26-08-2009 @ 19:18
What dancefloor were you on when you first heard Abe Duque and Blake Baxter's "What happened?"
At that time, Abe Duque had spent a few years in the wilderness. He'd fallen from a regular on the European techno touring circuit to eking out a living as a carpenter, with barely enough money to release his own music - the legendary early Abe Duque Records 12"s, one-sided, with messages from Abe hand-scratched into the vinyl lacquer on each release.
And with good music drowning in a rising tide of bad mainstream minimal, Abe and Blake Baxter were both at their wits end. Blake recorded a killer vocal over a dark, springy Abe groove, asking where the love had gone. "The limelight, NYC. What Happened? Can someone tell me? Studio 54. We all know what happened..."
Also on that release were Acid and Disco Nights, another two stone-cold classics.
The 12" took Abe and Blake right back to the centre of techno - twenty-five thousand sold on vinyl, and dancefloors round the world asking "Hip House - What the F**k happened? Drum and bass - What happened?"
Now, in today's time of dire conga cod-deep afro-house - Berlin, seriously, WTF? - Abe and Blake return with Let's take it back. There's a delicate contemporary King Roc mix, but there's also an absolute monster of a white-noise mix from Joey Beltram that has to be heard to be believed - listen to it, chart it, and for a bit of background, check out the in-depth interview with Abe on Skrufff.com... http://skrufff.com/?p=486
Abe Duque and Blake Baxter "Let's Take It Back"
Process Recordings - PRCS122
Release Date: 07 Sep 2009