- An outstanding compilation from two forgotten pioneers of Berlin techno.
- By all accounts (including their own), Paul Browse and Johnny Klimek made for a strange team as System 01. Browse came up in the Sheffield post-punk scene, playing and recording with Clock DVA on their EBM masterpiece, Burial Dreams, before moving to Berlin in 1989. On the other side of the globe, Klimek emigrated to Berlin from Melbourne in the early '80s to join his brother and sister in the chintzy synth pop band The Other People. As Klimek explained to Felix Denk and Sven von Thülen in Der Klang der Familie: Berlin, Techno and the Fall of the Wall: "Musically, I was more sunshine, and he was more gloom." Nevertheless, the two found themselves in the right place at the right time, with the right ideas. With a little nudging from Tresor founder Dimitri Hegemann, this unlikely duo would go on to play an essential role in cultivating the early Berlin techno sound. 1990-94 collects the best tracks from their two LPs and a handful of 12-inches for a timely retrospective of these unsung innovators.
If you've stumbled across System 01 before, it was probably thanks to their track "Drugs Work" which appeared on an early Tresor Compilation, where "Drugs Work'' sat alongside 3Phase's seminal collaboration with Love Parade founder Dr. Motte, "Der Klange Der Familie." That track, with its claustrophobic arpeggio and rough-and-tumble drum programming, served as a calling card for Berlin. It turned heads on both sides of the Atlantic and was even illegally reissued by Derrick May on Transmat Records. (There were no hard feelings, as 3Phase remembers it in Der Klang der Familie—"I just thought it was cool to be the first white asshole on Transmat."). While "Drugs Work" is certainly a highlight of this record, 1990-94 demonstrates that the System 01 back catalogue can stand up to any Berlin techno from this era.
Listening to the early System 01 songs is like listening to the evolution of European techno in real time. "Any Reality Is An Option," "From Psychedelics to Cybernetics (Instrumental Version)," and "Know Time" are from 1991's From Psychedelics to Cybernetics (which features Dr. Timothy Leary on a few tracks). These songs show Browse and Klimek stumbling on a distinct sound together. The chords on the instrumental version of the title track, for example, have The Other People's AM radio pop bounce while the vocals on the excellent "Know Time" could have been taken from a Cabaret Voltaire record.
Speaking to Denk and von Thülen, Browse explained that their early "strength lay in creating atmospheres and rhythmic ambiguities." But the pair also had to contend with the fact that their records were being played by techno DJs. The other early songs, culled from their 12-inches, show the duo coming to grips with this. The snare crashes and drum rolls on "The Pleasure Principle" and "Victim" (originally released as "Victim 34") have a looseness to them, but then the kick drum finds its footing. These two tracks are the most blistering and outrageous. The sex noises on "The Pleasure Principle" are blush-worthy, while the shrill synths and screeching refrain has that hardcore-meets-metal intensity that you would later hear in gabber and the stuff DJs like Lenny Dee would play in the mid-'90s.
While the industrial proto-techno of these early songs will stand out for some, the later material, from 1992 to 1994, should have a wider appeal outside of EBM and wave circles, especially with the playful 303 lines and the influence of Warp-style IDM in these later tracks. On "Deadly And Addictive," System 01 trot out the horror tropes of their early work, but the acid line shifts between haunted and catchy as it slithers across the mix. "Take My Soul" is even more restrained. It isn't far off from Detroit minimal and sounds like it could have been made any time in the last 30 years. The album finishes with two ambient tracks, "The Confession" and "You're Like Me." Both look back to Browse's native Sheffield but instead of post-punk, channel both IDM and bleep in their minor chord fretfulness.
These two tracks are a perfect ending to a record that works as both a historical artifact and a collection of contemporary club tools. The type of industrial techno that was being forged by Browse and Klimek can still be heard across the German capital and most major cities from Thursday night well into Monday afternoon every weekend. It's actually surprising that it has taken this long for these records to resurface. Since System 01 disbanded, both Browse and Klimek have followed different trajectories, Browse back to Sheffield and Klimek, following success working with artists like Paul van Dyk, off to Hollywood where he scores films (he counts the latest Matrix as a credit). With this release, my next hope is that their other joint alias, Effective Force, which put out some outstanding early trance records on Mark Reeder's Masterminded For Success, is up next.
Tracklist01. Drugs Work
02. Any Reality Is An Opinion
03. From Psychedelics To Cybernetics (Instrumental)
04. Know Time
05. Paralysed Force
06. Deadly And Addictive
07. The Pleasure Principle
08. Mind Sensations (Voov / System 01 Mix)
09. Victim 34
10. Take My Soul
11. The Confession
12. You're Like Me