Often overlooked in American techno history are the weird and wonderful flavours to have emanated from the mid-west over the years. No two finer exponents have there been than Minnesota's Paul Birken and Freddy Fresh. Their contributions date back to the early nineties when Freddy was exploring the possibilities of extreme techno (via labels like Labworks, EXperimental and his own Analog) - an activity that Paul took up a while later after debuting on Woody McBride's renegade Communique label in 1996. Teaming up for the first of two collaborations on this 12", Paul and Freddy open with 'The Fate of Thirty Eight' - a belting slab of analogue techno, where machines shriek and squawk like possessed animals on the loose. 'Acid Sound of Malibu' sees Paul flying solo, laying down a teasing reverb-soaked warehouse cut where suggestive 303 frequency shifts jostle for centre stage, around a series of both bellowing and piercing sound fx. On the b-side the pair team up again on 'Fifty Is Shifty': a distorted and demented electro workout if ever there was one. Think of Ed DMX + AFX, competing in a duel for the earth's last 808, and you're somewhere close. Closing the ep is Freddy's 'Year Back'. Originally released in 1998, it was squashed onto one side (with 5 other tracks) of his 'Last True Family Man' album on Eye Q. A hidden gem of that LP, it's an epic, spaced-out trip of pulsing electro that now gets the vinyl space it needs, as well as a beefy remastering.