The only people really in love with Detroit techno right now, it seems, are the Europeans. Speedy J (Rotterdam's Jochem Paap) has worked with Richie Hawtin (Plastikman) in the past, but is mostly known for his IDM production in his own right. With Loudboxer, he's returned to straight techno/Detroit techno roots. You can still hear flashes of experimental ideas here and there, but this is more or less a hard-pumping, hard-thumping high speed romp that would work in any dance club whose push wasn't more on the disco side. The tracks don't vary much in tempo or in theme; "Aesop" has a jungle feel, but its change of pace seems more a matter of poor placement than an interesting variation. In many tracks, the key idea is to take one sound and loop it over and over, building the entire song around the loop (in "Reenter", the sound is like a sonogram of a baby's heartbeat; in "Krekc", it's an alarum). I'm used to hearing more layers in this type of music, and the simplicity here is surprising -- not necessarily in a good way. Nothing will grab your attention; I finished the disc happy that I had it to go back to, but vaguely dissatisfied that I didn't hear more that stuck in my memory, or that made me want to roll back the rug and dance.