Stacey Pullen
Today Is the Tomorrow You Were Promised Yesterday

All praise to DeBaser's database for having this little-known LP by Stacey Pullen, the icon of the most mythological techno there is, that of Detroit, in its archives. His first album under his name, that distant 2001 was a very troubled year, and probably the high expectations were also betrayed. Everyone expected a genre-strict release, but Pullen, perhaps deliberately, turned his back on his audience with this Today Is the Tomorrow You Were Promised Yesterday, a colossal album with an endless title and almost electro-jazz vocations. The only track presenting a 4/4 rhythm and the cold warmth of metal is Powershot, the only example in the entire album that can offer a link to the DJ producer's dancefloor career. The rest of the album is very warm, almost organic, even though it is generated by machines. I decided after a long time to dedicate a review to it because, although it was also panned by critics at the time, I believe this album is a true gem worthy of being rediscovered.

Tsunami was already known to Pullen's followers, being released as a single, and it opens the album with an elegant and sustained groove, almost like a piano bar, only to be flooded by a rubbery and synthetic bassline, non-invasive yet relevant, which prepares the ground for a series of vaguely exotic synths. The whole drags on in a rather unchangeable pattern, embellished with spectral synthetic strings that strengthen its melodic aspect. An extremely classy start that opens the way for Juke, reprised in two movements in the album, dominated by a swirling and very fat bassline. The sounds are futuristic and develop progressively, accompanied by a funk-flavored beat. Drunken synths peek in the second part of the track, with curious arrangements that make the experience even more bizarre. Anyway, nothing can prepare you for VertiGO, a track that even today I cannot fully identify. A broken, vaguely tribal rhythm accompanies a three-dimensional lyrical (!) chant sublimated by a series of highly evocative synths. A small unclassifiable masterpiece. There is so much melody and delicacy, almost a nostalgic aftertaste, like something lost forever. A delightful track, absolutely lovable, to be listened to at all costs. Free World smells of experimentation, with barely hinted basslines and rhythm, almost incomplete, and a series of airy and inexorable layers that fundamentally constitute the structure. Noteworthy is the use of percussion that recalls free-form jazz. Another episode of great class, but also an underground vein that makes it inscrutable and mysterious. The percussions - not only here - always serve the pure pleasure of listening. With Inside the Outway it feels like entering the soundtrack of some blaxploitation movie, while Tiznit is my second favorite track of the album, one that I always play more than gladly. We are always in the realm of a very sophisticated sound, animated by jazz-funk rhythms (all samples, probably) and synths that gradually invade the spaces. The idea suggested by the track is that of a nighttime race through the streets of a metropolis, getting lost in its lights, but without haste, it is a very calm journey and not necessarily with a destination.

Today Is the Tomorrow You Were Promised Yesterday was supposed to promise a techno concentrate, but in the end, it almost seems to have the intention of encroaching on territories foreign to Stacey Pullen's background, dramatically raising ambitions and wanting to hit in the field of electronics, jazz, and funk jazz. However, the result is something that remains confined to this work. A fabulous album, a small masterpiece with remarkable highlights and an overall high quality, not confined to temporal or fashionable logic. Fifteen years have passed and it is still a pleasure to listen to. I highly recommend it, provided you can find it, it will not be an easy task.