Various Artists / I-Robots present The Detroit People Mover
Digital
Opilec Music / Released August 2013
The thing with Opilec Music is that it feels as though one morning we might all wake up and realise the imprint’s output was just a surreal, eccentric dream. Bossman Gianluca Pandullo, AKA I-Robots, seems to be a master of generally not giving a shit about what everyone else is doing, or what people think, and instead focuses on promoting music he loves from all imaginable corners of the recorded sonic universe. Hence his ability to continually put out quality archive material from other artists, reworked either under his production name, or with help from esteemed others, as was the case with that huge compilation of The Units’ work, re-thunk for the 21st Century (take a look at our review here, if you missed it back then).
Seemingly intent on introducing others to artists that have shaped his own career, in this instance, as the EP’s title suggests (taking its name from Motor City’s elevated rail system), Detroit is at the centre of things, with a pair of truly pioneering techno anthems each given a little added attention. Rhythim Is Rhythim a.k.a. Derrick May’s Emanon was, quite literally, experimental when it first arrived, and thanks to the usual ‘Robots focus on electronic music, rather simple club tones- that same sense of exploration is still evident here. From that iconic tom drum breakdown to the warm, busy sounds that populate the tune in its pinnacle moments, it’s more a respectful homage than re-write, and all the better for it.
Flip the disc and we’re given I-Robots’ take on Game One by Infiniti, or Juan Atkins and Orlando Voorn to most of us. If you’re unfamiliar with the source material then that’s probably because whenever it has been played in earshot nobody explained what it was, given the fact this global dancefloor anthem has been played to within an inch of its life already. Classics can’t be touched, though, as folk often say, and this is a case in point. Still sounding every bit as fresh as it did when we first encountered the tune, again there’s no grand re-imagining on this redux version, but rather a noble attempt to subtly alter the various accents within to create an honourable update to one of the all-time genre-defining techno tunes that will, if nothing else, mean those who don’t have the original can now get themselves a copy.
