Joey Beltram - Places

This LP was Joey's finest work since the classic 'Energy Flash'
When this came out there wasn't a techno dj on earth who didn't have it in there box. It is possible to do a top set just using this double LP.
Every track is typical Beltram style, raw hard NY techno funk.
From beginning to end this album hits hard like a train, not a weak track on it.
Still sounds excellent in 2006.

One of the best techno records I own. Like so many other things Beltram has done, it's just solid as a rock: _every_ track is good. But I think this collection of tracks has to be his masterpiece. The brilliantly headstrong techno/house of Instant, the crazy pounding intensity of Game Form and Oval-it's the typical JB refined grittiness, but at the peak of his mastery. No self-respecting techno DJ goes without either this double pack or one of its singles.

The starting point of Beltram's obsessive techno period! In this one, and in nearly all of his releases since, he seems to concentrates on each sound with an obsessive sense of perfection, sculpting shapes an frequencies to offers blasting density AND subtle variations. The influence on later minimal techno is huge, even, this one is not exactly minimal : the sound is HUGE, and a real blast, even on a personal stereo equipment ! The downside is the same as on Jeff Mill's work, that has an overall similar evolution : sounds great, but melodies are not the matter (and sometime even ot here!)