MINISTRY OF SOUND Back In The Box: Unmixed

NRK Music's much revered retrospective compilation series, Back In The Box, returns in May with a double mix compiled and sequenced by one of electronic music's most enduring pairs. Not just Back In The Box, but back together, Global Communication, AKA Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard, reunite following a 15 year hiatus to lay down a collection of genre and era defining Techno and Electronica. Following on from previous Back In The Box entrants (Dave Clarke, Joey Negro, DJ Sneak and Louie Vega), Global Communication dig deep into their record collections to revive forgotten gems, lost classics and personal favourites. A true connoisseurs compendium of records that helped shape the Global Communication sound. Concentrating on the early to mid 90s period of electronic music, their Back In The Box mix spans the downtempo atmospheric sounds to the cutting edge Detroit techno of the day. A closer inspection of the mix reveals a journey of two halves, where the wildly experimental sounds and sparse, industrial techno dance beats meet the more reflective and intricate delicacies of the ambience and light breakbeats of electronica. Disc One focuses on the more dancefloor orientated sounds, opening up with a headstrong fusion of some of Detroit's finest music, courtesy of Jay Denham (Fade II Black), Derrick May (here with Steve Hillage's System 7), Kevin "Reese" Saunderson, Carl Craig's BFC project and Anthony "Shake" Shakir, interrupted for a moment by Detroit's possibly first, and only, adopted techno son (just popping over the border from Canada), Richie Hawtin, here with a F.U.S.E. classic. The mix picks up a pace with the hardcore assault of Lory D, Neuropolitique and DHS before heading for cruising altitude, with a clever re-pitch of Speedy J's classic "De-Orbit" and then heading into more melodious waters with gems from Flux, Balil, Florence, States Of Mind (Hawtin again) and touching down with some blissful techno from Robert Leiner. Disc Two delves deeper into the electronic underworld, and whilst the BPMs drop, the intensity of the music never let's up. Detroit once again is represented heavily, but showing another side to it's often heavily guarded face. Rare cuts from Yennek (AKA Kenny Larkin, here remixed by Carl Craig's Inner Zone), Octave One (Never On Sunday), Reel by Real (yep, the one sampled by one LTJ Bukem for a d'n'b classic) and that man Carl Craig (Psyche & Urban Tribe here, Global Comm hugely indebted to this man) display more intricate possibilities to the sound, whilst a track from the 'Godfather Of Techno', Juan Atkins, ensures that the Bellevue Three are all here, present and correct (that'll be Atkins, Saunderson and May). The UK cannot be underestimated in this genre either, and fine cuts from our own 'Godfathers' (808 State) are sequenced with UK's As One (Kirk Degiorgio), Balil, Stasis, and the one who broke on through on his own terms, the uncompromising Aphex Twin. Ending the mix with the beautiful ambience of The Irresistible Force (remixing Sven Vath's Barbarella) and Global Communication's Incidental Harmony, the Back In The Box journey is one that transcends continents, tempos and quite possible brain cells as well.