Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Review of the Past: Reign - Time Machine (Dance Ecstasy 2001 - DE 2054)

The releases by Miro Pajic under his various akas - like E-Man, Steve Shit, Jack Lucifer, or simply Miro - are usually highly revered by Hardcore-, Doomcore-, and PCP-heads.
But this one tends to get a bit overlooked. I rarely hear people mention it, or see the tracks in DJ playlists.
And this is completely undeserved. I think this is one of the best releases the (E-) man ever did!


The A side sports "A Better Tomorrow". This is the best known track on this release, as the crew pushed it onto various compilations.
A highly interesting blend: not really "Hardcore" in the sense of Gabber primitivism. In its essence, it's a Techno track; but in a Miro way; in a highly unusual way.
It really feels as if the eponymous "Time Machine" worked and the future sounds of Techno got sucked into the present day (which, in our timeline, is actually in the past now).

4 or out of 5 stars for this one already.


But now let's turn the record around.

Surprisingly, the flip side features a mini-mix; 3 tracks that are seamlessly joined into one. And this is rare for vinyl releases.
Because of this, only one track has a "normal" length; the other two barely pass the 2 minute mark.
But the tracks are all the greater, despite this.

You know the epic tracks by Miro, like "Purple Moon" or "Hall", right?
Well, I think these have the most "epic" sound of all of them.


It makes me feel as if I'm in a huge space arena on a different planet (or a different time in the future), and there is either a major ceremony or a giant party happening. Choirs of a 1000 voices are singing, fanfares and synthetic horns are blaring, while massive, echoed kick drums blast on.
This sound is really out of this world (or out of time).

A few years after this release, Miro switched his style to more contemporary Techno.
But this "Time Machine" leaves us with a lasting glance into the future. And the future is massive!

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