Umek – Nodlocnost

I am also guilty of being an early Umek fan boy. Just as I was starting to dig deeper and deeper into the genre, Umek's career was about to take off and his productions would become globally sought after and appreciated. As a long term fan, this is a hard one to bypass or ignore. Mainly due to the title track, which is an absolute beast, but the real treat for me was always Mascivinji. Due to its filthy, distorted and crooked synth sound, I'd go mental every time I heard it. This was exactly what I was looking for in techno back then. Ill sounds. Wicked sequences topped off with raw, crunchy beats. Guys like Surgeon, Inigo Kennedy, Jamie Bissmire, Ben Long, Chris McCormack used to brings those to the table frequently back then, and we bought what we could afford.

But Umek, being from a neighboring country, was that guy you knew was making the tunes. You got to see him play them (quite often), and his records were not some wishful thinking imports. Although this record does not deviate from his meat mincer approach to the genre, the tracks I've mentioned above do boast above average character, quirky and genuinely individualistic sound touches, while still delivering a bullet proof barrage of rock solid hardness. So yeah, these two are mighty fine testaments of what his vision was at the time, and it seemed like little could go wrong.

On a little side note. This is still raw and pure, but is already a tad more articulate and refined than the early releases, which were nothing buts guts and mechanical onslaughts of sound waves driven by steroid injected soviet oil. With that said, as far as what I've had the chance to listen to / buy throughout the years, my personal favorites of his are the two Expire releases, and that forceful hell's orchestra of a record he recorded for E-Com, which falls into my category of not being suitable for human communication channels.
This, having came out just as Umek's sound palette started rapidly expanding, is a great EP, but is in my opinion surpassed by a few of its predecessors, and would have its crown confiscated by Umek's first release on Consumer Recreation, which is still the one to rule them all in my books...
Anyways, I'm still nuts for the B2 number here. Love that wicked frenzied sound pattern to bits. To a new round of nervous breakdowns.

By 1999 Umek had a very type cast style of techno, just listen to his releases in other guises such as Tiga or Polyvinyl and you'll hear what i mean, i like his techno don't get me wrong but i wouldn't fill my techno sets up with too much of his material as it can sound abit samey. Out of all his releases this one is my favourite, i first heard the A side tracks played by Dj Ribbz on his Slammin Vinyl 1999 mixtape, nodlocnost being my fav, this features on alot of 1999-2000 techno compilations aswell, good techno from back in the day ;)