Richie Hawtin Decks, Efx & 909 CD

This is a continuous in-the-mix CD compiled and mixed by Richie Hawtin.

Hawtin's popular Plastikman productions and rigidly minimalist Concept 1 tracks have earned the Canadian techno icon deserved widespread success. But Hawtin's reputation is built on his peerless DJ skills, and it's in the multiple-turntable arena that he truly shines. DECKS, EFX & 909 is a definitive and audacious set. Hawtin flouts the rules openly. He reuses records; he plays multiple cuts from the same slab of vinyl; he often uses just a looped fraction of a track, allowing him to burn through stacks of wax yet keep the beat unflagging. And, as the title indicates, he augments beat-matching turntable heroics with live drum-machine and effects-pedal improvisation.

DECKS, EFX & 909 is a seductive exercise in churning bass and virtually wall-to-wall rhythm. With as many as three tracks overlapping at any moment, the beats are frequently as unrelenting as the monochrome techno. Over the seamless 61:31 set, Hawtin cleverly works his way from propulsive tech-funk toward dub-wrought techno, ending perfectly with Rhythm & Sound's skew-whiff-and-spliff classic "Never Tell You (Version)." Because Hawtin favors stern, minimalist material, tunefulness is not a strong concern. But the fusion of Nitzer Ebb's immortal "Let Your Body Learn" with Hawtin's own (Yello-inspired!) Minus/Orange tracks is a definite DECKS highpoint.

Best Known As Plastikman;DJ Mix W/Layering,Drum Machines+Spin (2/00, pp.109-10) - 7 out of 10 - "...an organically mutating beast [created] in his own image. There is a fiendish, bipolar dynamism here..."
Q (2/00, pp.88-9) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...seamless 38 tracks, continously ebbing, flowing and overlapping. Beats recede then suddenly burst back upfront, hiking up to a higher plateau, peppered with stuttering repeats and dropped-in vocal snatches..."
Alternative Press (10/00, p.120) - Included in AP's "10 Essential DJ-Mix Albums"
Alternative Press (1/00, pp.87-8) - 4 out of 5 - "...hits a primal and powerful groove with a style and originality. Yes, the Force still walks among the dancefloor, thanks to Richie."
Magnet (1-2/00, p.68) - "...the DJ's highly evolved sense of electronic music encompasses DECKS: turntable prowess, effects mastery and the Roland TR909 techno drumkit....rapture-inducing dancefloor offering..."
The Wire (10/99, pp.51-2) - "...the source of the music's interest resides in the reductionist processes of stripping it down to bare rippling pulses....it has something to do with the acceleration of the pulse that results from squeezing 38 tracks into a 60 minute set..."
CMJ (11/8/99, p.30) - "...a jaw-dropping 38 tracks over the course of a ferocious, hour-long mix....a prime example of the intensity that can erupt when one man takes the stage with a crate of vinyl, some techno gear, and a surplus of ingenuity at his disposal."