- The darkness in Terence Fixmer's techno is well-earned. The French producer has long been interested in EBM, fusing the two genres for DJ Hell in the early '00s and forming a group with Nitzer Ebb vocalist Douglas McCarthy soon after that. In working with a singer, though, Fixmer also has had plenty of experience with the dynamic tension between clean and dirty—the push/pull of dank background and bright foreground. You can hear both at work on the first official EP in advance of Fixmer's newest full-length, his debut for Speedy J's Electric Deluxe imprint.
The repeated melody in "Things Are Over" is a squealer, the sort of fire alarm bleeps that only make sense as pleasure within the context of techno. Despite the elements, it bounces like a Chicago house track, but you'd be forgiven for not noticing: Someone is saying something like the title of the song in a masked voice that is pure techno. The clean edges of A-side "Drastik" are almost too perfect, which makes Planetary Assault Systems B-side remix almost necessary. You can hear the core of Fixer's hypnotic and buffed original, but only once you've burrowed down beneath layers of grit.
トラックリスト A1 Drastik
A2 Things Are Over
B Drastik (Planetary Assault Systems Remix)