You would think that Gigolo and Planet E would be total opposites in terms of genre, but leave it to relative newcomer Sebastien San to prove that the worlds of electro and techno are hardly unrelated. San recorded his debut artist album for DJ Hell in 2006, a collection of electro that was Detroit-flavoured, yes, but also sounded right at home on Hell’s Eurobot-defining imprint Gigolo.
San's newest 12-inch for Carl Craig's Planet E imprint also sounds right at home, especially after Craig’s recent European adventures championing the likes of Ripperton and Buttrich. San mixes the few pieces he has here perfectly, like a minimalist painter that has pared everything down to its essentials. It's trance-y, but only in the sense that it induces a trance-like state from San's expert raising and lowering of the tension.
It's so expert, in fact, that C2 doesn't have many places to go on the B-side. On his edit he takes the synth line out for a test drive, and then just decides to bring everything in at around the two-minute mark. It strives for the austerity of his 'Like a Child' remix, but with all of the elements already in place, there is little surprise, and (dare I say it?) San has already beaten him at his own game on the A-side, anyway.
This is a release which will no doubt disappoint the Detroit purists looking for Craig to get with the D-town program, but those with longer memories willing to acknowledge the longstanding trade of electro between Europe and Detroit, it sounds almost traditional. San's slavish devotion to Drexciya on his IDJ record, for example, was plainly obvious, and in the story of Planet-E, this 12-inch is the logical progression on from Craig's recent infatuation with Continental sounds. In short, it seems as if electro and techno are coming together again. On this record, at least, that sounds like a good thing.
Buy Sebastien San - Rising Sun at
Tracklist: Sebastien San - Rising Sun
A Rising Sun
B Rising Sun (C2 Edit)
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