Phil Klein

• Genres: Electronica
• Instrument: Producer

Biography

Although U.K.-based producer Phil Klein maintains a profile just this side of utter obscurity, his releases through Panic Trax, the Miami-based Dynamix label, and his own Parallax and Battle Trax imprints have earned him a reputation as one of most interesting and engaging of the new-school dancefloor electro crop. With roots in both European techno and hardcore and American electro-funk and bass music, Klein has bridged gaps between white, middle-class techno and the marginal fringes of America's innercity African-American and Latino club scenes. Although he released a handful of hardcore techno and breakbeat tracks as Battle Systems, his first 12-inch as Cybernet Systems, The Borg EP (for Intelligence sublabel Panic Trax) featured a forward-looking electro update, combining thunderous mid-tempo breaks with driving bass and tight electronic syncopation that suggested the work of early innovators such as Egyptian Lover and Hashim while remaining aloof of the retro instinct. (Klein was even aided on one track by old-school electro legend Dynamix II.) Klein has also released two EPs under his Bass Junkie project heading, focusing mostly on Miami-style bass -- and with a higher retro/kitsch quotient than his Cybernet or Battle Systems material -- but again with a more experimental, funk-fueled edge employing busy drum patterns that draw as often from Kraftwerk's "Numbers" as from Maggotron's "Return to the Planet of Bass." ~ Sean Cooper, All Music Guide