Exactly 25 years ago, in January 1994, U-TRAX released an EP from a new young talent from the Utrecht area. His name: Frank de Groodt, who's debut Missin' You EP immediately established his name as a techno and electro phenomenon. This re-release of the original techno beauty is the first of two releases that U-TRAX will put out in January 2019 to celebrate Frank's 25th anniversary as a recording artist.
Frank at the time lived in Hoevelaken, a small town outside the city of Amersfoort, which is where he was born and lives again these days, some 30 minutes northwest of Utrecht. For his first release he picked the rather unusual moniker Pieces of a Pensive State of Mind as his artist name. Later in 1994, he released his first 12"-es on Djax records as The Optic Crux, and he continued to keep making up artists names in the following 25 years: Sonar Bass, Fastgraph and The Operator. He is also one half of the live outfit Random XS (together with U-TRAX veteran DJ Zero One), collaborated with Arno Peeters (a.k.a. Spasms) as Urban Electro and with Detroit's Dennis Richardson as Ultradyne. And that's not even all of his alter egos.
All four tracks on this re-press have been remastered for maximum impact, including two versions of the title track.
Like all beautiful art, Missin' You is inspired by heartache, referring to a lost love. This track appeared a year prior on the notorious Drome Tapes cassette label, the predecessor of U-TRAX. The Awax Reorganisation is a remix by U-TRAX label boss DJ White Delight, with the help of DJ Zero One and Frank himself, transforming it into a long ambient-ish technotrip. The flipside is where things get even more exciting, with the funky Detroit-techno style Echoic, still a favorite of popular modern-day DJs like Hunee. We have to issue a small warning regarding the closing track: the bassdrums are deformed by a flanger and reverb and the combination with the latest record cutting technology makes Channel Pressure not only a freaky and pumping track, the disorienting sound can also make the audience on the dancefloor a little nauseous!
Original release date: January 1994.