New York’s Abe Duque has been producing classy, distinctive techno since 1995, epitomising less the smoothness of big apple deep house than the tougher sounds of the city’s fringe burroughs. He’s also closely associated with the German scene, with a former residency at Tresor in it’s heyday, collaborating with fellow Tresor-ian Blake Baxter and producing experimental work for Mille Plateaux. These references all make convincing appearances on Don’t Be So Mean, Duque’s third album, but it’s the retro-futurism of early Detroit that makes the most obvious mark.
Most of the album stomps along in steady 4/4, draped lovingly in shimmering synths, somewhere between Model 500 machine funk and Kevin Saunderson machine soul in spirit. Opener ‘Life is So Good to Me’ takes it’s title from President Obama’s famous words, his sampled voice emerging, hazy and drugged, between a sleek and stripped back rhythm. ‘Tonight is Your Answer’ buries hints of house percussion in cold, John Carpenter electro-menace, and ‘Following My Heart’ is similarly well-pitched, a vocal call-and-response drolly delivered over bleak laser tones. The latter half proceeds at a more meditative pace, Duque revelling in aqueous synth patches like a lab-coated IRCAM technican, and if these pieces lack the rigour of his dancefloor pieces they still offer a suitable balearic accompaniment.
Joshua Meggitt
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