LONG FORM: The Many Iterations Of Maceo
With his recent tour announcement, Maceo Plex succumbed to a seven-year itch of ignoring Australia. Ahead of his arrival, we scan over his numerous production monikers…
Say what you want of Maceo Plex aka Eric Estornel, but you can’t deny his credentials as a l’artiste. Yes, I am a fan. Yes, I’m probably responsible for at least 105 of the over 11 million plays clocked up by his Berlin Boiler Room. And yes, I was a fan of his work waaaay before Damian Lazarus and Crosstown Rebels got their hands on him. If you are a chin stroker you’re probably rolling your eyes so hard you can see your nasal cavity. And to be fair, I get it. Sometimes, the creative cliffs he jumps from are questionable. I’m possibly in the minority on this one, but I’m not a fan of this recent saccharine number (but I’m sure for some that mawkish voice is the vocal equivalent of a mother’s warm embrace).
For all his achievements, the critical reverence reserved for dance music's more 'intellectual' offerings evades him. But comparing him to, for example, the astrophilic techno of Jeff Mills, or Drexicya's conceptual electro is comparing apples with oranges. Artists like Mills are pioneers, they find a groove and happily stay within its confines. Not Maceo. Uh-huh. No sir, he is a different kettle of fish. Within the dance music realm, he is artistically promiscuous, never staying in one spot too long before exploring other options. Not even he can keep up with all his past explorations, recently announcing he is rolling a trio of his sexier projects into one glorious threesome called M³. Scan back over his career, and you will discover a veteran who has been active for over 25 years — a studio maven who has rolled with dance music's ever-changing landscape with impressive efficiency.
A Com-Plex Man
Beginning his career in the mid-nineties frothing electro and breaks, he immersed himself in DMC DJ culture of the 90‘s (so a lot of vinyl scratching and DJ tricks). He then moved on to the Maetrik moniker, producing the dankest and darkest minimal tech known to the mid-'00s. It featured the kind of music that sounded forced through a grater. It almost seemed alien-like.
After the start of the 10's, the Maceo Plex moniker was born to indulge his less cerebral urges. He reformulated '90s Handbag House into a streamlined Crosstown Rebels aesthetic which found favour with a new Insta generation. Still, he had an electro thirst to quench, so he got his drank on by re-visiting the Mariel Ito moniker and launching Lone Romance Records. Solely dedicated to electro, the label is home to the debut album from Australian producer Jensen Interceptor.
All those roads eventually led to the Pioneer RMX-1000 wielding, warehouse techno, festival headlining drawcard of the increasingly post-EDM world we find ourselves in today. To celebrate his return, we decided to look back at the various faces of Maceo throughout the years.
Eric Entity || Edge Club 94
1996 was a big year for global culture. The Pokemon franchise got introduced to the world, Spice Girls told everyone what they really, really want, and Sasha and Digweed released Northern Exposure. It was also the year Erik Estornel AKA Eric Entity sported a questionable goatee and entered a Bedroom DJ contest to be featured on his local Dallas radio show Edge Club 94.
Spoiler alert: He won.
Below is the recording of him claiming his prize and kickstarting his eventual world domination. It might surprise many to know that at the tender age of 18 Maceo was all about the breaks and electro. And in this 30 min mix, he flexes his DJ skills with a technical set that scratches and flares his way through a moody collection of broken beats.
’Thanks to an old friend that held on to this cassette tape. Here's me at the tender age of 18 on the radio playing experimental electro and acid after winning a bedroom DJ contest. Aired December 1996, it includes a cheesy interview and me cutting & scratching.’ - Maceo Plex
Tali Wackas - Shoebox Vox (1999)
As that 1996 mix would foreshadow, Maceo had a penchant for broken beats, and he was labelled one of the beats pioneers of his local scene. And as fellow Dallas electro identity Minto George confirmed to Mixmag: “His (Erik’s) heart is in electro…” The Tali Wackas moniker was one of Maceo’s first production outings. The two-track EP is an excellent representation of where his head was at: dirty, fuzzy breaks as dry as the Sahara desert, and packed with more attitude than a 3-year-old who discovered the concept of choice.
Maetrik - COnnect (2001)
Something happened between 1999 and 2001, and we don’t mean the turn of the millennium and the Y2K bug, which caused a fear of societal collapse. No, Maceo got inspired by 4/4 techno. And not any techno, but the deep minimal German strain that was starting to thrive. Treibstoff Records was one of the labels pushing this new modern sound - and they signed his first outing into the 4/4 world. He announced himself as Maetrik, and he did so with two tracks showing enough promise of what’s to come.
Mariel Ito – My Cyborg Depths LP (2005)
In 1980 more than a 100,000 Cubans fled Fidel Castro's rule to find refuge in the USA. They travelled to the USA by boat from Cuba's Mariel Harbor, an event that history has gone on to label as the Mariel boatlift. As you can expect, the sudden exodus to America contained no screening process, and embedded with this new wave of immigrants was an element of criminality. All of those points converged to create some discontent among the already established Cuban Americans. In the years to follow, the old-school Cuban Americans chastised their misbehaving children with the slur of 'Marielitos'.
As Cuban American himself, Maceo paid homage to this event by adopting the moniker Mariel Ito. His new epitaph acts as a neat metaphor for acknowledging his heritage, and not just his cultural origin, but also his musical roots of electro. The result was the Mariel Ito LP 'My Cyborg Depths'. With delicate production flourishes and brooding synthesised vocals, it's an exquisite ride through emotive breaks and electro. Above is a DJ mix serving as primer of the tracks found on the album.
Maetrik - The Light (2008)
From around the mid-'00s to the mid-first quarter of the 2010s is when Maetrik peaked. As he admitted to RA: 'There was a pretty major paradigm shift around 2005, where I started making tech house that could actually be played and enjoyed in clubs…' He honed in on a sound that took inspiration from sci-fi movies and dystopian motifs. Later on, tracks like 'Crush on You' and 'So Real' introduced a sleek and clean productions style. Though still dark, it added a newfound sleaze into his tracks.
We could have chosen any of his over 20 plus releases to feature here. Still, across three very functional productions, the 'Advanced Mechanics' EP on Treibstoff Records perfectly encapsulates the early Maetrik trademark. Intricate sounds bubble randomly out of nowhere like splashes of paint thrown across a wall. And the bass sounds like an obnoxious bully trying to force its way into your earholes. Here the vocal almost comically proclaims 'I can see the light'. Very ironic, considering there is not a shred of light to be found across this EP.
maceo plex - can’t leave you (2011)
It could've been his relocation to the sunnier climate of Spain, but it's anyone guess as to what happened around the time Maceo Plex was born. What we do know is from the dystopia of Maetrik bloomed a lighter producer. No one could've predicted the effect Maceo Plex would have on the global scene, and his productions hit the clubs with the impact of an asteroid.
Especially Crosstown Rebels got on board with Maceo Plex's earlier output, the labels' deep house vibes tailor-made for his rooftop party productions. 'Vibe Your Love' is an obvious choice to look at, but to our mind 'Can't Leave You' is the perfect union of the house vibes of Maceo with the edge of Maetrik. It was a track that got more airtime at Revolver than a Jetstar flight from Tullamarine to Hobart during Dark Mofo. The track’s trademark growling hoover sound went on to inspire countless records, and to this day it still manhandles any dancefloor.
Röyksopp - Sordid Affair (Maceo Plex Mix) (2014)
With the success of his new singles, it was always a matter of time before remix offers started rolling in. And did they roll. Everyone from Azari & III to Who Made Who to Dimitry from Paris wanted the Maceo Midas Touch. All this attention came during a period when he experimented with new moods, every remix he released delivered something different. When Röyksopp called, they did so riding high on a career-defining and highly emotional final album, 'The Inevitable End', which forever cemented their place in the dance music lexicon.
This remix is Maceo at his most reflective. The melodies soar high, and he extracts maximum value out of the lyrics which will draw tears from a wall. If you play this to someone and it doesn't push their empathy buttons, call the police as they probably are a serial killer.
Maceo Plex — Destination Mars Feat. Josh Wink (2019)
Over the last five years, his productions became increasingly more spacious. Releases like the 'Conjure' series and 'Solar' samplers showcased a producer at the top of his game, an artist confident in his engineering skills to narrate tracks through simple elements. Having evolved from the Maetrik days of packed randomness, tracks like 'Solar Detroit' and 'Conjure Superstar' are surprisingly minimal once you deconstruct the elements. Bass, kick, hats, melody... but all engineered to within an inch of its life.
Five years and a couple of Pioneer RX 1000 modules later, and we've arrived at warehouse ready Maceo. Now he unleashes kick drums all over the world with heat-seeking missile precision. Of late, he has found a home on Drumcode, and, depending on which side of the techno fence you stand on, this is either great or worthy of a shitty hater meme in the TWTMEG FB group. Whatever your opinion, he has achieved it all. And as the Josh Wink collaboration alludes too, Mars might be next on his things-to-conquer list.