Schatrax was the king of white label, ultra-uninformative techno and techy house 12 inches in the years just before the interwebs took over. So little was known about the imprint that few knew that all the material was the work of one man, Julian Brent, who lived on the Isle Of Wight. At the end of a serious run of serious tunes on serious records the Schatrax series came to an end with this self-titled comp. It was also known as Stamp-Collecting. Seriously.

Various
Schatrax
Schatrax/UK/LP
Those mysterious deep techno people from southern England have decided to call it a day on releasing any more of their famously uninformative 12 inch singles. However, who needs superfluous info when the music is this good? The vinyl of this collection comes spread over three discs and contains some wondrous items like “Mispent Years” from Schatrax 2, a deep, Reese-esque groove that was reputedly an anthem in Glasgow at clubs like Slam. Also represented is the deep, bouncy, chunky tech of “Keep On Lovin'” from Schatrax 9. Fourteen tracks in all, most of them touching on the deep, soulful techno side of things with the exception of the eastern-tinged ambience of “To The Heavens” and the wonderfully uplifting disco loop, “Sunshine.”

If you missed any of these scoop ’em while you can with this album. Schatrax will be back, perhaps not as Schatrax, but they will be back in some form. People who make music this good deserve a break, but they also deserve to be busy for our sake. Chris Orr