Remember 'Jittery Heritage'? Einmusik's 2004 single still has the power to leave people- well, me, anyway- grinning like idiots. If anyone tells you that they don't like techno, show them 'Jittery Heritage's glittery-ball synths and, nine times out of ten, you'll get a new convert. Techno purists hate it, of course, which just makes it cooler. Spread over two CDs, De Medici presents an album's worth of new material along with a collection Eimusik's 12" tracks from their beginnings in 2003 to the present day. With its mammoth length and unwillingness to edit the Einmusik back catalogue down to the highlights, De Medici always ran the risk of including a few duds, and so it proves. Not that there's anything particularly bad here, but there's a fair bit of anonymous bosh-by-numbers too. When Einmusik are on form, though- which they are for most of this collection- they're pretty irresistible. De Medici covers a great deal of stylistic ground, including breakbeat experiments, neo-disco wobbles, and odd reggae-tinged techno skanks amongst Einmusik's more usual micro-trance (never really caught on like we were promised did it, that genre? Shame). Yet despite that variety, the core of Einmusik's sound holds fast- huge, sugar coated riffs, a delight in zippy little counterpoints to the beat, and a pleasing chunkiness to everything. As 'Weekender's frantic surge towards terminal velocity shows, it can be devastatingly effective formula. Einmusik are engagingly unabashed about their euphoria: 'All I really want to hear is I love you' shouts out the album-cover in bold typeface. Damn right.
Simon Hampson

(Fact Magazine Review)