The Cosmic Commando

As anyone who reads this site probably knows, I'm a fan of what Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann do in the studio, but recently when I was listening to their productions (especially Klock's) I couldn't help thinking 'I've heard this before'. So I had a quick search through the shelves at home and found what I was looking for: Steve Bicknell's releases on Cosmic Recordings. Set up by the Lost resident in 1993, Bicknell's dense, repetitive productions might be seen in a less favourable light because they pre-empted and inspired late 90s loopy techno -  and we all know how that panned out. However, unlike that sound, Bicknell's productions for Cosmic had a real flow and quite often, a house-inspired groove. He nailed it on this release, which  seems to have had a heavy impact on the 'Klockworks' series. Cosmic's last release was in 2005, coinciding with the rise to prominence of the Berghain residents. Of course, I'm not suggesting that either of them  have ripped off Cosmic, but one of the reasons why their releases are so good is that they have taken inspiration from producers like Bicknell and learnt how to give that style of techno a clubbier, less extreme and more palatable feeling. Lost still runs at Plastic People (as far as I'm aware) and being a non-digital type I have no idea if the Cosmic back catalogue is available online on places like Beatport - but the records, which have the benefit of the  obtuse, impressionist style inlay designs, are freely available on Discogs...

Comments

[Julius Nicholson]

I've found that before with artists, I was raving to someone recently about an old Adrian Forciniti track, til it was pointed out that it was heavily based on one of Bicknell's records. I'm surprised the Berghain guys don't play a lot more Lost stuff than I've heard, it's a fantastic label.

[simon flower]

This record is amazing, I obsessed over it for a long time when it came out. What I loved most about it was that I think he totally nailed his own unique style/sound on this release (but which I think he later watered down a bit by getting into the purposemaker-style tribal loops sound).

Anyhoo...dark as all hell, unique grooves, nasty filters...I'm sure some of those guys will have played it at Berghain:)