Jungle Taitei – Taitei Drums EP

Ostensibly reared on a now-deserted island called Gunkanjima, just off the coast from Nagasaki, Jungle Taitei (real name unknown) admits to being just as influenced by pioneering electronic musician Isao Tomita – who composed the soundtrack for Osamu Tezuka’s 1960s anime series, ‘Janguru Taitei’ (Kimba the White Lion) – as he has been by Tim Taylor and Dan Zamani’s sizzling 1994 tribal-techno record, ‘The Planet Of Drums’.

The legacy of both is crystal clear in the original mix of ‘Taitei Drums’: a superb, instant classic, tribal-percussive-tech track, the debut overseas release by the unconventional, reclusive artist. It starts slow and swirling, but the kick, when it arrives, is a formidable one that dazzles the senses, completely living up to the title and adding an element or two of surprise.

Secret Surfer mix takes the existing structure and hammers into a scintillating Detroit/Berlin techno crossover familiar to lovers of his formidable style: mind-blowingly deep, dark, and dirty, this is like Luke Slater’s Planetary Assault Systems days folded into old school Underground Resistance and recharged for a completely new millennium, aimed at a dancefloor packed with hundreds of gyrating, willing victims.

Japan’s notorious DJ Warp then takes the loftily-held baton and sustains it in ingenious new ways: He continues the tribal Detroit theme, and injects a funky, butt-shaking edge and mesmerizing keyboard stabs worthy of Jeff Mills, Derrick May and Juan Atkins in their more grooved-out, dancefloor-adjusted moments.

Glorious stuff on so many levels, from all three innovative artists.

Styles: Techno, Tribal, Minimal