Tektonics

Amazon.com
From a distance, electronic dance-music producers and hip-hop turntablists might appear simply to be located at different points along a shared continuum, and elaborate plans shouldn't be necessary for them to meet. However, when the emotional temperatures joined at the meeting are hot and cool, the result can be either a curious sensation of both or merely lukewarm. This CD takes tracks by well-known drum & bass and other electronic artists, and it hands them over to leading turntablists for scratching and mixing. In some cases, such as Photek and the Scratch Perverts, anyone who is not already a fan of both parties is not likely to have their head turned around, whereas the recipe of Meat Beat Manifesto and the Herbaliser creates a more integrated result. Wagon Christ's Luke Vibert often uses the humorous or ironic vocal samples that many turntablists favor, so the spoken bits from an audio engineering instructional source spread across his track with DJ Rob Swift could have come from either camp. Some of the contributors from the producers side have a foot in hip-hop to begin with (Ming and F5), and some (Soulstice and DJ Curse, Propellerheads and DJ Craze) hit a big beat stride that smoothly combines everyone's skills. J-Boogie and DJ Imperial present a modern electro track that evokes the epochal juncture of studio electronics and hip-hop DJ'ing in New York in the '80s--where it all began, in a sense. --Bob Bannister

Tracks:

Untitled - Prediction
Check The Skillz - Freestylers/DJ Z-Trip
Locus - Ming/FS/DJ J-Rocc
The Water Margin - Photek/The Scratch Perverts
Never Ending Snorkel - Wagon Christ/DJ Rob Swift
Untitled - Foreshock
Big Dog - Propellerheads/DJ Craze
One Word - Tim 'Love' Lee/DJ Disk
The Jug - Howie B./DJ Apollo
Untitled - The Big One
Superfunk 2000 - Soulstice/DJ Curse
Opium Den Mother - Post Tool Project/DJ Tomkat
What? - Cold Fusion/DJ Vin Roc
Untitled - After Shock
Brazilectro - J-Boogie/DJ Imperial
Purple - King Kooba/P-Trix
Prime Audio Soup - Meat Beat Manifesto/The Herbaliser

Amazon.com

From a distance, electronic dance-music producers and hip-hop turntablists might appear simply to be located at different points along a shared continuum, and elaborate plans shouldn't be necessary for them to meet. However, when the emotional temperatures joined at the meeting are hot and cool, the result can be either a curious sensation of both or merely lukewarm. This CD takes tracks by well-known drum & bass and other electronic artists, and it hands them over to leading turntablists for scratching and mixing. In some cases, such as Photek and the Scratch Perverts, anyone who is not already a fan of both parties is not likely to have their head turned around, whereas the recipe of Meat Beat Manifesto and the Herbaliser creates a more integrated result. Wagon Christ's Luke Vibert often uses the humorous or ironic vocal samples that many turntablists favor, so the spoken bits from an audio engineering instructional source spread across his track with DJ Rob Swift could have come from either camp. Some of the contributors from the producers side have a foot in hip-hop to begin with (Ming and F5), and some (Soulstice and DJ Curse, Propellerheads and DJ Craze) hit a big beat stride that smoothly combines everyone's skills. J-Boogie and DJ Imperial present a modern electro track that evokes the epochal juncture of studio electronics and hip-hop DJ'ing in New York in the '80s--where it all began, in a sense. --Bob Bannister

Customer Reviews:

Blew my mind..........2002-08-13

This CD features some of the best artists and DJs in the game. Begins on the right note with "Check the Skills" by the Freestylers and DJ Z-Trip. The diversity of the tracks is good. There is everything from house (Tim 'Love' Lee) and trance (Photek), to big beat (Propellerheads) and drum&bass (Howie B.). Any fan of electronic music and turntablists should get this compilation.

A first of its kind..........2000-10-07

In our postmodern age, it's rare (if not almost unheard of) to find music that classifies as "unique". But this CD is definitely it - you get the feeling this is music is at least twenty years' ahead of its time. Some cuts are better than others - while some of the DJ's just resort to dropping some kitschy samples over the beats, some of the others are incredible reproductions of the original. This is worth the price of admission if only for Craze's reinterpretation of the Propellerheads and the Scratch Perverts doing Photek...

WIKKID... 'NUFF SAID!.......2000-05-08

This album is dope. What else is there to say? BUY IT YOU WONT BE DISAPPOINTED!

Album Review: