If
Vol. 4 of Profile's
Best of Techno series was a study of jazz saxophonists, you would hear
Grover Washington, Jr. next to
Albert Ayler,
Stan Getz after
Anthony Braxton, and
Gene Ammons before
Roscoe Mitchell. In other words, this collection is all over the techno map and ranges from the most extreme techno to material that is fairly melodic and pop-influenced.
Baby D's alluring "Let Me Be Your Fantasy," for example, is so close to dance-pop's mainstream that calling it techno is a stretch; the song offers real singing (not just a beat, a track, and scattered vocals) and is really house/dance-pop with techno overtones. Also fairly accessible is
Golden Girls' futuristic "Kinetic." But those who fancy techno at its most hardcore will get into abrasive tunes like
Illuminatae's "Tempestada XVX II" and Paroles' "Vinyl Countdown."
Mind Abuse's "The Piano" combines techno with house, and this CD finds Profile's series exploring jungle (a style that's related to techno) with
Phuture Assassins' "Roots 'N Future" and
the Prodigy's "Weather Experience." To be sure,
Vol. 4 isn't designed strictly for the techno purist -- its outlook is a broad one -- and the result is a fairly diverse study of techno and other club music that is related to it.