X-Altera

<a href="spotify:artist:7yNb21PFWckn27Rj9xf1K7">Tadd Mullinix</a>'s work under the alias X-Altera takes inspiration from atmospheric jungle as well as early-'90s Detroit techno and IDM, but it sounds like a fresh reinvention rather than a retread. The project's expansive tracks are filled with complex, time-stretched breakbeats and lush melodies, and seem more geared toward daydreaming than clubgoing. The debut full-length X-Altera was released by <a href="spotify:artist:7yNb21PFWckn27Rj9xf1K7">Mullinix</a>'s longtime home, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ghostly+International%22">Ghostly International</a>, in 2018.

The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based artist began listening to techno and drum'n'bass during the '90s, and started spinning jungle records under the name SK-1 in 1995, long before the genre had a substantial following in the United States. Along with <a href="spotify:artist:1Tdp9qgW1R3GrkY5gAKhEG">Todd Osborn</a>, he founded Rewind Records and began releasing hard ragga-jungle as <a href="spotify:artist:2BIf0aW9N1fHWq5eKNryBO">Soundmurderer & SK-1</a>, starting with the 1998 single "Dreader Than Dread." Several additional singles appeared, each becoming sought-after releases, and <a href="spotify:artist:6kBDZFXuLrZgHnvmPu9NsG">Aphex Twin</a>'s <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Rephlex%22">Rephlex</a> label compiled them on the 2003 full-length Rewind Records.

In the meantime, <a href="spotify:artist:7yNb21PFWckn27Rj9xf1K7">Mullinix</a> kept busy with work under several other handles, including abstract IDM under his own name, acid techno as <a href="spotify:artist:5oWkRpMJyT27u0WyRxYMeP">James T. Cotton</a> (later shortened to <a href="spotify:artist:5jDDfaMdjqbUFeXM1zVnDw">JTC</a>), and perhaps most notably, experimental hip-hop as <a href="spotify:artist:1tVRa7YiCwE6hTGsqqb4Te">Dabrye</a>. While preparing for the release of <a href="spotify:artist:1tVRa7YiCwE6hTGsqqb4Te">Dabrye</a>'s long-anticipated Three/Three, <a href="spotify:artist:7yNb21PFWckn27Rj9xf1K7">Mullinix</a> began revisiting half-forgotten records from the '90s, including the early catalog of broken beat pioneers <a href="spotify:artist:1BlBZ9jQGOjmj6Zykgg43L">4hero</a> as well as seminal <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp%22">Warp</a> releases such as Detroit-based <a href="spotify:artist:7A4qanEMCOPcywaqZ01yVV">Kenny Larkin</a>'s Azimuth and the Artificial Intelligence series.

He began making complex, innovative tracks that recalled those sounds, but forged new territory, and he named the project X-Altera in tribute to <a href="spotify:artist:0tbuVFxbrGx2oiNbpetUGc">Underground Resistance</a> offshoots <a href="spotify:artist:3yqHGWyf0xrTSEIsFhmZYX">X-101</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2ShmQqlffWMqZRjyEqJfM4">X-102</a>. After debuting X-Altera with first single "Check Out the Bass" and a performance at <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ghostly+International%22">Ghostly International</a>'s opening party for Detroit's annual Movement festival, the moniker's eponymous debut album was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Ghostly+International%22">Ghostly International</a> in June of 2018. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi