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Detroit Escalator Co. | Black Buildings

Discover 20 breathtaking Detroit miniatures.
12", Peacefrog/Lowlands

Tekst: da volgaBabe

Publicatiedatum: 21 januari 2002

Life can sometimes appear as a mere alternation of unsuspected resolutions and harsh, merciless realities. Somewhere in between those two extremities floats Neil Ollivierra's Detroit Escalator Co.. Somewhere between the meditative infinity of the universe and the complex, yet fleeting rhythms of light's velocity itself. References to light, movement and space are unsurprisingly legion, as we gather from titles as 'Freeway', 'City Lights', 'Gathering Light' or 'Fractal'. It is furthermore hardly concealable that Ollivierra has been manager for Transmat, the Holy Grail of Detroit Techno. The feel of the modal Detroit Escalator Co. track is akin to and continues the emotional power of the later works of Derrick May, threads in the footsteps of the early, minimal phase of Carl Craig's Bfc and Psyche projects and reminds of the nervous splendour of their direct Uk descendants Black Dog, B12 and Kirk Degiorgio. But the whole avoids being a mere copy of these predecessors. It actually ends up sounding like a more essential, fleshed-out take-on that has been adapted to the times. It is, for example, totally devoid of a recognizable bassdrum, in this case more of a texture than a driving force.

One should there from not conclude that Ollivierra's kingdom is not of this world but it is a fact that the man seems more at ease when investigating the microscopic level of things. As if he wanted to grasp the quintessence of music at its atomic level, therefore probing the initial atavistic powers at the eye of the harmony storm. He records movements that otherwise would have passed us by undetected because we didn't have a clue of their existence anyway. It is why, I reckon, there are twenty breath-taking but mostly pretty short miniatures on this cd (the vinyl version counts 8 tracks less, which is a shame). Most of them are nothing more than short notices, ideas, sketchy songs coming out of their eggs, with an impetus for rhythm, curiously finding their way toward a world that will be forever changed when they reach it. But one thing they certainly have all in common: they are so miraculously enticing that one feels softened and alerted in the same instant, gradually dreaming away of endlessly prolonged weightless sex with the nearest celestial bodies as a backdrop. Breathtakingly beautiful and, just in the nick of time, my favourite album of the abundantly blessed 2001.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/detroit-escalator-co/black-buildings/1220/
Meer Detroit Escalator Co. op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/detroit-escalator-co