Tuesday 13 March 2012

Alexander Robotnick – Robotnick's Archives Vol 4

The series of 'from the vaults' releases from the Italo disco don continues, and I have to say that personally, I think this is the best EP in the series so far. That's a highly subjective statement, of course. What I can tell you more objectively is that Vol 4 features three tracks that are all quite different.

Opener It's All Right Baby is a house cut from 1995, that apparently came about because Robotnick had just updated to Windows 95, and this was a 'dummy' track he put together while he was making sure all his software and hardware still worked! As house goes it's naturally a little 90s-sounding, but not as much as you might think, Robotnick's heritage in Italo disco, obvious in the track, chiming nicely with current tastes and trends to leave this sounding surprisingly fresh, some 17 years down the line.

Next up, Disco Action marries pumping beats à la mid-noughties electrohouse, with vintage synth sounds that again nod to Robotnick's history. Unsurprisingly, given that he made it in 2005 using a bunch of vintage early 80s synths that he'd recently rediscovered. And then finally, there's Minore Terzo, which was made in 1998 but sounds like a lost R&S or Rising High slab of hypnotic, rave-y techno from five or six years previously.

What's perhaps most suprising is that it's actually the latter track I'm feeling the most, being something of misty-eyed nostalgic raver! But like I said, a very strong EP all round.

Out: Thursday (15 March)

About: As with Volumes 1-3, this comes on Robotnick's own Hot Elephant

No comments:

Post a Comment