DJ Christian Smith: Tronic Treatment: A DJ Mix

Along with his Nordic cohorts, DJs Adam Beyer and Cari Lekebusch, Smith has created an abrasive yet digestable take on "funky techno." Many DJs have difficulty sustaining such aesthetics without giving up their purist affiliations, and those who can't keep up are often tossed into the hybrid tech-house arena, where DJs who bank on the best of both genres are often ripped apart by critics. But while Smith, a three-deck technician, is no James Brown, he still brings the funk with Tronic Treatment.

Kicking off the mix is Chicago native A2 (a.k.a. Angel Alanis) with "Do You Like the Way You Feel When You Shake," a track whose charming "shake that ass and bounce those tits" refrain has hogged the global turntables this year. Smith and Selway's "Move!"--perhaps Smith's most renowned piece of production--surfaces near the end, having come to stardom on trance behemoth Sasha's Global Underground compilation last year. In between, Thomas Krome's treatment of Beyer's "Remainings III" brings the mix to a peak with its creepy horn drooping way off the bass clef. And Ben Sim's overly tribal "Remanipulator" sounds uncannily like a remix of the Survivor theme song.

Tronic Treatment is an enjoyable, four-to-the-floor exercise that features the most beloved beatmasters as well as up-and-coming artists such as Gaetano Parisio and Trevor Rockcliffe. It triggers a level of familiarity while bringing the more curious listener up to par on some of the most well-produced and underplayed tracks of the last few years. For a DJ who blended "funky techno" with Swedish roots, that's not a bad mix.