DUST OFF: Random XS – Give Your Body (Djax-Up-Beats DJAX-UP-136 – 1992)

Buy “Give Your Body” vinyl / digital reissue from Delsin (NL)
Buy vinyl from Discogs
Buy digital from Juno Download

Frank de Groodt’s recent Sonar Base reissue led my thoughts to the output of Random XS, one of the projects he has been associated with. When I retrieved “Give Your Body” from my collection, to my surprise I noticed that the three-tracker is primarily written by Sander Friedeman under the Zero Zone alias and it turned out that de Groodt was involved in the project at a later stage. It doesn’t change anything in the notion that Random XS’s debut and the title track are undisputed classics. Stunning S/M session “Give Your Body” is one of the most memorable pieces ever released on Djax-Up-Beats, an acid anthem with pulsating beat and hypnotic vocals spanning nearly 13 minutes.

Lesser known, but equally brilliant is the B-side. “Random XS v3.7” is a stripped-down drum machine orgy for ghetto blasters and at the mid-track reveals mighty techno grooves in Kevin Saunderson style. “CEM Jam”, from the onset a live recording co-written by Arno Peeters, sounds as reduced and then turns to a sizzling acid workout.

Update on Nov. 22, 2018: Delsin Records announced that for their next reissue project, the label selected this Random XS classic from 1992. ‘The notorious out-of-sync gap at eight minutes is fixed, enabling long mixes without ‘trainwrecking”, the label said. The B-side has two new remixes from Delta Funktionen and Lost Trax. Buy it here.