Jay Denham - 1964 EP

1964 EP is one of those rare things in techno - all killer, no filler!

'The Myth' has a hypnotic, catchy hook. Reminiscent of a horn sound but much slower. This is picked up, then dropped, then picked up again with driving bass drum sound. It reminds me a bit of Metro on the Joey Beltram LP Places. Instead of the train, the stop/start of car in traffic.

'Soul Food' picks up the pace, with lots of clanging, chirps, cymbols, and crashes. Intricate rhythms, very clever, lots of layers added, dropped. This track put me in mind of Robert Hood, though there are so many different sounds whereas Hood would keep it more minimal. Would have been interesting if they'd done a collab.

'Growth + Development' on the flip side signals a darker sound, with a low bassline, picking up as the track progresses with some organ arpeggio, squelches and cymbol crashes. The same hard running drum track maintains the track's edginess throughout.

But 'Peacemaker' is the key track to my mind. Starting with minimal sounds, a haunting dark filtered sound that wouldn't be out of place in Halloween, added an unsettling beep, carefully layed, dropped then the lead keyline rising in acid squelches but keeping to the hard kick and snare, adding the earlier haunting sounds at the end.

Denham played this track (or one very like it at The End) in 1997, which was made for his mixing style of hard EQ kills. The crowd loved it, me included. A must-have dancefloor EP

Soul Food from this EP is probably Denham's best track; heavy heavy drums and a nasty riff, but great detroit sounding chords rising over the top. Unfortunately it ends justs as its getting good...