Hawtin showcases techno excellence

In the early '90s before Hawtin was restricted from entering the country, he acted as the Pied Piper for America's then-infantile rave scene. His all-night warehouse parties in Detroit-characterized by black plastic tarp covered walls, minimal strobe lighting and deafening volume-drew youths from across the Midwest.

"Decks, EFX and 909" captures the DJ side of Hawtin instead of his more serene style of music recorded under the Plastikman guise. Keep this in mind when contemplating whether or not to purchase this album. "Decks, EFX and 909" isn't going to sound nearly as melodic or calm as his Plastikman albums.

Instead of hallucinatory cerebral elegies, the techno on "Decks, EFX and 909" hits hard, fast and relentlessly. The 38 tracks Hawtin mixes non-stop over the course of 61 minutes still can be described as minimal by the fact that their rhythms are repetitive, sparse and void of excess, but he propels these tracks beyond the concept of minimalism.

Through the use of three turntables (decks), an effects processor (EFX) and a drum machine (909), Hawtin crafts a thick collage of continually forward-moving grooves never lacking in substance. Think of this as the head banging thrash metal equivalent of dance music.

Granted, Hawtin's DJ set may be a little too intense for average listeners not accustomed to relentlessly pounding bass, deep layered percussion and subdued whirlwind synthesizer melodies. Similar in nature to the strobe lights Hawtin often uses to alter the context of his rave parties, this music will impair your judgment with its fast-paced audio flickers, flashes and tracers.

The set starts out with some of the hardest hitting house music currently on the market. Hawtin seems together four different versions of Richard Harvey's "User" to get things off to a fast start. He then follows these records with multiple versions of a Grain 2 record and two versions of Santos Rodriguez's "Road to Rio EP."

Hawtin then drops four tracks in row of techno peer Jeff Mills (also from Detroit) before moving towards a montage including four versions of Hawtin's most recent release, "Orange," and the industrial rock of Nitzer Ebb's "Let Your Body Learn." After a momentary intermission at track 23 where a voice asks "What the hell was that?," Hawtin progresses towards European techno such as a few tracks from Berlin's Tresor record label.

Slowly, the invigorating pace of Hawtin's set begins to ease around track 32. Here the dense, relentless techno begins to vary in both tempo and spatial attributes. The ambient, down-tempo dub records of German producers such as M and Quadrant slowly release the tension built up by the preceding 45 minutes of the set, gently landing listeners on their feet.

Once Hawtin lifts the needle from the 38th record of his set, it becomes clear that his mission is to take listeners on a ride. Unlike other DJs interested in making you dance, Hawtin wants to test your limits and boundaries, seeing just how far you want to go. Judging by densely layered musical intensity of "Decks, EFX and 909," Hawtin's ride is probably too much for anyone without a sense of adventure or a taste for hedonistic extremity.

11-30-99