Primary Roots

Primary Roots

Yuro and Trago [Rush Hour]

22 February, 2008 | 3.02PM

• Section: Music Reviews
• Written by: Richard Brophy 2

They sound like an east European tennis duo who defected to the West, but Yuro & Trago are yet another example of Dutch label Rush Hour’s ability to recruit new talent.

‘Primary Roots’ is also a great argument for keeping techno tracks simple, thereby achieving more.

Over nine and a half minutes, a woozy synth line and spacey, delayed chords, and not much else, vie for attention.

At times, these elements curl up closely; and at others, they move up an octave to occupy centre stage — but the track’s sparseness never detracts from an underlying, almost disconcerting feeling of weightlessness.

Redshape’s remix opts for a radically different approach: deploying an ominous techno siren similar, but not as aggressive as the one that featured in Luke Slater’s version of Joey Beltram’s ‘Forklift’, over harsh, slamming beats and buzzsaw riffs.

It’s the toughest thing that the man in the red mask has released.

However, it’s hard not to feel that, in an effort to please the dance floor, the original’s charm has been lost.

‘Primary Roots’ is a future space techno classic.

And listening to it, one is reminded of a claim that astral rockers once made: ladies and gentlemen, we are now floating in outer space.

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