VA: Tech My House 3
Elektrotribe

Listeners new to Elektrotribe's brand of tech-house could do worse than to start with this third Tech My House compilation. Their tracks chosen from more than two hundred submissions, newcomers Insect Elektrika (a Prague combo), Steve Lorenz (Italy), and Tiari (Detroit) join forces with Elektrotribe regulars Animaltek, Alex Tomb, Datensi, Breger, Dominic & Moog Conspiracy, Pete Nouveau, and Digital Filth on the near-eighty-minute set. Generally speaking, the material doesn't dramatically deviate from the label's established style so admirers of the label's past output pretty much know what to expect from the ten tracks—minimal 4/4 cuts heavy on rubbery bass lines and bumping club beats.

Interestingly, though, the album's material impresses most when its reach extends beyond the safe haven of its minimal roots, and some of the strongest and liveliest tracks come from the new recruits. An industrial character infuses the low-end, metronomic thrust of Lorenz's “Overload” except for those moments when the tightly-wound pulse is derailed by a cuisinart flush. Insect Elektrika slathers the jaunty, tick-tock pulse of “When I Met 19” with synthetic belches and squirts, while the over-driven tech-house of Tiari's “Ware Road” furiously rages like an out-of-control dive bomber. Also memorable, Nouveau's stealthy hip-shaker “Fun Box” shadows its house swing with a croaking “fun” motif, Digital Filth bombards the clubby acid-techno of “Edition” with electronic meteor showers, and Breger powers his funky “Il Pavone” with a rolling “Heater”-styled groove.

August 2009