Monika Kruse comes from the small part of the world where hard and fast techno never seems to go out of style. That part is called Eastern Europe -- not so small after all. The third in her label's On the Road series (not counting the one mixed by Miss Kittin) goes right for the jugular on the first disc, hitting Phil Kieran's adrenalin-rushing "Vitalian House" on the second track. You can't really go up from there, and Kruse doesn't. Rather, she settles in to a brisk 140-bpm rush through cuts by Marco Carola, Joris Voorn, and her own "Latin Lovers," which recalls the carnival samba spinout of Adam Beyer remixing Ben Sims' "Manipulator." The disc also ends with Mathew Jonson's "Decompression," easily the number one set closer of 2004 and the perfect air brakes leading to disc two's hazy minimal trip-out, which mimics the after-after-party weirdness favored by Richie Hawtin and Ricardo Villalobos. The only downside is that, in the case of both discs, dynamic changes are left to a minimum. Each one is seemingly dedicated to a specific extreme of the night, making one pine for the time when single-mix CDs were the norm and it was up to the DJ (not the disc changer) to take us from point A to B. ~ Joshua Glazer
Rovi
〈“WIRE”に咲く薔薇〉ことモニカ姐さんの人気ミックス・シリーズ第3弾は2枚組にヴォリューム・アップ! 〈Before〉盤は〈WIRE〉直球のアッパーな選曲で、姐さん自身の“Latin Lovers”やヨーリス・ヴォーン“Incident”などのアンセムも収録。〈After〉盤はリッチー・ホウティンの名DJミックス『DE:9』で注目された2ダラー・エッグなどを用いた激渋クリック・ハウス系でまとめた選曲。この奥深さが大人の女! 姐さん最高ッス!
bounce (C)石田 靖博
タワーレコード(2004年12月号掲載 (P75))