QUARK
Second Earth EP
1993 Mucho Vinyl
Notes :
This little-known, still-affordable EP offers four brilliant slices of IDM-y, minor-chord Detroit techno from the UK school, and would be right at home alongside your B12, Stasis, and Dave Angel records from the same era. Highly percussive, yet aimed a bit more at the head than the feet, every track is of impeccable quality and wends its way through a basic yet profoundly effective song structure. Nowhere is this more evident than in the beautiful "Second Earth", with its simple, catchy bassline, synthesized strings & pads, gentle 909-enhanced breakbeat, and jazzy key solos raising the bar of sophistication for techno. "Emphasis" is similar, very obviously paying homage to Derrick May's work. "Abyss" is somewhat the outlier, fitting in better with then-emerging progressive, psychedelic trance aesthetics, with only its hi-hats adhering to Detroit's ethos. "Space" leans in a similar progressive trancey direction, but remains much more on the techno side.
(great review by mjb - discogs.com)
01. Second Earth
02. Space
03. Abyss
04. Emphasis
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