Various Artists DJ Hell: Electronicbody Housemusic
Deutschland’s debutante DJ and transatlantic electroclash icon DJ Hell did much to set the foundation […]
Deutschland’s debutante DJ and transatlantic electroclash icon DJ Hell did much to set the foundation for 2002’s most fashionable movement. Now Electronicbody-Housemusic shows that Hell can mix and match tracks as well as he does clothes. Disc one features indomitable talents such as mantra-providing Underground Resistance, Metro Area, Derrick Carter, Recloose, Jeff Mills, Playgroup and more, while disc two is razing, dazing nigh-industrial (Nitzer Ebb, Bigod 20, Front 242 with Green Velvet, El Loco, David Caretta plus many). Soon, you feel you’re in a sweaty German discotheque with equal emphasis on disco and techno. Hell’s “electronic house” is sweeping, thumping, synth-string stabbing stuff, vocal but less theatrical or gimmicky than the acid-electro pop often associated post-Fischerspooner. Hell’s EBM, meanwhile, simply pounds. Sometimes the computer-assisted melodies and minimalism are not perfectly transitioned, but Hell exhibits an ear for retro-futuristic rhythms, even if not quite as sharp as his eye for future hits.