Psyborg-9 – Your Soul Is Mine EP

Reboot the acid!

Flashback 14 years to Melbourne, Australia, and Andrez Bergen (these days better known as Little Nobody & Funk Gadget) had just started DJing. In his record box? Grandstanding 303 moments that included early Plastikman, Honeysmack and Freddie Fresh records, and the innovative, darker underground acid of German labels like Force Inc., Trope, AFU, Mille Plateaux, Anodyne and DJ Ungle Fever.

Think scintillating, soaring, squealing, mind-melting acid techno from Jammin’ Unit, Ultrahigh, Drax, Walker, Air Liquide, Bizz OD, Ian Pooley, Kerosene – and one Martin Damm (Subsonic 808/Biochip C), whom Andrez and IF? Records whisked over to Australia in 1996.

13 years on from that devastating tour, and now based in Japan, Andrez has taken it upon himself to reboot the acid and reinvigorate the 303, with his mind-blowing new project, Psyborg-9.

His inaugural track – ‘Your Soul Is Mine’ – directly references those glory days of acidic rave techno in the mid-’90s, with peaking, squelchy moments to absolutely die for, and then melodic drop-outs to rediscover your brain; it’s also dark, punchy, infectious and divinely-inspired stuff.

For this achingly gorgeous flashback moment, he’s also recalled Biochip C away from his work at the Industrial Strength label, to do am absolutely sensational remix that vividly captures his past glories; at the very same moment, Biochip C embraces the future potential of real, Roland TB-303-based acid with cunning use of modern technology and contemporary production trickery. Are we stunned? Yes.

Topping it off is Melbourne’s current production genius, Bitch Shift, whose remix brings it all back down to earth and tweaks the funk, with a mesmerizing, groove-focused tech-house reconsideration that is equally superb, and is already knocking them dead in underground clubs in Tokyo.

Acid is most definitely back in the mix.