Hardfloor are an act doomed to live in the eternal shadow of one of dance music's greatest classics, their 1993 debut 'Acperience'. This track's legendary status and ability to reduce full-grown clubbers to gibbering idiots was reinforced at this year's Glastonbury festival as the fields throbbed to its wildly oscillating 303 breakdown during the climax of Fatboy Slim's crowd-pleasing set. It's a track more than qualified to put a thousand trance producers to shame.
Living up to it has not been the easiest of tasks for Hardfloor's Ramon Zenker and Oliver Bondzio. So much so, in fact, that the pair appear to be more than a little bit pissed off with those expecting the same innovations from them in a much changed dance climate in which plain old machine wizardry simply no longer cuts it.
The title track which, the press release tells us, is an answer to critics who, "expect the impossible out of this Dusseldorf duo" is the closest the album comes to the slow-burning acid of yore. As the synths squelch away - joined by some Doc Scott-esque hovers - the voice of Hardfloor addresses us, challenging, "we're still doing the same shit, nothing has changed….so what?"
In fact, the album is at its best when the guys experiment with sounds pulled from the fertile movements that have sprung from the immensely creative period between '89 and the present. Drum 'n' bass, for instance, gets more than the odd nod here to considerable effect, especially in the booming subs of 'Frozen Spotlight'.
When, on tracks like 'Dear Mc Bain', the sounds stray away from tight electro grooves to explore greater melodic possibilities, Hardfloor occasionally employing their old chum the Roland TB 303, it feels pretty good to have them back.
