Jack Tiraquon brings the astral techno-funk and sex-boogie proper on a new full-length for R&S - stitched together with skits, spoken interludes and even an all-out Mantronix-style rap number ('Mr. 8040's Introduction') sketching out the dilemma of an intergalactic loverman trying to return to his native galaxy. If that sounds corny on paper, it's no less so in actuality; still, it's a welcome antidote to the po-faced and unearned seriousness that tends to dominate contemporary techno, and moreover it re-establishes the genre's connection to the p-funk mothership (and then some). Of course the music itself is tip-top: as you know by now, there's hardly any producer today capable of matching SDC for velvety analogue warmth, and the tracks here don't so much bang as ooze. From the kosmik emanations of '2357 A.D.' - replete with Gottsching-style guitar licks - to the accelerated Prince-ism of 'Welcome to Mikrosector-50', the dolorous drift of 'A Lonely Flight to EroDru-10' (think Psyche/BFC re-routed through the cityscape of Dylan Ettinger's New Age Outlaws) and the all-out Detroit techno dreamscaping of 'Rising', this is the kind of album that a teenage Juan Atkins probably dreamed of. Best of all there's room for 'The Love Quadrant', the searingly romantic, deep space electro-pop number with which SDC first made his made his name, and sounding every bit as luminous and seductive three years on.
