- It's fitting that one of the final reviews of 2009 is of Optic Nerve's Reassimilation. After all, unless you hid on a very remote island in the south Pacific for the past twelve months, it would have been impossible to have avoided the overriding sense of revisionism pervading electronic music. While this had its downsides, it also had many positive outcomes, including producers embracing the rave-inspired DIY hand-stamped vinyl release and a return to traditional nuances, sounds and styles.
It can be easily argued, and if you are a forum or blog frequenter, this stance has already been done to death so apologies in advance for re-iterating it, that looking back equates a lack of progress which automatically means that techno music is stuck in a rut. Alternatively, you could take the view that records like Reassimilation are reawakening an interest in warm, soulful electronic music, and, especially after a long period of software-only soulfulness, are laying the basis for a renaissance in this form.
Of course this is an optimistic view, but even if we take this debut on Arne Weinberg's new label at face value, it's still a remarkable record. "Origins" contains one of one of the most epic synth sequences to be used on a techno track, with Optic, AKA Keith Tucker, or an unidentified male singing evocative sweet nothings, setting the scene before the gloriously warm bass kicks in. That's the "Intellectual Vocal" mix, but there's also the original take, with the same fat bass and that male vocalist, this time spelling out "techno" one letter at a time and then delivering the unforgettable line "Perceptions fall away, keep you captive on the dance floor / From 'Man Machine' to 'Strings of Life,' keep you captive on the dance floor." Sure, it's deeply indebted to classic Detroit techno, but then so are "Elements" and "Anomoly," yet their spiky rhythms contain the kind of foreboding riffs, austere synths and gurgling, belching basslines that are hard to surrender to. If this is the start of a new era in electronic music great, but even if it's just part of a Moebius strip-like round trip, let's just enjoy the ride and revel in the magical accompanying soundtrack.
Tracklist A1 Origins Interlude (Intellectual Vocal Mix)
A2 Origins
B1 Elements
B2 Anomoly