isn't all bombast. The album opens cautiously with "Reenter," a brittle, syncopated rhythm track fleshed out with gentle scrapes and barely audible squeals; the effect is a little like a camera zooming in on a frosted window, focusing slowly on the scene inside. Behind the glass, things aren't much warmer: blasts of air tear across the stereo field, and Speedy J's chugging rhythms bash into one another with all the brutal grace of ice shelves colliding. While it's not a DJ set, the tracks on Loudboxer are mixed seamlessly together, carrying the album to a pummeling climax. Two-thirds of the way through the disc, Paap even mixes in two blistering live recordings where he pushes his machines toward meltdown while the crowd screams its approval. With rhythms this intense, the chants of "Spee-dy!" may just be picking up steam.

Philip Sherburne

Tracks:

Reenter
Aesop
Cement
Sonof
Freq
(Bihum)
Inter Zil
Krekc
Sevntrak
Bugmod
Krikc [Live]
Cop Roll
Bark Decks
Stroker
Pannik [Remix]

Customer Reviews:

STUNNING TECHNO!!!!.......2006-12-22

This album shines from start to finish.
Total mental tribal techno mayhem, brilliantly crafted dancefloor burners.
I've seen him live a couple times and it is something you should not miss.

Speedy J is the Techno Master.......2004-08-29

I find Speedy J writes two kinds of music: unbelievablly good techno, Richie Hawtin style, and unlistenable music. Loudboxer is absolutely unbelievably good techno. The music is unrelenting, frenetic and catchy. If you like hard, fast music this is it. The tracks run into each other like you are listening to a techno set. My only complaint is that the CD is too short.

Music with which to flatten dancefloors.......2003-11-25

If your ears aren't ringing by the end of this album, you didn't have the volume high enough. Turn it up and try again. This is music that you have to physically FEEL to fully appreciate.

This is some of the best hard minimal techno that I've heard in a while. There's not a trace of melody - just layers of stiff, atonal sequences that fade in and out, in lockstep to the relentless stomp of the kick drum. It's a little cleaner and a little more calculated than most hard techno, but every bit as tough and uncompromising.

The album is a continuous mix, which works quite well with the style of music; the joins are so seamless that I was unable to tell when one track had ended and the next had begun without checking the CD display. The mix starts out relatively subdued and gets harder and faster as the disc progresses.

Highly recommended to any fan of the genre. (I'd give it five stars, but the first half of the disc is weak compared to the harder second half.)

WICKED.......2002-10-21

Listen. If you are some candy raver dork, then this is not for you. Ain't no happy sunshine and lolly pop musik. HARD, intense techno. First 7 tracks move well, but a little more laid back. Things pick up on track 8, by the middle of track 9 the plaster is coming off the ceiling. IT CRANKS. Pump your fist in air.
This ain't trance.
This ain't house.
This ain't bubble gum pop.
THIS IS SICK TECHNO.

Four and Half Stars...........2002-08-02

Speedy J's 'Loud Boxer' is dope. Similar to Hawtin's 'Decks, EFX, & 909' but a bit more creative(which is good and bad). Speedy does things with sound/noise that are just brilliant. I'm talking about the textures he has surrounding the thumping...sometimes pounding bass and ultra fast multi-layered rhythms. The only thing keeping this from 5 stars for me are the live tracks. They are interesting at first, but don't exactly merit repeat listening. Overall..a great album for anyone's collection. Perfect headphone material.