Artist: Surgeon
Genre(s):
Trance
House
Discography:
Floorshow Part II
Year: 2006
Tracks: 4
Floorshow Part 1
Year: 2006
Tracks: 3
Birmingham techno artist Anthony Child has quickly built a solid and, to a certain extent, innovational catalogue of minimal dancefloor techno since his Surgeon releases began coming into court in 1991. Compared favorably with Detroit original Jeff Mills from his earlier Downwards singles on ahead, Child's tracks have been a mainstay in the pop Motor City DJ's sets. Although Surgeon releases have worked an increasing affectedness for bitter and trance, an economy of sound and basic hardness combine his and Mills' sound. A celebrated and more and more pop DJ himself, Child grokked his skills from hip-hop and electro jocks ("Term of enlistment de France" is a mainstay of his DJ sets), filling out his style with a driving ruggedness and perceptiveness for speedy cutting and flipping. Surgeon's ledger entry into production was as well remarkable; urged on by producer Mick Harris (Child is a fan of Harris' Scorn project), the former Napalm Death drummer locked Child in his midget studio, beseeching him to "go crazy." The result, the self-titled debut EP, was released on Downwards, and was immediately hailed as some of the highest tone U.K. techno of its time. Releases for Soma, Blueprint, Ideal Trax, and the ultra-exclusive Tresor label followed, with the debut LP, Basic Tonal Vocabulary, coming into court on Tresor in 1997. Balance followed in 1998, as did Strength & Form in 1999. Equally influenced by other electro-pop innovators like Tomita and YMO, experimental groups like Can, Faust, and Suicide, and the tough gritstone of American electro and techno (Henry Martyn Robert Hood, Hashim), Surgeon's mash-up is both straightforward and subtly experimental.
