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You may remember Josh Wink as the man with the dreads whose acid-fuelled
Higher State Of Consciousness damaged more than a few dancefloors in 1996,
and then returned to inflict more of the same in a remix guise the following year.
The Philadelphian DJ has never quite repeated that massive success but
continues to command respect among techno lovers for his no-nonsense
style.
Recent album 20 To 20 didn't contain a tune to rival previous successes,
but did suggest that sonically all was well and the music pumping. All of
which makes the start of Profound Sounds more than a little puzzling. For
the first few tracks it seems that very little happens, as if it's four in the
morning, you're knackered from a heavy night out, and all you can handle is
the most basic of beats. As a nocturnal album then, this is the ideal start
- nothing too demanding from the hushed vocal of Swayzak's Form Is
Emptiness, nor the following tracks from Timeblind and Rithma as Wink
creates a soporific atmosphere.
Signs that Wink intends to move things on a bit come with Mindlab,
Minimal Man and Josh's own Oakiash track, and a move to funk things up a
bit. If you got through the sleepy opening your ears will definitely prick
up from this point on, as Barada, David Alvarado and Rino Cerrone inject
some pace and purpose. Wink's mixing also tightens up here, as he overlays
Alvarado's track with Aaron Carl's The Word.
No way back but on to the dancefloor, shafts of light cutting through the
predominantly dark textures in Johannes Hell's Future Primitive and UK
Gold's Confined. Ending on a high with the classic Dave Clarke cut Compass,
the listener is left with the impression of a journey completed, the mix
having got progressively more up for it from the outset.
Ovum also include a second disc with interactive features and four extra
tracks, two of which are recent Wink successes - How's Your Evening So Far,
which uses a generous portion of Li'l Louis' French Kiss classic, and
Superfreak, its twisted vocal a recent favourite of Erick
Morillo's.
A successful outing for the now shorn Wink then, and his first DJ mix in four
years, which by all accounts is a lifetime in dance music. On the evidence of this, his finger is still pretty much on the pulse when it comes to making people dance.
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