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As Kings of Techno, they’ve made a clear decision is to avoid the obvious. With Detroit’s rich history as a music city, Garnier digs into the artists that have put Detroit firmly on the map. Starting with the root of Punk Rock, The Stooges’ ‘No Fun’, to Jeff Mills (Utopia), Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Funkadelic, to the lesser known Dabrye to the main man, Carl Craig himself.

Worth a moment to note that the saxophonist on ‘Funhouse’, Steven Mackay is said to be releasing a album this year which could be interesting as he’s only really known for his appearance on a seminal album from 1970.

Also Laurent squeezes in a couple of classic jazz tracks in Alice Coltrane’s ever-popular ‘Journey In Satchidananda’ and one of Yusef Lateef’s tracks from his rich back catalogue.

Meantime, on CD2 Carl Craig looks at the ‘Influences and Developments’ of what has become to be known at Detroit techno. And what an eclectic bag of electro-pop to hardcore it is. The glam Visage turn up with a track that’s rather good which comes as a surprise for those that thought they only did ‘Fade To Grey’ (like me), the contrived Art Of Noise, the manic Germans known as Yello and a band I could never get my head around, Nitzer Ebb.

It’s got an eighties feel to it and good to hear Yellow Magic Orchestra again. Strangely it stands up well against Garnier’s choice on the first CD. I suppose that’s the thing with these experts of the decks, they know how to create great compilations and clearly, it’s a good move to avoid the obvious.

This Rapster series just keeps on producing the goods following on from Kings of Funk, House, Hip Hop, Diggin’ and Jazz and is superbly packaged as ever.

Reviewed: V/A — The Kings Of Techno (Rapster Records) Cat. No. RR0063 CD Release date: December 2006
Tracklisting:
The Detroit Perspective (78:22) Compiled By Laurent Garnier
1-01 Yusef Lateef — The Plum Blossom
1-02 Dabrye — Game Over
1-03 Jay Dee — Beej-N-Dem Pt. 2
1-04 Aretha Franklin — Rock Steady
1-05 Arpanet — NTT DoCoMo
1-06 BFC — Galaxy (Producer Carl Craig)
1-07 Instinct — Just A Feeling
1-08 Carl Craig — No More Words
1-09 MK — Burning
1-10 Hamilton Bohannon — Me And The Gang
1-11 D.I.E. (Detroit In Effect) — Get Up
1-12 ADULT. Don’t Talk (Redux)
1-13 The Stooges — No Fun
1-14 Jeff Mills — Utopia
1-15 Funkadelic — Bettino’s Bounce
1-16 Alice Coltrane — Journey In Satchidananda featuring Pharoah Sanders
1-17 Underground Resistance — Amazon (Live)
2 The European Perspective Compiled By Carl Craig
2-01 Intro (2:01)
2-02 Art Of Noise — Beat Box (4:38)
2-03 Capricorn — I Need Love (Instrumental) (3:49)
2-04 Nitzer Ebb — Join In The Chant (3:26)
2-05 Martin Circus Disco Circus (5:03)
2-06 Kano — It’s A War (6:19)
2-07 Yellow Magic Orchestra — Computer Games (4:08)
2-08 Yello — No More Words (2:24)
2-09 Liaisons Dangereuses — Peut Être Pas (3:48)
2-10 Alexander Robotnick — Dance Boy Dance (2:55)
2-11 Choice — Acid Eiffel (4:38)
2-12 The Black Dog — Virtual (3:42)
2-13 The Flying Lizards — Flesh And Steel (8:05)
2-14 Balil — Nort Route (5:31)
2-15 Visage Frequency 7 (5:00)
2-16 Severed Heads — The Ant Can See Legs (5:42)

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