The Hacker - 'A.N.D N.O.W...' (Human) Released 17/07/06

With an acclaimed mix album under his belt, esteemed French techno producer and DJ The Hacker - Michel Amato - is ready to unleash his next clubbing monolith ‘A.N.D. N.O.W…’. Featuring a fine selection of tunes from the finest electro and techno pioneers past and present (Ellen Allien, Mount Sims, Model 500) and mixed live (on decks) without a computerised sheen by the man himself, it all makes for a heady and decidedly vital concoction. Just like most great mix albums, it’s not an in-your-face, mindless assault of the senses - more slow building, patient, yet even more captivating because of it.

Drawing the listener in slowly, the mix starts with the mechanised whirr of Notstandkomitee’s ‘Uhrwerkwelt’, hitting you with subtle synthetic sounds before the stunning futuristic, melodic ‘Space Model’ by The Revolving Eyes. Never quite taking you where you expect, the disorientating bleep fest of ’Elephant Island’ confounds, only to released by the abrasive beats and anxiety-riddled refrain of ‘Brain Is Lost’ by Ellen Allien. Nice. 

Although a perfect representation of his current live sets, the mix is peppered with some genre defining classics, that will have aficionados salivating. Going back to his roots, after the dark brooding sounds of early on, Amato drops the Model 500 Detroit classic ‘Techno Music’ - a song widely attributed to giving its name to an entire musical style. The sentiment is shared later on with the early nineties rave behemoth ‘Pure’ by GTO. Between these gems, Amato paves a matrix of dirty numbers (Luke Ear goggles’ ‘A2’), cheeky electro (Perspects’ ‘Strap’) and unadulterated sleaze The Hacker’s own ‘Flesh and Bone’. In fact by the time you reach the album’s zenith - Mount Sims’ slag of a tune ’Restless’, you know you’ve been treated to a quality mix.