- We've reached peak reissue. From new age and new wave to Fleetwood Mac, a brief skim of current distribution sheets shows a remarkable number of repackaged records from the last 40 years. House and techno has also experienced a glut in repackaged '80s and '90s EPs. The Berlin record store Sound Metaphors focusses on outré electronic music, but its in-house label also reissues valuable US house and techno records from the '90s.
Sound Metaphors' second release is a rare Detroit record from 1991 that mixes the Motor City's futurist ethos with the smash-and-grab vocal sampling of early US rave. Joseph C. Smith II ran Decisive Records, which released five records under his various aliases from 1990 through 1993. His Instinct project is especially obscure. Sound Metaphors has taken a light touch with remastering here. When a Discogs commenter noted Sound Metaphors hadn't cleaned up tracks by the New Jersey house producer DJ Dove on its first release, they responded, "Of course it is lo-fi, it is how it was produced."
Mindsearch's scuzzy three tracks slam hard. "Catastrophe" is the most singular, with a madcap synth lead that cedes to a beatdown-style bassline while vocal samples fly in and out of the mix. The closer, "A Groove," is as its title suggests: a bonus beats-style cut with swinging toms, snare triplets and the dreamy pads that define the rest of the EP.
TracklistA1 Mindsearch
B1 Catastrophe
B2 A Groove