It’s been awhile since we at THEMA visited our Re:Vision series, where we pay homage to those that have influenced us and bring historical accomplishments into contemporary focus. It started with DJ Slip’s classic “Available Light” (THMEA017) featuring two incredibly well sought after remixes of the celebrated original by Franco Cinelli and Mikael Stavöstrand. Now revisiting the series with renewed dedication, we’ve carefully selected three classic underground tracks that reverberate in past and present for re-evaluation by a cadre of contemporary techno’s finest talent. So first up out of the 3 tracks for our Re:Vision series is Steve Poindexter’s timeless classic “Computer Madness”. We are very honored and excited to be able to re-release this beast of a track! It’s hard to imagine that this was really created over 2 decades ago. So the task at hand was to find the right contemporaries to revise this masterpiece, we didn’t have to look far to find the man for the job: Function is an old friend here at THEMA, and things got even better when he brought in Jerome Sydenham to co-produce the second treatment. It’s thus with great pride we announce our Re:Vision of Computer Madness, featuring two resolutely modern reinterpretations of Poindexter’s classic.

The original by Poindexter dates all the way from 1989 and is a brief, headlong rush into drum machine-fueled raw acid and has long been a staple of the genre for many as well as the first release on the seminal Musique Records. We wanted to start off with a stomper, so for the whole A side, we have Function with occasional co-conspirator Sydenham with an unstoppable driving interpretation that straightens the busy drums of the original into a pounding techno pulse and takes repeated, changing portions of the original acid line as its central riff. Much of the action here occurs in the dirty, growling bass the pair add to the lower register; this is peak time damage for the most unrelenting floors. On the flip side we start off with Function’s deep, dubbed out reinterpretation, but it soon strides forward into the style of psychedelic but jacking techno familiar from his recent, more extroverted output. Even at almost double the length of the original, there’s still a palpable aura of reverence to the way he approaches the track; it should come as no surprise that he ranks it highly in his favorites list. Then of course we finish off with Poindexter’s original 1989 version, with all its original bang and glory. Still sounds fresh and as inspiring as it did the first time we heard this way back when…

Functioning as a reunion for friends as well as a re-evaluation of past and present achievements, Re:Vision looks back to the rich past while still moving unstoppably into the future. Look out for the next 2 releases in the Re:Vision series that’s following up next!

Text by: Albert Freeman