Mark Henning - Supersonic

Mark Henning is a man on a mission.  As a producer working within the techno genre its hard to resist caving into the cavernous displays of echo that dubtechno is so intent on pushing these days.  Not to detract from the guys out there who are really pushing a great sound, but it seems like a lot of banal, boring and ultimately vapid tracks are getting swathed in reverb and echo and getting passed off as quality music.

Henning on the other hand has nothing to do with that movement.  His latest release, Supersonic, can trace its lineage more directly to Matthew Jonson's Decompression than the type of techno your likely to hear at Berghain any time soon.

Like that now classic track, Supersonic is a builder.  It starts slowly, quietly.  The synth paces around its small room, brooding.  Henning introduces unintelligible, downpitched vocals that seem childish and demonic at the same time.  They're almost teasing in tone.  You can hear the synth getting agitated, flaring up in the mix as the track progresses.

The biggest thing this track has going for it (besides it being a fucking total monster of a track) is how restrained the whole thing is.  Cool hats shimmer and cut across the top of the mix.  Anger and frustration are constantly suggested, but never projected.  Its all a kind of taken in stride, making it that much more bottled up—that much more disturbing.