Enforcement

The inaugural Basic Channel release as Cyrus serves as a rather jarring introduction to the massively influential and unfortunately defunct Berlin label. The record's title track seems almost locked in place, repeating the same blurry looped sounds for minutes on end. The tiny alterations in the loops go almost undetected as the listener attributes these minute changes more to hallucination than anything. Yes, this is an extremely disorientating song that can be creatively worked into a DJ set, similar to how some of Jeff Mills' more ambient Axis compositions fit into the flow of a techno set. Given the similarity, it is only fitting that Mills himself remixes "Enforcement" on the flip side, bringing a stronger sense of traditional techno flavor to the song while still making it sound like a style all its own. The third track, "Recall," isn't nearly as noteworthy as the two versions of the title track but is welcome as a nice addition. While it is true that Enforcement sounds a little more primitive and amateur than succeeding Basic Channel releases, it sets a precedent for genre re-writing creativity that remains common to the small, eclectic canon of nine ground-breaking releases. ~ Jason Birchmeier