Richie Hawtin truly takes the DJ mix album to a level of perfection worthy of being called high art. Other albums merely blend tracks well enough that the transitions aren’t jarring or distracting; with Hawtin, the transitions are the point. The tracks compliment each other to the point of sounding like different sections of the same song. In the end, it sounds a lot more like Richie Hawtin than any of the artists he took these tracks from.
“Decks, EFX & 909″ is an album for anyone who heard the music released under Hawtin’s “Plastikman” alias and liked the vibe but wished it had just a little more “oomph”. It’s also the album for anyone looking to experiment and move away from the techno mainstream, and yet is unwilling to give up their precious four on the floor thump. And perhaps most of all, it is an album to dance your ass off to. Pure rhythm, pure movement, without any extra sentimentality or melody, anthems or sloganeering… as one track title puts it, “Zen”. And yet it is more than this. In a long career of perfectionism, “Decks, EFX & 909″ might be the greatest of all, and is probably my favorite techno album.
As anyone who has listened to this man before knows, Hawtin likes it old school. He rocks out like he’s never heard the words “happy hardcore”. Warm, analog crackle and vintage drum machines dominate the record almost completely. This vintage palette is shown to present a world of new possibilities. The beats can be quite housey, but I assure you there is no cheese to be found on this album. Hawtin reminds us just how badass house really can be, and how “minimal” does not after all have to be synonymous with “boring”. You may find yourself glad at the absence of ‘more’.
Hawtin has you stuck in the groove within the first 30 seconds with “Early Blow”, and from there on, for better or for worse, the beat almost never stops. Hawtin finds other ways to build and release energy.
Vocals occur only in the album’s absolutely devastating highpoint, the one two combo of Hawtin’s rendition of Nitzer Ebb’s 1991 EBM classic “Let Your Body Learn” (from “That Total Age”) and his own “Minus/Orange”. “Minus/Orange” transitions into “Let Your Body Learn” only to come back in an absolutely crushing moment right as the vocals end (”Suffer the children, suffer the children…”). At this point the rhythm reaches a fever pitch… those who like it hard will not complain. This concludes the first half of the mix, which is followed by the only break in the entire thing. This tremendous explosion of energy is all the more powerful for the 15 or so tracks that occurred before it, including such highlights as “Call of the Wild”.
The second half is a little bit less kinetic, and has more non-percussive elements, such as some thick bass lines, such as in the last track, Rhythm & Sound’s “Never Told You”. There’s plenty of great tracks, such as the chilled out “Club Soda” and the tribal feeling “Zen”.
I would insist that this album is not at all repetitive, as some have complained. The beat completely changes at least every 45 seconds… sometimes I actually wish he’d keep up the same thing for longer! Ah, but that would only the hinder the absolutely INCREDIBLE momentum of this mix. The illusion of repetition can sometimes be created due to the fact that many of the drum sounds are similar in many tracks, but subtlety is key here. Hawtin doesn’t shove his ideas down your throat. He sacrifices accessibility for longevity, and layering that reveals itself more and more with every listen.
In conclusion, “Decks, EFX & 909″ is an absolutely seamless masterpiece of minimal techno. Recommended to anybody open to dance music of any kind. 5 stars.
