- It might be true that techno's best moments are behind it, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy those moments again and again—each new one a slight mutation of its predecessor. Encounter 2—a rare foray by DJ Bone outside his Subject Detroit homestead—is full of such moments. The track titles here tell you a lot of what you need to know regarding approach and technique. The three "strains" on offer are varieties of the same mutant form: "3" pounds away with a powerful kick and a jacking bass. "4" sounds like a cosmic barrel organ played by androids on a parallel world that's all too easy to imagine, while "5" combines the bass of "3" and the discordant electronics of "4" to produce a track that has two lovely layers, the space between which is cleverly manipulated
Call me a romantic, but an important aspect of techno is that it must sound otherworldly—hypothetical in the best sense. Bone's music takes you to a dark place where there is a lonely strobe buckling under the weight of machine funk and electronic soul. The three pieces on Encounter 2 are a great sample of what the man is capable of and a feather in the cap of Bastardo Electrico.
Tracklist A Mutant Strain 3
B1 Mutant Strain 4
B2 Mutant Strain 5