Articles
Jefrey Leighton Brown
Label: Community Library
Vaz: Days of Yore

Albums
A Sunny Day in Glasgow
Badun
Jefrey Leighton Brown
The Buoys
Christmas Decorations
Cinematic Orchestra
Colour Kane
David Daniell
Electricwest
Formication
Philip Glass
Erdem Helvacioglu
Jasper TX
Khan
Jasper Leyland
Lichens
A A Mexicano
Milieu
Oid
oto
Ola Podrida
Andrew Pekler
Person
Pole
Project Perfect
Reanimator
Rubens
Stephen Scott
Silencio
Strategy
Tare / Brekkan
Tarwater
Terminal Sound System
Unit 21
Valet
Yellow6

Compilations / Mixes
Cielo
Deep Sea Shipping
Luke Fair
Flight 18
DJ Food and DK
DJ Kentaro
Modeone
Steve Porter

3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
B33P3R
Cheju
Deerhunter
Foxhole
K_Chico
The Magic Lantern
Jon McMillion
Myers Briggs
Niederflur
Person
Questions in Dialect
Samarkande/Obliv. Ens.
Sonje
Soporus
VeeBeeO
Vestigial
Rick Wade
.xtrak

Jon McMillion: Back On That Road
Orac

While it might be hyperbolic to suggest that McMillion singularly rejuvenates techno, there's no question his second Orac 12-inch radicalizes the genre in startling manner. Hardly content to recycle dance music's tropes and clichés, McMillion subverts the genre by overlaying his track's rhythmic foundations with multi-layers of innovative experimentation.

Consider the opener “Back On That Road”: the beats may be straightforward enough, but McMillion twists the tune into cubistic shape by adding a gravelly vocal chant, distant sirens, and a guttural synth growl that maneuvers a serpentine path over the percolating groove. Dissonant stabs and a spacey keyboard line later expose the tune's Sun Ra underbelly, as unexpected sounds swerve into view, feinting and jabbing like a heavyweight. A rollicking pulse drives Philippe Quenum's “Back On That Road” remix forward with syncopated urgency; while his take anchors the cut more firmly to the club, its morphing keyboard stabs also intensify its psychotropic character. McMillion's other original, “Lands End (Goodbye Trace),” is the one most reminiscent of his Inner Floor debut. Amongst its incessant wellspring of ideas, one hears glissandi sprites colliding with tonal washes, and swinging rhythms gliding alongside meandering bass accents and distorted voices.

May 2007