Groovy house from a bygone era
Chel-C Faith | SF Bay Area | 09/25/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The Techno Mancer series is not exactly "techno" in the contemporary meaning of the word (i.e. Tresor, Richie Hawtin, etc.), but is a great example of early 90s rave music. Volume 3, "The Groove Edition", is a collection of dreamy and dancey prog house from before prog house was boring. "I Can't Stop", "Piece of Mine", "Cruising" and "Virtual Reality" are classic melodic piano/organ house tracks, subdued but still ravey. My favorite track is the tweaked-out "Ultra Terra", which is sure to have your head spinning. (The weird vocal sample in Ultra Terra is actually sliced up pieces of a sample of Leon Theremin recalling the moment of his birth, which can be heard in the first scene of the "Theremin: An Electronic Oddessy" documentary-- weird!) There are only a couple of tracks that require the skip button, namely "Dispute (You're Such A Baby)", which sounds like Tom Jones on ecstasy, but most of the tracks are pretty solid. If you're open to getting a little silly and feeling the love, Techno Mancer 3 is your groovy rave dream."