- Two flavours of old-school Detroit techno with a contemporary finesse.
- Max Watts has cultivated an aura of techno authenticity and expertise in his relatively short career so far. He released five 12-inches in the past year alone (mostly on his Limited Network label), and had the jaws of Brooklyn's DJ intelligentsia dropping during his New York debut (as Kiana Mickles has documented). Even the grainy footage that's emerged of his Detroit Boiler Room set from last year feels like a transmission from a bygone DIY era, as he works the Technics like Karizma on the CDJs. His latest EP—and first time collaborating with another producer on wax—captures why he's one of the most exciting producers out there. On The Silver Lining, he and fellow Detroiter Huey Mnemonic infuse vintage techno templates with just the right amount of housey swing.
Watts goes solo on the title track, crossing '90s tech house with second wave Detroit techno. The emotional heft of the strings is cut by a chunky bassline that sashays its way through the 808s (and a cheeky spinback breakdown). The flip features two versions of "Echoes of Change," written with Huey Mnemonic. The original is the more surprising of the two. Watts has been compared to Robert Hood in the past, but here he and Huey Mnemonic mine European minimal, chopping chords into squiggly half-melodies over staccato drum programming. The "Mnemonic Mix" hews closer to the Minimal Nation template with a steady kick and shaker combo that could be sampled from an old Accelerate record. All three tracks are simple yet intricate, classic but contemporary. The best techno has always been about incremental change, and this is precisely what Watts does so well.
Tracklist01. Max Watts - The Silver Lining
02. Max Watts & Huey Mnemonic - Echoes Of Change
03. Max Watts & Huey Mnemonic - Echoes Of Change (Mnemonic Mix)