Thomas Schumacher and Martin Buttrich have a lot in common. Buttrich made his name as a producer working with Timo Maas and Loco Dice. Schumacher has spent a bit of his career working with Stephan Bodzin, and just as Buttrich's solo efforts have sometimes lacked that certain something that made "Seeing Through Shadows" so killer and sublime in equal measures, Thomas Schumacher has, in my opinion, never really regained the creative levels that he had with "Heat It Up" or Home.
Taxi is accomplished production-wise, but it's a paint-by-numbers approach which doesn't stray outside the lines, to its detriment. The chopped-up and pitch-shifted vocal is humorous, and this soon rolls over into a magnolia-shaded groove, which bumps along in a logical manner. Variation is needed for such a basic foundation, but the only time it's provided is after the break when an edgy whirring pad tries, and fails, to make the track burn.
Riva Starr was formerly known in the breaks world as Madox, and the name has changed more than the style—here he provides a drumbreak-backed 4/4 chugger which would have happily fed the breaks machine a few years back, but adds to the kind of cartoonish nature of the release as a whole. On the digital side, M.A.N.D.Y. and Siopis weren't ever going to provide a complete re-twist, and for the most part, the bland raw material isn't livened up, although there's more quality and after the break, a fat-arsed bassline redeems the track somewhat—but not the whole package.
Buy Thomas Schumacher - Taxi at
  
Tracklist: Thomas Schumacher - Taxi
 A1 Taxi (Original Mix)
A2 Taxi (Dub Mix)
B1 Taxi (Riva Starr Mix)
B2 Taxi (Riva Starr Dub)
Digital: Taxi (M.A.N.D.Y. & Siopsis Mix)
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