Artifakts [BC]

Muzik - 4 stars out of 5 - "...a potent piece of work...offering another take on stark, anxious music articulating mental ill-health - whether chemically-induced or otherwise....a major head[screw] worth experiencing." Muzik (12/98, p.68) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...a potent piece of work...offering another take on stark, anxious music articulating mental ill-health - whether chemically-induced or otherwise....a major head[screw] worth experiencing."

Anyone who has followed the evolution of techno music to date is doubtless already familiar with Richie Hawtin, the boyish face behind the Plastikman icon. Born in the UK, Hawtin relocated as a pre-teen to Windsor, Ontario and it wasn't long before he began crossing the U.S./Canadian border and immersing himself in the techno sub-culture of nearby Detroit. Often the only white hanger-on in a predominantly black dance scene, Hawtin was later instrumental in ushering in a more multiracial crossover success for techno in the Detroit area with events like his "Hard, Harder, Hardest" series of warehouse parties, forging a missing link of sorts between UK rave culture and classic Detroit techno.
His fourth album chronologically, ARTIFAKTS conceptually falls between his second and third albums. It represents the completion of material left unfinished when he was barred from entering the US for performing illegally and subsequently cut off from releasing material through his Detroit-based label Plus 8. The result is similar to CONSUMED in that it transforms the constantly mutating 303 synth lines of Acid house into abstract forms more at home alongside Tangerine Dream than on the platter of a DJ's turntable.|

Relatively brief and comprised of archival recordings, Artifakts [bc] is nearly as amazing as producer Richie Hawtin's other Plastikman albums and, in many ways, is perhaps the most balanced of the series. The seven tracks here consist of remnants from an abandoned Plastikman album known as Klinik. According to Hawtin's liner notes, he had intended it to follow Musik but ended up scrapping the album and releasing the Sickness single instead. In addition, he began working on Consumed, the dark, ambient Plastikman album he released in 1998. Thus, the "bc" in Artifakts [bc] is an acronym for "Before Consumed," and the seven previously unreleased tracks compiled here fall somewhere between Musik (the second Plastikman album) and Consumed (sequentially the fourth if you're keeping track). Artifakts opens with three quiet tracks very much like what Hawtin would explore more fully on Consumed: "Korridor," "Psyk," and "Pakard." Of these, the latter is surely an album highlight, extending over 12 minutes, led by a mesmerizing acid line which is eventually accentuated by haunting synth ambience once the track nears its halfway point. After this opening 25-minute stretch of sedate acid techno, Hawtin unleashes "Hypokondriak," a ten-minute exercise in seemingly bouncing beats that's quite staggering if not downright disorienting, particularly after 25 minutes of ambient techno. Of the remaining tracks, "Rekall" and "Are Friends Electrik?" are more straightforward, returning to the acid techno style Hawtin had mastered by this point, and "Skizofrenik" sounds like a variation of "Hypokondriak," again employing seemingly bouncing beats. Over the course of these seven tracks, Hawtin offers you a little bit of everything: the acid style of Sheet One and Musik, the ambience of Consumed, and the queasy rhythms of Sickness. If anything, Artifakts [bc] is a bit too all-ecompassing and lacks a sense of individuality. Nonetheless, it flows surprisingly well considering its leftover nature, and the individual tracks are certainly on a par with Hawtin's other work, making it a welcome addition to the Plastikman series. ~ Jason Birchmeier