Function Recompiled II/II

A download code is included. Our story has touchstones in Detroit, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Berlin, but it begins with some prophetic foreshadowing in a midnight Manhattan car ride. It was a cold winter night in early 2006, and Dave Sumner, better known as Function, wanted to show me what inspired him, so we got in his car and drove around the perimeter of Manhattan. From the financial district to Harlem, all the city lights, rivers, bridges, and even giant buildings shrunk in comparison to the sounds we were listening to. Dave had found a new path in techno, and as he obsessively talked about the British Murder Boys and the work of Mika Vainio, he focused in on his latest influence: Sleeparchive. As we were listening to a recent Sleeparchive live show, we were basically freaking out at how clearly you could hear the reflected influences, but really how fresh and innovative it felt. Elements of Plastikman’s take on jacking raw rhythms collided with Sähkö bleeps for a powerful post-Jeff Mills form of techno. It was acid without acid. Finally a way forward.