Planetary – Origins EP

Great EP I just wish the sound production quality was better, its fairly brittle and sounds like he was sampling double time and then slowed down to save on memory in 8 bit. But hey maybe it all part of the beauty.

This was my introduction to Dan Curtin, picked it up in a bargain bin in Newbury Comics in Autumn 93. It's an imaginative take on the best of underground dance music up to that point: what, for want of a better description, was called "intelligent techno" by the music press at the time. It's simply what happens when a producer starts to use dance music as a template for working out compositional ideas that are more involved that your average dance track. Features references to jazzy Detroit techno and UK breakbeat hardcore, but it's clearly neither of the two, it's Dan Curtin. He had a sound back then that was totally unique, all his own, and still sounds leagues ahead of stuff that is masquerading as "progressive" today. All of Curtin's Metamorphic releases are worth listening to. Go straight for the compilation 'The Web Of Life' on Peacefrog for a good overview.

'Intertwined' is the track to get this 12 for, a perfect Dan Curtin mission statement. No-one else but him could have put this track together. One of those tracks with about 3 mini-dramas going on throughout its length - some quite brilliant melodious yet ominous atmospherics going on, 'intertwined' (if you pardon the expression) with some quite funky breaks and intricate drum progs. All in all, a stunner of a track. Sounds quite unlike anything else of its time, and unlike anything now - it sounds early 90s in execution, but the mood it conjures is timeless.