The Hacker

There's a no-bullshit sensibility to behold on the Hacker's A.N.D. N.O.W., which is probably fitting for a guy who, unlike many of his peers, never denied his place in electroclash. That sensibility is probably why he's still around, and it's definitely why this album is the DJ mix of the year so far. Instead of taking k-hole turns or complicating things with precious clicking, the Hacker keeps it simple with a consistently banging stream. A.N.D. N.O.W.'s sparse, heavily arpeggiated, and decaying material trudges through decades of dance music, though most comes off as a pissed-and-mutated strain of Euro-disco (even Front 242's "No Shuffle" bursts into a Kano-like flareup). Call it The Hills Have Italo for all the dance-floor havoc it wreaks and the camp it occasionally suggests (the Hacker's own EBM revival, "Flesh & Bone," is as explosive as it is dead-pan hilarious). The revivalist spirit soaks to the mix's bones, for it was all assembled not on computer but via the Hacker's two hands and his decks. As though we needed more proof he's a robot man-machine.

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