by Andy Kellman
Originally released on Stewart Walker's own Persona before being picked up for wider distribution via Tresor, Live Extracts delivers what it advertises, amounting to a brief mixed set of the producer's own works. During the past few years, Walker has gained a reputation for dishing out kinetic live sets that vary wildly from his studio-bound releases on Mille Plateaux, Tektite, Matrix, and several other labels. Here, he puts on two clinics at once -- how to produce bracing minimal techno that's rigid and fluid at once, and how to mix same. There's a new sound with each passing minute, and it all moves along with stealth force. If techno's dead -- as it apparently has been since long before this fellow released his first track -- nobody bothered to tell him. Walker's not just keeping it alive. Ever so slightly, he's pushing it into new directions.