Over the past decade the Clone Aqualung Series has done a fine job of combing the Drexciya vaults, releasing and reissuing records by the Detroit outfit as well as some from their many offshoot groups. However, even by Aqualung standards this latest drop - a new edition of Elecktroids’ 1995 EP Kilohertz - is something of a coup.
While there has always been some confusion over the membership of Elecktroids, the Drexciya connection has never been disputed. The late James Stinson definitely produced their sole LP Elektroworld (1995), and Gerald Donald likely also had a hand in both that album and Kilohertz. With Elektroworld recently given a reissue on Clone Aqualung it seems right that the group’s only other record should follow suit.
Elecktroids’ Kraftwerk-inspired aesthetic sets the scene perfectly for their music. The tracks on Kilohertz are characterised by many of the same things that made the German band’s music so great - busy programmed drums, a plethora of synth melodies and skittering electro grooves to name but three. ‘Algorithm’ and ‘Magnetic Field’ could quite easily pass for tracks from The Man-Machine or Computer World, albeit reconfigured for maximum mid-90’s club impact.
This latest edition of Kilohertz closes out with ‘Digital Warlock’, a cut that didn’t make it onto the original 1995 pressing. We can’t see why - the tune’s slamming 808 groove and alien-mystic vocals pack as much punch as anything else on the EP.
