Written 1999/08/01
I tuned in to CBC 2's Brave New Waves one night, expecting to hear the kinds of chaotic jazz, bad indie rock, and boring house music that seemed to dominate the show at the time, when I heard it... a cold, funky little song teeming with analog bass, 808 percussion, and vocal samples. I immediately loved it. It was like the synthesized instrumental hip-hop I remembered from the early eighties. It was ELECTRO! Dynamix II's "Don't Touch That Dial" to be exact!
Dynamix II are DJ David Noller and keyboardist Scott Weiser, a duo who vow to keep their music deep in the underground. No kidding. It took me nearly a year of searching to get my hands on a copy of their CD Electro Megamix: One Non-Stop Hour of Dynamix II from 1985 to Present.
As it turns out, "Don't Touch That Dial" is probably the best track on Electro Megamix. But alas, it is all too brief, clocking in at only one minute and fifty-seven seconds, as well as unofficially extending about forty seconds into "Feel the Bass". Oh well, all good things... Fortunately there are other highlights on this disc. "Bass Generator" and "Give the DJ a Break" sport vocoded rap vocals, which seldom fail to amuse me in their robotic tones. "DJ's Go Berzerk" is typically funky, and there's a sample here that resembles a sound from Einstürzende Neubauten's "Yü-Gung". "Atomic Age" lacks much melodic content (putting my foot in my mouth here, folks), but does have a lot of neat synth FX as well as a vocal sample using either pop-free loop position modulation or, more likely, time-stretching. Neato! Bubbling arpeggios and portamento sawteeth are the flourishes that distinguish "Energy", which also has a juicy analog bass sound to keep VCF lovers happy. "Dreamscape" is as melodic and as moody as Megamix gets. It's a soundtrack for a night of cruising through a dystopian future metropolis, seeming equal parts Kraftwerk, Front 242, and Front Line Assembly. Speaking of Kraftwerk, and the fact that they virtually invented the genre of electro, you can hear samples from their songs "Numbers" and "The Voice of Energy" in Dynamix II's "Ignition", the aforementioned "Bass Generator", and "Techno Bass" (which ironically lacks any strong analog basslines whatsoever. Go figure.). Personally, I would stay away from sampling from such high-profile sources, though one could argue it's a natural homage.
Like much dance-oriented music, Electro Megamix as a whole is unlikely to please serious listeners. However, if you want to toss a big sheet of cardboard on the sidewalk and take to breakdancing, it's perfect. It just might take you a year or so to find it.
