Motor City Drum Ensemble - DJ Kicks

Motor City Drum Ensemble
DJ Kicks
!K7

Motor City Drum Ensemble is literally what, or who, it says on the tin, as Danilo Plessow is a famed collector of drum machines from Liepzig in Germany. Since 2005 Plessow has been penning some of the finest US-inspired house music to grace dancefloors any side of the Atlantic. Recognizing his standing as one of the producers responsible for the sound of 2011, the Detroit, Chicago and New York (yes, New York!) inspired wave of revisionist analogue beats, !K7 have enlisted the young producer, and well known crate digger, to mix the latest in their DJ Kicks series of compilations. At a time where the Internet is choc full of DJ mixes though, can Plessow succeed in resurrecting this once vibrant format?

In many ways I have already answered my own question. While the standard DJ mix online is an expose of what’s new and what’s hot, for all the best reasons of course, a compilation has to have something special about it to work. It has to delve into back catalogue, unearth hidden gems, choose it’s classic selections expertly, veer off with tracks without veering too far off track. In short, it has to be something that the average record buyer not only needs on his or her computer, but something that is so special it has to take some kind of physical form in the collection. Plessow succeeds on all these counts.

Opting to steer clear of a collection of remixes and reversions, MCDE pulls out Raymond Scott, the USA’s answer to Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Laboratory, Tony Allen, the famed Nigerian drummer responsible for many of the classic afrobeat patterns, Rhythm and Sound, the dub techno pioneers and electronica genius of sorts Aphex Twin. He adds some modern love in the form of Fred P’s majesterial On This Vibe and his own obligatory DJ Kicks exclusive submission, L.O.V.E. He also looks back to artists that have obviously formed some kind of inspiration for his own work such as Peven Everett, Loose Joints and Sun Ra. Most of all, he strings all this together in a way which is intelligent and flowing, but without attempting to re-edit or remake the natural order of the tracks.

This is a tour de force, a welcome addition to the many compilations already struggling to shift copies and something that every self-respecting fan of house music should have in his or her collection.

Tracklist : Motor City Drum Ensemble - DJ Kicks
01. Sun Ra - Door To The Cosmos
02. Electric Wire Hustle - Again (Scratch 22 Remix)
03. Rhythm & Sound - Mango Drive
04. Tony Alln - Ariya
05. Peven Everett - Stuck
06. Bad Jazz Troupe - Breakdown Treat (Dusty Rework) (MCDE Edit)
07. Mr. Fingers - The Juice
08. Rick "Poppa" Howard - Can Your Love Find Its Way (Club Vocal)
09. Stone - Girl I Like the Way That You Move (Dub)
10. Fred P - On This Vibe
11. Creative Swing Alliance - Don't Forget Your Keyz
12. Geraldo Pino & The Heartbeats - Black Woman Experience
13. Philippe Sarde - Le Cortège Et Course
14. Robert Hood - The Pace
15. Loose Joints - Pop Your Funk (Vocal Version)
16. Arts & Crafts - I've Been Searching (Walter Gibbons 12-inch Mix)
17. Motor City Drum Ensemble - L.O.V.E.
18. Aphex Twin - Actium
19. Recloose - Cardiology (Isolée Mix)
20. Latecomer - Cosmic Cart
21. Timo Lassy - African Rumble
22. James Mason - Sweet Power, Your Embrace

Motor City Drum Ensemble on Pulse Radio