- Unspecified Enemies was a late '90s collaboration between Louis Digital and Simon Walley (CiM), and apparently their single "Multi Ordinal Tracking Unit," released on Counter Attack in 1999, was a much-loved anthem at Glasgow's Club 69. Now the Numbers label dusts it off for a new era. It's not hard to hear why this thing made the impact it did. The 135 BPM rhythm strikes the perfect balance between techno chug and electro swing; the bass and mid-range synths rattle like a broken screen door, and the tune's headlong tumble is periodically interrupted by great big flashes of funk straight out of the Prince playbook. Its rough-hewn sound doesn't have the mannered quality of so much contemporary lo-fi techno; instead of intentionally veiling itself in static, it feels like it's bursting to break out of its rudimentary Amiga tracker frame. Louis Digital's "City of Quartz" remix updates the track with elements from Laszlo Kovacs' "Hostages for the Chase Manhattan," released on Digital's Footwork label in 2002; it's largely faithful to the shuddering spirit of Unspecified Enemies' original, but it's ever so slightly fuller, fattened up with more fluorescent chords and carefully applied reverb.
Fleshing out the EP are two previously unreleased Unspecified Enemies tracks. "Belladona: I Do Mind Dying" has the emo feel of early Apparat, but with tougher, more technoid drums, while "Insurgency Soul" plays electro-gone-2-step drums against resonant pads and lilting vocoder. Whenever it was produced, it doesn't sound like it's aged a day.
Tracklist A Multi Ordinal Tracking Unit
B Multi Ordinal Tracking Unit (City of Quartz Remix)
Digital: Bellona: I Do Mind Dying
Digital: Insurgency Soul