Back in the early 90s, when electronic dance music was getting rather silly mashing up kids’ TV shows onto rampant breakbeats, those who had fallen for the original techno sound of Detroit and symphonic sounds emanating from Germany quietly started their own revolution which, maybe unfortunately, got dubbed ‘intelligent techno’ when thrust into the world by Warp Records. Mike Golding and Steve Rutter called themselves and their label B12, unleashing a series of EPs which married unearthly synth melodies with alien funk rhythms, coming with the requisite shrink-wrapped mystique. Now the pair are taking seven double CDs released at the rate of one a month to reissue every track released on B12 records between 1990 and 2007, including the ultra-rare vinyl and 27 previously-unreleased/never heard pieces dating back around 20 years, numbering 98 in total. On the first volume CD1 contains B12’s hard-to-find Musicology debut EP whose Telefone 529 and Obsessed would appear on 1993’s Electric Soma album released on Warp, plus previously-unheard bonus tracks ‘Ming’ and ‘Eliya’, a particularly deep slab of gossamer space-shimmer. CD2 contains further intergalactic UR-Mayday-influenced explorations from the second EP with titles like the self-explanatory Weightless Condition and, appropriately, Space Age, plus two more excavated bonus treasures.
4 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs