Collabs3000: Metallism
By: Chris Liebing & Speedy J, 2005

4 stars

If you made to the Main Library in January you probably saw the staff’s favorite things display. Bryan, one of whose favorite things was electronic music, is yours truly and it is true, I like electronic music. Techno jumped ship from Detroit to Berlin in early nineties. It was in Europe that beats became fetishized while Americans still thought it was cool to wear a dirty flannel shirt. Jochem Paap, aka Speedy J, was one of a handful of producers who rose above an avalanche of bedroom beatmakers to create music architectural in form and hip-twitching in function. In other words, it’s arty but you can still dance to it.

A great example is Speedy J’s collaboration with Chris Liebing -Collabs3000: Metalism. This isn’t house music. This is TECHNO with grotesque sans serif capital “t”. There was a moment when the acid house movement had crested and DJs wanted their beats a little harsher, a little faster. They wanted sounds with a little more clank than the rubbery timbre of the Roland 303, producers then synthesizer of choice. Collabs3000 is definitely born from that moment. There’s a reason this album is subtitled “metalism.” If you liked the first wave of industrial music, but couldn’t stand when that genre became a parody of itself, this is where your muse should turn.

Collabs3000 was produced by the original artists, but if you’ve a penchant for banging the library owns some wicked DJ sets in same stylistic vein. Check out Carl Cox’s double disc explosion Global, and Danny Howell’s Global Underground: Miami, the later of which features Simon Ratcliffe’s soaring remix of Throbbing Gristle’s classic “Hot on the Heels of Love.”

- Bryan