BnB Review: Marco Bailey - Dragon Man

Written by Youri Jozee

Techno -

Belgian techno veteran Marco Bailey is about to drop his new album Dragon Man on the Bedrock label. Has it become the fire-breathing monster we hoped it would be? More after the break. 

“I have a burning, all consuming drive that can only be calmed down by getting into the music. It’s an urge that luckily gets a positive outcome in the studio when I’m working on a track just as long as it takes to get it to sound as it does in my head, or when I’m puzzling on my DJ set until it releases the exact energy that makes the crowd lose it. I can best describe this burning, consuming urge as a positive disorder. Plainly positive because it gives a meaning to my life.” Signed, Marco Bailey. As fair as this all may sound, we can’t help but to have mixed feelings about Bailey’s output of recent years. We’ve heard some great stuff, but also had to chew our way through tuneage that we wish got binned in the first place. Anyway, a producer’s as relevant as his last production, or so they say, so here’s the full rundown on his new LP: Dragon Man.

Dragon Man will be released on John Digweed’s Bedrock label, an imprint that has abandoned the progressive dogma and instead has sailed towards exciting mutations of proggy techno and house. In that sense, Dragon Man perfectly fits the label’s current vision as it contains the kind of techno John and his mates frequently pull out of their bags. There’s hardly any room for minimally structured jams, which is both a revelation as a rarity. Instead, the album pursues the path of no-nonsense big room techno jam-packed with synth swirls, beefy bass patterns and energetic rhythms in full overdrive. The first gem on the album comes in the form of Bill The Trumpet Player, on which Bailey gets ‘Garnier’ on us given the funky saxophone that runs through this track. Boom Bang! is a more electro-tinged rocker (think Mauro Picotto), while Break The Rules takes us back to the sound of techno at the beginning of this millennium. Any tracks that miss the point? Well, we’re not too sure of the daft Rubber Band, and the interlude that is Holding The Moment doesn’t float our boat either.

Disc 2 sees Marco presenting a mix of all tracks of CD 1 plus his succesful Watergate and Jungle Laps tracks. A nice extra. 

Our verdict:
Praise where praise is due. Dragon Man has become a very consistent and credible album on which Marco puts his money where his mouth is. It may not be the most innovating stuff that’s served up here, but is that a bad thing? Not if what you get is first class, unpretentious techno to blow the walls out of any club. Marco delivers, and we salute him for it.

Rating: 7.2/10
Label: Bedrock
Release date: February 7th, 2011

Tracklist
CD1
01. Dragon Man
02. Bill The Trumpet Player
03. Rubber Band
04. Run Through
05. Bom Bang!
06. Holding The Moment
07. Zephyr
08. Break The Rules
09. Beaming                        
10. Red Cell

CD2: Mixed by Marco Bailey
01. Red Cell                                         
02. Beaming               
03. Rubber Band
04. Zephyr
05. Jungle Laps
06. Run Through
07. Watergate
08. Break the Rules
09. Bom Bang!
10. Bill the Trumpet Player
11. Dragon Man
12. Holding the Moment