Drexciya Research Lab

Uncharted

"For believe me the secret to realizing the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously. Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships out into uncharted seas! Live in conflict with your equals and with yourselves! Be robbers and ravagers as long as you cannot be rulers and owners, you men of knowledge!"
The above is one of the most widely known quotes from Neitzsche’s magnum opus ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’, the bulk of which he finished by the end of 1883. The book itself is also the culmination of his philosophy work and therefore his most definitive statement. I picked it to illustrate what stage of the journey we, as listeners, occupy at this juncture on ‘Uncharted’. Stinson himself when asked if we can learn from ancient mystics himself said, "Yes! Work together, love each other and slow down. Look at your life deeper. You might not like what you see so change it. We move too fast and cannot see warning signs. We do not mind paying the heavy prices of consequences of our actions until we can't pay no more. Take chances." Certainly the latter part of this quote is telling us to live dangerously and to 'roll with the punches of life' and the 'consequences', (both titles from L.I.F.E. by the way) so I think he would be in accordance with how I'm interpreting this.

Drexciya's double CD and record compilation 'The Quest' came out in 1997 on Submerge. The collection takes its pick from the UR, Submerge and S.I.D. 12"'s of the previous five years. The only record not considered for inclusion here was 'The Journey Home' which came out on Warp and was probably not available to licence to them at this time. There are also a number of unreleased tracks.

For some reason this release has always been a difficult one to track down in record shops. I myself can only ever remember seeing it for sale twice, a second-hand CD copy and a new vinyl set. Why this should ever have been the case I don’t know, I guess it would have had to be imported but so what, everything else seemed to turn up all the time. Did anyone else notice this? Today it’s long deleted and needless to say fetches big sums on Ebay. If anything by them should be reissued this album is surely crying out to be.
By this stage Drexciya were taking a break from production and as far as I can tell only got involved to the extent of providing Submerge with the seven unreleased tracks and coming up with the album title. I was surprised at this realisation myself but when you study the artefact itself the evidence of this is there for all to see.

First I’d like to tackle the unreleased music itself, although it really doesn’t expand on the concept. The ‘Intro’ on CD1 comes from the beginning of ‘Aquatacizem’ which one year later would be their contribution to UR’s ‘Interstellar Fugitives’ compilation. It’s worth mentioning that Drexciya would be listed on this album as still being MIA and their identifying image there would be what can only be described as a drawing of a biological limpet mine. Obviously that makes ‘Aquatacizem’ itself an outtake. I’m hoping to clean up some of the loose Drexciyan ends like this track in an article in the future so won’t go into any further detail here save to say the track itself doesn’t go on to explain what an ‘Aquatacizem’ is. Nevertheless I think we can figure it out for ourselves. A weird ancient alien type voice tells us what I think is “People of Earth listen closely, we are attempting to write down the Aquatacizem”. This word sounds either like they mean an Aquatic Cataclysm or Aquatic Catechism. The latter would at least make more sense in this context, it being the rules of a religion (as we follow their path to our quests end) but also equally the former might fit as some sort of this is the history of Drexciya starting with the account of its fall (which is very much how I see the Storm series begin with its Paradise Lost vibe which necessitates us to follow that quest till we are worthy to rediscover Utopia). Hard to say then, an ambiguous beginning indeed which hinges on a mis-spelt word, business as usual then!

The next unreleased track on CD1 is track 3, ‘Dehydration’, which is a slow paced instrumental that sounds a lot like an Elektoids outtake to me. The next previously unheard track on this CD does not appear till the very end and is the pretty weird and hard to place in any period ‘The Mutant Gillmen’(An Experiment Gone Wrong)’. There is a vocal but its just a repeated sample that goes back and forth unintelligibly, some nice unexpected sounds going on here, but nothing amazing. CD2 offers up an instrumental version of ‘Living on the Edge’ and a choppy DJ style remix of ’Aquabahn’ as its first batch of unreleased fare but things get a lot more interesting when ‘Doctor Blowfins Water Cruiser’ turns out to be ‘Danger Bay’ from ‘Bubble Metropolis’. Quite what this means is open to debate, maybe the danger comes from Doctor Blowfin? This character is ever present and extremely ambiguous. ‘Dead Mans Reef’ is built around a repeating keyboard riff and ends literally stuck on a reef of bass. I guess the title is just one more of the many locations in Drexciya. I‘m also guessing that the ‘Reef Rhythms’(Bonus Beat) track on the vinyl is another version of this track. There is also a Bonus Beats version of ‘Depressurisation‘ on the vinyl set also. ‘Vampire Island’ boasts a really nice organ melody and again the title could be read as another location to flesh out the Drexciyan world. And no that is not your imagination, there is what sounds to me like a film sample saying “I am Count Dracula” I’ve always been struck by the similarity of the words Drexciya and Dracula, sharing as they do the same amount of syllables and similar spelling. Maybe this is a fun acknowledgement of that on their part, I think most people would on an initial listen imagine the sample says ‘Count Drexciya’ and maybe that’s what they want us to think, but listen closely and that is not the case.

From ‘Dead Mans Reef’ on, the last four tracks are unreleased, the penultimate of which is the mysteriously titled ‘Neon Falls’. Sounding very grand, it’s a nice smooth instrumental number. The very suitably title ‘The Last Transmission’ finished out this CD and the album itself, an ok track, it does its thing and doesn’t outstay its welcome. With only a question mark to tell us of this tracks origins we are neatly being asked whether we have heard the last from Drexciya or not. Taking the album as a whole it’s an incredible body of work, the unreleased tracks take nothing away from it but don’t really add much either. The important thing is these tracks are collected in another format for people to now and in the future hear and wonder about.
The text which covers the ‘Drexciyan Hand’ drawing which reaches out towards us from the depths explains the origins of Drexciya. But it’s important to note that it comes not from the hand of Drexciya but UR’s Unknown Writer. The four maps and their accompanying text which detail the history of African Americans from the slave trade through to techno spreading worldwide on the other hand is also more UR than Drexciya. The question is why exactly would they do this now when concept had previously been so important to them? It’s obvious by now that James Stinson was the main Drexciyan conceptualist and in the Brophy interview he revealed about this period, “I had health problems, and, to be honest I became seriously ill. It meant we had to shut things down for a while.” I guess this means he just took a back seat on the artwork etc and simply practised what he preached about letting other people interpret their music for themselves. I myself after-all am taking that stance as my own licence.

I might as well reprint The Unknown Writer origins of Drexciya piece first. “Could it be possible for humans to breath underwater? A foetus in its mothers womb is certainly alive in an aquatic environment. During the greatest holocaust the world has ever known, pregnant America-bound African slaves were thrown overboard by the thousands during labour for being sick and disruptive cargo. Is it possible that they could have given birth at sea to babies that never needed air? Recent experiments have shown mice able to breathe liquid oxygen. Even more shocking and conclusive was a recent instance of a premature infant saved from certain death by breathing liquid oxygen through its undeveloped lungs. These facts combined with reported sightings of Gillmen and swamp monsters in the coastal swamps of the South- Eastern United States make the slave trade theory startlingly feasible. Are Drexciyans water breathing, aquatically mutated descendants of those unfortunate victims of human greed? have they been spared by God to teach us or terrorise us? Did they migrate from the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi river basin and on to the great lakes of Michigan? Do they walk among us? Are they more advanced than us and why do they make their strange music? What is their Quest? These are many of the questions that you don’t know and never will. The end of one thing...and the beginning of another. Out - The Unknown Writer”
The 4 maps and their texts follow on from this so here’s that in full too. Map 1.Atlantic Ocean, ‘The Slave Trade’ (1655 - 1867), Map 2. America, ‘Migration routes of rural blacks to Northern Cities’ (1930’s - 1940’s), Map 3. America, ‘Techno leaves Detroit and spreads Worldwide’ (1988), Map 4. Atlantic Ocean, ‘The Journey Home’, (Future).

I would be very surprised if none of this had been passed by Drexciya themselves, no matter how 'shut down' things had become, so we can assume that to some extent they were ok with it. In the case of the origins at least they might have not only concurred but it may have come out of discussions they would have had with UR's Unknown Writer in a way similar to when he did his text for ‘Aquatic Invasion’. In fact in that text he mentions Drexciya taking a ‘return journey home’, this could certainly be read as a return to Africa, even ‘The Return of Drexciya’ in this context could also stand for a return to Africa. This is the great thing about the non-specifics of Drexciya, you can take it where you want to.
As far as the whole slavery concept goes, the only quote I can source in which James Stinson said anything on this subject publicly was to John Osselaer when he said, "Some of the things of slavery will tell more when the time comes. Stay tuned! I can only tell you a little bit now. After the storm is over I will tell the story. What I can tell you is that in Africa we have a dimensional jump hole. Tell you more later." Sadly later never came, but this was him speaking in 2001 and refers to future concepts post ‘Grava 4’. So who knows what his own feelings were on this subject. I like the Unknown Writers take on it myself but it appears to be just that, his take on it.

The maps take this slavery concept further into an area that I know Stinson would not have approved of when they talk of Detroit and techno. There are at least three Stinson quotes I could give to show how he did not see Drexciya as connected to Detroit and techno. This lengthy but completed argument from the Beere interview will suffice, “Technically, I never based Drexciya off of Detroit. I just happen to live here. What if I lived in Alaska for the past 5 or 10 years? My music would still be produced the same way that I am doing here. People would still be thinking it’s a Detroit sound, but if I’ve been living in Alaska for 10 years how can one say that? I’m sad to say, but I haven’t based the foundation and concept of Drexciya around Detroit and the things that go on in Detroit. I shelter myself away from the stuff that goes on in Detroit. Like I said earlier, I shut myself down and stay away from everybody because I don t want any outside elements creeping itself into the music. Back in the day when I did some of those records with some of the guys, yeah, that was done for a specific reason. But that was then. But the overall beginning and the whole nine-yards of what we’re all about has nothing to do with Detroit, it has to do with Drexciya. Drexciya is a whole different plane of reality and I don’t like to inter-tangle it, because within the next month or so we re relocating offices down to Atlanta. Are people going to still be calling it Detroit techno? I’m not going to tell anybody I’m in Atlanta, but are they still going to be calling it that? Probably nine times out of ten, yes. If that’s the stigma that’s on it, I m not going to change it. I was born and raised here in Detroit. Whatever people want to think, I let them think that. I believe in a free thought, a free mind. If you want to call it electro, techno or space music, that’s up to you.”

This also casts doubt on the final map which seems to answer the question ‘what is their quest?’, the future journey home to Africa. Again, fair enough if that’s how The Unknown Writer wants to read it that is his right. It’s just that what I have found and expounded on here in the eight releases leading up to ‘The Quest’ is not about anything as specific as a physical return journey to Africa but something far more universal, a journey which leads us to discover ourselves, no matter where we happen to live. It’s probably best if at this juncture restate my own interpretation.

The whole thing is a journey, a quest, right from the opener ‘Deep Sea Dweller’ which signals our location, ‘Bubble Metropolis’ is the beginning of the detailing of this place we learn is Drexciya, we adapt to this new environment with ‘Molecular Enhancement’, we continue to explore in the ‘Unknown Aquazone’ but reach a point where to go any further we need to make a decision which is whether or not we wish to take ‘The Journey Home’, the nature of which we learn is spiritual. In ‘Aquatic Invasion’ we accept the challenge of becoming ‘Wave Jumpers’ before we can go any further down this path. In ‘The Return of Drexciya’ they reappear as the guides we must place our trust in as we lead our new ‘Uncharted’ lives. In my opinion their quest is the oldest one of all, to truly find ourselves, it is the same message no matter what our colour, creed or nation. I can’t help now but be reminded of The Unknown Writers ascending phrase of unity, ‘Nation 2 Nation, World 2 World, Galaxy 2 Galaxy’.

The cover which depicts the globe of Earth comes from the map detail already mentioned, the back cover features a Drexciyan commando image last seen on the label of ‘Aquatic Invasion’. It’s a strange coincidence how the cover image for the Arpanet album ‘Wireless Internet’ is also a globe of the Earth, wonder if its designer was aware of its similarity?
Thankfully for us this was not the end and when Drexciya would finally return for real with ‘Neptune’s Lair’ in 1999 James Stinson(in 2001) looked back on this time with these words, “We take breaks to get away from everything and come back fresh. Basically, during that time where we took a break, inspiration, with the way things were going around here, it just wasn't right, you know. But it just came to a point where it was like 'we can't give it up'. We couldn't do that because it's in our blood, it's in our veins, we can't just get out of it, we can't stop doing what we do. So we decided 'Hey, we've got to go for it, we've got to do it, we've got to pick up the pace and come back and do what we do best."

Neptune's Lair

Drexciya’s ‘Neptune’s Lair’ album came out on the German label Tresor in 1999 after a two year break between records and production. The main change which occurred between then and now was that from now on they become albums orientated and concentrate on getting their music direct to their largest audience by working with a succession of European labels. This creative explosion would not become fully realised till the Storm series but the first fruits of that time are on display here.

Tresor itself were at the time and continue to be one of the most successful European techno labels with a reputation for the harder variety of the genre, although a closer inspection of their catalogue shows a broader taste. It came out of a club that first emerged after the fall of the Berlin Wall, establishing itself in the underground vault of a department store which had stood in the no-mans land between East and West Berlin. By 1999 Tresor had a long established connection with Detroit and had already worked most of its main players like Jeff Mills, UR and Juan Atkins to name but a few. It should come as no surprise that they would now work with Drexciya whose music I must say does not exactly fit on this label but then again it never really fitted anywhere, at least on Tresor they would be exposed to a lot more people through a label with the best machinery to promote them. This really ties in with their ‘wave jumping’ idea of moving with ease from one label or scene to another, from Detroit techno, on to Berlin and right up to the new millennium cool of the Dutch Clone scene, they were always at the centre of it all.

Before I go into what the themes of the album are I’ll simply tackle the most important aspect, the music, track by track in the order of the CD. The first sounds we hear after this lay off is the religiously grand, almost to the point of becoming comic, 'Intro: Temple of Dos de Agua'. With its backing track sounding like it could have come straight out of some not very good sci-fi film it also features two purposely unintelligible voices which are likely Gerald Donald and James Stinson themselves. Predictably the only recognisable word is ‘Drexciya’ amongst what at times sounds like it could be a made up or foreign language which would tie in with the Spanish sounding title. This all lasts for about a minute and sets the tone for a trippy and weird album by anyone’s standards which does not feature another vocal of any kind from this point on. The title could also be translated as being another way of saying the album title, referring to a place of worship of 'Him of the Water'.
'Species of the Pod' brings us back to familiar sounding territory at least. I guess it’s as good a fast paced dance-floor moment as they had done in the past but it tellingly, I think, breaks down towards the end as the tempo gradually and literally grinds to a halt. You will soon hear there are two extremes followed here and the next track ‘Andreaen Sand Dunes’ could be seen as one of these new visions we can be thankful they have still got their production eye firmly on the dance-floor. Easily my favourite on this album for sure and a good introduction for anyone wanting a taste of what this album has to offer. Lots of fresh new sounds but I think the quality of the song writing itself has gone up a whole new level here as well. ‘Running Out of Space’ keeps us on our toes and has a certain panicked feel that matches its title. But at just shy of the 2 minute mark it is a quick burst of energy before the first real twist this album has in store for us.
‘Habitat 'O' Negative’ begins slow and continues on its lethargic way as gradually snares and a loose bass line joins it and develops into the most alien of funk. This is also the first track that introduces their second new extreme. Again, after their long layoff what they bring to the table that is new on this album is two things. Their ‘Andreaen Sand Dunes’ type raising the bar of their production and song writing and also this beginning of them pushing the musical envelope. ’Habitat ’0’ Negative’ and the other tracks of its ilk here are Drexciya’s first brave and largely successful steps in this direction. While this latter course would turn out to be more of a detour than a career move, it is one side of their approach to this album.
As if not to scare us off ‘Universal Element’ next bursts into life. A very fast and hard paced number but short it has to be said, just under two minutes. ’ ‘Drifting into a Time of No Future’ returns us to the weirdness and believe me this is weird. While there are some harsh sounds in the mix here amongst a pleasantly looping melody it really does, particularly at the end sound like what you might imagine drifting into a time of no future would be! It strikes me listening to this that Gerald Donald was the one who really followed where this path was going. ‘Polymomo Plexusgel’ brings us back to Earth, or should that be Drexciya. An expansive track for sure, sounding like two in one, it even has a cheeky Kraftwerk ‘We Are The Robots’ synth-line at one point. James Stinson said of the title, "One of the things is Polymono Plexusgel; that's the gel that is alive but not alive. The energy that makes it live is from the energy that lives in Drexciya - the magic - and it comes from the Earth. The Polymono Plexusgel and the strands tap themselves right down into the planet. The planet actually gives itself life, can you catch me?”
‘Surface Terrestrial Colonisation’ is my second favourite on here. It has some great keyboard playing, live playing of course - no sequencing going on here - to its mid paced jaunty backing, which makes it very recognisably human. ‘Funk Release Valve’ is another quick but accessible burst of their brand of funk.
‘Organic Hydropoly Spores’ has a processional feel about it, but also through some strange alchemy of sound it has that special something deep in its very essence. Again not a very lengthy track but there’s just something in its basic loop that make it stand out as another high point for me. Again the title of ‘Draining of the Tanks’ was explained to some degree when James Stinson spoke of draining the tanks in regard to how he envisaged starting over again after the break after 'The Quest'. Very watery sounds churn around here with some keyboard backing. This could really have been used as a suitable intro to the album as well both sonically and conceptually. ‘Devil Ray Cove’ is easily the most brutal sounding track on here, even kicking off in classic hard techno style but quickly establishes some originality for itself. It’s certainly the most ‘Tresor’ moment here and I wonder if it was done with them in mind, as a sort of here’s our version of your sound. I would love to know if any DJ’s went as far as dropping it in the original Tresor clubs basement venue, I would have liked to see that. ‘Fusion Flats’ never really gets started as it shudders and thumps along for its duration of about a minute or so. ‘Triangular Hydrogen Strain’ is sublime. If the ‘Intro’ track might have been from a not very good sci-fi movie then this could have been from a very good one. It basically kicks along nicely with lovely smooth keyboard lines alongside more jagged beats. ‘Oxyplasmic Gyration Beam’ is more of a riff based track that loops along on its own pleasant groove.
‘Quantum Hydrodynamics’ is a melancholy short which not only shares a similarity in title to Gerald Donald’s ‘Quantum Transposition’, the name of his 2005 album as Der Zyklus but the music here is total Donald as well. Whether in 2005 he was purposely referring to this track or not he definitely knew where he was going at this stage. His other early foray into this sound is also from this same time period, ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ found on the 1999 Dopplereffekt compilation of the same name.
‘Lost Vessel’ is yet another fast number with particularly good beats that could be hailed as yet another Drexciya classic. Really, it's a track like this that in the future will be forever dropped in some club or passed between friends on mixes that will truly build a legacy for them, a whole new generation that will only experience them through their music, their essence.
'Bottom Feeders' ricochets off in multiple directions using sounds that just shouldn't gel but somehow kind of work, a lot like the approach used later for L.I.FE. The penultimate ‘Jazzy Fluids’ sounds like it could be from another band entirely or at least an earlier incarnation as old school bass lines which sound very early electro, if it does have a precursor it’s early Paul Hardcastle when he was first mixing soul with electronics.
Finally the album comes to a close with ‘0 to the Power of X+C to the Power of X=MM=Unknown’. which boasts tasteful and understated laid back synths that leads to a perfect ending of calm.
There we have it, 21 tracks of end of the millennium techno from a truly reborn and re-energised group.

In one respect the imagery used on 'Neptune's Lair' could be read as them living up to their reputation, a return to ground already covered and it is to an extent. I must admit I could not detect one definite theme in this case, there is however more of a variety to choose from with more details of the physics and biology of Drexciya being the more obvious in this ‘Scientific Research and Development Lab of an album. Stinson himself spoke of how this album has various themes, "If you look at the album there's a lot of different titles - the different elements that's on there - that go along with these concepts. We're developing a little mystery and the people kind of go along with that and follow it."

I guess the main album title itself gives us our biggest grounding as far as understanding the album and it has a similar effect to ‘Deep Sea Dweller’ in that it gives us our location, one we have been at before of course, back to Drexciya but this time designated as ‘Neptunes Lair’. Neptune was of course the Greek God of the ocean and with so many thank you’s to him that have gone before I think it’s fitting that we are finally in the presence of one of his incarnations. But there is also a subtitle to the album we should consider, ‘Scientific Research Development Lab’. What sort of heaven is this then, where creation itself was founded and continues to be? Before I go too far down this road I’ll say that I don’t think Drexciya were thinking about a creator God here, it’s just another way to describe their undersea home, the research and development being carried out here being for the benefit of their own kind. There is also a quote in the artwork that reads, “Experiments must continue at all costs even if it means death.” This line has appeared before in ‘The Unknown Aquazone’ artwork but here we might be starting to understand what the nature of these experiments are. ‘Universal Element’ would be the most obvious answer and might refer to the ultimate aim of this research, a cosmic or atomic principle which unlocks everything, making us truly master of our universe, very much what alchemists have sought throughout the ages.

Parallel with the science theme there is a lot of military imagery also, the drawing of the Drexciyan Warrior and the five other warrior types swimming towards us, two of which are armed with spear like weapons. This also has a precedent, on ‘Aquatic Invasion’ there are Drexciyan commandos but as I explained before the whole military thing in that case seems more to do with UR than anything. But here we have it really in our face, what is the conflict here? Maybe the track titles will explain? I did finally work out a possible scenario from a couple of titles which does tie in very much with the next album, ‘Harnessed The Storm’. I’ve spoken before of the paradise lost aspect of this album, its opening track being ‘Under Sea Disturbances’. Well here for the first time we may have a reason for what causes this exodus from paradise and necessitates the journey back to the Drexciya Home Universe. The conflict could be that the Drexciyans are somehow ‘Running out of Space’ and ‘Drifting into a time of No Future’. The seriousness of the situation being revealed in the message that ‘experiments must continue at all costs, even if it means death’. Quite why is not important as we deal here with metaphor, but obviously some sort of solution is now required. Maybe this album partly contemplates a number of those options, ‘Surface Terrestrial Colonisation’ could be a solution in moving over ground and talking over the surface world, that would certainly explain the military vibe. Or perhaps the discovery of the ‘Universal Element’ as mentioned would solve the problem in a less barbaric manner. To become a ‘Lost Vessel’ might be their great fear if they did indeed take the drastic step of leaving in search of their home universe. If I’m right on this they went on to take this brave course on the Storm series which in this context could be envisaged as a sea faring vessel lost in a storm. Although the whole thing would turn out to be a metaphor for a conflict with themselves as they fight that tendency we all have to take things for granted and becoming lazy, empires forever destined to fall and all that.

Some more specific locales are revealed in the ‘Andreaen Sand Dunes’ or ‘Devil Ray Cove’, but this is where I’ll leave it as there really is so much going on here that could be interpreted from the titles alone and I believe I may have discovered the main connection which links this album with the following one and should leave it at that or else I may never finish this piece!
The front cover image is an incredible painting done by Abdul Qadim Haqq of Third Earth Visuals. You'll find his signature in the lower right hand corner of the LP cover artwork. He is responsible for all the other artwork on the labels and the Drexciyan Cruiser etc as well. He is based in Detroit and has worked on music related projects since 1989 when he met Derrick May. He has also worked extensively for UR and many other techno labels and has today seen his work exhibited around the world. I have a link to his website as base of article. What might even be ‘Organic Hydropoly Spores’ in the foreground and another massive one bordering the sides while Drexciyan Water cruisers emerge from what might be a hydro doorway behind. Also check out the red hills of Lardossa.

Credit wise and sleeve note wise we fittingly get the biggest thank you to God yet, “A very blessed thank you to God who is my strength and my shield. My heart will always trust in him.” Certainly this sounds like Stinson being very grateful for regaining his health as well as completing his new album. An acknowledgement of a more Earth-bound variety but with possibly the same thing on his mind goes out to, “ Andrea and Kayanna Clementson for rescuing Drexciya from the cesspool of nothingness.” Of course we can only speculate on this and not forget that Gerald Donald is also to be considered, but there is certainly a lot of love and gratefulness going on here.

Tresor would go on to release two 12”’s from this album, namely ‘Hydro Doorways’ which would include the remaining six tracks that didn’t make it onto the vinyl set of the album, only 'Jazzy Fluids' never made it to vinyl. The other was a remix of ‘Fusion Flats’ that featured the famous Detroit based Burdon brothers work in their Octave One and Kaotic Spatial Rhythm guises as well as a UR remix plus the original . Only the title ‘Hydro Doorways’ is new information and I like to think this tells us that they pick the option of going on their journey and go through these doors into space.

One additional format of the album appeared in Poland as a cassette tape. I only know this as I bought one while I was there in 2001. For some reason tapes still sell here and Tresor licensed it to a company called Outside Media. I’ve no idea if you can still get it but I’ve scanned the sleeve image as a curiosity(on way, Blogger acting up), the track list is the same as the CD. Simply because of its format I ended up leaving it in my car for years and it inadvertently sound-tracked so many journeys for me that it triggers a lot of motion filled memories when I listen to it now.

To sum up, Drexciya’s debut album after seven years of honing their skills is a triumph, so fresh and original even today. In so many ways it could have stood as their epitaph, as The Quest could also have done, but as we know they went further. The memory of Drexciya will always stand as a victory for originality, imagination and independence.

http://www.thirdearthvisuals.com