Audiobiography

New York may not have the profile of Detroit or Berlin when it comes to techno, but it deserves to be shouted about a lot more — not least because of the exploits of Adam X and his brother Frankie Bones. Adam had been releasing for eight years by the time his debut album came about, and it’s a perfect encapsulation of the raw warehouse vibe that made NYC so distinctive. The funkiness of the rugged loops in fact is not a million miles from the NYC house of Todd Terry and Armand Van Helden, only faster and purely electronic: there’s no ceremony, just the essentials of funk chopped and diced into brutally effective forms, with enough sub bass to numb your higher faculties and engage the basest urges to jerk your body til you drop. Still gloriously effective to this day.