Starting his DJ career in Frankfurt, Toni Rios cut his teeth in the mid-nineties under the tutelage of Sven Vath, first with a residency at club Omen and then getting involved with the Cocoon empire, DJing around the world for the label in the late '90s/early 2000s. He’s got over twenty releases to his name including two LPs, and his latest release comes in the form of a Speicher record.
Already up to number 51, Kompakt's Speicher series has been heading in a more trancey direction of late, a trend which continues here. The unfortunately named 'Psycho Circus' on the A-side very much has a circa-2000 Dutch Euro-rave feel to it, (honestly, do people still listen to this type of stuff?). Beginning with an intermittent sonar effect (a la 'Seeing through Shadows', but without the same sense of anticipation), the track soon revs up with an abrasive, repetitive alarm clock style drone (someone hit the snooze button please!). The breakdown is predictable, and afterwards you'd think the intensity would rise or new elements would come into play, but unfortunately they don’t.
The equally horribly named 'Web Warp' on the flipside isn’t much better. It's only a smidgen more complex than the first track, yet still far too simple to be engaging. It's also a bit paint-by-numbers: the eerie melody rises octave by octave far to predictablly, and the chaotic breakdown (what’s up with the computer noises?) is unnecessary since the track then just repeats the same build again with nothing new being added to the equation.
It’s only a matter of time till we reach Speicher 100, and they're coming out at a torrid pace. Although generally I like the series, I wouldn’t be opposed to more infrequent releases if it meant more quality control.
Tracklist: Toni Rios - Speicher 51
A Psycho Circus
B Web Warp
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