- Mathis Mootz brought a new level of intensity to late '90s drum & bass with tracks that helped lay the blueprint for breakcore. His musical vision encompassed everything hard and heavy, and his most recent work as The Panacea combines EDM, hardcore techno, gabber and breakcore as a noxious brew. Adam X, who never shies away from rowdy dance music, has tapped Mootz for his first-ever techno EP. The results are predictably weighty and surprisingly dynamic.
Each side of Above The Absolute takes a different approach. The A-side highlights Mootz's hardcore and drum & bass influences, particularly with the brutal title track, which grinds, saws and writhes its way around the booming kick drum. Listen carefully, and you can hear breaks buried inside. Those latent influences surface on "Most Basic Resolution," which is programmed like modern techno but built with the craggy materials of modern hardcore and drum & bass. The B-side is more in line with peak-time at European techno clubs. "Overdrive EE" has all the nasty elements of its predecessors but keeps the noise at bay, while "Walter" is almost funky.
Tracklist01. Above the Absolute '96
02. Most Basic Resolution
03. Overdrive EE
04. Walter