Profound Sounds, Vol. 3

Many techno fans fail to recognize Josh Wink as a fellow traveler, not because they disrespect him but because he's rarely traveled in the same circles. Known first for his work as a producer, he's not marked as an excellent DJ, while Philadelphia, his initial base, is a city that's never been techno-mad. The mere fact that he's cultivated an image at all makes him a sellout in some circles. But, ten years after charting a few singles in England, he was still around, and the gradual attrition in the techno field by the mid-2000s separated the wheat from the chaff and made the third volume in his Profound Sounds series an interesting case. (The quiet quality of the first two volumes counted for much, too.) Trumpeted as his first double-disc mix, it's an excellent trip through minimal techno of the 21st century, most of it derived from Detroit or Deutschland, and fortunately, all of it informed more by what Wink hears with his ears than what he thinks with his head. (The closest to a theoretician Wink gets is in the liner notes, where he explains his methods for blended mix CDs and briefly puzzles over where to insert his track ID markers.) While the blending makes for a very smooth mix, one that reveals subtle pleasures on a consistent basis, it's not a distracting listen, except for the few productions whose excellence is immediately apparent -- John Tejada's breezy "Sucre," Sten's minimal "Back Four," and Wink's own remix of Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place," available commercially for the first time here.